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Weapons

For each weapon your character wields, calculate the modifier you use when you attack with the weapon and the damage you deal when you hit.

When you make an attack with a weapon, you roll a d20 and add your proficiency bonus (but only if you are proficient with the weapon) and the appropriate ability modifier.

• For attacks with melee weapons, use your Strength modifier for attack and damage rolls. A weapon that has the finesse property, such as a rapier, can use your Dexterity modifier instead.

• For attacks with ranged weapons, use your Dexterity modifier for attack and damage rolls. A weapon that has the thrown property, such as a handaxe, can use your Strength modifier instead.

Nivek, I have to look that up at home.

What do you need, I have my book next to me

MikeD,
What is says is no penalties, yes. But you can't be doing active perception rolls either. I didn't penalize your perception rolls. The goblins rolled really good stealth rolls. 14 was their worst adjusted rolls and only Jariella spotted them.

BTW, to copy replies from other threads here, the PHB states that your Prof bonus only adds to your To-Hit roll, not to Damage. Only your Stat Bonus applies to both To-Hit and Damage. See pages 14 and 196. That is also the way it was played at Gencon. My pc had a +5 To Hit with his Dagger but only a +3 to Damage because my +2 Prof bonus did not apply to the Damage roll.

http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/PlayerDnDBasicRules_v0.2_PrintFriendly.pdf

Zeim, see page 9 under "Weapon".

The wording is unclear. It specifies proficiency is added when you make an attack roll, but it does not specify for a damage roll. It specifies adding the strength bonus for attack and damage (or dex for finesse or ranged).

But yeah, it definitely needs to be clearer.

When you take the Dodge action, you focus entirely on avoiding attacks. Until the start of your next turn, any attack roll made against you has disadvantage if you can see the attacker, and you make Dexterity saving throws with advantage. You lose this benefit if you are incapacitated.

No worries Nep ... I am not 'faulting' your assessment of the situation. Not saying it would have been any different if we had been dispersed and all. it just felt like we were sort of 'railroaded' into the ambush <g>

I sent you back a PM Nep, I will copy the rules section you quoted here for everyone's benefit. It states you only use Proficiency for Attack rolls, not Damage rolls. Read it carefully:

When you make an attack with a weapon, you roll a d20 and add your proficiency bonus (but only if you are proficient with the weapon) and the appropriate ability modifier.
• For attacks with melee weapons, use your Strength modifier for attack AND damage rolls. A weapon that has the finesse property, such as a rapier, can use your Dexterity modifier instead.
• For attacks with ranged weapons, use your Dexterity modifier for attack AND damage rolls. A weapon that has the thrown property, such as a handaxe, can use your Strength modifier instead.

Thanks Zeim. I finally found that section. I was looking at another section that was a lot more vague on all that.

Maybe it is just me, but it seems like these sorts of things are much harder to find in this version of the PHB than it has been in previous versions.

Our FTF group has decided to chuck all of the modern books and going back to our modified 2E rules

I can understand that <g>

Actually thank Nep, Miked. He sent that to me, interestingly to support the position that Proficiency does add to damage. So it is clear how unclear the writing is. But I think the way it is written points to Proficiency not counting to damage, otherwise it would have been mentioned as it was for Strength and Dex.

I agree Zeim. I think that the sections that you were quoted show pretty clearly that Prof bonus is not a part of damage.

I agree too. Just had to get home to see my PHB. It wouldn't be the first time I misunderstood the book...won't be the last

Dodge makes no sense as a tactic.

It forces opponents to attack with disadvantage.
It gives you advantage on dexterity saving throws.

So, let's say you and your goblin foe dance around, him trying to hit you and you never striking him. He has his chances diminish greatly to hit you. But if you never attack, you NEVER hit. Let's say he hits only 20% of the time now. Still, after 10 rounds you got hit twice (probably enough to kill you) but he's at full hit points!

I don't understand using it unless there was some roleplay thingy where you needed to last 10 rounds sparring with the Mountain.

Here's a possible scenario to use it. Say you are a Wizard. You've cast a concentration spell. An enemy tries to attack you. The fighter in your party is two rounds away from coming to your aid. You don't want to stop your spell, which will happen if you take damage. So rather than attack the enemy in front of you and thereby offer him a normal return attack, you Dodge. He has lots of trouble hitting you and you can maintain your spell.

Or another. You are closing with an enemy archer who is 3 rounds of movement away. You move towards him every round but your yourself have no ranged attack. You Dodge, thereby closing while making his missile shots at you harder. (BTW, this is specifically something Chandan could do with his Dodge action if he is more than 1 move action away from the archer and wants to close to HTH range).

And a third scenario. You have entered a castle courtyard and there is a door to get inside across a large open courtyard. Archers are firing down at you from battlements above. You run across the courtyard, using the Dodge action to reduce the archers chances to hit you. (Note: This was one of the encounters at Gencon during the mass finale. Our group didn't do this but the group I assisted did.)

So, I think it does have some use, in specific circumstances. However the circumstances you posited, a single 1-1 physical hth melee, I agree it makes little sense.

Unless, in that 1-1 melee you are a Wizard and you've cast Witch Bolt at the enemy in front of you. You are automatically doing 1d12 of damage to that enemy every round as long as he stays within 30 feet of you and your concentration remains unbroken (so you can't take damage). So you have no need to attack him, you are already doing him damage. You just need to stay near him and not be hit.

Nice examples, Zeim.

Again, in Chandan's example, can he draw fire from the goblin archers? He might not get a chance to attack, but if they all attacked him and missed, for example, that would be a major coup for the party as a whole.

How would you determine whether the goblins chose to attack Chandan? Are there tricks and taunts like there are in Savage Worlds? Or is that a non-mechnical decision?

Btw, Chandan will just move and attack if that's quickest to resolve. I just wanted to learn more about the D&D 5e mechanics.

There is no "Taunt" action I can see. There may be a spell that does that. I think it is DMs discretion whether or not your insults anger the Goblins and draw their fire.

If you are within move range of a physical attack, and you want to attack, you might as well just move up and roll to-hit. If you are not in movement range this turn, and have to close, then you could do what I mentioned above and Move while Dodging to close and then attack next round.

It seems to me that the taunt thing would be under GM fiat.

So for example, telling a goblin that it's mother eats raw meat would likely elicit a 'yeah, doesn't everyone?' sort of response. Telling the same goblin that it's mother bathes regularly might send it into a blind rage <weg>

The goblins are going to target you 1-on-1 as much as possible. I don't think there's a taunt opportunity there. Considering the way the dice roller is working, they might be taunting you <weg>.

Zeim, your examples makes sense but unless there's something else special that a PC is trying to accomplish, it's a negative action.

Gypsy asked about advantage. I figure to answer it for everyone...


For the most part to gain it you need to do something to get it. A rogue will hide to gain advantage (and gain that extra "sneak" attack):



At this level, the rogue must take an regular action to be hidden or come up from behind an enemy. At 2nd level you can use a bonus action to hide (if you have a logical place to do so) and gain that advantage and the sneak dice!

The bard has abilities that give the party advantage and there are various abilities that grant advantage.

Well, certainly you get no attack, true. But there are some cases where that isn't bad, such as the examples I gave. It's not something to do all the time, absolutely agreed.

Interesting info in this about stealth...