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

[billd91]

I don't know where this quote is from, but DND Beyond cannot find it in not just the DMG, but in any 5e D&D book in it's database. I even cut up the quote into parts to try and find it that way, and nothing. It does not appear in the current 5e DMG as far as DND Beyond is concerned. The guidelines also never mention a party of four. They explain that the guidelines assume a party of 3-5, and give rules for less than three or more than five PCs, but never say four is assumed to be the standard and I did an extensive DND Beyond search for any variation I could think of on that phrase and never found it appearing.

it’s on DMG 274 as he cites, but it’s worth noting that’s not about encounter construction. That’s the section on making/editing custom monsters.

 

[James Gasik]

How often do you see player characters run enemies through that they have just felled with swords to make sure they are dead? I'm going to say probably never or rarely.

Why? Well the obvious reason is that they know they aren't going to get back up. Most things in a D&D world don't. We look at player characters and know that someone in the party can probably pop them up with a heal and think that's the norm. It is most assuredly not. From an in-game perspective, that guy is bleeding out, he's not going anywhere (Insert infamous scene from The Boondock Saints here).

Even more so, there's the fact that if there are other threats still up and around and moving, it is extremely foolhardy to ignore those to use an attack on something that is unconscious.

 

[Lanefan]

Well the important benefit is that you can give a spell to someone else to cast who normally could not, and they can maintain concentration on it. This could be useful for a buff a Fighter could place on themselves, that no one else would, since they have other things to spend concentration on.

Ah.

With the versions I'm used to, to be of any use the spell stored has to be something that you-as-your-class can cast; even if you can't cast it yourself e.g. it's too high level or not something in your book. Thus, a Cleric would get no use out of a ring with an arcane spell stored in it, and a Fighter could never use one at all.

 

[James Gasik]

Ah.

With the versions I'm used to, to be of any use the spell stored has to be something that you-as-your-class can cast; even if you can't cast it yourself e.g. it's too high level or not something in your book. Thus, a Cleric would get no use out of a ring with an arcane spell stored in it, and a Fighter could never use one at all.

Yeah, unfortunately the Ring of Spell Storing is a lot like the old Imbue with Spell Ability spell- it lets a non-caster use the magic.

 

[Oofta]

How often do you see player characters run enemies they have just felled with swords to make sure they are dead? I'm going to say probably never or rarely.

Why? Well the obvious reason is that they know they aren't going to get back up. Most things in a D&D world don't. We look a player characters and know that someone in the party can probably pop them up with a heal and think that's the norm. It is most assuredly not. From an in-game perspective, that guy is bleeding out, he's not going anywhere.

Even more so, there's the fact that if there are other threats still up and around and moving, it is extremely foolhardy to ignore those to use an attack on something that is unconscious.

The default is to have monsters die at 0 because it's easier not because there's some universal rule. If a predator is just attacking because they're hungry in my game they'll pick up the downed PC and drag it off to be eaten. If it twitches they'll double tap. If the enemy is intelligent they'll realize what's happening after the first time healing word is cast.

 

[tetrasodium]

That has nothing to do with the topic and I've never mentioned it in this thread.



I don't know where this quote is from, but DND Beyond cannot find it in not just the DMG, but in any 5e D&D book in it's database. I even cut up the quote into parts to try and find it that way, and nothing. It does not appear in the current 5e DMG as far as DND Beyond is concerned. The guidelines also never mention a party of four. They explain that the guidelines assume a party of 3-5, and give rules for less than three or more than five PCs, but never say four is assumed to be the standard and I did an extensive DND Beyond search for any variation I could think of on that phrase and never found it appearing.

dmg274 Step1: Expected Challenge Rating on the upper right side of the page

Now maybe this was subject to errata and you never picked up the errata? I don't know. I just know none of that paragraph appears in the current official rules on DND Beyond.

First Printing: December 2014 on the book I found it in. It's a subsection of DMG273's creating a monster in chapter9 dungeon master's workshop between combat options & creating a spell

 

[Lanefan]

In 5e? No it's not. That's not even vaguely the default in 5e. Only legendary creatures in legendary lairs tend to be solo creatures in 5e by default. Where did you get that impression? None of the rules I can recall encourage solo creatures. None of the published adventures focus on solos either.

The default 5e is built on more monsters, not solo monsters.

Thing is, not everyone realizes this when using older adventures and converting them to 5e; and older adventures ofetn do contain a fair amount of solo enemies.

 

[James Gasik]

Yes but they don't get back up and resume fighting even if you tracked their negative hit point totals. That's a 5% chance on a death save. I'll take those odds and worry about the fallen foe possibly coming back with 1 crummy hit point after I've dealt with everything else I'm currently fighting.

 

[billd91]

Yeah, unfortunately the Ring of Spell Storing is a lot like the old Imbue with Spell Ability spell- it lets a non-caster use the magic.

Unfortunately? That’s been one of its major benefits since at least 1e!

 

[Seramus]

Maybe a Mercer thing? He tends to run beefy solo monsters, mostly because he has 7+ players.