Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Cloak of Elvenkind

Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:56 am Cloak of Elvenkind

I've recently realised that I may have been doing the cloak of elvenkind all wrong!

Previously I had made a percentile roll everytime the hood was pulled up to see if they had blended in with the surroundings enough to become invisible.

It seemed quite powerful and the wearer just kept asking his companions is they could see him and if not he pulled the hood down and put it back up until it worked. So I re-read the description and what I think it means is that in heavy growth the wearer is treated as if 100% invisible. In a brightly lit room for example the wearer doesn't have a 50% chance to become invisible he is in fact partly visible - 50% partly visible.

How do you adjudicate this in practise? Have I even got that right? So far I've started making a percentile roll for each creature looking at the wearer to see if they can detect them or not. Should this be every round or just once for each viewer?

Feedback greatly appreciated!

Thu Dec 06, 2012 4:04 pm

Here's what I've done:

The wearer isn't 'invisible' in the sense of the spell description per se', as he/she must be moving slowly (creeping stealthily) or completely immobile for the cloak to be useful. I roll percentile for each potential observer for ONE time only (assuming conditions are the same). The cloak, to me, is like a camouflaging ability, much like what a chameleon or cuttlefish does.

Here's another useful reference: Recall the scene in Lord of the Rings (third movie) when Samwise and Frodo are near the Black Gate and the army of Harradrin are marching by? Remember how the hobbits used the elven cloak (!) to camouflage themselves from the soldiers who were RIGHT THERE? That, to me, is exactly what the Cloak of Elvenkind is all about!

-Lanthorn

Thu Dec 06, 2012 10:33 pm

Fri Dec 07, 2012 3:09 am

Thanks guys - half the time during play I only have time to quickly skim over item descriptions (to avoid making the players wait too long) and then have to try and sus it out later.

I affectionately refer to the posters here as the Greyhawk Sages and always tell my players that after consulting with you all I may amend my initial ruling on stuff hehe!

That's exactly how I see the cloak of elvenkind as well Lanthorn....it's a great point of reference to give to the players.

Fri Dec 07, 2012 4:05 am

We don't all remember/know everything, but collectively we can usually nail a rules query down pretty well. We try our best at least. Laughing

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