D&D 5E Advantage in 5e combet

[damngravity]

The halfling rogue in the Starter Set seems well-suited to attacking from stealth, re-hiding next round, and attacking from stealth again. Which seems fair, considering you're giving up an action to do that.

This is true for 1st level but a t2nd she can hide as a bonus action. So if she makes her dex-stealth roll vs passive perception she would have advantage every round. And the goblins pp is 9 and I think she has has +5 on roll.

Mike

 

[Agamon]

This is true for 1st level but a t2nd she can hide as a bonus action. So if she makes her dex-stealth roll vs passive perception she would have advantage every round. And the goblins pp is 9 and I think she has has +5 on roll.

By the 2nd round, she should have friends beside the foes, too, also giving her sneak attack, so either way, the goblins won't pose much of a threat. Also, on their turn, one of them can try to actively look for the hidden sniper and, if successful, point her out to the others. Once seen in combat, you need to be become unseen to hide again.

A ring of invisibility will, as always, be a rogue's best friend.

 

[damngravity]

Sneak attack isn't as big of issue as getting advantage. Chances of critical goes up to 10% with advantage. As you said getting sneak attack isn't that hard with some front line fighters. And Lightfoots can uses their larger party members to hide behind.

 

[Agamon]

And Lightfoots can uses there larger party members to hide behind.

Which is great to start with and allows you to hide before a fight without anything to hide behind. But once you're seen you have to become unseen to try hiding again (see the Hiding sidebar, "You can't hide from creatures that can see you"). So if your fellow party member moves, or the enemy spots you, you need to leave the enemies' sight before trying to hide again.

 

[Nebulous]

I suspect this will be an ongoing and fierce debate during 5e's run: when and when not to grant advantage. The Sage is going to have his or her hands full.

Indeed. This could fill magazine columns and internet boards for the next 10 years

 

[KarinsDad]

My personal take is: don't ever give advantage, unless the rules tell you to do so.

I agree. Advantage is much more advantageous than some people think.

I've seen people posting where Advantage gives a little over +3 to a roll on average. This is inaccurate. Advantage gives closer to +5.

For the most part, the game is played in the sweet spot in the middle of the D20. For example, someone needs a 10 to hit. Needing an 18 or a 3 to hit is rare. The sweet spot is from needing a 6 on the D20 (relatively easy to hit) to a 15 (fairly difficult).

So the odds work out as:

Number needed on D20, Normal chance to hit, Advantage chance to hit, equivalent bonus

15 30% 51.00% 4.2
14 35% 57.75% 4.55
13 40% 64.00% 4.8
12 45% 69.75% 4.95
11 50% 75.00% 5
10 55% 79.75% 4.95
09 60% 84.00% 4.8
08 65% 87.75% 4.55
07 70% 91.00% 4.2
06 75% 93.75% 3.75

This works out to an average 4.575 bonus to the die roll for this range of 10 numbers. Plus the chance of needing an 11 (+5 equivalent) in any given situation occurs more frequently than needing a 6. So, this ups the overall average closer to about +4.8.

Disadvantage works out to the same more or less -4.8 (it just has a different equivalent penalty depending on which number one is talking about).


All in all, I think that I will very rarely use advantage (unless indicated by the rules) and have some sort of "Minor Advantage" of +2 for many other cases.


Edit: Forgot to mention. For things like attacking, advantage nearly doubles the crit range. From a DPR perspective, a PC with advantage does about 50% more damage than a PC without advantage. This equates to about +1.2 more to hit. The overall bonus to damage is equivalent of getting +6 to hit on the die roll.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Indeed, WotC's own guidance tells us advantage is worth +5 and disadvantage is worth -5.

Here’s how to determine a character’s total for a passive check:

10 + all modifiers that normally apply to the check

If the character has advantage on the check, add 5. For disadvantage, subtract 5.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Mike Mearls posted a while back that his general policy was that if anyone spent their action to do something, they could give someone else(or themselves) advantage, but unless something took an action to do, it likely shouldn't give advantage.