D&D 5E Lucky feat (the defense part) question

[gweinel]

You can also spend one luck point when an attack
roll is made against you. Roll a d20, and then choose
whether the attack uses the attacker’s roll or yours.

The aforementioned quote means that you have to see the dm's roll first or you have to roll and then the dm will tell you what he/she rolled?

If you can see the roll beforehand then it would pretty much beneficial almost every time you use the feat. Otherwise there is a strong possibility to use (and waste) the feat on the low rolls of the game master.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

It doesn't have to be that the DM shows the roll (though as a DM, I tend to roll in front of the players except when secrecy is really important). Since it's an attack and the DM knows the goal of using the Lucky feat in this way is to avoid the attack, the player can just roll his roll and the DM will use whichever is lowest.

 

[3SpdDragster]

As I DM I try not to invalidate a choice of feat.

So, I would roll in front of the player and let them see the roll.

 

[Shiroiken]

As with the bardic ability, I would suggest letting the player know the roll, but not the total. This lets them have an idea of how likely they are to be hit, but not exactly. It helps if you know the party's AC, because then you just tell them if it hits or misses (preventing them from doing the math to determine the enemy's attack modifier).

Having used the feat as a player, I don't feel this is a strong use of the feat except to avoid critical hits. Saves can be brutal, and I often kept my lucky rolls for them. Occasionally I'd want to use it on an attack, but that was because I was a rogue and felt I didn't want to waste an important sneak attack.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

It's a feat. It should always be beneficial.

 

[Coredump]

The rules still work just fine even if the DM never shows you the die, and never tells you the value. In that case, you roll yours, and then you have to play the odds...

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

The rules still work just fine even if the DM never shows you the die, and never tells you the value. In that case, you roll yours, and then you have to play the odds...

Interestingly, if you don't get to see the DM's roll, Lucky becomes basically the same thing as Portent: an opportunity to force the enemy to use a die roll of your choice.

But Portent is much stronger because it lasts all day, not just for one roll, and can be used for enemy saves/etc. as well as your own rolls.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The rules still work just fine even if the DM never shows you the die, and never tells you the value. In that case, you roll yours, and then you have to play the odds...

See, I don't like that because it means that a player could spend luck and turn a missed attack into a hit, which defeats the purpose both mechanically and thematically.

You're so lucky that instead of dodging the blow you took it right in the gut, too bad. Wouldn't make a player feel they made a sound decision.

 

[FrogReaver]

See, I don't like that because it means that a player could spend luck and turn a missed attack into a hit, which defeats the purpose both mechanically and thematically.

You're so lucky that instead of dodging the blow you took it right in the gut, too bad. Wouldn't make a player feel they made a sound decision.

Even with seeing the dice there's no guarantee that lucky turns a blow into a miss or even a crit into a non-crit. There's just a better chance of it happening.

 

[FrogReaver]

It really doesn't matter how it's ran. As a DM just make sure that players are aware that they will or will not see dice rolls of monsters before using lucky.

Regardless of being able to see a monsters attack before using lucky, you always get to see your saving throws, attack rolls and skill checks before using lucky. That's at least 3/4's of the feats full usefulness intact regardless of how you play with revealing monster rolls.