Level Up (A5E) Changes to Advantage

[Morrus]

I've always been keen on the idea of weapons having different effects. It's a hell of design challenge though! Giving every weapon a reason to exist without making your game tedious.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I don't mind advantage but I've always found it boring. But maybe my issue is more with the 'Help' action.

The spirit of it (let's say in combat) is to do something that gives the other person an Advantage. Throw sand in an enemy's eye or something. But, most often, people just say,"I use the Help Action" on my turn."

I'd rather if you were forced to roll something to give an Advantage. DC 10 athletics check to throw sand. (much easier than hitting an AC of 20 and will help the person who can actually hit that AC.)

But Advantage isn't worth the effort and maybe that's why they just made Help action auto-succeed. If you have to roll a DC anything, you might as well attack.

Which is a round-about way of explaining why I'm not totally happy with Advantage. It's not worth doing cool stuff in and out of combat to get it?

Does that make sense to anyone???

 

[FrogReaver]

I've always been keen on the idea of weapons having different effects. It's a hell of design challenge though! Giving every weapon a reason to exist without making your game tedious.

I always hated that. A few effects always end up more powerful and thus always get used - essentially limiting weapon choice pretty hard for those that care about Optimization. Also makes magic weapon distribution a pain.

hates a strong word. I’ll call it a love hate relationship

 

[DND_Reborn]

I don't know. So far no one in our game seems bored by the simple adv/dis mechanic. We allow them to stack, however, so sometimes you get three d20s, which is cool.

If it did something else, I would caution against making it too crazy just because one of the appeals is it is simple. Now, I know we are exploring crunchy options, but let's not go completely nuts.

 

[Morrus]

We allow them to stack, however, so sometimes you get three d20s, which is cool.

How does that play out?

 

[Shiroiken]

One of the best options IMO would be to change the way rolls are done, similar to Pathfinder 2E. You have a DC (or AC), and gain a bonus or penalty based on a higher or lower roll, similar to falling on a climb check that you fail by 5 or greater. Against low AC monsters, gaining advantage increases the probability of gaining these benefits. In the case of attacks, I'd probably give a specific benefit by weapon and a standard penalty for a bigger miss (not sure what though).

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

How does that play out?

Stacking Advantage (and Disadvantage!) and having them cancel 1-for-1 is a good way to make the buffing/debuffing game more fun; when the dragon starts attacking with 2-3 advantages, its time for you controllers to start pilling up the disadvantages as soon as possible before it lands the inevitable crit! Its really fun for those who like playing support or control roles.

One other way of doing it would require a big commitment, but it would go like this: use the Proficiency Die variant rule from the DMG instead of the basic fixed number. Then, when you have an Advantage or more, roll twice the proficiency die and take the highest result. If you have more than 1 advantage, roll as many Profiency die as you have advantages and keep the highest.

Essentially having an advantage is a reroll of your proficiency die.

 

[DND_Reborn]

How does that play out?

Pretty well IME. It doesn't happen often, but if you have two sources of advantage and one of disadvantage, the net is one advantage. No one has any problems following the process.

Double advantage does bump the higher numbers a bit, but if you have two "things" working for you, it makes sense your chances of success should be higher.

If you ever want to see the numbers, let me know and I'll post them for you.

Stacking Advantage (and Disadvantage!) and having them cancel 1-for-1 is a good way to make the buffing/debuffing game more fun; when the dragon starts attacking with 2-3 advantages, its time for you controllers to start pilling up the disadvantages as soon as possible before it lands the inevitable crit! Its really fun for those who like playing support or control roles.

This.

 

[Morrus]

Pretty well IME. It doesn't happen often, but if you have two sources of advantage and one of disadvantage, the net is one advantage. No one has any problems following the process.

Double advantage does bump the higher numbers a bit, but if you have two "things" working for you, it makes sense your chances of success should be higher.

If you ever want to see the numbers, let me know and I'll post them for you.



This.

Do you go so far as to roll double/triple advantage or does it all stack and cancel out but the max is still one advantage or disdvantage?

 

[aco175]

You could also trade Advantage on the attack roll to a reroll of the damage roll.

You would need to choose this before you roll the first d20, otherwise you would know if you hit and not need to roll the 2nd unless you want to try for a crit. I would just go with another damage die for the weapon.