November's SAGE ADVICE Is Here!

November's Sage Advice column by WotC's Jeremy Crawford is up. This month deals with lightfoot halfing and wood elf hiding racial traits, some class features, backgrounds (you can have only one!), muticlassing, surprise rounds in combat, and more. Check out this month's Sage Advice here. The advice here has been added to the Sage Advice Compendium.

 

[Coredump]

I am not going to get involved, beyond saying that Flamestrike is correct, for the reasons he has stated.

I could say them again, but I don't see the point.

 

[Flamestrike]

Pretty sure the attack of a trap is resolved exactly as the attack of a creature during combat.

Im looking in the combat section of my PHB at the moment. I dont see traps mentioned anywhere in there.

They are resolved similar to attacks from creatures. But not the same. They cant (for example) surprise you (meaning you can use any reaction available to you to stop them) they dont roll initiative (allowing you the option of going before them) etc.

They are not resolved exactly like attacks from hostile creatures are. There are similarities with an attack roll being made against an AC and typed damage being inflicted for certain kinds of traps (for ease of play and interplay with other abilities like shield and deflect missiles do doubt).

And you've chosen to follow them. They're not proscriptive, you know.

Id happily discuss house rules with you till the cows come home. However this is a thread dedicated to clarification of the RAW by the devs (RAI of the RAW if you will).

Ive never said (and have no authority to say in any event) you cant make whatever ruling you want at your table.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Im looking in the combat section of my PHB at the moment. I dont see traps mentioned anywhere in there.

Cool. Do you see how attacks are resolved?

They are resolved similar to attacks from creatures. But not the same. They cant (for example) surprise you (meaning you can use any reaction available to you to stop them) they dont roll initiative (allowing you the option of going before them) etc.

Where does it say they can't surprise you? The only rule on when you're surprised is that the DM determines it.

Also, if you're strict reading, you couldn't ever use a reaction against a trap because you're not in initiative, and you can't do those things outside of initiative, right?

They are not resolved exactly like attacks from hostile creatures are. There are similarities with an attack roll being made against an AC and typed damage being inflicted for certain kinds of traps (for ease of play and interplay with other abilities like shield and deflect missiles do doubt).

They're resolved exactly like an attack from a hostile creature. You look under 'making an attack' in the 'combat' chapter to find out how to do so for either. You determine the target, determine the modifiers, and resolve the attack.

Id happily discuss house rules with you till the cows come home. However this is a thread dedicated to clarification of the RAW by the devs (RAI of the RAW if you will).

No, it's the rules forum. RAI is nice, but not necessary. Also, there's nothing in RAW or RAI that says you can't make an attack outside of initiative, so that would be your house rule?

Ive never said (and have no authority to say in any event) you cant make whatever ruling you want at your table.

Well, thank goodness. But I'm saying that you can stay within RAW and read it a different way than you have. The rules of this editions are loose for a reason, and that's to prevent exactly the kind of RAW one-true-wayism going on here.

 

[Valador]

Has anyone tried asking one of the Wizards crew via Twitter? Some clarification would be very insightful. I don't use Twitter otherwise I would ask.

 

[ad_hoc]

Has anyone tried asking one of the Wizards crew via Twitter? Some clarification would be very insightful. I don't use Twitter otherwise I would ask.

I think there is a Sage Advice article about it.

Does anyone have a link?

 

[Valador]

Christopher Perkins ‏@ChrisPerkinsDnD 2h2 hours ago Renton, WA
The PH states that initiative is rolled "when combat starts," which I take to mean before any attack is resolved.

I asked.

The answer was in response to my question of - Are attacks allowed outside of initiative combat? Is initiative rolled before or after an attack is declared? Forum debate.