Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Harzel" data-source="post: 7148534" data-attributes="member: 6857506">It seems to me that the Weapon of Warning presents an added issue, above and beyond those of the Alert feat that have been discussed.  This is what the DMG says.The problem is the first sentence.  Some, maybe most, will read this as a separate property of the object.  However, to me it appears to be far too generic and vague to be operative.  IMO, it is the sort of fluffy overview that you often see opening the description of a spell; such fluff is much more rare in the magic item descriptions, but there are other instances.  (For example, Elemental Gem: "This gem contains a mote of elemental energy.")  Generally, this fluff can be ignored without loss of meaning, because the intended properties are defined by the specifics that follow.So, even though most of Arial's post is along the lines of how I would handle things,I would not go this way.  Mechanically, there is no need for any sort of pinging.  Despite your opponents' sudden arrival, your group are not surprised.  Also, the weapon's possessor has advantage on the ensuing initiative role.  Those are the mechanical effects.If I want to narrate the details of the PCs' experience, I will say the weapon induces a greatly heightened, but not supernatural, awareness and focus.  You are completely in the moment / in the zone.  Provided that the intruders teleport in in plain sight, they immediately catch your attention, time seems to slow down, you see them turn toward you with malice in their eyes.  The barbarian is gripping her battleaxe tightly, her body slightly crouched and taut; the hands of the robed figure are beginning to gleam with arcane energy, etc.  If you are quick, though, you still may be able to act before they do.  Roll initiative.Not the only way to do it, surely, but that's the approach I think I would take.  The problem, at least for me, with pinging is that I'm not convinced I can find a good heuristic for when the ping should go off.  In this case, pinging during the teleport seems like an ok answer, but what heuristic(s) are you using to guide that decision?  Personally, I would want something to help ensure some semblance of consistency in the PCs' experience if I were going to ping them.  Not saying it couldn't exist, I am just not seeing how to do it.</blockquote>

Verification