D&D 5E Advantage/Disadvantage - Common or Special?

[El Mahdi]

Do you view the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic as something to be reserved for exceptional situations, or intended to be a common tool to replace and simplify tracking of multiple bonuses/penalties?


While working on ideas for the Warlord and reading others ideas, I've seen a significant number of responses concerning features that provide Advantage that are similar to this:

Advantage is supposed to be under exceptional circumstances. I could see it leading to advantage-spamming.

I was curious as to where this idea was coming from, and was informed that Mike Mearls said this at one of the GenCon seminars.

This seems to me, to be contradictory to the guidance in the DMG; where the prime example given is a Wizard running down a hallway with two ogres lying in wait.

Hardly exceptional or extraordinary.

My impression from during the playtest, was that the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic was designed solely as a way to simplify the tracking of multiple bonuses and penalties. To streamline that aspect of the game and help speed up play.

But I've seen a significant amount of people express that it is intended for exceptional circumstances.

I can see the desire to not have the game spammed by Advantage/Disadvantage, but I really don't see a threat of that happening. Maybe down the road when there are a lot more products - products that expand the envelope of the mechanics, as additional products tend to do - but with the slow pace of product releases, and the slowness of an OGL/GSL implementation seeming to limit third-party releases (compared to 3E/3.5E), it doesn't seem like an imminent threat.

I also wonder if Mearls was expressing more his personal preference rather than an official interpretation.

I expect that there's a lot of variability among fan's games as to how this is viewed - as it should be and as 5E was intended to work - but reserving it for exceptional situations does seem contrary to the rules guidance.

So, how do you view it? How do you treat Advantage(Disadvantage) in your games? Does anybody have any other references to the developers thoughts on this? Where and how was your opinion on this formed?





-And Yes, I know Lemmon Curry is misspelled. It's a mistake I made in a previous poll, and is included here on purpose. Why change it now?

 

[Yunru]

Common, there is no other way to run it.
Barbarians get it whenever they want, anyone can provide it with Help, Rogues get it from hiding, anyone who's unseen gets it, stunned opponents grant it, several spells grant it, etc.

 

[Minigiant]

Common for combat
Uncommon for exploration
Rare as heck for interaction.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Yunru]

In the games I've run so far, it is uncommon. Unless specifically provided for by rule *or* circumstances dictate.

Rolling two dice pretty pretty pretty nice.

Yes but just look at how many rules specifically provide it.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Well, it shouldn't be granted too easily because if doesn't stack. I try to make it very situational and different in every combat. e.g. a player just saying "I flank enemy A" doesn't automatically get advantage. But there might be a battle where attacking from a very specific location has advantage.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My take is that advantage/disadvantage, outside of spells/actions/abilities that are specifically used to provide such, should be rare. True Strike, Aid Another, Reckless Attack all have a price. Someone has to spend an action, or the barbarian grants advantage to opponents.

 

[Yunru]

A is for Assassinatr
B is for
C is for Concealment
D is for
E is for
F is for Faerie Fire
G is for
H is for Help, Hold spells, Hiding
I is for Inspiration
J is for
K is for
L is for Lucky (kinda)
M is for Mounted Combat
N is for
O is for
P is for Prone
Q is for
R is for Reckless, Restrained
S is for Surprise, Stunned
T is for True Strike
U is for Unconscious
V is for
W is for Wolf Totem
X is for
Y is for
Z is for

Everyone join in!

 

[Blue]

How's this - I'd expect to see advantage or disadvantage come up at least once in every 10 rolls. In a low level combat that might be every turn (5 PCs vs. 5 foes with 1 attack each) while many other activities are less roll-dense.

To me, every round in combat is "common". Others may say 10% of the time is "rare".

As a side note, the classes that can reliably generate advantage all pay a cost or have other limitation. Barbarian's "get advantage in your attacks, grant advantage in ALL ATTACKS AGAINST YOU" is an example. Or Assassins have a limited window that they may not take advantage of every combat. Casters have spells that grant it but those have saves and use up a limited resource. And take an action for no/little other effect. Having a PC who otherwise has no costs for advantage and being able to reliably grant them advantage on their multiple attacks with a d12 two handed weapon (not even including Great Weapon -5/+10 to keep it without optional rules besides a new class) is going to make a very effective killing machine.