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<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4037725" data-attributes="member: 32164">I mentioned in another thread that, based on what Mike Mearls has said, we're probably going to get a set of rules guidelines to cover what Iron Heroes called &quot;Stunts.&quot;Throwing sand in an enemy's eyes is a stunt. Anyone can do it, and there's some reasonable chance of success. Think of it as a generic ability to inflict a penalty with an attack. Since it's kind of a &quot;dirty trick,&quot; I can see a requirement of having the &quot;sneak attack&quot; ability to pull this trick off.Similarly, interposing an opponent between you and an attack is a stunt. It's a combination of an attack stunt (since your opponent takes the damage) and a defensive stunt (because you don't). That's a cool &quot;combination stunt&quot; that any character should probably be able to &quot;attempt.&quot;The whole idea of giving &quot;special abilities&quot; to monsters is the same rationale behind giving &quot;powers&quot; to fighters and rogues. It might also be a way of giving the DM a list of, if you will, pre-selected stunts that a monster of this type usually tries.Finally, stunts might be a lesser version of powers. A character can try to do this at some penalty using the stunt rules, but the bugbear gets the ability to do it without penalty.I honestly think the designers probably thought this through a lot more thoroughly than people are giving them credit for. Mike's done stunts before - twice. It stands to reason those rules would improve with more input and more practice.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 4037725, member: 32164"] I mentioned in another thread that, based on what Mike Mearls has said, we're probably going to get a set of rules guidelines to cover what [i]Iron Heroes[/i] called "Stunts." Throwing sand in an enemy's eyes is a stunt. Anyone can do it, and there's some reasonable chance of success. Think of it as a generic ability to inflict a penalty with an attack. Since it's kind of a "dirty trick," I can see a requirement of having the "sneak attack" ability to pull this trick off. Similarly, interposing an opponent between you and an attack is a stunt. It's a combination of an attack stunt (since your opponent takes the damage) and a defensive stunt (because you don't). That's a cool "combination stunt" that any character should probably be able to "attempt." The whole idea of giving "special abilities" to monsters is the same rationale behind giving "powers" to fighters and rogues. It might also be a way of giving the DM a list of, if you will, pre-selected stunts that a monster of this type usually tries. Finally, stunts might be a lesser version of powers. A character can try to do this at some penalty using the stunt rules, but the bugbear gets the ability to do it without penalty. I honestly think the designers probably thought this through a lot more thoroughly than people are giving them credit for. Mike's done stunts before - twice. It stands to reason those rules would improve with more input and more practice. [/QUOTE]

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