D&D 5E Advantage / Disadvantage in 5e

[thalmin]

View attachment 62482

I love it!

Actually, I am surprised Wizards did not include an extra d20 in the Starter Set.

 

[Emerikol]

This is probably one of those cases that begs for a houserule once you have the game down pat and if you don't mind the extra mechanical complexity.

I do believe the rule is that any advantage/disadvantage cancels any number of the opposite. It is simple. I do value a fast game but I think for me it's fast enough that if I play 5e, I'll likely houserule this too. I really never found 3e +/- issues that big a deal.

I think, for new players and those wanting simplicity first, it is nice.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Actually, it's quite simple. If someone manages to stack up multiple "advantages" on one attack, as the DM you should say "good job" and give them a gold star or maybe a cookie.

 

[Agamon]

As a retailer who wants to sell more dice:
Simultaneously roll an extra d20 for each advantage and disadvantage that applies. Remove the highest die for each disadvantage, remove the lowest die for each advantage. You roll is the remaining die. $$$

I think it's going to be determined by each gaming group. RAW is far simpler. I think we will simply go with whether advantage or disadvantage has majority.

Even better:

Roll 2 dice, throw away the one that failed you!

 

[Nebulous]

Actually, it's quite simple. If someone manages to stack up multiple "advantages" on one attack, as the DM you should say "good job" and give them a gold star or maybe a cookie.

I'll play Devils Advocate for a moment: from experience, if the players are in a tough spot they will do *anything* for an edge in a fight. Rightfully so, and it often rewards clever play. If they collectively tripped a monster, knocked it prone, blinded it, the rogue sneak attacks and the wizard casts an advantage-inducing spell, they would be pretty pissed if the monster "fought defensively" to negate all of that.

And as far as i understand that IS how the default rules work, right?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This is probably one of those cases that begs for a houserule once you have the game down pat and if you don't mind the extra mechanical complexity.

I do believe the rule is that any advantage/disadvantage cancels any number of the opposite. It is simple. I do value a fast game but I think for me it's fast enough that if I play 5e, I'll likely houserule this too. I really never found 3e +/- issues that big a deal.

I think, for new players and those wanting simplicity first, it is nice.

Same here. It's a fine default, but I'd likely run "whichever you have more of wins" unless it's so rare I just can't bring myself to care.

I'll play Devils Advocate for a moment: from experience, if the players are in a tough spot they will do *anything* for an edge in a fight. Rightfully so, and it often rewards clever play. If they collectively tripped a monster, knocked it prone, blinded it, the rogue sneak attacks and the wizard casts an advantage-inducing spell, they would be pretty pissed if the monster "fought defensively" to negate all of that.

And as far as i understand that IS how the default rules work, right?

That's how I understand 5E working by default, and yep, precisely what I'm concerned with. Once you've got one Ad and Disad involved, you might as well give up on getting Ad (which is the more like situation), which doesn't feel right at all. Probably easier to balance though.

 

[Nebulous]

Same here. It's a fine default, but I'd likely run "whichever you have more of wins" unless it's so rare I just can't bring myself to care.



That's how I understand 5E working by default, and yep, precisely what I'm concerned with. Once you've got one Ad and Disad involved, you might as well give up on getting Ad (which is the more like situation), which doesn't feel right at all. Probably easier to balance though.

Ok. Well, i don't think such situations will come up that often, but they will eventually. Anyway, i'm glad they're reducing the glut of 3e modifiers, that alone is a step in the right direction.

 

[GMMichael]

This is probably one of those cases that begs for a houserule once you have the game down pat and if you don't mind the extra mechanical complexity.

A houserule, or a DMG2? Advanced DMG?

Actually, it's quite simple. If someone manages to stack up multiple "advantages" on one attack, as the DM you should say "good job" and give them a gold star or maybe a cookie.

I think an Oreo would be in order. Especially if the player is a powergamer.

As this is probably the largest new "defining" addition to 5th edition, I would like to know more about it. I've read over much of the most recent material but i'm not sure if anything will change before the official rules come out. My understanding is that Advantage and Disadvantage cancel each other out, even if, say, you have 3 Advantages vs. 1 Disadvantage. It is probably too earlier to be thinking about house rules before even testing this myself, but i was wondering if anyone else has tinkered with the A/D rules yet?

They're worth tinkering with. At first, I thought they had the same effect as a re-roll: if your first roll fails, roll again. If your first roll succeeds, roll again. But this isn't the case. It's: roll two dice, and take the higher (or lower) result.

I think, statistically, the second die will have a just-less-than 50% chance of being higher or lower than the first die. What's not in the equation: the result needed for success. So does advantage improve your chances of success? How much?

 

[Agamon]

This is why DM fiat is a wonderful thing. If it's obvious that someone is at disadvantage 6 times over, a single slight advantage might not be able to negate it (or vise versa), if I were running the game.

 

[ccooke]

One of the really nice effects of Advantage and Disadvantage is that they don't change what's possible. They provide a satisfyingly tangible alteration to your chances of success without actually changing the highest or lowest values your check can reach.
A/D is, I think, one of the cornerstones of bounded accuracy.

It just needs a more compact name, damnit. Typing "Advantage/Disadvantage" every time gets annoying