Is this fair? -- your personal opinion

[Altamont Ravenard]

Not enough information. Whether this would be fair or not for me would have a lot to do with verisimilitude, the expectations of the players towards the game, and the previous actions of the DM.

I agree.

AR

 

[ThirdWizard]

But there are numerous ways to avoid the save or die effect besides making the save. The most obvious one is to simply not pull the lever.

What if it were a doorknob or a button on the wall beside the door?

Is there some unwritten rule of "levers are deadly" that doesn't apply to other mechanisms?

 

[takyris]

I'm voting No based on the information we have. If the rogue didn't take 20, that vote would change.

"The trap being attached to another area" doesn't work with the rules as written. If pulling the lever activates a trap, trapfinding would let the rogue spot the trap, even if the mechanism that spring the trap is elsewhere. That is, as far as I know, the way trapfinding works. If stepping on a pressure plate gets me shot with a dart, I don't need to use trapfinding on the spot where the dart comes from. I need to use trapfinding on the plate.

If the party missed all kinds of potential evidence and warning signs, that's a different story. But based on the information we've been given here, I think it's fair to say that it's unfair.

 

[T. Foster]

What if it were a doorknob or a button on the wall beside the door?

Is there some unwritten rule of "levers are deadly" that doesn't apply to other mechanisms?

If it's a secret door, I'd expect the means of opening it to also be secret (hidden knob or catch or pressure plate or some such), and, yeah, I'd expect it to probably be trapped in some manner. A blatant lever in the middle of the floor of an otherwise empty room just screams trap to me. I mean, if you went to the trouble of concealing the door, why leave the means of opening it sitting out in the open unless it's a trap?

Seriously, when I'm exploring a dungeon and I come across a lever with no idea what'll happen if I pull it, I'm not going to pull it unless I have no other options. That would seem to me to be part of common sense dungeoneering 101.

 

[Mycanid]

I agree with Bagpuss.

Yes ... I think the arguments could be made that it was "fair", but it is not the type of game I would want to play in on a personal level.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

It is unfair because it is stupid at face value. I can imagine truly bizarre scenarios for which I would amend my opinion, but that is wild speculation.

As ThirdWizard points out, this looks like it is a Destruction spell with a value of ballpark 5k-10k. That is a lot of lucre invested in something of questionable real value. And any such a Destruction spell is likely to roll off even a low level Monk who rolls a natural 19.

If this trap is sensible for a particular BBEG, I see no logical reason to not substitute the 'doorknob' for 'lever'. In fact, it makes much more sense for the BBEG to create a door that is only intended to be opened by his enemies or used as some kind of loyalty test. Does not sound like much fun to me...

 

[EricNoah]

I don't personally find "save or die" situations to be fair, at least as far as D&D as a game is concerned. And when you can't succeed even on a 19 + mods ... that DC is too high. It's essentially the same as "no save, and die".

If the result wasn't instant destruction -- anything lesser would be fair game in my opinion -- it would be much more sporting. At least give the player the illusion that he can try to do something about it.

 

[Barak]

I voted no. If a monk with a roll of 19 failed, I doubt anything but someone rolling a 20 could have succeeded. Anything else ends up being irrelevant.

 

[FrostedMini1337]

Is the monk dead? It doesn't actually say the monk is dead. Couldn't he be polymorphed to any object (Pile of Dust) for 10 minutes? Did the OP leave important stuff out for a reason? Is this some sort of weird sociological expiriment to see what we infer? Madness!!

Not fair though. If a 19 won't save me, I either did something rel rel dumb (not the case) or the dm is angry with me (might be the case).

 

[Hussar]

Add me to the not fair camp as well because of the save DC. Doesn't really matter what kind of save it was if the monk is pulling the lever. If you roll a 19 on a save, you should probably be making that saving throw. Otherwise, why bother?

Yeah, was never much for this kind of "Aha gotcha" kind of gaming, even when it was expected.