Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 6957861" data-attributes="member: 6801845">I handle it a couple of ways.  First, I rarely rely on perception when determining encounter distance.  Encounter distance depends more on what can reasonably seen and/or heard and whether there is any indication of attack.  Some monsters (such as gargoyles if IIRC) are indistinguishable from statues, no matter what your perception is there is no reason to suspect that statues are going to attack without some other information.Other monsters may be virtually silent (i.e. ghosts or other incorporeal monsters) until they can be seen.There may be circumstances where the bad guys simply blend into the background or simply can't realistically be perceived.  Assassins on a crowded street for example, or a monster waiting silently behind a closed door.Second, I distinguish between being surprised during the first round of combat and the encounter distance.  If you're in a heavily forested area, the perceptive PC may hear something crashing through the woods from a certain direction but that doesn't mean they get to attack before the monster enters the clearing 20 feet away.  Even then I'll probably ask for an active perception to verify they know where the sound is coming from.I make sure that a high perception is rewarded as well.  I don't want people to feel like it's a useless investment.  There has to be a balance between "wow, you've been ambushed again!" and "you see the orcs half a mile away on the other side of the mountain, what do you want to do?"</blockquote>

Verification