D&D 5E Definitions, please! What are Bounded Accuracy and RAW?

[Gorg]

What in the name of Fizban's hairy buttocks is bounded accuracy??? I keep seeing the term, but have no idea what it means. A search turned up about 1000 more mentions of it than I cared to wade through, and that's ALL they were: mentions.

Likewise the heck is RAW?


Thanks in advance to all who respond with help!

 

[prabe]

"RAW" is "Rules As Written. There's also "RAI" for "Rules As Intended" and various initializations for the concept of "Rules As Played."

"Bounded Accuracy" is the term used in 5E to reflect the intent that, essentially, they didn't want the available bonuses to exceed the variability of the d20. The heart of the idea was to broaden the range of monsters that were plausible for PCs of a given level to face, but there are other knock-on effects.

Hope that helps.

 

[Morrus]

RAW = "rules as written". The text of the rules. As opposed to the spirit of the rules which is often referred to as RAI (rules as intended).

Bounded accuracy is a fancy way of saying 5E has smaller bonuses to ability checks and attacks than previous editions had (proficiency bonus). It's a bit more nuanced than that, but that's basically it - a narrower range of results from dice bonuses.

 

[Gorg]

Well, I guess that explains why my fighter can't hit the side of a barn- when he's standing in it... Well, that, and my awful die rolls, lol.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Well, I guess that explains why my fighter can't hit the side of a barn- when he's standing in it... Well, that, and my awful die rolls, lol.

In general, in 5E attack success hovers around 65% hits given the typical bonuses and ACs.

If you're much less than that, yeah, I'd definitely blame it on the awful die rolls.

 

[jasper]

To be clearer. Bounded Accuracy is limiting the max AC to 30 so you have a chance to hit any monster.

 

[Flamestrike]

To be clearer. Bounded Accuracy is limiting the max AC to 30 so you have a chance to hit any monster.

Thats a bit deceptive as its not overly difficult to get an AC higher than that.

 

[Dragonsbane]

Thats a bit deceptive as its not overly difficult to get an AC higher than that.

Hence the reason DMs need to not allow most bonus stacking and integrate a few house rules to achieve the Bounded Accuracy described in the books.

 

[jasper]

Thats a bit deceptive as its not overly difficult to get an AC higher than that.

Ok Bounded accuracy means you won't fight a critter from a Monster Manual with AC over 30.

 

[dave2008]

Well, I guess that explains why my fighter can't hit the side of a barn- when he's standing in it... Well, that, and my awful die rolls, lol.

Actually, in 5e it should be the opposite, that is the point of bounded accuracy (BA) as implemented in 5e. 5e is built on the idea that it is more fun to hit monsters than miss them. So the chance to hit has moved up from around 50% to 65% in 5e vs older editions of the game as @6ENow! mentioned. To compensate, things have more hit points.