Wednesday, June 18, 2014
OD&D rule buried in the description of the monk in Blackmoor: "Note however that extremely silent creatures will...
OD&D rule buried in the description of the monk in Blackmoor: "Note however that extremely silent creatures will double surprise possibilities, i.e., halflings, thieves, bugbears and undead double possibilities".
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Thanks. I have a new house rule. ..
ReplyDeleteGiven these little gems that pop up from time to time, I wonder how many "obvious" rules were left out by TSR - or how many they thought they'd put in but didn't ... ;-)
ReplyDeleteLooking further, in the PHB Gygax gave the exact same chance (1-4 in 6) for unarmored halflings to surprise monsters.
ReplyDeleteNice ability for thieves that doesn't rely on their move silently chance...wish they'd managed to keep that!
ReplyDeleteso an undead halfling thief....
ReplyDeleteOr a half-bugbear/half-halfling. : )
ReplyDeleteMatthew Skail that was my thought as well, but upon reflection I think it is assuming they are moving silently
ReplyDeleteA few more thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIf undead are undetected on 4/6, then they are noticed on 2/6. Extrapolating this suggests a 2/6 chance to notice visual cues and a 2/6 chance to notice audio cues.
So invisible should surprise on 1-4; invisible AND silent should surprise automatically (gargoyle, polymar). So a thief should surprise automatically if he makes both move silently and hide in shadows. Shadows and Invisible Stalkers surprise on 1-5 because there is a small chance to notice subtle clues due to movement: behavioral anomalies, wind currents, intuition, etc.
Characters have a 1/6 chance to hear noise, not 2/6. I think this assumes the noise is muffled or faint. so characters moving stealthily but not silently might surprise on 1-3. Similarly visually camouflaged but not invisible creatures might surprise on 1-3.
There is a perception check hidden here: a 1-5 chance to surprise indicates a perception chance of 1 in 6.