D&D 5E After first Next playtest session... a few questions.

Phoenix8008 · Jan 14, 2013

1. Do spellcasters casting a damaging spell (for example Cleric doing Lance of Faith) add their ability score bonus (Wis in the case of the Cleric) to the spells damage or is it just the flat damage (2d6 for a 1st level Lance of Faith)?

2. Reading the Skill Trick 'Detect Noise', do you even make an actual Wis (or whatever ability) check for listening? The Detect Noise trick makes it sound like you just automatically do the 'radar ping' and detect anything not hiding within 30 feet.

3. Also, for those Skill Tricks where you spend a Skill Die, you recover that spent Skill Die at the start of your next turn, correct?

That's all for now, thanks!

GX.Sigma · Jan 14, 2013

1. It's just the flat damage.

2. Apparently you just automatically ping. Hrm.

3. Your skill die doesn't go anywhere, it's just that you can't use your skill die on the check that the skill trick lets you do. So, if you're using your skill die for Detect Noise, you don't get your skill die on the Wisdom check to detect hiding creatures.

Chris_Nightwing · Jan 14, 2013

2. Rogues are now bats. 'Bat-men' if you will.

3. Interesting. So high-level characters sacrifice more to pull off a trick. I don't like skill dice.

Verys Arkon · Jan 19, 2013

I have another question. Hope you don't mind me jumping in.

Can you use Whirlwind attack And two weapon fighting at the same time? A character surrounded by 4 enemies with 2 martial damage die and a second weapon could attack them all, with a -2 penalty to all attacks and both damage die spent?

Crazy Jerome · Jan 20, 2013

Chris_Nightwing said:
3. Interesting. So high-level characters sacrifice more to pull off a trick. I don't like skill dice.

I do like them for precisely the same reason. The scaling is built in. This is how they will get around some problems in the traditional scaling.

Klaus · Jan 20, 2013

Seemingly, a character in heavy armor with Dex 8 doesn't suffer the penalty to his AC.

Phoenix8008 · Jan 31, 2013

After a couple more sessions... a couple more questions...

1. Rapid Shot maneuver: You make only one attack roll for this and apply it to each of the two targets AC's, correct? (I am interpreting the part at the end in parentheses as just prohibiting you from using the maneuver to hit a single creature twice with the same attack, but the first sentence says to spend an MDD to make A ranged attack against 2 targets.) Probably also better ask just to make sure if people think rolling 1 damage roll or 2 is assumed, just to be thorough.

2. Two-Weapon fighting: If I'm reading this right, you make two separate attack rolls here, one for primary hand and one for off-hand. Both attacks get a -2 and damage for the light weapon is just the weapon die roll with no bonuses (unless both weapons are light weapons, then only one of them gets no damage bonuses, up to the PC which). Is this right? What if the primary hand misses but the off-hand hits? Still no damage bonuses? Can't choose to apply MDD to the off hand instead? What if the off-hand weapon crits? Maximize plus weapon dmg die roll as normal, or does that count as a bonus to damage that it can't get?

That's all for now, thanks again for the help?

ZombieRoboNinja · Jan 31, 2013

Phoenix8008 said:
2. Two-Weapon fighting: If I'm reading this right, you make two separate attack rolls here, one for primary hand and one for off-hand. (a) Both attacks get a -2 and damage for the light weapon is just the weapon die roll with no bonuses (unless both weapons are light weapons, then only one of them gets no damage bonuses, up to the PC which). Is this right? (b) What if the primary hand misses but the off-hand hits? Still no damage bonuses? (c) Can't choose to apply MDD to the off hand instead? (d) What if the off-hand weapon crits? Maximize plus weapon dmg die roll as normal, or does that count as a bonus to damage that it can't get?

That's all for now, thanks again for the help?

I added letters here to take this one step at a time, at least how I interpreted the rules:

I read TWF as saying you get two attack rolls, and the difference is that the off-hand attack doesn't get ability mod added to damage. So (a) yes; (b) you still can't add Str or Dex mod to the second attack; (c) yes you can, since you can add MDD or MDB to any weapon hit; (d) same as a normal crit for that weapon except you still don't add Str or Dex. I may be wrong, but I can't imagine you're taking a -2 penalty to hit and rolling a whole second attack roll just to deal an extra 1d6 damage at level 20, when your main-hand attack deals like 1d10+6d6+25.

BTW, the nitty-gritty of this rule will probably be gone by the next packet, because Mearls made it sound on that Google Hangout video like TWF will basically just give you an extra MDD. (And MDD are being changed so basically everyone gets a free Whirlwind Attack maneuver, for some reason.)

Klaus · Jan 31, 2013

Phoenix8008 said:
1. Rapid Shot maneuver: You make only one attack roll for this and apply it to each of the two targets AC's, correct? (I am interpreting the part at the end in parentheses as just prohibiting you from using the maneuver to hit a single creature twice with the same attack, but the first sentence says to spend an MDD to make A ranged attack against 2 targets.) Probably also better ask just to make sure if people think rolling 1 damage roll or 2 is assumed, just to be thorough.

I am ruling it as two fully-separate attacks. When you only make one attack roll for all targets, or one damage roll for all targets, the rules usually call these out (like in Volley).

Phoenix8008 · Feb 19, 2013

First, thanks to all those who have helped clear things up already. Here's another question which came up last week in play:

The Shambling Undead power says that those with it are extremely loyal to their makers and can't be charmed or frightened, etc. I know this prevents Mage's from charming or frightening them with magic, but is this supposed to prevent a cleric's Turn Undead ability as well? The Channel Positive Energy ability under the Cleric class doesn't use keywords of Charm or Frighten, but it sure says that the undead run away as fast as possible. I'd call that afraid in layman's terms.

Unless the tuning part doesn't work due to Shambling Undead, but the destruction part would still blow them up? It would seem a large departure from previous editions though, to have a low level cleric not be able to turn skeletons and zombies.