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5e Flanking - the good, the bad, and the broken?
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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8433550" data-attributes="member: 6779196"><p>Ok, I know this is tangential to the topic, but… no. The PHB does describe advantage as <em>roughly</em> analogous to a +5 bonus, and that’s technically accurate, but it’s a massive oversimplification and it leads to confusion like this.</p><p></p><p>So, what advantage <em>does</em> is it changes the probability curve of the dice roll from a flat line to a bell curve. It really isn’t equivalent to a flat bonus to the roll at all, but rather, a dynamic bonus that depends on the target number you need to hit. If you need a 10 or 11 to hit, it’s about equivalent to +5, but if you need a natural 20 to hit, it’s worth less than +1. Basically, advantage just decreases the variance on checks. It’s most helpful when your chances are close to 50/50 but doesn’t make much difference if you’re unlikely to succeed in the first place or already had a high chance of succeeding anyway.</p><p></p><p>Because if this, advantage doesn’t break bounded accuracy. It makes your rolls much less swingy, but it doesn’t actually allow you to hit a higher AC than you could have done anyway. +2 AC might have less impact on the average roll you’re likely to make, but it has much more impact at the extreme ends - the <em>bounds</em> - of your accuracy. </p><p></p><p></p><p>That won’t rein in the numbers, it will shift the range of numbers the PCs can and can’t hit, which is precisely the thing advantage/disadvantage and bounded accuracy were designed to prevent.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 8433550, member: 6779196"] Ok, I know this is tangential to the topic, but… no. The PHB does describe advantage as [I]roughly[/I] analogous to a +5 bonus, and that’s technically accurate, but it’s a massive oversimplification and it leads to confusion like this. So, what advantage [I]does[/I] is it changes the probability curve of the dice roll from a flat line to a bell curve. It really isn’t equivalent to a flat bonus to the roll at all, but rather, a dynamic bonus that depends on the target number you need to hit. If you need a 10 or 11 to hit, it’s about equivalent to +5, but if you need a natural 20 to hit, it’s worth less than +1. Basically, advantage just decreases the variance on checks. It’s most helpful when your chances are close to 50/50 but doesn’t make much difference if you’re unlikely to succeed in the first place or already had a high chance of succeeding anyway. Because if this, advantage doesn’t break bounded accuracy. It makes your rolls much less swingy, but it doesn’t actually allow you to hit a higher AC than you could have done anyway. +2 AC might have less impact on the average roll you’re likely to make, but it has much more impact at the extreme ends - the [I]bounds[/I] - of your accuracy. That won’t rein in the numbers, it will shift the range of numbers the PCs can and can’t hit, which is precisely the thing advantage/disadvantage and bounded accuracy were designed to prevent. [/QUOTE]
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