D&D 5E Is it worth taking damage in order to do your stuff?

[Cyan Wisp]

Did the rogue even know the spell was there? I assume he perceived the camouflaged spikes... spikes don't pop up, they look just like the floor. I'm surprised so many people saw them!

The rogue could have climbed around the stairwell walls or something. Not wanting to run across a floor of spikes is understandable - how could he predict that it wouldn't tear him to shreds? Spells can be nasty like that.

 

[Magil]

Could the rogue try jumping over the brambles to at least avoid some/most/all of them?

 

[PnPgamer]

Could the rogue try jumping over the brambles to at least avoid some/most/all of them?

no. It was 100% take damage or stay back. there were 40ft of brambles, the party being in the other end, while the rogue being in the other. Party was stuck within the bramble area as they didn't want to get damaged either.

 

[Eltab]

One of my Tiamat PCs did the same thing in Diderius' Tomb. All the devils were bloodied trying to kick in the door and charge across the room to the PCs' camp. (None made the Perception roll.)

If the Thief in the original question
(1) could see the spikes and
(2) knew standing still within them was a defense and
(3) pays attention to his Equipment,
then I like the option to swing on a rope or clamber on the walls.

Or take a LONG jump down the stairs.

 

[pdegan2814]

Has anyone asked what the Rogue's alignment is? If he's some form of Good, there's a stronger possibility that he would've come to his party's aid at the risk of his own safety. If he's Neutral or Evil, less likely. How has the character's personality been defined? Is he the bold type who races ahead of everyone, and is willing to risk his life for his friends? Is he a sneaky selfish type, only out for Numero Uno? I'm seeing a lot of discussion about the mathematics of the situation, but ultimately the Rogue isn't going to be standing there doing math to decide what the right move is. Sure, he'll take into account that he's gonna take some damage, but ultimately the choice would be about who he is as a character more than anything.

Did he have to get ALL the way through the spiked terrain before he could see enough to make an attack(if he's a Rogue I'm assuming his attack focus is Dex, which means he's almost certainly got a ranged attack option, even if it's his secondary attack form)? Or could he have gone partway across, stopped in the middle and starting firing arrows at the enemy?

 

[Huntsman57]

RP aside, every decision is a cost/benefit analysis. In this case, taking yourself entirely out of the fight to avoid 1 instance of damage? It sounds like that spell exceeded its casters expectations by a long shot. Spike Growth is a 2nd level spell and the caster essentially had the impact of having cast Maze instead.

As far as my cost/benefit analysis, unless that damage would have put him down or we knew with certainty that he would have been almost entirely ineffectual in the combat, his actions had a decidedly negative cost/benefit.

 

[jodyjohnson]

Did the rogue even know the spell was there? I assume he perceived the camouflaged spikes... spikes don't pop up, they look just like the floor. I'm surprised so many people saw them!

Anyone who can see the area when the spell is cast recognizes the terrain as hazardous. If you don't see it then you make a perception check.

 

[Cyan Wisp]

Anyone who can see the area when the spell is cast recognizes the terrain as hazardous. If you don't see it then you make a perception check.

Thanks! A subtlety I missed.

 

[Lanefan]

RP aside, every decision is a cost/benefit analysis. In this case, taking yourself entirely out of the fight to avoid 1 instance of damage? It sounds like that spell exceeded its casters expectations by a long shot. Spike Growth is a 2nd level spell and the caster essentially had the impact of having cast Maze instead.

As far as my cost/benefit analysis, unless that damage would have put him down or we knew with certainty that he would have been almost entirely ineffectual in the combat, his actions had a decidedly negative cost/benefit.

This is a very, very meta-game assessment; not at all in keeping with how I like to think of what characters would do in the game.

That said, it sounds like the Rogue might have had some (slow) options that could get him into the fight before it was over, such as climb along the walls...but someone above raises a valid question I missed earlier: is this Rogue the sort of person who would, based on character and-or established history, sacrifice himself for his friends? Or, conversely, is this Rogue the sort of person who would be quite happy to be the last survivor from both sides so as to scoop the loot and head off into the sunset?

The more I think about it, the more I conclude there is no generic "right" answer to the OP's question; there's just too many variables between characters, parties and games to nail it down and thus if ten different parties hit the exact same scenario it's very possible you'd get ten different outcomes.

Lan-"your cost-benefit analysis would look much different if taken from the Rogue's point of view rather than the party's"-efan

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

That's how I see it, too. Even if you know with absolute certainty that you can survive something like that, it still takes a heroic effort to actually go through with it. It's the main reason why high-level fighters still bother to take the stairs, instead of always opting for the express route to the ground floor. Save the heroics for when it's absolutely necessary.

Of course, when a night of sleep will get you back up to full, that makes the situation a little bit harder to intuit. It's hard to encompass the duality of something being both dangerous/painful and incapable of hurting you beyond what you can sleep off.

But the HP rules say nothing at all about pain. They just say you regain HP after a night's rest, so you're no longer close to death. It would be totally compatible with RAW to ask your players to track the amount of HP damage taken over the past week (completely ignoring healing) and use that as a guide to how much pain a PC is in right now.

If a centaur guts you with his lance for 30 points of damage, and then you fall off a 30' bridge for another 10 points of damage, a night's rest may give you back all your HP, but it's perfectly fair and consistent with RAW to say that your gut still hurts a few days later. And it might leave a scar.