D&D 5E [+] How can 5e best handle role playing outside of combat?

[Fenris-77]

Aren't group checks pretty similar to skill challenges?

It depends on how you handle them I guess. A lot of DMs use the lowest and slowest method where the character with the worst skill level rolls and that is the group result. That method isn't much like a skill challenge.

 

[Islayre d'Argolh]

Characters in D&D are basically just combat parameters. The only real thing you have for anything besides combat is a proficiency bonus which is the same for everyone and tool proficiency which is very limited. You don't really have that many options to make a character which is specifically good at a non combat thing because thats not what D&D is interested in.

We all due respect i think you're totaly wrong on this.

For example, 5e allow you to build a Variant human (Eldritch adept => Mask of many faces) + Eloquence Bard
A soon as level 3, You're PC add Expertise in social skills to the Silver tongue class feature to the ability to change face at will.
Such a character is an "optimised social PC" and will wreak havoc in most campaigns with his raw power of... talking, deceive and be friend with anybody.

There is a lot of mechanical tools in 5e other than the proficiency bonus : Expertise, Reliable talent, Bardic Inspiration, Battlemaster maneuvers, Intuition dice, some Class features, some Spells, etc.

 

[Umbran]

The title is pretty self explanatory.

So, it isn't self explanatory, in that we don't have a good idea of what "to handle" role play outside of combat really means.

If you mean that the game does not fall apart if people engage in a lot of interpersonal social interaction, then yes, the game can handle it.

If you mean that the game actively supports and enables solid social tactical choices... no, it really doesn't.

I expect that disagreement in this thread will largely on that divide - what does it really mean "to handle" the matter?

It’s + thread folks.

"+" thread means that it is expected that everyone accepts the basic premise of the thread.

It is hard for us to tell when folks are accepting the basic premise of the thread, when that premise is, as noted above, not well defined. Moreover, the thread title is a "Yes/no" question. Are people not on board with the premise if they answer no? Are they accepting the premise if they answer Yes, that the game handles social interactions perfectly, and therefore no discussion is necessary?

 

[Maxperson]

I am at a loss how someone can even ask that question. Hopefully someone will provide some explanations as to what they mean by roleplaying implying that it can only be used in combat whatever the edition of the game (and 5e even has some specific sections about this in the DMG)...

Yeah. I'm puzzled, too. I have entire sessions that are nothing but roleplaying sometimes. Not a combat to be had. The players roleplay planning things out, doing stuff, going to NPCs to persuade or question them, etc.

I personally reward roleplaying with experience points, so the players don't feel pressured to cut it short and get to or look for a combat, so that certainly helps as a house rule.

 

[Maxperson]

What a bizarre question! Of course it can. Sure, non-combat stuff is relatively rules light, but this is mostly a good thing.

It doesn't need rules to govern how to do it, but rules to encourage are a good thing in my opinion.

 

[Bolares]

Aren't group checks pretty similar to skill challenges?

Not really. Groups checks are for when everyone is trying to do the same thing (everyone rolls the same skill). Skill challenges are for when you want to resolve an encounter with various skill checks, each player making a different skill check, based on hwo their character wants to face the challenge.

 

[Bolares]

Yea, but I don't love that either, because it's still conflating "roleplaying" with "talking". Making any mechanical decision with the intent of developing and displaying characterization is still roleplaying, to my mind.

This. If I choose to play a competent fighter, who excels at combat, am I not roleplaying by being the most effective and tactical I can be in combat?

 

[Lyxen]

By roleplaying I’m referring to everything outside the cut and thrust of tactical combat. Maybe that’s lazy. I can amend the OP and clarify if people have a better suggestion.

So basically, you are asking whether D&D can handle things out of combat ? Well, yes, obviously, even not taking actual roleplaying into account (which can be inside and outside of combat), there are sections of the game devoted to Exploration and Social, inside the standard rules. They might be too much for some or not enough for others but it can, mechanically speaking.

 

[Maxperson]

Taking in to acount every RPG out there sure, 5e isn't great in resolving conflict outside of combat. Social interaction and exploration don't receive that much atention. BUT that has always been true in D&D. I think for D&D 5e is fine in that aspect. I could be done better, but the poster on the survivor thread seems to be just trying to hate on 5e because their choice didn't win the game...

I didn't see the post, but that seems odd to me. As you say, no edition of D&D has been great, but with the possible exception of 4e(I don't know much about it), 5e has the most roleplaying support of any edition. It offers up the flaw, bond, traits, etc., as well as inspiration to reward roleplaying.

 

[Bolares]

I didn't see the post, but that seems odd to me. As you say, no edition of D&D has been great, but with the possible exception of 4e(I don't know much about it), 5e has the most roleplaying support of any edition. It offers up the flaw, bond, traits, etc., as well as inspiration to reward roleplaying.

Sure, but for some people that is not enough. I played very little of PF2, but that system seems to have way more robust systems for social interaction and exploration. And I think the OP is not talking about roleplaying in the sense of acting like your character, but more about systems that helo gamify social interaction and exploration. In that, I think 3e has more options (and 4e has skill challenges)