Keeping Watch

[Saeviomagy]

In the past, we've used a Stone of Alarm attached to a black silk thread, stretched around the entire camp site... Hey, it does say "affixes itself to any object", right?

Stretches the rules a little, perhaps, but not exactly game breaking. And exactly the kind of thing a tinker gnome would think of...

And also not exactly the best alarm... the guys have to touch it to set it off.

As for charging and sneak attacks from 30ft defeating alarm spells? Sleep in tents surrounded by caltrops. Full concealment means no sneak attacks. Caltrops means no charging.

Now you've just got to worry about flying creatures, which is why you camp under things...

 

[Conaill]

And also not exactly the best alarm... the guys have to touch it to set it off.

Well, that's pretty easy to arrange, with a black silk tripwire around the entire camp. This stuff is almost invisible during day time, let alone at night in a forest...

 

[sniffles]

Make a party composed completely of non-spellcasting warforged and you can simply skip the sleeping....

Or a party made up mostly of elves...
Exposes a pet peeve of mine, though: if elves don't have to sleep, just "trance" for 4 hours, and their favored class is wizard, why do elven wizards still have to rest 8 hours to regain spells? Oh well.

If watches are a problem, do not have a party of two bards, a druid/sorcerer and a ranger/warlock! The watch rotation was a nightmare to figure out!!

 

[Henry]

...if elves don't have to sleep, just "trance" for 4 hours, and their favored class is wizard, why do elven wizards still have to rest 8 hours to regain spells?

I've always seen it as emphasis on "rest." Even if a creature doesn't have to sleep, it still has to rest the mind on very light or no activity for at least 8 hours before the mental drain associated with prepping spells.

I like the black silk tripwire idea. However, the sorcerer using multiple alarms might run into a problem - now, it's inlikely that a forest creature will come within 20 feet of a party of man-sized beings, but if you spread that alarm all over the place, it'll be waking the party up every half hour or so, because there are LOTS of Tiny or larger creatures in the forest. The party will stop paying attention to the alarms because they go off for no good reason so frequently.

 

[fafhrd]

I like the black silk tripwire idea. However, the sorcerer using multiple alarms might run into a problem - now, it's inlikely that a forest creature will come within 20 feet of a party of man-sized beings, but if you spread that alarm all over the place, it'll be waking the party up every half hour or so, because there are LOTS of Tiny or larger creatures in the forest. The party will stop paying attention to the alarms because they go off for no good reason so frequently.

I admit, I lack data on the temerity of nocturnal fauna, but 40' doesn't seem like much more of a risk than 20. If you wanted to extend the warding with another radius, the sorceror might want to put those on mental trigger. It may make him grumpy, but it shouldn't effect his spell preparation, and I'll take grumpy over dead 9 times out of 10(going without cigarettes being the exception). There's no doubt though, that it works better in a dungeon environment.

 

[jasper]

Or a party made up mostly of elves...
Exposes a pet peeve of mine, though: if elves don't have to sleep, just "trance" for 4 hours, and their favored class is wizard, why do elven wizards still have to rest 8 hours to regain spells? Oh well.
...

which is pet peeve of mine. Why didn't they just say elves sleep or trance for 8 hours.