I hope you are all safe and sound! I have an idea for an encounter but I want to run some things by the "experts" to see what might now be too RAW friendly. My need for rule following makes my life difficult sometimes. Anyway, my intrepid adventurers just finished a HIGHLY altered version of the Orcs of Wyvern Tor bounty that is played in LMOP. My group always rolls high, since it is online I cannot easily verify their rolls, but I make due. My next idea to throw at them is a Stone Giant ambush. They just reached level 4 so I know this will now be unbalanced for them. They make it out unscathed in pretty much every deadly encounter I throw at them. It was only this last encounter that someone actually fell unconscious. This brings me to my plan, I would like to have my party ambushed by a stone giant. Since they have advantage on their stealth checks it make sense to have them ambushed on their way back out the mountain. The setting is going to be a cliff side path about forty to fifty feet wide. My plan is stepped out as follows:
1. Everyone rolls for their individual perception checks, to determine surprise.
2. The giant targets the lowest score that does not notice it.
3. Stone Giant charges and attempts to throw,push a character off the side of the cliff, about a sixty foot drop, or 6d6 damage, onto the path below which connect to the current path around a bend ahead.
4. Roll initiative and encounter begins.
My problem is the charge or the push. I know that I can have him simply run and knock someone prone with a challenge roll. But I want him to actually send someone flying if they fail a check of DC 20. Then another two or three checks to see if they are able to catch or stop themselves before the have to try to grab the ledge. On the fail they will fall. Again, my players seem to succeed at everything so I want to try to make it suspenseful for them, but is there anything that would make this just TOO much?
I'm curious what program you are using to play online. Discord and all Virtual Table Tops have dice rollers(or have ones available) to keep players honest. I would assume you have access to the players character sheets.
1 and 2. Stealth and Surprise don't work that way. The Giant makes a Stealth check and you compare it to their Passive Perception to see if they detect him. If the character has a reason to suspect the need to roll a Perception check, I would allow it as their action(player initiated ability checks require an action when I DM).
Surprise
A band of adventurers sneaks up on a bandit camp, springing from the trees to attack them. A gelatinous cube glides down a dungeon passage, unnoticed by the adventurers until the cube engulfs one of them. In these situations, one side of the battle gains surprise over the other.
The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.
3. Shoving and Grappling use the same mechanics, either push s character 5ft off the cliff or Grapple and drop them. A 60ft fall is 10d6!!!!
Falling
A fall from a great height is one of the most common hazards facing an adventurer. At the end of a fall, a creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it fell, to a maximum of 20d6. The creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall.
Okay, so the problem is not with any online dice rollers, it's that I allowed everyone to roll their own physical dice. I'm probably too trusting but we are all friends. I'm also very non confrontational so a late change would feel pretty conflicting. But, to my point a DC15 seems like a DC10 for my players, sometimes even lower.
First, there are some verifiable online dice rollers, you know ? WHen you mean "online", which system(s) are you using ?
You have to be careful with "deadly", I have the same problem sometimes, I try to be borderline only because if you go too far in to deadly, well...
Why do they have advantage on stealth checks ? All of them have it ?
What is the justification for the giant targeting the lowest roller ? What if they all notice it?
You are supposed to roll for initiative before the first action. Characters who missed their perception will not act during the first round, that's all.
At this stage, there have been many discussion about this, but I personally allow characters or NPCs/Monsters to ready an action out of combat. That way, you can make sure that the giant will act first on his ready action, but it has to be a single action, and therefore not a move and a push. For this to work, you need some sort of special attack, which you might as well create since this is your monster and you can do whatever you want including a charge and throw or whatever. Just make sure that the DC are in the right range, 15 is probably high enough.
Why do you want a DC on top of the push ? Tbh, 6d6 is not that bad at level 4 anyway, and it's supposed to be a tough encounter, and on top of this the characters have additional chances to grab a ledge...
I would do something much simpler, have a custom giant with a charge attack that he uses to push (and a readied one), use the standard rules for the push, and give one acrobatics/athletics check chance to grab the ledge, and then keep the damage.
I was worried about keeping it close to RAW as possible, definitely felt like I was shying away. But making a variant Stone giant sounds perfectly fine to me, LOL. But I don't go too far over the deadly experience level. Maybe only 1000, but never more, and its usually between 500 to 800. I read that the stone Giants have advantage on rocky(mountain) terrain, was hoping to use that to keep an edge up on the players. A lot of times I find myself running into unprepared situations with my players, so things will probably change in the middle of the encounter anyways. TBH, I forgot about a ready action when I was working this through my mind, so the charge action sounds perfect.
The good news is...I just remembered that I have a map that is perfect for this encounter! It has narrow pathways and multiple layers. It almost seems like I knew what I was doing! With this map and your guidance Lyxen, this could be a very engaging encounter and quite possibly give them a challenge! If the dice fall appropriately there could be multiple KO's, not deaths mind you, that may keep them honest. Or just make it so that they keep having a very un natural amount of high rolls.
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Hello All!
I hope you are all safe and sound! I have an idea for an encounter but I want to run some things by the "experts" to see what might now be too RAW friendly. My need for rule following makes my life difficult sometimes. Anyway, my intrepid adventurers just finished a HIGHLY altered version of the Orcs of Wyvern Tor bounty that is played in LMOP. My group always rolls high, since it is online I cannot easily verify their rolls, but I make due. My next idea to throw at them is a Stone Giant ambush. They just reached level 4 so I know this will now be unbalanced for them. They make it out unscathed in pretty much every deadly encounter I throw at them. It was only this last encounter that someone actually fell unconscious. This brings me to my plan, I would like to have my party ambushed by a stone giant. Since they have advantage on their stealth checks it make sense to have them ambushed on their way back out the mountain. The setting is going to be a cliff side path about forty to fifty feet wide. My plan is stepped out as follows:
1. Everyone rolls for their individual perception checks, to determine surprise.
2. The giant targets the lowest score that does not notice it.
3. Stone Giant charges and attempts to throw,push a character off the side of the cliff, about a sixty foot drop, or 6d6 damage, onto the path below which connect to the current path around a bend ahead.
4. Roll initiative and encounter begins.
My problem is the charge or the push. I know that I can have him simply run and knock someone prone with a challenge roll. But I want him to actually send someone flying if they fail a check of DC 20. Then another two or three checks to see if they are able to catch or stop themselves before the have to try to grab the ledge. On the fail they will fall. Again, my players seem to succeed at everything so I want to try to make it suspenseful for them, but is there anything that would make this just TOO much?
I'm curious what program you are using to play online. Discord and all Virtual Table Tops have dice rollers(or have ones available) to keep players honest. I would assume you have access to the players character sheets.
1 and 2. Stealth and Surprise don't work that way. The Giant makes a Stealth check and you compare it to their Passive Perception to see if they detect him. If the character has a reason to suspect the need to roll a Perception check, I would allow it as their action(player initiated ability checks require an action when I DM).
3. Shoving and Grappling use the same mechanics, either push s character 5ft off the cliff or Grapple and drop them. A 60ft fall is 10d6!!!!
Holy crap, are you trying to earn a first responder award or what? I added a couple details that will hopefully be of use.
Okay, so the problem is not with any online dice rollers, it's that I allowed everyone to roll their own physical dice. I'm probably too trusting but we are all friends. I'm also very non confrontational so a late change would feel pretty conflicting. But, to my point a DC15 seems like a DC10 for my players, sometimes even lower.
I was worried about keeping it close to RAW as possible, definitely felt like I was shying away. But making a variant Stone giant sounds perfectly fine to me, LOL. But I don't go too far over the deadly experience level. Maybe only 1000, but never more, and its usually between 500 to 800. I read that the stone Giants have advantage on rocky(mountain) terrain, was hoping to use that to keep an edge up on the players. A lot of times I find myself running into unprepared situations with my players, so things will probably change in the middle of the encounter anyways. TBH, I forgot about a ready action when I was working this through my mind, so the charge action sounds perfect.
I read that as 1d6 PER 10 feet fallen. If they are falling 60 feet, it would be 60 divided by 10 or 6. So that would be 6d6? Am I missing something?
No, I was missing something, coffee. Please continue, lol.
The good news is...I just remembered that I have a map that is perfect for this encounter! It has narrow pathways and multiple layers. It almost seems like I knew what I was doing! With this map and your guidance Lyxen, this could be a very engaging encounter and quite possibly give them a challenge! If the dice fall appropriately there could be multiple KO's, not deaths mind you, that may keep them honest. Or just make it so that they keep having a very un natural amount of high rolls.