8

One of my Player Characters recently went to an esteemed tailor who claims to be "able to make cloth and garb of any kind." He asked to have a black sneaking cloak made and my mind immediately froze.

  • There is no source for sneaking clothes in the book, to my knowledge.
  • I felt obligated to add a mechanical bonus to the cloak, which was very tricky for a nonmagical item considering the constraints of bounded numbers in 5e.
  • This might lead other players to try to do the same thing and frankly I wasn't prepared in the moment.

Is there a resource or a general rule of thumb for throwing together reasonable items that aren't listed in the PHB? What is the proper course of action in this situation?

Robert
  • 12,879
  • 28
  • 75
  • 138
  • 2
    For this particular situation, I think it's worth noting that you state the tailor claims this ability. If that's the way it was framed when he was introduced, either by you or your source material, this could be a great opportunity to give your player something that might not be exactly what he's expecting in a way that could make the encounter much more interesting than "pay your gold, get your cloak." – kungphu Jun 02 '16 at 05:23

2 Answers2

11

It did not occur to you that being appropriately camouflaged would be advantageous?

The RAW source for "sneaking clothes" or anything else that gives positive circumstances to a d20 roll is (PHB p.7):

Advantage reflects the positive circumstances surrounding a d20 roll, while disadvantage reflects the opposite.

In the right circumstances (i.e. darkness) being a black cloak would help you hide (by the way, due to the way the rods in the human eye work, dark green clothing is much more effective than black - but then, not everyone in the world is human, are they?). This is in no way comparable with a magic item or spell (pass without trace) which grants its effects irrespective of the circumstances. To get similar benefits the PC would need desert camouflage, and jungle camouflage, and winter camouflage, and etc. etc. which would become both cost and space prohibitive.

The advantages of advantage [sorry] rather than a strict bonus are:

  • it can be taken away by disadvantage
  • it doesn't stack with other sources of advantage
  • it doesn't make the impossible possible (a 20 is still the best you can get)
  • it is not "worth like a +2 or +3 on average"; its effects are much more subtle and depend entirely on the target DC - see http://anydice.com/program/ba

This might lead other players to try to do the same thing…

And this is a problem because…? Player's trying to give their characters advantage is great - it means they are thinking about the best way they can overcome the challenges you give instead of "[monotone] I rolled a 12; did I do it?"

Remember: A Dexterity (Stealth) is opposed by a [passive] Wisdom (Perception): each of those has (dis)advantage independently. The cloak gives advantage to the Dexterity (Stealth), bright light might give advantage to the [passive] Wisdom (Perception). It might seem that this is the same as giving disadvantage to the Dexterity (Stealth) but it isn't because:

  1. Allowing the player to roll 2d20 instead of 1d20 makes them feel good about their cleverness in thinking of the cloak
  2. They are mechanically different! See http://anydice.com/program/87f0 which compares a Dexterity (Stealth) with +5 against a Wisdom (Perception) of +0. Indeed, they even change depending on if there are opposed active rolls or one is a passive value. Note that these are the exact same circumstances but the chance of success varies from 48.33% to 88.75% depending on where you choose to apply the effects of bright light (advantage to the seeker or disadvantage to the hider) and if the seeker is actively looking.
Christopher
  • 12,184
  • 3
  • 53
  • 81
Dale M
  • 210,673
  • 42
  • 528
  • 889
  • I'm not saying I disagree, but isn't advantage worth like a +2 or +3 on average? That's pretty huge got a nonmagical item to do for every single roll, right? – Robert Jun 01 '16 at 23:29
  • @Robert +5, statistically. – Drunk Cynic Jun 01 '16 at 23:55
  • 4
    @DrunkCynic +5 only if the DC was 10; the true effects of advantage are rather situational and worth reading about. – nitsua60 Jun 02 '16 at 00:10
  • Pretty powerful for just a mundane item. – Momonga-sama Jun 02 '16 at 00:43
  • 2
    @Robert Advantage is no more overpowered in this context than it is in any other circumstance where Advantage is granted. (In other words, if this is overpowered, then the basic concept of Advantage/Disadvantage is overpowered.) – SevenSidedDie Jun 02 '16 at 01:00
  • 3
    I think situational advantage is warranted. (Advantage in darkness, or only in the woods, or only in the desert). Blanket advantage would likely be the realm of magic. – keithcurtis Jun 02 '16 at 01:41
  • 3
    There is also an obvious balancing factor. Being seen with a "sneaking cloak" will give disadvantage in a wide variety of social situations. For that matter, the tailor is quite likely to tell the constabulary about his shady client. There is a lot more to being a successful thief than skulking in the dark. – pokep Jun 02 '16 at 13:57
-2

Disclaimer: I am not familiar with recent versions of D&D - so what I suggest here might be completely unfeasible or exist already in the game for some different situation.

What if the non-magical, advantageous item would allow you to replace (in the right situations, that is) your D20 with "Best of D20 and D10"?

So the "Ninja Garb" made by the Tailor NPC will allow the user to roll 1d10&1d20 and keep the best of the two results as long as it is used to move stealthily or try to hide in partial or absolute darkness (you could also rule that it is ineffective against infravision and similar senses).

http://anydice.com/program/8805 provides examples - such a roll would make really bad results (1-3) much less frequent, without ever producing anything higher than 20.

p.marino
  • 3,250
  • 19
  • 23