D&D 5E Is acting on player banter a dick move?

[Ratskinner]

Simple question, not sure what the simple answer is.

Players talking, CONSTANTLY. One of the most common conversations is players announcing when their character is out of juice after a particular fight. It is quite common for the cleric to say they are out of healing, the wizard or sorcerer may then say they only have one or two spells left, the warriors announce how low on hitpoints they are, you get the point.

It happens all the time. The conversation doesnt last long, it generally results in the party deciding to explore more or take a short or long rest.

Now here is the thing. All of this is technically "Character Conversation" sure a fighter doesnt have to tell you he is down to 5 hitpoints, he looks beat to hell and is bleeding on the marble floor. The spellcasters are not so obvious, you have to tell someone you are low on spells.


So this is the dick move part.

Is it a dick move to have foes (of course make them roll stealth checks etc) spy on and stalk the party and when they hear the party talking out loud about how low on resources they are to step out laugh at the party tell them "We appreciate you telling us how hurt you are, it will make it so much easier to kill you" and then attack the party?

To me it is totally fair, your characters were having a conversation and anyone can try to listen in and take advantage. Players may say that they were talking not their characters but to me that is impossible, your characters can only communicate this information by talking.

Opinions?

(As a side note I have not done this yet as a DM, the thought just came to me as a player listening to a bunch of my fellow party members loudly announce they were completely out of spells)

I don't think it's inappropriate to act on player chatter, so long as it makes sense in fiction. That is, if the BBEG could know that the heroes are out of spells, why wouldn't he act? OTOH, just tossing in extra encounters to capitalize on that as a GM seems like a good way to bend people out of shape. Villain's have a long tradition of revealing their methods through monologues. I would make sure any villains would telegraph their capacities in traditional style followed by a hearty "Mwah Ha Ha". If the party doesn't choose to respond, then it's on them. (Though that might depend on the campaign tone.)

Somewhat relevant story:
I was running 3e and the party was a jumbled mess who acted incoherently and did little to actually plan how they would approach any given combat. I'm honestly not sure if the characters were overspecialized or the players were bad at communicating with each other or what the issue was. A great example being one character attacking some nearby ineffective archers while a giant monster (hyenadon?) was literally snacking on the sorcerer. "But they had bows!" Became his ignominious catchphrase.

So, I gain this reputation as a tough/cheating GM who listens in on all their clever plans (would that it were true) and doesn't give out treasure. (No fooling, they had actually cleared the last room of a mini-dungeon...zombie giant spiders...very tough...then retreated to leave the treasure chamber untouched.) They take to moving into another room to concoct what pass for clever schemes and compare the game to Farscape: "I feel like we're worse off after every adventure."

I switch to more investigative and interactive adventures. Suddenly, all is well. The players seem to really get into chewing over clues and hints, hunting down cultists and mad wizards to try and discover why their homeworld was dying. When they fight, it's usually short and sweet with primary targets dead before they know what happened. Cities full of intrigue and mystery...good, high lethality dungeons...bad. Fair enough.

Of course, these "fights" are actually more akin to assassinations rather than battles. With sometimes multiple sessions of investigation and planning going into the effort. Whenever a straight-out fight breaks out... we're back to sophisticated plans like: "We charge." Or "I'll fight these guys, you fight those." And yet, as players come and go, my reputation as a sneaky DM who spies on plans lives on.

Time passes. The party makes the most of a throwaway detail (a quasi-metallic alchemical residue that ignores magic, but is too soft for other purposes), turning it into a major plot point. One PC even uses a dagger made of the stuff to kill a god in a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Which saves the day, etc. A scheme that all got worked out at table over months...right in front of me.

And still....I'm the GM who cheats and uses their plans against them.

So, sometimes, an unearned reputation can precede you regardless of your intentions.