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="skotothalamos" data-source="post: 6354220" data-attributes="member: 83398">I'm going to tell a story about playing sports that may be relevant. I often find sports stories helpful when addressing D&D combat, because both feature a lot of things moving quickly and clear objectives.I used to be a hockey goalie. Primarily, this means I had to work out the angles between the attacking player, the puck, and the goal, and try to put myself in a position that blocked as much of that angle as possible. Ideally, you would come out away from the goal, as close to the shooter as possible, to make yourself block a larger part of the "cone" of his possible successful attacks. But, you don't want to come out too far, or he'll just skate around you or pass to a friend with a better angle. Secondarily, you rely on quick reflexes to cover the shots that are going to the areas you haven't already covered. You need a good view to do both of these things.This is where it starts to become relevant to Halfling snipers.Attacking teams know that the goalie wants a good view of the shooter. So what do they do? They put a guy in place as a "screen." His job is literally to get in front of the goalie and obstruct his vision so he can't get the angle right or react in time. A defending player will move onto the guy and try to get him out of the way (sometimes). Sometimes, that defender gets the attacker out of the way, but ends up screening the shot himself. Sometimes well-meaning defenders try to block the shot themselves and end up only being another screen (sometimes they block the shot, but that's not the point right now). Every game I have ever played (even pickup games where everyone just met), I have faced a screened shot. I know it's coming. The defense knows it's coming. Every shot I have faced that had a screen in front of it had a better chance of scoring than an equivalent un-screened shot. The fact that we all knew it was going to happen did not diminish its benefit to the offense. I submit that the Halfling Sniper's screened shot is just as difficult to deal with as the Human Hockey Player's screened shot. It gives an advantage, and it's good tactics. Simply knowing the tactic exists is not enough to counter it; you have to take measures to make it not happen.What we did in hockey, which pretty much applies to D&D as well:1) attack the shooter. Don't just let him sit there. Get someone on him. In 4e, this would have given an oppo. In 5e, you're nullifying the advantage.2) move the screener. The grapple rules for hockey are far more in depth than 5e, but still, pushing/pulling the meat wall out of the way seems helpful.3) move the defender. As a goalie, I could mostly only crane my neck around, but there were times where I would actually step past the screening player, covering both a shot or pass to him. In 5e, with the much more fluid OA rules, you can more easily get around a meat wall blocking access to the rogue.There's a lot going on during a battle and it's easy to lose track of things. Let the rolls and rules do their job.</blockquote>

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