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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jaelommiss" data-source="post: 6783309" data-attributes="member: 6775925">There are certainly times where risking damage is perfectly acceptable to accomplish something.I'll give you an example. Recently my players got into a fight with some bugbears and worgs, supported by a sorcerer who flung spells at the party from a distance. The bugbears and worgs tied up the melee characters while the sorcerer dropped the ranged characters in short order (they were in their last legs going into the fight). Both the fighter and barbarian weighed the risk of a couple opportunity attacks vs letting the sorcerer bombard them with impunity, and in the end decided that it was worth the risk*.Like anything in combat, the player (either by their own assessment or how they believe the character would think) needs to weigh the risk (likelihood and significance of setback) and reward for a course of action. From my point of view, the rogue acted correctly given that there was certain damage that could have been extremely high, would have exposed the rogue to further risk by entering the fight, and would at best end the fight a single round sooner. In this situation I would likely try to find another way up (running outside and climbing the wall to a window) or find something else to do (such as throwing oil flasks blindly up the stairs or watching for flanking enemies).To illustrate this another way, consider a wizard fighting an adjacent ogre. Making an attack with Ray of Frost at disadvantage would be safe, so long is the ogre will not survive to its next turn. Risking an AoO to eliminate disadvantage could very well kill the wizard, depending on the wizard's level and HP. Swap the ogre for a goblin and suddenly risking the AoO to remove disadvantage is far more sensible. Suppose that the wizard is maintaining a concentration spell. This makes the goblin far more dangerous given the chance of losing that spell on a successful hit. Or consider an evil wizard that has created a Wall of Fire between himself and the party. The fighter and cleric might not want to risk running through it, but the gold dragonborn and raging totem barbarian see it as a reasonable risk in order to break the wizard's concentration.I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no definite answer for this question. Sometimes it is worth taking the damage, sometimes it is not, and most of the time there is no clear answer and players will need to assess the situation before deciding for themselves.*Two out of three AoO ended up being crits. My dice were rolling hot that day. Regardless, I still think they made the correct tactical decision. Were it not for extreme bad luck it would have paid off greatly.</blockquote>

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