Rulings Thread

Witch Hunter and I believed it would be a good idea to start a thread that held all rulings in one place. As the 5e PHB wording tends to be very vague there have been quite a few rulings already (most of which I don't remember). Hopefully this would be able to help everyone get up to speed with how things are and help with questions that may appear in session.

Mask of the Wild: If you are in the wilderness and lightly obscured by plant over, mists, rain etc, you can usually hide. This also applies to darkness in wilderness settings as long as there is natural plant cover. The GM may require you to drop prone or keep a certain distance from your foes in order for this ability to be used. If this is the case your character always knows how far away to stay away from foes to remain hidden or whether you need to drop prone or whether cover is sufficient. In a dungeon, town or city you can not hide in darkness from creatures with dark-vision without hard cover or without being heavily obscured unless there is something like magical mist.

Stephen made the following ruling on Sept 2. about session 93, a situation where two players entered a session after it has been in progress for 4 hours. They replaced two chars. One who died, and another who had to leave due to being tired.   People can look up the ruling on Sep 2. at 11:20 UTC +1 in the discord chat "I am ruling that people who enter a session after it has started are essentially helping Maladon by keeping that game running, so they do not appear on the Tier list... On the flip side people who don't sign up and enter a game get less XP"  [[ according to the context this applies to players who replace dead people or people who had to leave in the middle of the session unexpectedly so the group can continue adventuring. The less XP comment needs to be clarified but probably means half XP (3/4 XP actually SKD) ]]

14.09 Stephen ruled the following in discord chat: 3/4 Cover does not give the creature in cover +5AC but instead confers disadvantage on the attack roll. 1/2 Cover still grants +2AC. The Magnificent Mansion, Tiny Hut and Rope Trick spells, does not work in Maladon because they run counter to the idea of exploration.

Sustenance of an Adventurer Me: Evening Stephen. Sorry to bother you, but if you find a few spare minutes we need a ruling. I'm looking at my pack in Maladon and thinking slimness. Rations came up. It was suggested that I pack only a few rations because of a rule in the PHB. It allows a character to eat only once every 3+CON mod days. My instinct was that you'd never let (and shouldn't) that fly. Now we need a ruling. PHB 185: A character needs one pound of food per day and can make food last longer by subsisting on half rations. Eating half a pound of food in a day counts as half a day without food. A character can go without food for a number of days equal to 3 + his or her Constitution modifier (minimum). At the end of each day beyond that limit, a character automatically suffers one levei of exhaustion. A normal day of eating resets the count of days without food to zero. Stephen Dove: You are quite correct! The PHB is wrong about all kinds of stuff. That 3+ Con mod days would only apply if you were resting the whole time. Otherwise, you'd be exhausted much quicker than that suggests. 1lb of food a day of adventuring or you make a Con save or suffer exhaustion. The CoGms can run how they like I just would like people to be aware of how I am running things. Afterwords & my thoughts: It is herein assumed by me that the Con save is to be considered as that of walking beyond your normal means, until such that Stephen or a Co-GM finds it otherwise, which I think is likely they will. PHB 181: Forced March. The Travel Pace table assumes that characters traveI for 8 hours in day. They can push on beyond that limit, at the risk of exhaustion. For each additional hour of traveI beyond 8 hours, the characters cover the distance shown in the Hour column for their pace, and each character must make a Constitution saving throw at the end of the hour. The DC is 10 + 1 for each hour past 8 hours. On a failed saving throw, a character suffers one leveI of exhaustion (see appendix A).  Instead of hours one might suggest days or meals, with meals indicating morning, midday and evening, though those are simply my own suggestions.

Cassean Ruling: Placing your Kill Zone is something that might be perceived. The how and why might differ; it has to do with reading body language, perceiving small changes in facial exprissions and so on. The idea that a Deception, Performance or Sleight of Hand check could hide your intention is not lost on me, and that is something which will be judged on a case by case basis, depending on what gives you away.

Hobgoblins and Bushes The Advantages and Disadvantages of Advantage and Disadvantage I held a session a bit back where four Hobgoblins had hid in a tree, to take advantage of the party trying to make a crossing over a river by felling trees to set up a makeshift bridge. The idea was that the pesky things had gotten themselves into an advantageous position where they would have a clear shot at the party as they tried to cross. At that time I made what I now believe to have been a poor ruling. I'm not going to say faulty; 5E allows for so many interpretations and has an emphasis on the GM making the calls. However, I have come to think that I could have done better, and in fact did not do very well . For one some players felt that it was unfair, for the other, the Hobgoblins failed to engage the players in a meaningful way, and the threat they posed was not properly telegraphed; all the players chose to expose themselves, when I wanted to encourage them not to do so! So, the gobbers were up in yonder tree, with plenty of foliage to hide among, yet with small openings to look out from to shoot at their quarry. My ruling was that they would be able to shoot, and still remain hidden enough, that they would get adv on attacks and dadv on being attacked. Rogues often employ similar tactics from the player side, although they would use their bonus action each round to achieve this. The problem becomes that there is no effective way to fight back, and even if the ambush is a good one, leaving an approach for doing so is simply good encounter design. After looking into the stealth rules, thinking about how I wanted the situation to be portrayed and the feelings of the players, I've come to the conclusion that a different ruling would have made both of the above better. See 5E goes a bit overboard; if someone has the upper hand, they simply get advatange, and if someone is in a bad spot, they have disadvantage. It is suitable in situations where the difference is a significant one, but not when talking about smaller advantages. In the scenario above, what I think would have been better, is to have the hobgoblins get advantage on their very first attack each, and then a +2 to hit from there on out, for being in a position where they have the upper hand. It makes things more dangerous, without feeling to unfair, while the players would be shooting at targets in 3/4 cover (+5AC and adv on Dex saves? I think). The problem here is that terrain, planning and setting an ambush, either lasts for one round, or make the entire encounter a hell hole as the disadv/adv quickly turns numbers in their favour. So, perhaps, it could be an idea to try out the +2, instead of adv and -2 instead of dadv, where the situation calls for an ongoing bonus/penalty. Ruling: At times, in my sessions, I might rule that some RP context gives a bonus/penalty. In those situations, instead of using adv or dadv, I might use the +/- 2. I encourage players who feel that a situation with adv/dadv is too unfair, to remind me of this option; it might be a good middle ground! There will be a follow-up post where I talk a bit about the Hide action, and how/why it works and does not work in combat, and what exactly it means to try to spot something that is hiding.

I sat down and started writing on the topic of hiding, and it is a mess. Much too long and overly complex. I think we will have to play this one by ear in my sessions, just be aware that I will likely take a different stance on the matter compared to other GMs. If you have any concrete questions for me, I'm usually avalable for comment on Discord within 24 hours.