Sneaking is op because you can start a battle with a sneak attack from Astarion and then the combat tracker is just Astarion and the enemies that saw him, or maybe only the little pillar of light that shows up.

Once Astarion gets locked into the combat tracker you can still maneuver everyone else around the enemies sight lines and get a few more alpha strikes in outside of the combat tracker. My paladin – in full plate – can walk right up to an enemy that’s frozen in the combat tracker as long as he doesn’t walk into the sight cone.

I beat dror, m, and gut in the goblin camp all without any of them taking any turns because I was able to alpha strike them into the dirt by just starting combat with the whole party sneaking, and then walking them right up outside of the combat tracker.

Is there a party that can really exploit this? Ranger, wolf barb, shadowharts +10 party sneak, and an assassin rogue? Just alpha strike everything.

  • @half_built_pyramidsOPEnglish
    2•9 months ago

    Verisimilitude. First time it happens it took me out of flow. Now I notice when NPCs use it against me.

    To answer your question, no I don’t rest after every fight. That’s missing the point. Maybe I didn’t do a good job explaining in the post. I like nuking people. Was curious if others came across this mechanic and how they use it.

    If this was criticism of the difficulty I’d say ideally every character would get locked in turn based when combat started. Stealth could also use a pass to make it a little more internally logical. I shouldn’t be able to walk undetected in plate, in half light, at 45 degrees to someone’s eyeballs. But I’m not criticizing.

    • @[email protected]English
      3•9 months ago

      Should noise and peripheral vision be things? Yes. Are they well defined in 5e? No. Is the game capable of being a great stealth game with the engine? Also no.

      The biggest issue is the preciseness of the field of vision. It could probably be wider once combat has begun, but also there could be a gray area around the red where you don’t know if they can see you.

      You could use:

      • Passive investigation to have a better idea where they might be able to see you.
      • Passive survival to know where it’s dangerous.
      • Active stealth to actually move it.
      • Active stealth every time you move your base movement within earshot.

      Modding community will come up with some fun stuff. I’m pretty excited to see where that goes in the next few years.