D&D 5E Blade Ward - Best Fix?

[Bardic Dave]

???
the second die has a 30% chance to miss, but some of the time it would have missed anyway. having both dice miss does not reduce damage further.

Yes, that too.

Assume an attack that does 10 damage once a round over 10 rounds, for simplicity's sake. With a 70% chance to be hit, you will take 70 damage over 10 rounds, on average. With a 49% chance to be hit, you will take 49 damage over 10 rounds, on average.

49 divided by 70 = 0.7. In other words, 49 is 70% of 70. In other words, a 49% chance to be hit means that you take 70% as much damage as a 70% chance to be hit, on average. 100% minus 70% = 30%. Hence a 30% reduction in damage.

 

[mellored]

Assume an attack that does 10 damage once a round over 10 rounds, for simplicity's sake. With a 70% chance to be hit, you will take 70 damage over 10 rounds, on average. With a 49% chance to be hit, you will take 49 damage over 10 rounds, on average.

49 divided by 70 = 0.7. In other words, 49 is 70% of 70. In other words, a 49% chance to be hit means that you take 70% as much damage as a 70% chance to be hit, on average. 100% minus 70% = 30%. Hence a 30% reduction in damage.

Right. I see my mistake.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Thinking about it again I would say the first one is ok. I have overlooked that it is only one attack and not all attacks. That may actually made it worse in some situations than the original spell.

 

[Tersival]

So far, that's a situation that doesn't come up enough for me to matter, nearly (maybe all, in fact) all the attacks against my gnome battlemaster could be resisted by blade ward. And I could - and would - use it every round without needing to spend a superiority die lke Parry requires.

But look, I provided you feedback based on my play experience. You're response is to counter with what looks like dismissive white room theorycrafting instead of something like "hey, thanks for the feedback," or any interest in probing deeper into that experience.

So I don't know. Maybe I'm feeling touchy today, but I don't want to help with this anymore.

Actually my response was to accept your point and try to tweak my suggestion so that BW remained less powerful than the Battlemaster Parry.

If your experience indicates my tweak is still overpowered I'll keep pondering and considering opinions whether you help anymore or not.

Thanks for your previous observations regardless.

I feel like the book version is almost provably a trap. Maybe it makes sense for an EK with war magic who fights on the front line by himself, but even then I think you have to look carefully at whether the damage you avoid using BW outweighs the damage you give up.

Clearly Blade Ward is useful to Eldritch Knights with War Magic, Warlocks with Armor of Agathys, or someone on point about to rush into a room full of ready enemies. Nevertheless it still *feels* too niche.

Thinking about it again I would say the first one is ok. I have overlooked that it is only one attack and not all attacks. That may actually made it worse in some situations than the original spell.

Do you mean the Concentration version my first post? That was the goal, increase the versatility (by making it last beyond one round) while offsetting that with reduced protection and the usual Concentration restraints.

I wonder, if the Concentration version only effected the first weapon attack that hit you (i.e. it could get used up on a small hit), would that leave it reasonable compared to the Battlemaster Parry, and Rogue's Uncanny Dodge?

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I agree, but I feel like the book version is almost provably a trap. Maybe it makes sense for an EK with war magic who fights on the front line by himself, but even then I think you have to look carefully at whether the damage you avoid using BW outweighs the damage you give up.

It's not a trap. It has a definite niche as an emergency life-saving spell. It's not supposed to be spammed, because if you get into life-threatening emergencies frequently, you're a bad wizard.

When you're being munched on by a hungry T-Rex, or when that Marilith has you restrained with her tail and you're about to eat 93 HP of weapon damage, you'll be frantically spamming Blade Ward to try to stay alive for just a little bit longer while you scream for help from your fellow PCs. (And no, Dodge doesn't work in either of those situations because Dodge requires you to have nonzero move.)

Edit: also, Invisible Stalkers, Nycaloths or Glabrezu w/ Darkness up, etc.--because Dodge requires you to see the attacker to gain a benefit.

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 (as explained in Conditions ) or if your speed drops to 0.

 

[Simonb1]

Hi all,

Dodge is only effective if it turns a hit into a miss, which is at best a 25% chance.

The best chance is if your AC = Attackers Attack Bonus +11, +1 or -1 is almost as good. (24.75%)

Simon

 

[Barolo]

Hi all,

Dodge is only effective if it turns a hit into a miss, which is at best a 25% chance.

The best chance is if your AC = Attackers Attack Bonus +11, +1 or -1 is almost as good. (24.75%)

Simon

Only in absolute terms, which may not be useful in determining when to use dodge or blade ward.

If a hero is being hit 50% of the time, giving disadvantage to the enemy will turn it to 25%, which leads to an average 50% less damage taken (ignoring crits). The prospect of a crit may favor blade ward in this case.

On the other hand, if a hero is being hit 20% of the time, giving disadvantage to the enemy will turn it to 4%, which leads to an average 80% less damage taken (ignoring crits). Now, dodge is clearly a better option than in the aforementioned scenario, even though the absolute percentual reduction is lower (16%, versus the previous 25%).

 

[FrogReaver]

[MENTION=61932]Barolo[/MENTION]. Bravo. But u can't teach them math... I've tried...

 

[Caliburn101]

This Cantrip is pretty good, not a trap choice.

Rogue looking to sneak attack you - 1 action and you halve the impact of their opener if they get the drop on you... for a CANTRIP! (remember the sneak attack damage is the same type as the weapon, thus halved along with it...).

In fact it pretty much wins 'The All Round Assassins Most Hated Cantrip Award'.

Pretty damn good just for that imo...

 

[Shiroiken]

If I would make a change, I would simply change it to Range: Touch. You can give it to an ally at the cost of your action, but you have to be close enough that you might be in danger yourself.

As for the suggestions given, I think that changing the name to "Ward" and having it work on all Damage would be fine too, because it would be useful outside of combat (hazardous terrain, obvious traps, etc.) in addition to its combat niche.