Cyber-Dave
Explorer
Having posted about this subject previously, I was disheartened at how many 5e players think they understand their game without really understanding how the rules of this game actually work. As such, it bears discussing just what the One playtest has changed. I’m going to open that discussion specifically in regards to the rogue. I am not discussing what should be changed here. I jumped the gun by trying to talk about that before discussing what HAS changed. The following discussion is illustrative, not exhaustive.
First, the old rules for Sneak Attack stated:
“Beginning at 1st level, you know how to strike subtly and exploit a foe's distraction. Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon. You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll. The amount of the extra damage increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Sneak Attack column of the Rogue table.”
The new rules for Sneak Attack state:
“You know how to turn a subtle attack into a deadly one. Once on each of your turns when you take the Attack Action, you can deal extra damage to one creature you hit with an Attack Roll if you’re attacking with a Finesse Weapon or a Ranged Weapon and if at least one of the following requirements is met:
“Advantage. You have Advantage on the Attack Roll.
“Ally Adjacent to Target. At least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the target, the ally isn’t Incapacitated, and you don’t have Disadvantage on the Attack Roll.
“To determine the extra damage, roll a number of d6s equal to half your Rogue level (round up), and add the dice together (the Rogue table shows the number of Sneak Attack dice you get at each Rogue level). The extra damage’s type is the same as the weapon’s Damage Type.”
There are two big nerfs here:
First, they are proposing that the rogue can ONLY sneak attack on ITS turn, not once per ANY turn. That means rogues will no longer be able to sneak attack once per round using any attack that can be made as a reaction. That will drop the potential number of times that a rogue can sneak attack per round from 2 down to 1. That almost halves a rogue’s peak damage per round in D&D One.
Note: a turn and a round are not the same thing. A turn describes the action economy of a specific creature’s turn. A round describes the combined action economy of one turn performed by every creature in the encounter. A rogue in 5e could sneak attack once per turn. Every creature has one reaction per round. A number of events can be used to turn that reaction into an attack on another creature’s turn.
The game also makes one other major change to sneak attack: it can only be applied when you take the attack action, not make an attack. Any ability or feature that let you make an attack using something other than an attack action is no longer capable of benefiting from sneak attack whether it is made on your turn or not. That means that spells like booming blade cannot be used to make sneak attacks anymore.
Originally, 5e provided the following rules for hiding.
“The DM decides when circumstances are appropriate for hiding. When you try to hide, make a Dexterity (Stealth) check. Until you are discovered or you stop hiding, that check's total is contested by the Wisdom (Perception) check of any creature that actively searches for signs of your presence.
“You can't hide from a creature that can see you clearly, and you give away your position if you make noise, such as shouting a warning or knocking over a vase.
“An invisible creature can always try to hide. Signs of its passage might still be noticed, and it does have to stay quiet.
“In combat, most creatures stay alert for signs of danger all around, so if you come out of hiding and approach a creature, it usually sees you. However, under certain circumstances, the DM might allow you to stay hidden as you approach a creature that is distracted, allowing you to gain advantage on an attack roll before you are seen.”
The new rules for hiding are as follows:
“With the Hide Action, you try to conceal yourself. To do so, you must make a DC 15 Dexterity
Check (Stealth) while you’re Heavily Obscured or behind Three-Quarters Cover or Total Cover, and you must be out of any visible enemy’s line of sight; if you can see a creature, you can discern whether it can see you. On a successful check, you are Hidden. Make note of your check’s total, which becomes the DC for a creature to find you with a Wisdom Check (Perception).”
Under “Hidden,” the game also informs you of the following:
“Ending the Condition. The Condition ends on you immediately after any of the following occurrences: you make a sound louder than a whisper, an enemy finds you, you make an Attack Roll, you cast a Spell with a verbal component, or you aren’t Heavily Obscured or behind any Cover.”
This is what changes: beyond the fact that a DM can always do whatever they want, the game doesn’t bother to highlight this specifically in regards to hiding. Instead, it just says that when you are not Heavily Obscured or behind any Cover, you always lose hidden. The game makes no effort to inform its players that, even in combat, a DM might allow you to stay hidden as you approach a creature that is distracted. All it says is that you lose the hidden condition the moment you lose Heavy Obscurement or some Cover. Any DM who runs the game by the rules as written will thus never allow a character to run from cover to cover or to sneak up on a foe who is focused on one of your allies. Whether this change affects your specific table will depend on your DM. It won’t affect mine. The probability of a DM using their narrative license to allow logical corner cases, however, will dimmish due to the lack of the textual focus on such corner cases existing and being a justified request on the part of the player. Any players who exist in communities with multiple DMs (which some of mine do) will likely form opinions about the viability of such efforts on the basis of the behavior of multiple DMs.
Additionally, where 5e explicitly brings attention to the fact that being invisible does not mean you are hidden, and creatures can notice signs of your passage (visually) or hear you, thus granting you only one benefit when you are invisible—the mechanical bonuses of the condition described elsewhere in the text—One does no such thing. In fact, the mechanical benefits it ascribes to both the Invisible and Hidden condition are identical, except that the Hidden condition has the caveat of the listed loss conditions, and is thus much easier to lose. 5e thus presents being “hidden” as something beyond being invisible. While some DMs may continue to treat “hidden” as such given the One rules, its actual text presents invisibility as being a superior version to being hidden, though one which logically—by nothing more than inference rather than explicit text—doesn’t prevent a creature from hearing you unless you make an effort to be hidden.
Finally, regardless of DM interpretation, the hidden rules also feature another major change (which is neither a nerf nor a buff, but jut a change). All stealth checks are essentially made against a "passive perception" of 15, or, more accurately, it looks like passive perception is disappearing in favor of a fixed DC 15 to successfully become hidden regardless of a creature's perception score. It should be noted, however, that this is a nerf against any character build with a high passive perception. To find any successfully hidden creature, you must now make active checks.
That being said, melee rogues will receive one minor contextual buff. Melee rogues will now be able to dual wield without using their bonus action. That means they will be able to make an offhand attack (for +one die of damage and two chances to lay down a sneak attack) in addition to using their cunning action.
Like this or not, these are the major changes between the 5e rogue and the One rogue. Whether you like these changes or not is what you should be providing feedback about on October 20th, but these are the changes they are proposing regardless of your feedback about these changes.
First, the old rules for Sneak Attack stated:
“Beginning at 1st level, you know how to strike subtly and exploit a foe's distraction. Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon. You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll. The amount of the extra damage increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Sneak Attack column of the Rogue table.”
The new rules for Sneak Attack state:
“You know how to turn a subtle attack into a deadly one. Once on each of your turns when you take the Attack Action, you can deal extra damage to one creature you hit with an Attack Roll if you’re attacking with a Finesse Weapon or a Ranged Weapon and if at least one of the following requirements is met:
“Advantage. You have Advantage on the Attack Roll.
“Ally Adjacent to Target. At least one of your allies is within 5 feet of the target, the ally isn’t Incapacitated, and you don’t have Disadvantage on the Attack Roll.
“To determine the extra damage, roll a number of d6s equal to half your Rogue level (round up), and add the dice together (the Rogue table shows the number of Sneak Attack dice you get at each Rogue level). The extra damage’s type is the same as the weapon’s Damage Type.”
There are two big nerfs here:
First, they are proposing that the rogue can ONLY sneak attack on ITS turn, not once per ANY turn. That means rogues will no longer be able to sneak attack once per round using any attack that can be made as a reaction. That will drop the potential number of times that a rogue can sneak attack per round from 2 down to 1. That almost halves a rogue’s peak damage per round in D&D One.
Note: a turn and a round are not the same thing. A turn describes the action economy of a specific creature’s turn. A round describes the combined action economy of one turn performed by every creature in the encounter. A rogue in 5e could sneak attack once per turn. Every creature has one reaction per round. A number of events can be used to turn that reaction into an attack on another creature’s turn.
The game also makes one other major change to sneak attack: it can only be applied when you take the attack action, not make an attack. Any ability or feature that let you make an attack using something other than an attack action is no longer capable of benefiting from sneak attack whether it is made on your turn or not. That means that spells like booming blade cannot be used to make sneak attacks anymore.
Originally, 5e provided the following rules for hiding.
“The DM decides when circumstances are appropriate for hiding. When you try to hide, make a Dexterity (Stealth) check. Until you are discovered or you stop hiding, that check's total is contested by the Wisdom (Perception) check of any creature that actively searches for signs of your presence.
“You can't hide from a creature that can see you clearly, and you give away your position if you make noise, such as shouting a warning or knocking over a vase.
“An invisible creature can always try to hide. Signs of its passage might still be noticed, and it does have to stay quiet.
“In combat, most creatures stay alert for signs of danger all around, so if you come out of hiding and approach a creature, it usually sees you. However, under certain circumstances, the DM might allow you to stay hidden as you approach a creature that is distracted, allowing you to gain advantage on an attack roll before you are seen.”
The new rules for hiding are as follows:
“With the Hide Action, you try to conceal yourself. To do so, you must make a DC 15 Dexterity
Check (Stealth) while you’re Heavily Obscured or behind Three-Quarters Cover or Total Cover, and you must be out of any visible enemy’s line of sight; if you can see a creature, you can discern whether it can see you. On a successful check, you are Hidden. Make note of your check’s total, which becomes the DC for a creature to find you with a Wisdom Check (Perception).”
Under “Hidden,” the game also informs you of the following:
“Ending the Condition. The Condition ends on you immediately after any of the following occurrences: you make a sound louder than a whisper, an enemy finds you, you make an Attack Roll, you cast a Spell with a verbal component, or you aren’t Heavily Obscured or behind any Cover.”
This is what changes: beyond the fact that a DM can always do whatever they want, the game doesn’t bother to highlight this specifically in regards to hiding. Instead, it just says that when you are not Heavily Obscured or behind any Cover, you always lose hidden. The game makes no effort to inform its players that, even in combat, a DM might allow you to stay hidden as you approach a creature that is distracted. All it says is that you lose the hidden condition the moment you lose Heavy Obscurement or some Cover. Any DM who runs the game by the rules as written will thus never allow a character to run from cover to cover or to sneak up on a foe who is focused on one of your allies. Whether this change affects your specific table will depend on your DM. It won’t affect mine. The probability of a DM using their narrative license to allow logical corner cases, however, will dimmish due to the lack of the textual focus on such corner cases existing and being a justified request on the part of the player. Any players who exist in communities with multiple DMs (which some of mine do) will likely form opinions about the viability of such efforts on the basis of the behavior of multiple DMs.
Additionally, where 5e explicitly brings attention to the fact that being invisible does not mean you are hidden, and creatures can notice signs of your passage (visually) or hear you, thus granting you only one benefit when you are invisible—the mechanical bonuses of the condition described elsewhere in the text—One does no such thing. In fact, the mechanical benefits it ascribes to both the Invisible and Hidden condition are identical, except that the Hidden condition has the caveat of the listed loss conditions, and is thus much easier to lose. 5e thus presents being “hidden” as something beyond being invisible. While some DMs may continue to treat “hidden” as such given the One rules, its actual text presents invisibility as being a superior version to being hidden, though one which logically—by nothing more than inference rather than explicit text—doesn’t prevent a creature from hearing you unless you make an effort to be hidden.
Finally, regardless of DM interpretation, the hidden rules also feature another major change (which is neither a nerf nor a buff, but jut a change). All stealth checks are essentially made against a "passive perception" of 15, or, more accurately, it looks like passive perception is disappearing in favor of a fixed DC 15 to successfully become hidden regardless of a creature's perception score. It should be noted, however, that this is a nerf against any character build with a high passive perception. To find any successfully hidden creature, you must now make active checks.
That being said, melee rogues will receive one minor contextual buff. Melee rogues will now be able to dual wield without using their bonus action. That means they will be able to make an offhand attack (for +one die of damage and two chances to lay down a sneak attack) in addition to using their cunning action.
Like this or not, these are the major changes between the 5e rogue and the One rogue. Whether you like these changes or not is what you should be providing feedback about on October 20th, but these are the changes they are proposing regardless of your feedback about these changes.
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