D&D 5E Player angry about enemies climbing rope with Rope Trick

[CleverNickName]

Again, Green Devil Face. Is it a safe place? Is it a place where the ranger has reinforcements? Is he about to meet with his Infernal Patron? Wouldn't it be better to finish off the other guys who aren't retreating?

This is a bad example. Lots of us have watched helplessly as our intelligent, free-thinking players marched their characters off, one by one in single file, to their doom with that same Green Devil Face. For absolutely no reason at all--good or otherwise. They did it simply because it was there and they didn't know any better.

 

[James Gasik]

No I don't think it is, because when they do that, we laugh at them for their lack of foresight. But flip it around and monsters doing the same thing is considered a "viable tactic".

It's like if the Ranger ran into an Illusory Wall and vanished. Are you going to run after him? There could be a pit trap, or a monster, or a Cleric with Spirit Guardians active waiting to ginsu you with lasers! Or maybe it's a temporary effect that will end within moments, permanently fusing you into a solid wall.

Again, if players fell for that, we'd laugh "haha, you fools". But I guarantee if players relied on monsters falling for such a trick, they'd suddenly be much less foolhardy*.

*based on my observations of gameplay. YMMV.

 

[Lanefan]

It could. I mean, a guy climbs up a rope and vanishes. To where? I could see one guy maybe having the guts (or just stubborness) to climb up the rope after the guy, but multiple people climbing a stairway to nowhere?

Again, Green Devil Face. Is it a safe place? Is it a place where the ranger has reinforcements? Is he about to meet with his Infernal Patron? Wouldn't it be better to finish off the other guys who aren't retreating?

And I just want to bring this up, I have a lot of people tell me that "well, if an encounter is going badly, just retreat!" I often point out that retreating really isn't possible a lot of times.

And hey, look here, we have a DM having monsters go out of their way to stop a player from retreating. : )

Retreating into a space that is known to be a dead end isn't really retreating.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The official rule to identify a spell in Xanathar's is DC 15 + spell level, so 17. Hard for an orc with that -2 Int, but that DC always seemed too high to me.

It seems a fair enough rule to determine a typical spell from the way it is cast. It seems a patently ridiculous DC to determine what a spell with distinct and obvious effects (like Rope Trick) is from the effects. If Rope Trick is an effective method to escape from combats used by more than a tiny handful of people in the setting then intelligent enemies should have a good chance of knowing what's up when a rope starts floating up into the air and someone disappears at the top of it.

 

[James Gasik]

Retreating into a space that is known to be a dead end isn't really retreating.

If it gets you out of combat isn't it?

 

[ECMO3]

Good point. Sounds like OP gave monsters knowledge they would not have. Would they even know it was safe for them to climb the rope in the first place?

And a character who actually lived in that world would know better than to use the spell in combat. So the ranger had too little knowledge and the monsters too much.

I would disagree with this. It is a common 2nd level spell and the only one that works even remotely like that.

I think of it this way - intelligent monsters that live in a world full of magic should understand the basics of most low level spells. If players are sitting around a table and I say "the enemy casts a spell a rope rises, he climbs it out of sight' it is a safe bet at least half of the players understand exactly what happened .... even though they don't live in a world of magic.

To put it another way anc compare it to RL - about 0.2% of the US population are pilots, but if you walked into an empty cockpit on an airplane at least half of americans would know the basics of how the flight controls worked. They might not have the experience and dexterity to fly the plane, let alone land it but they could describe what it is, how it worked and probably do the basics as far as steering it.

 

[ECMO3]

That is stupidly high and a poorly written rule IMO. So a 1st level 17 Int wizard has a 50/50 shot of ID'ing a 1st level spell?

I believe that is during casting, not after it is cast.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

I believe that is during casting, not after it is cast.

It's both.

 

[ECMO3]

It's both.

So if someone casts a fireball you don't know that you just got fireballed?

If someone puts you to sleep you don't know you were put to sleep?

 

[iserith]

So if someone casts a fireball you don't know that you just got fireballed?

If someone puts you to sleep you don't know you were put to sleep?

The character or the orc is free to think what they want about what the spell is - and may well be correct - but identifying it with certainty (when attempting to doing so is uncertain) would require a successful check if the rules in XGtE are used at all.

But since all ability checks are called for by the DM, with some tasks being automatically successful or automatically failed with no check at all at the DM's discretion, the DM can simply say the orcs identify the spell being cast, no roll. (Or alternatively can't, also no roll.)