As the title suggests, I wanted to know whats the distance a steel defender can hear its summoner from if it's based off of ear shot, psychic connection, etc for use in different scenarios such as when the golem and artificer are separated.
I don't even see anything limiting its movements to following orders. As far as I can tell, you can tell it to run across town, grab a thing, and come back and it will. Theoretically, the limit to you issuing new orders is the reach of your voice (no telepathy built in).
As DxJxC says, there is nothing in the rules about there being special communications with the Steel Defender, so no telepathic orders (unless you use a spell/item).
The Defender does understand all languages you do, so short of magic, there are 2 options:
1- sound - when trying to be loud, you can be heard from 2d6x50 feet away (100 - 600 feet).
2 - sign language (assuming your DM allows such a language) - visibility up to 2 miles, with encounter distances of 2d6x10 (20 - 120) to 4d10x10 (40 - 400) feet.
So effectively, you could expect being able to issue orders on average up to 200 -300 feet away, without using magic.
As DxJxC says, there is nothing in the rules about there being special communications with the Steel Defender, so no telepathic orders (unless you use a spell/item).
The Defender does understand all languages you do, so short of magic, there are 2 options:
1- sound - when trying to be loud, you can be heard from 2d6x50 feet away (100 - 600 feet).
2 - sign language (assuming your DM allows such a language) - visibility up to 2 miles, with encounter distances of 2d6x10 (20 - 120) to 4d10x10 (40 - 400) feet.
So effectively, you could expect being able to issue orders on average up to 200 -300 feet away, without using magic.
Where did you get these (somehow Perception-independent) rules from? They seem simultaneously incredibly useful for determining sensory ranges in general and terrible for distinguishing ranges between creatures with different sensory competencies, like Keen <Sense>.
Sign Language is based on a combination of the suggested encounter distances due to specific terrains (feet) and Visibility Outdoors (miles).
As for Keen <Sense>, having set ranges does pose a problem when there are different competencies in a group, so in such cases I might suggest a triple-roll: creatures without the keen sense would use the middle value, creatures with it would use the upper, and creatures with a penalty the lower.
The Keen <Sense> vs Stealth would work as normal, with maybe the Stealth roll success vs fail acting as a scale slider in sound cases (quiet <> normal); sight is already fairly well handled. Smell I might use the sound ranges.
For items like the Eyes of the Eagle, using the Visibility Outdoors should be fine.
Thinking further, perhaps Keen <Sense> could have 2 functions, increase the odds of detecting something within its range, and double the range of possible detection (so no guarantees still, just increased chance).
After even more thought, the above might be generally too complicated, so for DM's, I suggest the following using the DM's Screen Encounter Distance tables:
1- Determine if distance is a factor (such as if sight is obscured and sound is the key issue). If yes, roll for the distance & record. If no, skip to step 3.
2- Determine if any creature has a relevant Keen Sense. If yes, treat the distance as 1 step higher (such as from quiet to normal, or normal to loud). If no step higher is available, multiply the distance by 10 for that creature's detection.
3- When a creature enters the possible detection (distance), compare their active/passive Perception to the other creature(')s(') active/passive Stealth as normal. If detection does not occur, skip to step 5.
4- If a creature does detect, determine if said creature wants an encounter or to observe. If yes to observe, treat said creature as the possible source to be detected, and repeat above steps. If yes to encounter, determine Surprise/Initiative.
5- If no detection, observation, or encounter occurs, move the game along.
For the purposes of smell/scent, use the "Trying to be Quiet" range (2d6x5 feet). For being downwind, multiply distance by 2 if light wind, by 5 if strong wind. For being upwind, divide instead. Apply Keen Scent/Smell afterwards.
Ah, I found the rules. They're not on dndbeyond that I can see, and they don't define "very loud", so they don't constitute rules for how loudly you can shout on purpose. The rules do cover that being intentionally quiet is half the distance of normal noise, and normal noise is 1/5 the distance of "very loud". They also use 2d6 for randomness, and we know from the DMG that strong wind causes disadvantage on Perception checks to hear things.
This suggests we can replace the listed rules for audible distances by assuming 2d6 is intended to represent a straight d20 with no modifiers, i.e. your Auditory Perception Minus 3 can replace the 2d6.
Assuming a shouted order is normal noise (both because very loud is undefined and because the table we're referencing is for the distance at which you can hear, not necessarily understand, and we're trying to avoid shenanigans), that would give your Defender this distance for hearing normal-volume orders:
(PB*2+7)*10 feet (subtracting 5 before multiplication in strong wind). So proceeding from PB 2 to 6, you would get:
Invalid PB.
110'
130'
150'
170'
190'
Distances above subtract 50 feet in strong wind, and we have no rules for the real-world fact that sound carries much further in cold, dry air and much less in warm, wet air, so no change in arctic or muggy fog conditions (no rules for simulating Silent Hill).
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As the title suggests, I wanted to know whats the distance a steel defender can hear its summoner from if it's based off of ear shot, psychic connection, etc for use in different scenarios such as when the golem and artificer are separated.
I don't even see anything limiting its movements to following orders. As far as I can tell, you can tell it to run across town, grab a thing, and come back and it will. Theoretically, the limit to you issuing new orders is the reach of your voice (no telepathy built in).
As DxJxC says, there is nothing in the rules about there being special communications with the Steel Defender, so no telepathic orders (unless you use a spell/item).
The Defender does understand all languages you do, so short of magic, there are 2 options:
1- sound - when trying to be loud, you can be heard from 2d6x50 feet away (100 - 600 feet).
2 - sign language (assuming your DM allows such a language) - visibility up to 2 miles, with encounter distances of 2d6x10 (20 - 120) to 4d10x10 (40 - 400) feet.
So effectively, you could expect being able to issue orders on average up to 200 -300 feet away, without using magic.
Where did you get these (somehow Perception-independent) rules from? They seem simultaneously incredibly useful for determining sensory ranges in general and terrible for distinguishing ranges between creatures with different sensory competencies, like Keen <Sense>.
DM's Screen - Encounter Distance.
Sound is from the Very Loud listing.
Sign Language is based on a combination of the suggested encounter distances due to specific terrains (feet) and Visibility Outdoors (miles).
As for Keen <Sense>, having set ranges does pose a problem when there are different competencies in a group, so in such cases I might suggest a triple-roll: creatures without the keen sense would use the middle value, creatures with it would use the upper, and creatures with a penalty the lower.
The Keen <Sense> vs Stealth would work as normal, with maybe the Stealth roll success vs fail acting as a scale slider in sound cases (quiet <> normal); sight is already fairly well handled. Smell I might use the sound ranges.
For items like the Eyes of the Eagle, using the Visibility Outdoors should be fine.
Thinking further, perhaps Keen <Sense> could have 2 functions, increase the odds of detecting something within its range, and double the range of possible detection (so no guarantees still, just increased chance).
After even more thought, the above might be generally too complicated, so for DM's, I suggest the following using the DM's Screen Encounter Distance tables:
1- Determine if distance is a factor (such as if sight is obscured and sound is the key issue). If yes, roll for the distance & record. If no, skip to step 3.
2- Determine if any creature has a relevant Keen Sense. If yes, treat the distance as 1 step higher (such as from quiet to normal, or normal to loud). If no step higher is available, multiply the distance by 10 for that creature's detection.
3- When a creature enters the possible detection (distance), compare their active/passive Perception to the other creature(')s(') active/passive Stealth as normal. If detection does not occur, skip to step 5.
4- If a creature does detect, determine if said creature wants an encounter or to observe. If yes to observe, treat said creature as the possible source to be detected, and repeat above steps. If yes to encounter, determine Surprise/Initiative.
5- If no detection, observation, or encounter occurs, move the game along.
For the purposes of smell/scent, use the "Trying to be Quiet" range (2d6x5 feet). For being downwind, multiply distance by 2 if light wind, by 5 if strong wind. For being upwind, divide instead. Apply Keen Scent/Smell afterwards.
Ah, I found the rules. They're not on dndbeyond that I can see, and they don't define "very loud", so they don't constitute rules for how loudly you can shout on purpose. The rules do cover that being intentionally quiet is half the distance of normal noise, and normal noise is 1/5 the distance of "very loud". They also use 2d6 for randomness, and we know from the DMG that strong wind causes disadvantage on Perception checks to hear things.
This suggests we can replace the listed rules for audible distances by assuming 2d6 is intended to represent a straight d20 with no modifiers, i.e. your Auditory Perception Minus 3 can replace the 2d6.
Assuming a shouted order is normal noise (both because very loud is undefined and because the table we're referencing is for the distance at which you can hear, not necessarily understand, and we're trying to avoid shenanigans), that would give your Defender this distance for hearing normal-volume orders:
(PB*2+7)*10 feet (subtracting 5 before multiplication in strong wind). So proceeding from PB 2 to 6, you would get:
Distances above subtract 50 feet in strong wind, and we have no rules for the real-world fact that sound carries much further in cold, dry air and much less in warm, wet air, so no change in arctic or muggy fog conditions (no rules for simulating Silent Hill).