So, i've seen several threads talking about different contests. but i'm still a little confused as to how one goes about doing a perception vs a hide/stealth.
to give you a better idea on what i'm stuck on. i'll give you an example. This is an encounter that i've made as a way to introduce a Party-Friendly NPC.
The party comes across a battle, a group of Orcs attacking a Carriage is currently under attack by a Drake. No one has seen the party yet, and thus they have a choice of being able to avoid battle. However, some of the Orcs are acting strange, as though they are looking for the enemy, even though there is a Drake before them.
The party has the choice to attack, flee, or hide.
if they flee, they do a stealth check with a disadvantage and leave. if they attack, they roll initiative and start battle. If they hide, to watch and possibly attack the winner of the battle. they will roll to Hide, against the Orc's perception (or is it investigation?)
how do you tell who wins? is it whoever rolls higher?
1. If the Orcs are busy fighting, then they can't spend an action to actively search for the party, in which case the party rolls Stealth against a fixed DC - this fixed DC is the highest Passive Perception of the Orcs.
2. If some of the Orcs are looking around use #1 but instead the Passive Perception roll Perception for each orc that is actively looking for people and use the highest Perception roll by the Orcs as the DC (or their Passive Perception if that is higher).
Ok that's the DC set, now you have to decide how you want to have the checks work.
1. You can either treat them as individual checks - so if any of the players roll below the DC they are spotted and the Orcs know they are there and react appropriately.
2. You can treat it as a "group check" and set a number of successes: e.g. 3/5 players must succeed for the whole group to succeed and thus be unnoticed by the Orcs.
If you want the party to have to fight the orcs use individual checks, because it is pretty likely one person in the party will fail, if you want to give them a better shot at remaining hidden use a group check.
So, i've seen several threads talking about different contests. but i'm still a little confused as to how one goes about doing a perception vs a hide/stealth.
to give you a better idea on what i'm stuck on. i'll give you an example. This is an encounter that i've made as a way to introduce a Party-Friendly NPC.
The party comes across a battle, a group of Orcs attacking a Carriage is currently under attack by a Drake. No one has seen the party yet, and thus they have a choice of being able to avoid battle. However, some of the Orcs are acting strange, as though they are looking for the enemy, even though there is a Drake before them.
The party has the choice to attack, flee, or hide.
if they flee, they do a stealth check with a disadvantage and leave. if they attack, they roll initiative and start battle. If they hide, to watch and possibly attack the winner of the battle. they will roll to Hide, against the Orc's perception (or is it investigation?)
how do you tell who wins? is it whoever rolls higher?
There are a few options here:
1. If the Orcs are busy fighting, then they can't spend an action to actively search for the party, in which case the party rolls Stealth against a fixed DC - this fixed DC is the highest Passive Perception of the Orcs.
2. If some of the Orcs are looking around use #1 but instead the Passive Perception roll Perception for each orc that is actively looking for people and use the highest Perception roll by the Orcs as the DC (or their Passive Perception if that is higher).
Ok that's the DC set, now you have to decide how you want to have the checks work.
1. You can either treat them as individual checks - so if any of the players roll below the DC they are spotted and the Orcs know they are there and react appropriately.
2. You can treat it as a "group check" and set a number of successes: e.g. 3/5 players must succeed for the whole group to succeed and thus be unnoticed by the Orcs.
If you want the party to have to fight the orcs use individual checks, because it is pretty likely one person in the party will fail, if you want to give them a better shot at remaining hidden use a group check.
all right, i'll give it a go. Also, thank you for explaining how to decide the DC for such an event