How often would you say it's appropriate to use the Guidance Cantrip?

[Li Shenron]

I would suggest that if the DM is finding it annoying she is asking for too many skill checks.

Be careful what you ask the DM for tho, because a skill check is a chance of success. If as a DM I start finding Guidance being abused, instead of banning it (house rule), I would just start not to grant the whole party nearly as many skill checks, and you couldn't even call it a house rule since granting a check is DM's decision by the RAW.

 

[MarkB]

In my game, the way I do it is this:

1: Is this a "surprised" skill check? Does the cleric know that she's going to have to do a skill check in advance?

2: Closely related to #1, is there a lack of time to cast the spell? You may know it's coming but simply not have the time

3: Would it be socially awkward? It's not nice to try to convince someone to do something (diplomacy check) or try to see if they are lying (insight check) and start spell-casting in the middle of a conversation.

Also: Would it be counterproductive? The spell has a verbal component, so casting it on someone to help their Stealth check to sneak quietly probably isn't helpful.

 

[Sunseeker]

With infinite time and infinite chances, the possibility of success is 100%, ie: no need for a check.

Outside of that, all my checks have limited opportunities to succeed, so I see no "abuse" with using guidance all the time, though NPCs may react poorly if you're using magic in conversation.

 

[Li Shenron]

1: Is this a "surprised" skill check? Does the cleric know that she's going to have to do a skill check in advance?

2: Closely related to #1, is there a lack of time to cast the spell? You may know it's coming but simply not have the time

3: Would it be socially awkward? It's not nice to try to convince someone to do something (diplomacy check) or try to see if they are lying (insight check) and start spell-casting in the middle of a conversation.

These are definitely reasonable limitations. Neither our Cleric nor our Druid have this cantrip, so it's a non-issue for us, but in the past I have usually thought that the main limitation of Guidance is with reactive checks and with group checks.

Group checks are the unavoidable limitation. If you have one person who knows the spell, you have one person at a time who can benefit from it. Sure in some cases everyone can queue, for example if they all need to jump a chasm they can of course cast+jump+cast+jump+cast+jump... one character at a time. But when the whole group is moving silently in the dungeon (stealth), or they all navigate the wilderness (survival), or they all climb a mountain (athletics), how exactly can you tell when each one is making the check?

However, even reactive checks can benefit from Guidance if the spell is cast beforehand. It only lasts one minute, so if a player really wants to exploit the RAW of this cantrip, she could repeatedly cast this cantrip once per minute, dawn to dusk, and it would really cover every possible check, except those during combat rounds. Narratively speaking, this is a truly dorky situation, and I believe that the vast majority of players simply refuse to accept this to become their normal course of action, simply because it narratively sucks. And that's why apparently Guidance isn't much of a problem after all, because the players chose not to exploit it, not because it's good design.

 

[5ekyu]

"there's no reason not to use it for EVERY single skill check your party ever makes, except that it will slow the game down and (in my experience) make the DM hate you."

If I as GM accept "we will use Guidance unless we need to be quick or quiet or subtle and tell you" then you just roll that d4 with the d20 when you make most skill checks, right? So where is this slow down?

If your DM hates you for using cantrips, find new GM way before you get to Invisible, fly, fireball etc.

 

[Nevvur]

It hasn't come up much at my tables, but most of my tables have been without a cleric or druid.

I did once play a tome warlock from levels 5-7 for a short adventure, and took Guidance with him. I only ever cast it on myself. My character certainly offered to share the insights of Vorgansharax with the party, but the others didn't care much to be inspired by the Devourer of Knowledge. I used it only once or twice a session, if that. There were probably more opportunities to do so, but I wasn't waiting with a d4 in my hand at all times. That is, it never felt like an essential gimmick for my character's mechanical viability, but it was a neat little bonus that enhanced the narrative in certain situations.

I can't really say what's an appropriate frequency for invoking guidance to me, personally. I think it would depend how quickly the players can process the adjustment. I'm not worried about challenges becoming too easy, just wasting time resolving the spell's effect and any narrative hiccups it might produce.

 

[Iry]

The only disruptive part of Guidance is constantly saying you are using Guidance.

So, you could use non-verbal options like a colorful token or prop wand to indicate who is getting the Guidance during non-combat situations. This way, the character only has to announce her Guidance when she's changing her target (or gesture humorously at her target across the table).

 

[CubicsRube]

Alternatively, if your cleric has guidance he could state that if the other characters accept his prayers then he will cast guidance anytime they make a check.

Then for the characters that accept his gods guidance, they roll the extra 1d4 everytime unless the cleric says they will not cast it this particular time, for example the reasons stated above.

 

[Ath'kethin]

In my games I allow it to be cast no more than once per turn, per character who can cast it. That seems to work for everybody.

 

[77IM]

How often do you allow players to Help each other on rolls? Is it annoying when players are constantly Helping each other and granting advantage?