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D&D 5E Timing - Advantage / Disadvantage and other factors

BryonD

Hero
A fighter is toe-to-toe with a wizard. The wizard has Blur in effect. A Rogue is friends with the fighter and hidden a few feet away, unbeknownst to the wizard.
None of the characters has any special vision or means to overcome Blur.
All attacks against the Wizard have disadvantage because of blur.
The rogue jumps out and attacks the wizard. As an "unseen attacker" he gains advantage.
The Blur disadvantage and the unseen advantage cancel out and he is "considered to have neither".
The rogue is still attacking and an enemy of the wizard is within 5 feet and not incapacitated.

Therefore, the rogue makes a sneak attack against the blurred wizard.

Is this analysis correct?
It seems wrong to me that the blur effect would not still trump the sneak attack. (Not from rules perspective, purely my feel for it here)

I was thinking of another way to process this information. But it ends up the same.

You can look at all of the factors at once and resolve everything simultaneously.
The instant the rogue attacks the following things are true:
Disadvantage from Blur
Advantage from Unseen
Adjacent enemy is present

All subsequent action look at all of these factors to find out how they resolve.
Disadvantage sees Advantage at the same time Sneak Attack see both of them.
Sneak Attack sees 2 ways it can work, adjacent enemy fails because disadvantage is present.
But advantage is present and that condition does not look for disadvantage.
At the same time disadvantage and advantage see each other and go away.

This option ends up being a very convoluted way to get to the same answer. So there is really no point.

Does it seem wrong that a blurred wizard can be subject to sneak attack? I certainly don't see any balance issue with it and I'm ok with forgetting what I know from prior editions.
But part of me thinks you just shouldn't be able to sneak attack someone under the effect of blur.

As a thought exercise, will there be other times that this level of timing is important?
WotC is the maker of MtG after all. (I'm starting to think 5E is too trading card gamey. I KID!!!!!!)
 

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Analysis seems right to me. You could certainly house rule for feel/flavor, but... By the book, yeah, thee rogue gets SA due to the canceled disadvantage and adjacent ally.
 

I don't see this as an issue. If the Rogue can't properly see the target, he can't aim his shot very well. Makes sense to me.
 

I agree with you in spirit. But I agree with Mouseferatu about the rules.

This really is a corner case.
And it may come as a surprise, but I'm quite comfortable with houseruling. :P

So I agree it isn't an issue.

But I did want a second opinion on both my rule-reading and the logic (thanks! :) )

Which leads me to wonder if this corner case just happens to be the one I thought of out of many, or truly a rare thing.
It could be a semi-big deal if this happens frequently in various forms.
 

You know, I think my own house rule for situations like that would be that the rogue can still sneak attack but loses a d6 of damage off the roll. That would model the rogue not being able to aim as well while still granting him the bulk of a benefit the rules say he should have. :)
 

I agree with you in spirit. But I agree with Mouseferatu about the rules.

This really is a corner case.
And it may come as a surprise, but I'm quite comfortable with houseruling. :P

So I agree it isn't an issue.

But I did want a second opinion on both my rule-reading and the logic (thanks! :) )

Which leads me to wonder if this corner case just happens to be the one I thought of out of many, or truly a rare thing.
It could be a semi-big deal if this happens frequently in various forms.

I'll agree that this is a corner case. Still, I'd allow the SA.

The rules seem mostly for it (Advantage negates the disadvantage and the fighter is within 5' of the mage). AND it requires two characters coordinating closely together to pull off - that's ok with me. Add to that - the Rogue will only get SA once unless he (or the fighter) can disrupt concentration. When he's seen, no more advantage and the blur wins again.

This kind of thing is going to get muddier as levels get higher btw:

Same situation but it's high level and the mage put up foresight earlier that day (grants advantage to the mage on lots, forces disadvantage on those attacking the mage). So now, the rogue is still disadvantaged (because blur AND foresight, only 1 is negated) - no SA. But the fighter, seeing something is amiss, uses the "help" action instead of attacking (before the rogue goes of course so as not to murky things further).

Now the blur is negated by the hidden rogue and the foresight is negated by the Help action - so the rogue should get SA. If you're comfortable with the help action negating the advantage of a 9th level spell. I am, but that's me.
 

You know, I think my own house rule for situations like that would be that the rogue can still sneak attack but loses a d6 of damage off the roll. That would model the rogue not being able to aim as well while still granting him the bulk of a benefit the rules say he should have. :)

yeah, I think I'm going to try a few things as is. But I also suspect my 5E game will be pretty unique when I'm done.
Though I guess they kinda intend a lot of that.
 

I think the OP is spot on as far as how it works. The rogue gets his SA.

Now of course every DMs can house rule it, but I think the core rule is pretty clear in this case.
 

Same situation but it's high level and the mage put up foresight earlier that day (grants advantage to the mage on lots, forces disadvantage on those attacking the mage). So now, the rogue is still disadvantaged (because blur AND foresight, only 1 is negated) - no SA. But the fighter, seeing something is amiss, uses the "help" action instead of attacking (before the rogue goes of course so as not to murky things further).

Any advantage negates any number of disadvantages and vice versa.

Fighter can punch the Wizard, and as he fulfills the Sneak Attack requirement 'ally within 5 feet of target', Rogue gets his Sneak Attack.

Things get murkier without the Fighter. With him, it's crystal.
 
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Any advantage negates any number of disadvantages and vice versa.

Fighter can punch the Wizard, and as he fulfills the Sneak Attack requirement 'ally within 5 feet of target', Rogue gets his Sneak Attack.

Things get murkier without the Fighter. With him, it's crystal.
You're right.

I'm actually glad to know I was overcomplicating it, simpler here is better.
 

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