Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6253167" data-attributes="member: 2067">I don't see a trap's attack roll as determining anything about the PC -- they've got AC which describes what they're doing. The trap's attack roll describes what the trap is doing. Which might include "getting tangled up in some spiderwebs and misfiring" (a low roll) and might include "being pointed right at your eye" (a high roll). If I wanted to figure out what the PC was doing, I'd have the PC roll (like, rolling a DEX save to dodge the hail of arrows). The weird thing to me here is that there needs to be a number or roll to determine what is caught in a slightly-more-than-cursory glance. The party is a group of trained adventurers and they're ready for danger, if there's a thing to notice, they should be told that they notice it. Unless that thing is hiding, in which case they're not GOING to notice it, unless they specifically look for it. I don't need to roll dice to see if they choke on their ale in a bar. I don't need to roll dice to see if they have a heart attack in the middle of the night. I don't need to roll dice to tell them that they see a desk in the corner of the room. And if they want to see if that desk is not a desk, then it's up to THEM to get that information, via their characters -- it feels really weird as a DM to basically remove all the tension and risk from an event without the players even making an active decision. It doesn't feel particularly great as a player to get that reward without having to do anything, either. If the DM's reaction to my saying "we go left" is "you pass by a trapped flagstone in the hallway and continue on," my reaction is basically, so frickin' what? Now that trap may as well have not even existed. It doesn't engage me, it doesn't stop me, it's not interesting, the DM doesn't get to use their cool trap, I don't get to actively do anything cool on my end, and we've all wasted preparation time designing characters and traps that don't add to anything. Anyway, that's kind of a rant. Like I said, I don't think D&D has ever really done this in a satisfying way, so I can't really expect 5e to do it well out the box, either. All I can hope is that it's something that's easy to change -- something I have pretty high hopes for, given the rest of 5e's promise.</blockquote>

Verification