Lances and Multiple Attacks

[Hussar]

Yep, and I am currently quite in a foul mood on the subject so will not go further as to avoid edition warring with folks.



Okay? I guess it's a good thing I'm forcing you to use this houserule then. I'd hate it if you were able to play the game in a manner you enjoy or find more balanced. /sarcasm

Seriously I don't care. I didn't add the rule for balance. I added it for simplicity. It's not even required, it's optional, freely interchangeable at any time.

Your approval was neither asked for nor is it needed.

I guess my question would be, does anyone at your table actually take you up on this? I mean, even a cursory glance tells me that this is a pretty bad option.

I understand the convenience thing, but this seems like a bad idea.

 

[Sunseeker]

I guess my question would be, does anyone at your table actually take you up on this? I mean, even a cursory glance tells me that this is a pretty bad option.

I understand the convenience thing, but this seems like a bad idea.

Like I said, I developed it after my last 5E game and am not running a 5E game at the moment. It's on my "List of houserules I like but haven't put to the test."

 

[Satyrn]

Like I said, I developed it after my last 5E game and am not running a 5E game at the moment. It's on my "List of houserules I like but haven't put to the test."

I kinda hope you're using it in your 3e game, because those iterative attacks were definitely a more boring waste of time than 5e's. Especially the third and fourth.

 

[Tia Nadiezja]

Zero of D&D's mechanics always map 1:1 to things happening in the world. They're all abstractions. Once you understand this, you are free.

EDIT: Realized I didn't actually answer the question. A lance charge in 5e is one single attack in-universe, which is resolved using 1-4 attack and damage rolls.

A single attack roll is not necessarily one attack, a hit does not necessarily land, nor does a miss necessarily fail to make contact completely. D&D is massively abstracted, and that's a good thing.

 

[Sunseeker]

I kinda hope you're using it in your 3e game, because those iterative attacks were definitely a more boring waste of time than 5e's. Especially the third and fourth.

I'm not running the 3E game I'm in, but yes I generally agree that iterative attacks in 3.X are generally a waste of time. I try to build characters that don't utilize them, sometimes spellcasters, but I'm a big fan of Decisive Strike Monks.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

A single attack roll is not necessarily one attack, a hit does not necessarily land, nor does a miss necessarily fail to make contact completely. D&D is massively abstracted, and that's a good thing.

Unless you're making a ranged attack, of course. In that case, one attack roll corresponds exactly to one piece of ammunition being launched.

Zero of D&D's mechanics always map 1:1 to things happening in the world. They're all abstractions.

Combat is only as abstracted as you need it to be, and you lose a lot of the benefit of a codified system whenever you include unnecessary abstractions. That's not to say D&D isn't abstract, of course; it's just a reminder that the degree of abstraction is wildly exaggerated in the telling.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

One to-hit roll per 3 feet of lance penetrating the target?

 

[Satyrn]

One to-hit roll per 3 feet of lance penetrating the target?

That requires the lance to impale the target to the hilt on a few successes. How do you reconcile that image if the target you hit was an orc with lots of hit points left after the attack?

 

[Warmaster Horus]

That requires the lance to impale the target to the hilt on a few successes. How do you reconcile that image if the target you hit was an orc with lots of hit points left after the attack?

Point impacted some peripheral point of the body and ripped big gobbets of flesh loose? Doesn't need to be a center hit, after all.

But even stranger how does one HIT-MISS-HIT with this method? "You strike the orc and the lance rips through them. Oh, there's a bit of a jostle as the lance wobbles but it firms up and continues to penetrate!"

LOL

 

[77IM]

Unless you're making a ranged attack, of course. In that case, one attack roll corresponds exactly to one piece of ammunition being launched.

...unless ammunition is also abstract; then you're using up "1 attack's worth" of ammunition, rather than 1 piece.

Of course, if everything gets abstract, you wind up in crazy town...

DM: "Searching the encounter's worth of dark elf assassins, you find 6 attack's worth of poisoned crossbow bolts, 250 gold piece's worth of gold pieces, and 1/3 of a session's worth of clues. Do you want to take a short rest and recover 3/8 of an adventuring day's worth of resources?"