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<blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 8435950" data-attributes="member: 6915329"><p>Sure. Obviously not if the PC was trying to escape a super-max, heavily guarded, magical prison. But a PC that managed to escape a small jail, especially if there was luck involved? Why not?</p><p></p><p>From a purely mechanical point of view, a 1st-level PC should be able to sneak past or even injure/kill a typical CR 1/8, 11 hp, AC 16 NPC guard with only a small amount of trouble (and especially if they're playing something like a stealthy rogue with sneak attack).</p><p></p><p></p><p>Wow, random insult time. </p><p></p><p>Sure, I think that it's possible a kingdom might not have the magic involved. For starters, depending on the setting, magic may not be common; it might even be vanishingly rare. <em>PCs </em>are often loaded with magic, because they go kill monsters and people and take their stuff. But how much magic do <em>NPCs </em>have? Does each jail have one or more wizards on staff? Are they built with magical materials? <em>Antimagic field </em>is an 8th-level spell that lasts for an hour. Even if it had an option for casting each day for a period of time to make it permanent option--which it doesn't--you'd still need at least a 15th-level cleric or wizard to cast the spell. That's going to be <em>prohibitively </em>expensive to hire even once. Maybe you could justify prisons like that in your world, but <em>every </em>prison? Even small-town jails? Really?</p><p></p><p>Would there be a single jail cell for all criminals, or would there be a Medium-sized cell and a Small-sized cell? And if so, why couldn't a Medium person escape from a Medium cell? If Small races are barely known in the area, or <em>are </em>known but aren't really trouble-makers or who have their own areas (and thus their own law enforcement), who would waste time and money creating a Small jail in a human town?</p><p></p><p>Are faeries common in the area? Are they bound by human laws, or if you try to put one in jail, would a more powerful fey noble come and turn you into a mouse for your audacity?</p><p></p><p></p><p>Right, because I, a woman, want to escape into a world where I'm considered property of my husband and wouldn't be allowed to travel, let alone learn how to use a sword or cast (heretical) spells. Riiight...</p><p></p><p>You can also rephrase the above to include "man who is of a different ethnicity than the local norm," "non-heterosexual," and "any person who doesn't want to be an illiterate serf who dies of the plague."</p><p></p><p>So now who's lacking an imagination? You seem to be assuming that in an incredibly fantastic world that shares absolutely no history with the real world, has magic, non-humans, and demonstrably real gods, the inhabitants will have the exact same point of view as they did in the real world.</p><p></p><p></p><p>"That many forget." Or, that people may have deliberately chosen not to include because reality often sucks, or that people have decided "hey, this is society is actually mostly Lawful Good, so they aren't going to have such horrible prisons, and any horrible, corrupt sheriffs will be removed from office by Lawful Good superiors." I don't want to get into real-world politics, but I think we can all agree that in the medieval and renaissance periods there weren't any societies that were D&D-style Lawful Good.</p><p></p><p>(No, a Lawful Good society doesn't mean all inhabitants are LG. But it does mean that there's <em>enough </em>LG inhabitants that evil, corrupt people wouldn't be able to get away with evil acts for long.)</p><p></p><p>(And no, many people don't use alignment. I don't. But many people <em>do.</em>)</p><p></p><p></p><p>At least until you rise as an undead and get your revenge... </p><p></p><p>(Also, <em>speak with dead </em>requires a mouth; it doesn't say anything about a tongue.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>What sort of secret rolls? For things you <em>should </em>be rolling in the game, like attack rolls, Perception checks, and saves? Because if so, you're sounding like you cheat (by picking a pre-rolled number) to make sure that combats go the way you want them to instead of sometimes going awry because the enemy rolled badly. If this is actually the case, I'm pretty sure that everyone in <em>my </em>group would be ready to kick you out. If you're not rolling for attacks, skills, and saves, then what are these secret rolls?</p><p></p><p>But you know what? My combats are almost always really hard as well. I generally balance for "difficult" or "deadly" encounters, often several in a row (since I see no point in spending time stating up easy encounters that are over in a less than a round), and <em>no, </em>the PCs don't usually rest between each of them. But I don't cheat, and sometimes the enemies roll badly and screw up. Just yesterday, one of the warlocks <em>enemies abound'</em>ed one monster and it attacked one of the other monsters (I rolled randomly to determine the target; fortunately, there were exactly ten participants in the battle, making it easy). Because these monsters weren't allies to each other (they were undead who rose at the same place but beyond that had no loyalty to each other), I decided to give the second monster a Wis check to see how it would react. I rolled a 1 for it, and decided that it would attack the first monster. It only did a point or two of damage, but it used up the second monster's turn, thus giving the PCs a very necessary brief break from taking more damage.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Faolyn, post: 8435950, member: 6915329"] Sure. Obviously not if the PC was trying to escape a super-max, heavily guarded, magical prison. But a PC that managed to escape a small jail, especially if there was luck involved? Why not? From a purely mechanical point of view, a 1st-level PC should be able to sneak past or even injure/kill a typical CR 1/8, 11 hp, AC 16 NPC guard with only a small amount of trouble (and especially if they're playing something like a stealthy rogue with sneak attack). Wow, random insult time. Sure, I think that it's possible a kingdom might not have the magic involved. For starters, depending on the setting, magic may not be common; it might even be vanishingly rare. [I]PCs [/I]are often loaded with magic, because they go kill monsters and people and take their stuff. But how much magic do [I]NPCs [/I]have? Does each jail have one or more wizards on staff? Are they built with magical materials? [I]Antimagic field [/I]is an 8th-level spell that lasts for an hour. Even if it had an option for casting each day for a period of time to make it permanent option--which it doesn't--you'd still need at least a 15th-level cleric or wizard to cast the spell. That's going to be [I]prohibitively [/I]expensive to hire even once. Maybe you could justify prisons like that in your world, but [I]every [/I]prison? Even small-town jails? Really? Would there be a single jail cell for all criminals, or would there be a Medium-sized cell and a Small-sized cell? And if so, why couldn't a Medium person escape from a Medium cell? If Small races are barely known in the area, or [I]are [/I]known but aren't really trouble-makers or who have their own areas (and thus their own law enforcement), who would waste time and money creating a Small jail in a human town? Are faeries common in the area? Are they bound by human laws, or if you try to put one in jail, would a more powerful fey noble come and turn you into a mouse for your audacity? Right, because I, a woman, want to escape into a world where I'm considered property of my husband and wouldn't be allowed to travel, let alone learn how to use a sword or cast (heretical) spells. Riiight... You can also rephrase the above to include "man who is of a different ethnicity than the local norm," "non-heterosexual," and "any person who doesn't want to be an illiterate serf who dies of the plague." So now who's lacking an imagination? You seem to be assuming that in an incredibly fantastic world that shares absolutely no history with the real world, has magic, non-humans, and demonstrably real gods, the inhabitants will have the exact same point of view as they did in the real world. "That many forget." Or, that people may have deliberately chosen not to include because reality often sucks, or that people have decided "hey, this is society is actually mostly Lawful Good, so they aren't going to have such horrible prisons, and any horrible, corrupt sheriffs will be removed from office by Lawful Good superiors." I don't want to get into real-world politics, but I think we can all agree that in the medieval and renaissance periods there weren't any societies that were D&D-style Lawful Good. (No, a Lawful Good society doesn't mean all inhabitants are LG. But it does mean that there's [I]enough [/I]LG inhabitants that evil, corrupt people wouldn't be able to get away with evil acts for long.) (And no, many people don't use alignment. I don't. But many people [I]do.[/I]) At least until you rise as an undead and get your revenge... (Also, [I]speak with dead [/I]requires a mouth; it doesn't say anything about a tongue.) What sort of secret rolls? For things you [I]should [/I]be rolling in the game, like attack rolls, Perception checks, and saves? Because if so, you're sounding like you cheat (by picking a pre-rolled number) to make sure that combats go the way you want them to instead of sometimes going awry because the enemy rolled badly. If this is actually the case, I'm pretty sure that everyone in [I]my [/I]group would be ready to kick you out. If you're not rolling for attacks, skills, and saves, then what are these secret rolls? But you know what? My combats are almost always really hard as well. I generally balance for "difficult" or "deadly" encounters, often several in a row (since I see no point in spending time stating up easy encounters that are over in a less than a round), and [I]no, [/I]the PCs don't usually rest between each of them. But I don't cheat, and sometimes the enemies roll badly and screw up. Just yesterday, one of the warlocks [I]enemies abound'[/I]ed one monster and it attacked one of the other monsters (I rolled randomly to determine the target; fortunately, there were exactly ten participants in the battle, making it easy). Because these monsters weren't allies to each other (they were undead who rose at the same place but beyond that had no loyalty to each other), I decided to give the second monster a Wis check to see how it would react. I rolled a 1 for it, and decided that it would attack the first monster. It only did a point or two of damage, but it used up the second monster's turn, thus giving the PCs a very necessary brief break from taking more damage. [/QUOTE]
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