Recent content by Charlaquin

It’s a bit kludgy, but just double their round 1 damage, under the assumption that they get 1 extra round of damage. Would also explain why these monsters got buffed in 2024, where being surprised just imposes disadvantage on initiative instead of functionally granting your attacker a free...

I could be wrong, but I think Viva La Dirt League did do a sketch about initiating combat but rolling lower for initiative than the target of your attack. I know I have definitely seen a comedy sketch about that at least, might have been a different group though.

I strongly suspect the point is to nerf ambush strategies. Surprise is busted powerful in 5.0. Personally, I’m fine with that being the case, but I’d imagine the thinking was that advantage on initiative is still impactful without making surprise a near auto-win, and then DMs can feel more free...

See my post above walking through it. Juggling gets you one rapier attack instead of a shortsword attack every other round, no multiclassing required. I suppose if you value Vex more than a higher damage die there’s no point. I think that’s worthwhile but your mileage may vary.

I don’t understand what you’re saying. One attack with your action plus one attack as part of that action with Vex, plus one attack from Dual Wielder as a bonus action equals three attacks.

I don’t know what to tell you, then. Keep using the 5.0 surprise rules if you don’t like the 5.5 ones. That’s what I do.

I guess, but juggling gets you an extra half a point of damage per round on average! Not a big loss if your DM doesn’t allow it, but no sense leaving it on the table if juggling is allowed.

Here’s the rogue sequence: have your shortsword drawn. Attack with it. Dual wielder allows you to draw or sheathe two weapons when you make an attack as part of the attack action, so sheathe your shortsword and draw your scimitar. Attack with the scimitar as part of the attack action using the...

Why would a rogue want to make three attacks in one turn…? Why wouldn’t they?

Something else, like making the bonus action attack from Dual Wielder.

Why wouldn’t a rogue be able to juggle weapons? Between the Nick mastery and the Dual Wielder feat, a rogue can make three different attacks with three different weapons in the same turn.

I disagree. Draw cuts are cool. Doing a draw cut and immediately sheathing the weapon, while in the same motion doing another draw cut with another weapon in the opposite hand is even cooler. If repetitive attack patterns bother you, I can’t imagine how you would enjoy D&D combat at all, since...

Turns in combat are an abstraction for ease of resolution, but within the fiction, all participants’ actions within a round are happening simultaneously, or very near to it. So, a surprised creature getting to take its turn before the attacker just means that the surprised creature saw or heard...

Weapon swapping during combat is absolutely ridiculous in terms of actual, practical, real-life martial arts technique. But it’s very much in line with the kind of choreography you might see in action movies, anime, or video games. I imagine it would seem out of place in an RPG that was...

Last night’s Critical Role was pretty cool!