Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xeethra" data-source="post: 6676112" data-attributes="member: 6793489">I'm wondering about how useful cutting words is early on in-game. At first glance it's neat, but it seems highly dependent on the DM.Attack rolls: If the DM rolls in the open, it's amazing. If the DM rolls behind a screen and refuses to provide the bard with any info on the roll, it seems a lot less useful. Under such circumstances, a bard would be much, much more likely to waste cutting words on a critical hit roll (which will always hit) or a roll that would've missed anyway than use it successfully on a roll that just barely hits but then fails due to cutting words. I wouldn't bother using it for attack rolls unless that next hit will likely kill me—and even then, I'll expect the cutting words to rarely succeed under such circumstances.Damage rolls: Again, if the DM rolls in the open, it's nice. If not, it's a lot less useful, especially with the early d6 die (average of 3.5hp). Rolling blind, cutting words might mean the difference between ending with 1hp or -2/3hp (yay!)... or 5hp or 1/2hp (meh—either way, you're one hit from death)... or -1hp or -4/5hp (bleh—either way, you're down). Again, I would probably only use this if I'm looking death in the face—but I can't if I already used cutting words on the attack roll and the attack still succeeded.Ability checks: Great if the DM counts saving throws as ability checks. Less so if not. If the game is mostly combat, it becomes even less useful, especially if the DM doesn't allow it on initiative rolls.It gets better with higher levels, when the die increases and you get more uses per day, but early on, I'm thinking that distributing bardic inspiration is more useful.What are people's experiences with cutting words early on? How dependent do you think the DM's interpretation of the ability impacts its usefulness?</blockquote>

Verification