NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6560984" data-attributes="member: 97077">A character's attack bonus is its relevant ability score modifier (usually STR or DEX) plus its proficiency bonus if it has proficiency in that weapon plus any additional modifiers like magical weapon bonus, bonuses from spells, or situational bonuses that the DM may assign. You add this to the d20 roll and compare it against the creature's defense value, usually AC.The "whiff factor" of D&D is probably among its worst features in my view, a very boring failure. You can look at it as a pacing mechanism that increases tension - a miss means the monster potentially lives a bit longer so it gets in another attack which isn't good for the characters. But since you're the DM, you can narrate the result of adventurers' action any way you like. So if you want to say that a missed attack roll results in damage plus a setback (e.g. get your damage in, but get disarmed) or just do ability modifier's worth of damage only, you can do that.They should be doing whatever is fun but effective, given the situation. Sometimes that means using a spell or class feature. Other times, it's the shovel!That's what they add to a d20 roll when attacking.The free Basic Rules for the DM goes into this a bit (page 56), but essentially, yeah, just reduce the number of enemies to fit the number of PCs in your party. It's not an exact science and a good rule of thumb is that it's easier to add than to take away. So start with a small number of monsters if you're not sure of the difficulty and add them back in a second wave of monsters if you want to increase the difficulty.<a href="http://dungeonmastery.blogspot.com/2014/10/dungeon-master-101.html" target="_blank">Dungeon Master 101</a><a href="http://community.wizards.com/forum/product-and-general-dd-discussions/threads/4167196" target="_blank">Session Zero</a><a href="http://www.thoughtcrimegames.net/structure-first-story-last/" target="_blank">Structure First, Story Last</a><a href="http://dungeonmastery.blogspot.com/2014/10/players-101.html" target="_blank">Players 101</a><a href="http://dungeonmastery.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-goals-of-play.html" target="_blank">Goals of Play</a><a href="http://lookrobot.co.uk/2013/06/20/11-ways-to-be-a-better-roleplayer/" target="_blank">11 Ways to Be a Better Roleplayer</a><a href="http://lookrobot.co.uk/2013/06/23/stanislavski-vs-brecht-in-tabletop-roleplaying/" target="_blank">Stanislavki vs. Brecht in Tabletop Roleplaying</a><a href="http://community.wizards.com/content/blog/4156836" target="_blank">Adventure Scenarios</a>Welcome to the hobby - good luck and have fun!</blockquote>

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