D&D 5E hypothetical - a giant capturing downed pc's while rest of party fights on? rule for this

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Polymorph let you transform into a beast, not sandwich, but it otherwise doesn't affect ability checks doesn't it?

OK, so we got a confirmed yes, that is someone were turned into a sandwhich in your game, it would be a contested roll with no penalty to pick them up. Weird, but consistent.

No i don't force PC to make grapple check to move a dying ally.

Why not? How is an unconscious person resisting being moved by a giant, but not an ally. What about a neutral third party?

 

[Plaguescarred]

OK, so we got a confirmed yes, that is someone were turned into a sandwhich in your game, it would be a contested roll with no penalty to pick them up. Weird, but consistent.



Why not? How is an unconscious person resisting being moved by a giant, but not an ally. What about a neutral third party?

I presume that a person that would require a grapple check would do so both for a polymorph sandwich, an unconscious giant, a PC or neutral thrid party, and a person that wouldn't require one wouldn't do so for neither of those

 

[iserith]

OK, so we got a confirmed yes, that is someone were turned into a sandwhich in your game, it would be a contested roll with no penalty to pick them up. Weird, but consistent.

For me, it would depend on whether it was an open-faced sandwich, for reasons that I assume are obvious.

 

[Blue]

In order to do this, the giant would need to grab the unconscious character (Grappling PHB195) and drag him along at half speed unless the character is two or more sizes smaller than the giant.

That's a fair way to do it, but personally I wouldn't use grappling rules for an unconscious creature. By strict RAW ("want to grab a creature") it's true, but at this point you aren't acting like a creature, you aren't resisting. So I'd treat the PC grabbed as an object. As you mention we have lifting and carrying to tell if they can move at full speed or not. (Hmm, wonder at weaker giant vs. plate-wearer.)

Then the rest of the PCs will have to decide if they keep fighting the remaining enemies, or pursue the fleeing giant. They can always try to track him down after the fight if they kept fighting instead too. I think you have a good adventure seed here anyway

Completely agree with you! Great drama and tension trying to save the friend being taken vs. keeping with the tactics of your plan. Or trying to hunt down those who fled.

 

[Plaguescarred]

That's a fair way to do it, but personally I wouldn't use grappling rules for an unconscious creature. By strict RAW ("want to grab a creature") it's true, but at this point you aren't acting like a creature, you aren't resisting. So I'd treat the PC grabbed as an object. As you mention we have lifting and carrying to tell if they can move at full speed or not.

I agree since the speed reduction while grappling must come from the resistance faced it then wouldn't make sense for a large giant grappling a unconscious medium target to move at half speed until it stores it in his large sac, where only it's weight would then be accounted for purpose of lifting and carrying. If its instead simply picked-up and stored like any object, it remains more consistent regarding movement speed.

 

[Sunseeker]

Well, if the player is unconcious and not dying, then they aren't going to be able to resist the attempts of the giant to pick them up. So I wouldn't even roll for it. Now, being picked up by a giant may wake them up, but they're still at 0HP, so a bonk on the noggin will put them right back out.

The players could attempt to stop the giant from picking up their friend by any of the usual means.

Overall, it's really not uncommon for a single member of a pack of monster to attempt to drag off unconscious party members.

 

[Uchawi]

I tend to agree with Plaguescarred in reference to keeping things consistent, so whatever the giants, monster and/or NPC does should be treated like a player character doing the same thing. I would not create a shortcut to bypass any player interaction whenever possible. As a player I would definitely feel cheated if the DM states the giants drags the character away and there is nothing able characters can do about it. That would be a railroad in real time.

 

[iserith]

I tend to agree with Plaguescarred in reference to keeping things consistent, so whatever the giants, monster and/or NPC does should be treated like a player character doing the same thing. I would not create a shortcut to bypass any player interaction whenever possible. As a player I would definitely feel cheated if the DM states the giants drags the character away and there is nothing able characters can do about it. That would be a railroad in real time.

I'm guessing the PCs would generally have trouble throwing a dead giant into their backpack and walking away.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that able characters can't do anything about their dying companion being taken away by the giant either. And I'm not sure how "railroad" even applies here.

 

[Uchawi]

I did not make the assertion about character taking giants away, but there are rules that would cover it and make it harder.

 

[Geeknamese]

I'll side with Plaguescarred on this one. I'm always one to rule in favor of PCs and to get dragged away in the midst of battle by a giant, I would let fate decide with the grapple die roll. Sure, it seems silly logically that the Unconscious condition would only provide Advantage on rolls but not automatic success but the way I understand it, these are generally rules for conditions in combat. If this was out of combat, it'd be automatic to pick up a PC and walk off. In the midst of battle, where the giant has to maintain combat and situational awareness, becoming vulnerable by picking up a relatively heavy person. Makes sense to have a chance to fail and require a roll. Always be on the favor of the PCs.