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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maxperson" data-source="post: 8690372" data-attributes="member: 23751">Sure it plausible.  Plausible =/= likely.  It's plausible that the ground will open up into a sinkhole swallowing the party, that doesn't make the ground a threat.This is a true dichotomy.  Either the noticed creature in question is a threat before combat or it isn't.  If entering combat is what determines if it's a threat, then it's impossible to fail to be surprised unless threat = potential threat.  If it's a "threat" before hand, then it needs to meet the threshold of "likely" since that's the definition you provided or it's not a threat and you again have the above problem of automatically being surprised if combat happens.The simplest and most accurate reading is that threat = potential threat.  Then it doesn't matter if the creature is likely to attack or not, it's still noticed and an attack won't cause surprise.The cleric was still on guard for danger from the chest and was impossible to surprise by RAW.  If I were in your game and I was surprised after being on my guard specifically for the chest to be trapped or a mimic, I'd get up and walk out.  Invalidating my agency isn't something that I tolerate.Sure.His choice is entirely irrelevant to this one situation.  The mimic has a special ability that is stronger than a low level cleric, even one trained in perception.  People trained in perception and with a good wisdom are fairly common.  The mimic species would have been wiped out long ago if it relied on a +5 stealth for survival.  They're already a rare creature.That just shows another way that the designers screwed up CR.  The ability makes them more challenging, so it increases the challenge whether they've typed in a number or not.  CR is I think the single biggest challenge to WotC.  They've yet to get it anywhere close to right.And the cleric was aware of a "threat" or was at least treating the chest as a threat.  Treating the chest as a threat = noticing a threat.  You can't, as in it's impossible, to treat something as a threat that could kill you at any moment, and then be surprised when it does.As I said above, if a DM negated my agency like that, I'd walk out of the game and wouldn't return.  It's utter nonsense to surprise the cleric under those circumstances.</blockquote>

Verification