werk
First Post
I wanted to ask the board if I was out of line.
I am DM'ing a custom Forgotten Realms setting, and the party are low level (level 2). The players have previously been made aware that they are weak, and can not attack most NPCs randomly, many people are tougher than they are. Not all encounters are to be resolved through combat. So I thought this had been established.
So the party decides to split up (great idea
and the ranger and monk investigate the city sewers. They eventually find some guards posted at an intersection. They succeeded in their stealth rolls and evesdropped on the guards, who were just talking about junk and how bored they were. The players assumed that the guards worked for the thieves' guild (correctly) and decided to return to their hide-out and warn the rest of the party. As they left, I had them roll hide and move silent checks again, and one of the guards both spot and listened to them leaving (great rolls). Being nice, I left two guards behind and picked the weakest guard to investigate.
I give the characters a free spot/listen before they made the last turn to go home and they found the thief easily. They then hid silently and the rogue lost them. He walked up the passage exactly between the two characters, unknowing and was about to walk right by them, allowing them to return home safely.
This guard is a 4th level rogue, characters are 2, 2nd level.
So the monk, who is a fairly aggressive player, takes surprise and attacks the rogue (why?). Natural 1, whiff.
Regular init, ranger grapples the rogue and pwns him, but instead of pinning him, he says 'be silent, we won't hurt you, we just have questions.'
Monk is next, and he flurries the rogue! (why?) I think he only hit once for minimal damage.
Rogue init, breaks the grapple.
Ranger, draws weapons and whiffs.
Monk (this is the good part) wants to tumble past the rogue so he can flank with the ranger. So he tumbles, poorly, and draws an AoO. Natural 20, threat, 18, crit. He's using a morningstar and rolls max damage. Monk dies -12hp.
Ranger then pwns the rogue some more for 6 rounds and only takes one hit, picks up the dead monk and returns home to a very upset party.
So the question I'm asking the boards, and sorry for the long wind-up, why did this party of low-level characters start looking for raise dead?
First I explained that the characters that were after the raise dead were not casters and should not know anything about the spell, so the cleric and wizard both rolled arcana and we decided that they knew about raise dead and that it was usually reserved for servants of particular dieties, i.e. it CAN happen, but usually because the diety doesn't want the servant dead yet. Since the dead monk did not worship any diety, and there were no 'high-level' temples in town, they were completely out of luck. They continued to try to find some way to raise the dead monk, and trying to raise a horde of wealth to purchase the raise dead, even though I never mentioned anything about purchasing spells at all, especially this spell. So they continue to waste time trying to get a raise, talking to their patrons and hosts (all know nothing about raising the dead) and then general gather information checks in a city that has a bounty on their head.
Was I wrong to not give them a raise dead?
Was I wrong in killing the monk?
Why does a second level character think they deserve to get raised if they die?
How could I have played the 'your character doesn't know any of this' and 'roleplay your character' more effectively?
It just seemed that the players took off their roleplaying hat and started looking for expected solutions, and were upset that they were not available...and it didn't sit well with me.
Thanks,
Mark
I am DM'ing a custom Forgotten Realms setting, and the party are low level (level 2). The players have previously been made aware that they are weak, and can not attack most NPCs randomly, many people are tougher than they are. Not all encounters are to be resolved through combat. So I thought this had been established.
So the party decides to split up (great idea
and the ranger and monk investigate the city sewers. They eventually find some guards posted at an intersection. They succeeded in their stealth rolls and evesdropped on the guards, who were just talking about junk and how bored they were. The players assumed that the guards worked for the thieves' guild (correctly) and decided to return to their hide-out and warn the rest of the party. As they left, I had them roll hide and move silent checks again, and one of the guards both spot and listened to them leaving (great rolls). Being nice, I left two guards behind and picked the weakest guard to investigate.I give the characters a free spot/listen before they made the last turn to go home and they found the thief easily. They then hid silently and the rogue lost them. He walked up the passage exactly between the two characters, unknowing and was about to walk right by them, allowing them to return home safely.
This guard is a 4th level rogue, characters are 2, 2nd level.
So the monk, who is a fairly aggressive player, takes surprise and attacks the rogue (why?). Natural 1, whiff.
Regular init, ranger grapples the rogue and pwns him, but instead of pinning him, he says 'be silent, we won't hurt you, we just have questions.'
Monk is next, and he flurries the rogue! (why?) I think he only hit once for minimal damage.
Rogue init, breaks the grapple.
Ranger, draws weapons and whiffs.
Monk (this is the good part) wants to tumble past the rogue so he can flank with the ranger. So he tumbles, poorly, and draws an AoO. Natural 20, threat, 18, crit. He's using a morningstar and rolls max damage. Monk dies -12hp.
Ranger then pwns the rogue some more for 6 rounds and only takes one hit, picks up the dead monk and returns home to a very upset party.
So the question I'm asking the boards, and sorry for the long wind-up, why did this party of low-level characters start looking for raise dead?
First I explained that the characters that were after the raise dead were not casters and should not know anything about the spell, so the cleric and wizard both rolled arcana and we decided that they knew about raise dead and that it was usually reserved for servants of particular dieties, i.e. it CAN happen, but usually because the diety doesn't want the servant dead yet. Since the dead monk did not worship any diety, and there were no 'high-level' temples in town, they were completely out of luck. They continued to try to find some way to raise the dead monk, and trying to raise a horde of wealth to purchase the raise dead, even though I never mentioned anything about purchasing spells at all, especially this spell. So they continue to waste time trying to get a raise, talking to their patrons and hosts (all know nothing about raising the dead) and then general gather information checks in a city that has a bounty on their head.
Was I wrong to not give them a raise dead?
Was I wrong in killing the monk?
Why does a second level character think they deserve to get raised if they die?
How could I have played the 'your character doesn't know any of this' and 'roleplay your character' more effectively?
It just seemed that the players took off their roleplaying hat and started looking for expected solutions, and were upset that they were not available...and it didn't sit well with me.
Thanks,
Mark
