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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7110976" data-attributes="member: 6787650">P.S. The one thing I don't like, as a DM, is improvised attacks. It would be a rare day when I rule that an improvised action does more damage than a standard attack. I'm not going to let you drop a chandelier on the Fire Giant's head for 10d6 damage, for example. I'll totally let you spend thirty minutes beforehand digging a 10' deep pit with Mold Earth, then camouflage two guys near the pit while a third guy baits the Fire Giant into chasing him to where the pit is, and then you push him in for 10d6 falling damage (actually I'd make it 40d6 because the Fire Giant is Huge, and I double falling damage per size category over Medium). But I won't generally make it easy to exceed the damage of standard attacks with spur-of-the-moment improvisations, because if it was that easy, standard attacks wouldn't be standard. (In other words, d8+Str is already a lot of damage, and I'd keep a falling chandelier somewhat close to that range instead of doing damage inflation. Perhaps 3d8 if it was a high ceiling.)Likewise, I won't let you just "I throw sand in his eyes" to auto-blind someone. I won't make an improvised action better than a spell. However, I would let you rub sand directly onto your enemy's eyeballs to blind him for a round, in a contest between your (improvised weapon: sand) attack roll and his Con save. (Note: this implies that Tavern Brawlers are better at this trick than most people, because they get to add their proficiency bonus. Seems fitting.) Improvised actions should be of similar utility to standard actions because you never know when a PC is going to want to adopt one of his improvised actions as a signature move.But! I also have a Rule of Yes, which states that "the first someone tries something, it 'just works' pretty much the way you intend it. Only on the second and subsequent attempts will the DM stop to create actual rules for it." So the first time anyone ever tries to use their action throw sand in someone's eyes, they'll be blinded for a round, no saving throw. The above ruling on blinding took me a few minutes of thinking and typing to create and I wouldn't create them during the game. The Rule of Yes keep the game flowing and rewards player creativity. (And it's pretty easy to retcon a single event and just say that the first time it was tried, the PC got lucky and the enemy failed his Con saving throw.)</blockquote>

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