or your players
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
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I have a somewhat bad memory of playing DND as like a 13 year old. We were a mess. There was a cliff, a waterfall, and rope. Someone tied rope around himself and wanted to go down. There was a lot of cross talk and the guy with the rope around said he was going down.
The DM was like "no one is holding the other end of the rope"
"What?"
One by one they went through what everyone else had said they were doing. Searching the cave rocks for secrets. Keeping watch at entrance. Fighting over who got the magic stick. Etc.
Player went over the cliff.
It was decided that the character would wash up downstream with 0 HP and would live, so long as we could get to him in a reasonable time. Lessons were learned, sort of.
I try to avoid "gotcha" DMing. It's frustrating for players to focus on what feels like an unimportant detail. If the players are wrong about what's unimportant, then give their characters a wisdom save to notice.
I can easily imagine what a stronger person would be able to lift. But I can't easily imagine what a wiser person would remember to check.
Yeah, if you were actually in this situation, that isn't something you'd just forget, unless your intelligence is extremely low (low enough that you probably wouldn't have the idea to use the rope in the first place). This is bad DMing. They should have said something like: "You're aware no one is holding the rope. Are you sure?" If that's actually what they wanted to do, they can do it. If not, they are now aware.
If you REALLY want shenanigans, have them make an int or wis saving throw with DC 2 to remember nobody is up there holding the rope.