D&D 5E Is it better to prevent or inflict damage? (psi warrior, battle master, others)

[Steampunkette]

I mean, whether they're about to drop or not it actually can be helpful. It's just if they're not you're guessing at the future. If someone seems likely to take more damage, then yeah shielding them is likely to be better. If they're about to drop you can be pretty much sure it's better - so that just removes the guesswork.

As for keeping PCs "at least one crit away from the ground", I don't think that's even physically possible until like, what level 5 or 6 or something, given how big some low-level monsters can crit. Even then it largely means keeping people topped up until like what level 8? Obviously some PCs have waaaaaaaaaaay more HP so will meet this threshold sooner.

Artillerist Artificers are amazing at it, honestly.

Drop down a protection cannon and use your bonus action to make it pulse every turn for 1d8+int Temp HP every turn for an hour. Or keep it on your person, however you prefer to handle it.

You can keep the whole party bathed in a lovely glow of Temp HP!

So, y'know. It's gonna depend on the class, really. Some are great at it, some are okay at it. Some of them are better at last minute saves, like the Psionic Knight.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Artillerist Artificers are amazing at it, honestly.

Drop down a protection cannon and use your bonus action to make it pulse every turn for 1d8+int Temp HP every turn for a minute. Or keep it on your person, however you prefer to handle it.

You can keep the whole party bathed in a lovely glow of Temp HP!

So, y'know. It's gonna depend on the class, really. Some are great at it, some are okay at it. Some of them are better at last minute saves, like the Psionic Knight.

Yeah if you've got AOE THP you're basically a god-maker in 5E lol, Twilight Clerics have a very similar effect. Psi Knight is definitely best saving his stuff for saves (not necessarily "last hit", but "low health" certainly) if it's going to be needed.

 

[Kurotowa]

The choice between healing and damage depends on a lot of things. Resource efficiency, action economy, if you're fighting a single boss or a gang of lesser targets, and the precise tactical situation of the moment.

You bring up the Psi Warrior as your example, but that's actually fairly anomalous. The psionic energy die is worth the same on offense or defense and neither takes up a full action to activate. The more common option is an up-casted Cure Wounds or False Life, where it costs your main action and usually scales terribly compared to using the spell slot on a more offensive spell.

Tasha's Cauldron tries to offer up some better new damage prevention options with the Psi Warrior subclass and Interception fighting style, and the book is still new enough that I don't think there's any real community consensus on them yet. However my gut is that they'd be fairly good at low level, where they can often negate an entire hit, but will scale poorly at high levels when hits do far more damage and the damage prevented has barely gone up.

The rule of thumb is that offense is king because removing enemies from combat shifts the action economy in your side's favor, and reducing a target's HP to zero is the most reliable way to do that. Being able to efficiently preserve the party's HP levels is a strategic level concern. It's important if you're doing an old school long dungeon crawl where slow resource depletion is a major concern, but that style of play isn't too popular these days.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

“The best damage you can inflict is to be cold and to withhold your affection. That’s the damage that lasts a lifetime.” My parents, probably.

 

[Shiroiken]

Mathematically, unless the bonus damage is equal to one attack, I'm pretty sure it's better to prevent damage than use it for offense. While a dead enemy deals no damage, this only matters if the bonus damage makes the difference in the kill. A lot of damage is "lost" against each enemy, since anything beyond 0 HP is irrelevant, so the odds of this happening is pretty low. Conversely, it's worth it if the bonus damage is equivalent to an attack, as that reduces the number of overall attacks required against that enemy.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Defensive abilities tend to create a more controlled but slower encounter. We can imagine a healer in some game that can heal any damage thrown at the party, such that they're virtually guaranteed to win unless they get one shot.

Offensive abilities tend to create a faster and more tense encounter. I think the classic example would be rocket tag. He who strikes first wins.

Obviously, those extremes are merely meant to illustrate the idea.

 

[Ath-kethin]

The best offense is a good defense, I've always heard.

Or something like that anyway.

But seriously, if you can prevent your opponent from even getting a turn, you win. So whether you do that by stunning them or knocking them out or whatever doesn't really matter, but the smart money is always on the fast and hard offense as the best policy in combat.

 

[NotAYakk]

Games where healing outpaces damage are boring. So no sustainable source of healing can be a good plan; either it sucks compared to damage, or it makes the game boring.

 

[Ancalagon]

Mathematically, unless the bonus damage is equal to one attack, I'm pretty sure it's better to prevent damage than use it for offense. While a dead enemy deals no damage, this only matters if the bonus damage makes the difference in the kill. A lot of damage is "lost" against each enemy, since anything beyond 0 HP is irrelevant, so the odds of this happening is pretty low. Conversely, it's worth it if the bonus damage is equivalent to an attack, as that reduces the number of overall attacks required against that enemy.

For the psi's warrior's example, the damage is 1d6+int bonus (then climbs to 1d8 etc) so it's the equivalent of an attack, but not a particularly strong one.

Battlemaster is different, because parry dice is + stat, while the extra damage dice is only one dice ... but it usually carries a "rider" effect, like knocking people prone.

The Psi Warrior can also get such a rider, for free, but only at level 7. At that point, the amount of damage prevented becomes a bit less significant, while trying to knock or move enemies for free as part of an attack and extra damage looks more like a better deal.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Damage is irrelevant when craftsmen in your fledgling barony complain your tax collector charged them double, and your investigation yields that he skimmed a few coins in the past, gave breaks to a few poor folk who had a bad harvest before winter, and made up the difference with what he perceived as the richest people in town. The tax collector thought he was doing right by the people, which is what he emulated your party's leadership doing, but if you fail to act, you won't have anyone to build your Temple (which you promised you would to the Church since they loaned you a significant amount of resources to found your town).

I digress. This is a thread about combat, and in D&D, a good offense is the best defense. It's been that way since Day 1, but really, it shouldn't have one iota of impact on what you play.