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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7285008" data-attributes="member: 6775031">Like I said, different DMs describe the effects of damage differently. If you describe 20 damage from a target with 60hp in the same way as 50 damage from a target with 150hp, then that's on you, and there's no way the game mechanics could know to take that into account. (Specifically, in this case, the mechanic which says whether or not anyone knows when someone succeeds or fails on a saving throw.)I don't know that this is the right place to have that discussion, but does your description make it obvious to the players whether an arrow hits and does damage or misses entirely? Because near misses and narrow dodges sound a lot like the attack missed due to their Dexterity bonus.If you differentiate between the two, then that can cause a lot of problems with players not knowing what's going on. To me, all mechanics are part of the story, or else the players are forced to role-play under false pretenses about how the world actually works.Going back to the previous point, if you describe a hit from an arrow as though they narrowly dodged, then the character has no reason to think that their attack had any effect whatsoever. Why would they even continue firing, if the first twenty arrows were all dodged? Going back to the advice in the DMG, ask your players, &quot;What does your character think?&quot; Because I can't imagine the character thinking that the first twenty dodges were just a fluke, and that the reasonable response is to keep firing arrows.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7285008, member: 6775031"] Like I said, different DMs describe the effects of damage differently. If you describe 20 damage from a target with 60hp in the same way as 50 damage from a target with 150hp, then that's on you, and there's no way the game mechanics could know to take that into account. (Specifically, in this case, the mechanic which says whether or not anyone knows when someone succeeds or fails on a saving throw.) I don't know that this is the right place to have [I]that[/I] discussion, but does your description make it obvious to the players whether an arrow hits and does damage or misses entirely? Because near misses and narrow dodges sound a [I]lot[/I] like the attack missed due to their Dexterity bonus. If you differentiate between the two, then that can cause a lot of problems with players not knowing what's going on. To me, [I]all[/I] mechanics are part of the story, or else the players are forced to role-play under false pretenses about how the world [I]actually [/I]works. Going back to the previous point, if you describe a hit from an arrow as though they narrowly dodged, then the character has no reason to think that their attack had any effect whatsoever. Why would they even continue firing, if the first twenty arrows were all dodged? Going back to the advice in the DMG, ask your players, "What does your [I]character[/I] think?" Because I can't imagine the character thinking that the first twenty dodges were just a fluke, and that the reasonable response is to keep firing arrows. [/QUOTE]

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