Double checking myself here, but I have a situation where I think my player is bleeped. He's a 2nd level barbarian that ran off by himself to flank some ghouls the party was fighting, and ended up getting surpised by a mimic, which attacks and effectively grappled him every round to lock him in place before biting him. On his turn, Barbarian escapes or possibly escapes (DC 13 Escape with Athletics +6 but at Disadvantage) but in so doing has continuously provoked an attack of opportunity when attempting to leave which left him grappled again. A rogue is sniping but unable to burn through as many HP as the mimic has. Once the barbarian is down, he'll be subject to an attack at advantage (grappled, plus prone, plus incapacitated) and on a hit take critical damage which is two death saving throw failures. I see no reason for the mimic not to make at least one attack prior to pulling him around a corner for private snacking or potentially following the rogue, but either way, things look bad for the player. Is there any disagreement by RAW or RAI with both how I ran things prior and how things are by my best guess likely to go? (Yes, I'm hoping to not feel responsibility for what seems to have been a combination of rash decision making and bad luck (barbarians lone deployment and getting caught by a mimic)).
Feel free to ignore, I got my answer from Discord. I feel cleared, but the question is how the player and party will handle things, and how I can help the player maintain both interest and enthusiasm.
Notes: Auto Critical will apply when Barbarian is unconscious to be clear. Mimic was able to get the drop due to being 100% Undetectable per their description. Barbarian is at disadvantage with escape attempts due to mimics adhesive quality and having 2 levels of exhaustion.
I believe that you absolutely can allow this Character to die, according to RAW. However, might this be a time to throw out "most plausible" actions, for "plausible but convenient" actions, on behalf of the mimic?
You say that you see "no reason for the mimic not to make at least one attack prior to pulling him around a corner for private snacking". Is there any particular reason the mimic is highly motivated or compelled to do this? To me it seems equally believable for the mimic to just grab dinner and run, or decide to double down and go after more dinner ( the Rogue ) instead. That at least give the Barbarian a chance to succeed his three death saving throws.
That would also fall under RAW.
It all depends on how important it is that you and your Player feel that the rules are being applied coldly, consistently, and impartially with no other influence other than the dictates of those rules ( the subtle difference between Law and Justice, here ). Can the Player accept that their Character died through a combination of bad luck, bad choices, and "The Rules"? Or will they assign you some of the blame - and if they do, does that matter to you?
I'm of the opinion that as a GM, you can always mitigate failure states. You still need to make sure that failure still hurts sufficiently to be a deterrent ( or it ceases to be failure, the game seems too easy, and the Players can lose a sense of accomplishment when they succeed - and possibly their interest in the game ), and that the behavior of creatures and the game world are still plausible. However, there are a wide range of possibilities which are plausible & believable other then the one which is the most probable in the GM's opinion. I like the approach of occasionally selecting plausible outcomes which are the most dramatically satisfying, while being careful not to select ones which would strain Player credibility. In my opinion, RPGs are games, not simulations - even though they absolutely needs plausibility and believability.
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Mimic would make at least one follow up attack in the manner of tearing a wounded animals throat out prior to grabbing and carrying off to the larder (or just to a secluded enough place for a meal). It's not 100% impossible the rogue can't forcefully capture the mimics attention, but the mimic is down maybe 10 HP from it's total so far. Right now I'm more preparing myself for the worst than anything else. I prefer the rules be applied coldly but fairly, as this is Death House and the introductory module for Curse of Strahd.
If I'm the mimic, and I have the ability to do so, I am not wasting time chowing down on an incapacitated foe while someone is shooting at me. I'm going to figure since the barbarian was fairly easy lunch, the rogue might make a nice dessert and I'm going to toss the barbarian aside and go after the rogue for my second helping. Then I'll eat both in the nice calm that occurs after they're both incapacitated, rather than having to bolt my barbarian dinner with a rogue and maybe others chasing after me.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
1) They are a barbarian. If they are raging they have advantage on strength checks. Escaping a grapple is a strength check so even if it is normally at disadvantage it is a straight roll for the barbarian since advantage and disadvantage cancel.
2) The only effect of being grappled is that their movement speed is zero though the mimic has a special ability giving it advantage on attacks against a creature that it has grappled.
3) The mimic only gets one action each turn. It can either attack with a pseudopod which has a chance to grapple the creature on a hit. Or it can bite. It can't both grapple and bite.
4) Raging barbarian will halve the bludgeoning damage from the attacks but not the acid damage if it decides to bite.
5) It is bad luck that the mimic has managed to hit all of the opportunity attacks. If you wanted to let him go the mimic could op attack with the bite which would let the barbarian escape since it doesn't invoke the adhesive property (though if he is damaged that might be enough damage to bring him down).
P.S. "Barbarian is at disadvantage with escape attempts due to mimics adhesive quality and having 2 levels of exhaustion." ... note that if the barbarian is raging then they STILL have a straight roll on the escape since it only requires one source of advantage to cancel any number of sources of disadvantage. So as long as they are raging, the escape attempt will be a straight roll in this case.
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Double checking myself here, but I have a situation where I think my player is bleeped. He's a 2nd level barbarian that ran off by himself to flank some ghouls the party was fighting, and ended up getting surpised by a mimic, which attacks and effectively grappled him every round to lock him in place before biting him. On his turn, Barbarian escapes or possibly escapes (DC 13 Escape with Athletics +6 but at Disadvantage) but in so doing has continuously provoked an attack of opportunity when attempting to leave which left him grappled again. A rogue is sniping but unable to burn through as many HP as the mimic has. Once the barbarian is down, he'll be subject to an attack at advantage (grappled, plus prone, plus incapacitated) and on a hit take critical damage which is two death saving throw failures. I see no reason for the mimic not to make at least one attack prior to pulling him around a corner for private snacking or potentially following the rogue, but either way, things look bad for the player. Is there any disagreement by RAW or RAI with both how I ran things prior and how things are by my best guess likely to go? (Yes, I'm hoping to not feel responsibility for what seems to have been a combination of rash decision making and bad luck (barbarians lone deployment and getting caught by a mimic)).
Feel free to ignore, I got my answer from Discord. I feel cleared, but the question is how the player and party will handle things, and how I can help the player maintain both interest and enthusiasm.
Notes: Auto Critical will apply when Barbarian is unconscious to be clear. Mimic was able to get the drop due to being 100% Undetectable per their description. Barbarian is at disadvantage with escape attempts due to mimics adhesive quality and having 2 levels of exhaustion.
I believe that you absolutely can allow this Character to die, according to RAW. However, might this be a time to throw out "most plausible" actions, for "plausible but convenient" actions, on behalf of the mimic?
You say that you see "no reason for the mimic not to make at least one attack prior to pulling him around a corner for private snacking". Is there any particular reason the mimic is highly motivated or compelled to do this? To me it seems equally believable for the mimic to just grab dinner and run, or decide to double down and go after more dinner ( the Rogue ) instead. That at least give the Barbarian a chance to succeed his three death saving throws.
That would also fall under RAW.
It all depends on how important it is that you and your Player feel that the rules are being applied coldly, consistently, and impartially with no other influence other than the dictates of those rules ( the subtle difference between Law and Justice, here ). Can the Player accept that their Character died through a combination of bad luck, bad choices, and "The Rules"? Or will they assign you some of the blame - and if they do, does that matter to you?
I'm of the opinion that as a GM, you can always mitigate failure states. You still need to make sure that failure still hurts sufficiently to be a deterrent ( or it ceases to be failure, the game seems too easy, and the Players can lose a sense of accomplishment when they succeed - and possibly their interest in the game ), and that the behavior of creatures and the game world are still plausible. However, there are a wide range of possibilities which are plausible & believable other then the one which is the most probable in the GM's opinion. I like the approach of occasionally selecting plausible outcomes which are the most dramatically satisfying, while being careful not to select ones which would strain Player credibility. In my opinion, RPGs are games, not simulations - even though they absolutely needs plausibility and believability.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Mimic would make at least one follow up attack in the manner of tearing a wounded animals throat out prior to grabbing and carrying off to the larder (or just to a secluded enough place for a meal). It's not 100% impossible the rogue can't forcefully capture the mimics attention, but the mimic is down maybe 10 HP from it's total so far. Right now I'm more preparing myself for the worst than anything else. I prefer the rules be applied coldly but fairly, as this is Death House and the introductory module for Curse of Strahd.
If I'm the mimic, and I have the ability to do so, I am not wasting time chowing down on an incapacitated foe while someone is shooting at me. I'm going to figure since the barbarian was fairly easy lunch, the rogue might make a nice dessert and I'm going to toss the barbarian aside and go after the rogue for my second helping. Then I'll eat both in the nice calm that occurs after they're both incapacitated, rather than having to bolt my barbarian dinner with a rogue and maybe others chasing after me.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Hi ... just a few comments.
1) They are a barbarian. If they are raging they have advantage on strength checks. Escaping a grapple is a strength check so even if it is normally at disadvantage it is a straight roll for the barbarian since advantage and disadvantage cancel.
2) The only effect of being grappled is that their movement speed is zero though the mimic has a special ability giving it advantage on attacks against a creature that it has grappled.
3) The mimic only gets one action each turn. It can either attack with a pseudopod which has a chance to grapple the creature on a hit. Or it can bite. It can't both grapple and bite.
4) Raging barbarian will halve the bludgeoning damage from the attacks but not the acid damage if it decides to bite.
5) It is bad luck that the mimic has managed to hit all of the opportunity attacks. If you wanted to let him go the mimic could op attack with the bite which would let the barbarian escape since it doesn't invoke the adhesive property (though if he is damaged that might be enough damage to bring him down).
P.S. "Barbarian is at disadvantage with escape attempts due to mimics adhesive quality and having 2 levels of exhaustion." ... note that if the barbarian is raging then they STILL have a straight roll on the escape since it only requires one source of advantage to cancel any number of sources of disadvantage. So as long as they are raging, the escape attempt will be a straight roll in this case.