I am the dm for my groups game. They had just entered a dilapated old cabin that was just hit by a dragon born acid breath. Then the cabin was filled with a, darkness spell. I told all players that to move in the darkness as arrows were being shot into the cabin they had to roll acrobatics with disadvantage - 4. I did impose a high penalty to stress the broken busted boards as well as the darkness..... One of my players who was not even in the darkness started preparing that it was unfair even though it applied evenly to all who were trying to walk normally in this scenario... I realize this was not a normal check and I could have just made the DC higher but... I wanted to stress the extreme difficultly anyone trying this would have....
If you wanted to raise the difficulty, raise the Difficulty Class (DC). I'm not even sure what they check was for. Dodging arrows? That would have been a DEX save.
It was an acrobatics check to miss the various chunks of cottage and acid melted bits and while in magical darkness. Basically stumbling blind in a, mine field.
Definitely an annoying situation. As long at they were moving slowly, they probably didnt need a check. Trying to move at normal speed in that I'd set around a DC14 acrobatics check possibly with disadvantage.
I think my failure was telling them the —4 instead of just adjusting the DC. And no they were trying to walk normally. Only one character who wasn't even in the darkness had issue with it. And had the creatures moved into it they would have had the same penalties. Eh well live and learn. Thank you for discussing with me
Disadvantage is (mathematically) roughly the same as a -5 penalty. Adding another -4 means you're giving them almost no chance to hit better than an 11.
At that point, I'd either just let them move and have them take 1d6 acid damage from the battle fallout, or just tell them it's difficult terrain.
Disadvantage is (mathematically) roughly the same as a -5 penalty. Adding another -4 means you're giving them almost no chance to hit better than an 11.
This is a misconception. The rules for passive skills advantage disadvantage is +/-5 for simplicity. The actual math for rolls depends on bonuses and DC, but disadvantage is usually less than -5
I am the dm for my groups game. They had just entered a dilapated old cabin that was just hit by a dragon born acid breath. Then the cabin was filled with a, darkness spell. I told all players that to move in the darkness as arrows were being shot into the cabin they had to roll acrobatics with disadvantage - 4. I did impose a high penalty to stress the broken busted boards as well as the darkness..... One of my players who was not even in the darkness started preparing that it was unfair even though it applied evenly to all who were trying to walk normally in this scenario... I realize this was not a normal check and I could have just made the DC higher but... I wanted to stress the extreme difficultly anyone trying this would have....
Thoughts ideas?
If you wanted to raise the difficulty, raise the Difficulty Class (DC). I'm not even sure what they check was for. Dodging arrows? That would have been a DEX save.
It was an acrobatics check to miss the various chunks of cottage and acid melted bits and while in magical darkness. Basically stumbling blind in a, mine field.
Definitely an annoying situation. As long at they were moving slowly, they probably didnt need a check. Trying to move at normal speed in that I'd set around a DC14 acrobatics check possibly with disadvantage.
I think my failure was telling them the —4 instead of just adjusting the DC. And no they were trying to walk normally. Only one character who wasn't even in the darkness had issue with it. And had the creatures moved into it they would have had the same penalties. Eh well live and learn. Thank you for discussing with me
Disadvantage is (mathematically) roughly the same as a -5 penalty. Adding another -4 means you're giving them almost no chance to hit better than an 11.
At that point, I'd either just let them move and have them take 1d6 acid damage from the battle fallout, or just tell them it's difficult terrain.
This is a misconception. The rules for passive skills advantage disadvantage is +/-5 for simplicity. The actual math for rolls depends on bonuses and DC, but disadvantage is usually less than -5
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2014/07/12/dnd-5e-advantage-disadvantage-probability/
This shows you the chance roll different results on the D20 itself.