MaJunior says:
That's crazy. Wildshape sucks.
I'm sorry you feel that way; I thought you'd had a lot of success as a spider, but I'm open to hearing how you'd like it to play differently.
Here's what I've been trying to convey:
- the spider is tiny, and moves slower than Theran in his natural form
- the spider climbs on walls and ceiling to avoid being stepped on
- I've had the spider automatically succeed on Stealth checks
- the spider can move through closed doors, regardless of whether they're locked, by squeezing through gaps
- spiders don't see very far; they primarily use their vision to ambush prey or escape predators if they come within a few body lengths. So it takes time to examine and identify everything in a large space. My take is that they excel at infiltration, eavesdropping, and ambush, but are not as ideal for thorough searching (because they're so small and have non-flying-bug vision).
- Theran has discovered the precise layout of two previously-unknown rooms and found a few details of interest: Bertram's location, Bertram's condition, a locked chest in Bertram's room, and a stack of crates behind a locked door, as well as confirming his way out of the Inn
- I narrated the results of the search for the key based on the roll; you can continue searching and then revert back to Theran's original form to interact with the objects once you find they key (though you'd have to roll a low DC Stealth check to avoid waking Bertram), or you can leave as a spider and report back to Reptile what you've found
Mea culpa; I should've asked you whether you wanted to perform a "quick scan" of a space or perform a detailed inspection of everything in the room. I'm sorry.
Do you want to say that you did a quick scan of one/both of the rooms, to get time back to search further? A quick scan would take half the time, say, so you'd get back 10 minutes per room, but Theran wouldn't know as much detail about the contents of the room(s). Does that seem fair? Let me know what you think would be.