Discussion:Mental checks while sleeping
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Mental checks while sleeping (5e)[edit]
I was running a game recently and the party was long resting. They felt safe so they didn't have any watches, I saw this as an opportunity to do something. I was going to have the NPC party member that everyone loved kidnapped. Now my issue is that I had is that the bad guy had to stealth into camp and I had to have the party make perception checks but they were asleep. Now I've been DMing for a while but this has never come up, and I couldn't find anything on it in the books I have. I originally thought to just slap on the unconscious condition but that didn't add any penalty and I felt that they should have one. So what I did was had them just roll and add Wisdom, no proficiency bonus and that seemed to work okay, they all failed and went on a mission to save the NPC and they all seemed to have fun. My question is, did I do that right, because I'm not sure. And this issue applies to other things as well, like other wisdom based and intelligence based checks and saves.
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70.58.201.118 13:07, 16 December 2021 (MST)[edit]
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Ascendant (talk) 13:23, 16 December 2021 (MST)[edit]
Considering they were long resting without anyone taking a watch, meaning everyone was asleep at the same time, to me as a fellow DM means that they dont notice anything happening that wouldnt wake a normal person up (eg a thunderstrike, or a slamming door) so id make the person being sneaky either be successful automatically (they normally arent idiots so the passive value is good enough) or make a stealth check against my players passive perception (which is 10 + the perception mod).
Imo your Method works just fine, it all depends on how you as the DM want to handle the situation, describe/rule the actions of the guy doing the sneaking and how your players play their character. ^-^
But thats just my two cents
Yanied (talk) 13:50, 16 December 2021 (MST)[edit]
While sleeping, I'd say use their passive Perception at the very least and roll active stealth against that. Passives have their use since no one is actively being alert while asleep (unless they are). Even then, that means they would not be sleeping unless they were of a race like warforged or elf that specifies their alertness.
