D&D 5E Abuse Guidance even more with this one weird trick!

[Frankie1969]

Obviously any sane DM should smack these players in the head with an empty soda can, but this should work by RAW, specifically:

[the person being guided] "can roll the die before or after making the ability check."

After defeating the bad guys, the party is confronted by a dangerous trapped chest. It looks like snipping the wrong wire will cause a big kaboom.

Caster: Wise Athena, guide this poor skill monkey with his tasks. (touch)
Monkey: I roll the d4... only a 2. I try to recall what I know about aboleth mucus. (rolls arcana check +2)
Caster: Wise Athena, guide this poor skill monkey with his tasks. (touch)
Monkey: I roll the d4... a 1? I jump in place to touch the ceiling. (rolls athletics check +1)
Caster: Wise Athena, guide this poor skill monkey with his tasks. (touch)
Monkey: I roll the d4... okay 4 this time. Elf Kid, help me disarm this blue footed booby trap. (rolls thieves tool check +4 with advantage)

 

[miniaturehoarder]

Obviously any sane DM should smack these players in the head with an empty soda can

Empty?

[video=youtube;at3OiAvUjH4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at3OiAvUjH4[/video]

 

[Mistwell]

Obviously any sane DM should smack these players in the head with an empty soda can, but this should work by RAW, specifically:

[the person being guided] "can roll the die before or after making the ability check."

After defeating the bad guys, the party is confronted by a dangerous trapped chest. It looks like snipping the wrong wire will cause a big kaboom.

Caster: Wise Athena, guide this poor skill monkey with his tasks. (touch)
Monkey: I roll the d4... only a 2. I try to recall what I know about aboleth mucus. (rolls arcana check +2)
Caster: Wise Athena, guide this poor skill monkey with his tasks. (touch)
Monkey: I roll the d4... a 1? I jump in place to touch the ceiling. (rolls athletics check +1)
Caster: Wise Athena, guide this poor skill monkey with his tasks. (touch)
Monkey: I roll the d4... okay 4 this time. Elf Kid, help me disarm this blue footed booby trap. (rolls thieves tool check +4 with advantage)

I think you still need to declare what the check will be - what you're doing - prior to rolling. You just can roll the Guidance die before the check die. But you still need to ask for Guidance specifically for the thing you're trying to do.

Edit - Well, on re-reading it...I think you're right. You don't need to declare what the check will be, or otherwise the 1 minute time frame would make less sense.

 

[Rune]

If memory serves, the rules for ability checks specify that the DM should only have you roll for checks that matter. Were I the DM in this scenario, I'd have the guidance roll stand until it could be applied to such a check, or until one minute was up, whichever came first.

(Also, I tend not to have players roll for knowledge at all, except when trying to recall something while under pressure.)

 

[Ristamar]

+XP for the amusing thread title, if nothing else.

 

[BoldItalic]

If you look at the "How to Play" on p.6 of the PHB, it says "The players describe what they want to do" ... "the DM listens to every player and decides how to resolve those actions" ... "often relying on the roll of a die".

It is up to the DM to ensure that players specify clearly what actions they are attempting before any dice are rolled. So, in this case, Monkey would specify that he was attempting to defuse the trap, Caster would specify that he was casting Guidance and giving Help, and then the DM would call for the appropriate rolls.

If you do it that way, spamming dice rolls isn't possible.

 

[iserith]

Yes, while funny, the error being made here is that a check isn't an action. It's just a mechanic that the DM calls for to resolve uncertainty as to the outcome of an action the player has already described the character as taking. You have to take fictional action before you are permitted to make a check, if a check is necessary at all. So it looks more like this:

Caster: Wise Athena, guide this poor skill monkey with his tasks. (touch)
Monkey: I try to recall what I know about aboleth mucus.
DM: Okay, please make an Intelligence (Arcana) check.
Monkey: While thinking about it, I consider the advice that Caster gave me. (rolls arcana check + 1d4).

Or, more likely in my view:

Monkey: *rolls Arcana check and gets a low to middling result* Hmm, what would Athena do? *rolls 1d4*

And so on. Though if I were the DM in this example, I'd share the DC and the stakes prior to the roll. As well, the caster probably wouldn't cast guidance a great deal in our games - only when he or she thought the situation was charged enough to warrant it (I don't adhere to the "Roll With It" method in the DMG, pages 236-237) and then only to what the player thought the limits would be to achieve the goals of play.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I did believe it was the intend to not jump over the chasm when your guidance die is only showing a 1.
But I would also not allow using that die for a different check then.
Just let the pies cast it again.
And my favourite ruling:
It is mentally stressing to bother your god too often... just as swinging a sword constantly is physically stressing after a while

 

[Umbran]

+XP for the amusing thread title, if nothing else.

Definite clickbait. I had to come in here to double check that it wasn't some new sort of spam I had to delete

 

[Mistwell]

If you look at the "How to Play" on p.6 of the PHB, it says "The players describe what they want to do" ... "the DM listens to every player and decides how to resolve those actions" ... "often relying on the roll of a die".

It is up to the DM to ensure that players specify clearly what actions they are attempting before any dice are rolled. So, in this case, Monkey would specify that he was attempting to defuse the trap, Caster would specify that he was casting Guidance and giving Help, and then the DM would call for the appropriate rolls.

If you do it that way, spamming dice rolls isn't possible.

The problem is, you cast guidance, and it lasts for a full minute for someone so they have a long time to decide how to use it and whether they want to use it at all.