jmucchiello
Hero
Acrobatics roll added in IC.
(OOC) Scourge of Daggerford (Full)
Neurotic
I plan on living forever. Or die trying.
@FitzTheRuke dmg 251, optional rule for flanking.
I am trained in martial arts and from practice I can tell you it is much harder to fight two opponents on the opposite sides than in front of you. In unarmed combat, you can use back kicks as deterrrent, but it is usually better to rush one of them and either level him 1-on-1 and repeat with the other. Or rush one and get them both where you can see them clearly.
That said, in 5e it is optional so...your game.
@MetaVoid/Vairar missed even with advantage; so LOL. But maybe he would like to remain in line with others?
I am trained in martial arts and from practice I can tell you it is much harder to fight two opponents on the opposite sides than in front of you. In unarmed combat, you can use back kicks as deterrrent, but it is usually better to rush one of them and either level him 1-on-1 and repeat with the other. Or rush one and get them both where you can see them clearly.
That said, in 5e it is optional so...your game.
@MetaVoid/Vairar missed even with advantage; so LOL. But maybe he would like to remain in line with others?
FitzTheRuke
Legend
I'm trained in martial arts too (22 years), and I don't disagree that it's harder to fight two guys on opposite sides. Still, there's a lot of stuff that's hard to do, and tons of stuff that's easy to do, that D&D doesn't emulate with rules (or at least not terribly well).
"Flanking" was a fine, if a bit fiddly rule in 3, 3.5, and 4e where it was effectively some version of +2 to hit, but "Advantage" is worth a lot more than that. Too much, IMO (and the designer' opinion too, which is why they didn't include it in the regular rules). I figure that they put in in the DMG for (primarily) 3.5 players who didn't want to live without it.
Last edited:
FitzTheRuke
Legend
@Kobold Stew Tommi needs to go. All of the orcs have passed his position (other than the One-Eye and the one that's trying to run. Most of them are distracted by Escella or fighting Vairar and the Bear. You can get to the One-Eye with 50 feet of movement (cunning dash?) if you like.
@Prickly Pear Titus needs to go too. Don't forget that he has a Tressym familiar (Morwen) on his shoulder.
@Prickly Pear Titus needs to go too. Don't forget that he has a Tressym familiar (Morwen) on his shoulder.
gargoyleking
Adventurer
So, for now will Dandin need to use his actions to control the bear every turn? He seems to do more right now than Dandin would. But I'd love to keep Dandin acting too.
FitzTheRuke
Legend
No, he'll keep mauling anyone who comes at him. It's just a bit dangerous to stand anywhere near him (like Titus is doing) because he's not really that good at telling friend from foe yet, without Dandin working his training (which Dandin is still learning himself). If you 'waste' your action rolling reasonably well on Animal Handling checks, then he'll do exactly what you intend (I figured 10 was close enough to get the basic job done, but not enough to get it perfect) but if you do your own thing, I'll make judgement calls. I might let you throw in an Animal Handling check as a reaction if he, for example, decides to maul Titus.
"No! Bad Bear! Get the smelly one instead!"
I certainly won't automatically make him attack allies whenever you try to do something else, though. That would be pretty uncalled for. Feel free to do something else this round. There's an orc right there, so he's got a pretty obvious target. Which reminds me, I might want to think about the Wolf running away, too. I can't imagine a wolf that would stand that close to a bear, even if he's busy jumping on an elf...
gargoyleking
Adventurer
Nope, no 'step' action. You can move around within an enemies reach without provoking. But the moment you try to leave it, you provoke. It's one of the weirder aspects of 5e.
FitzTheRuke
Legend
Yeah, it's a bit of a strange change to something that was working well. I think it came about because of their desire to only have one action type - the "action", so they got rid of the "move action" but then they put in the "bonus action" (which they've said they regret). Personally, I think there was nothing wrong with three action types (four counting reactions), or they should have not used the bonus action (and gone with the whole "you can do this thing as well as part of your action" and kept "move" as a thing rather than just something you can do. Either way, they probably should have kept "step/shift" as something you could do instead of move. It always seems a bit much that you have to spend your action to disengage.
Still, I try not to play with too many optional/house rules. I'm not quite sure why I prefer it that way, but I do. (And I recognise that I make exceptions, like totally ignoring how initiative works for the sake of PBP).
As far as Vairar advancing goes, @MetaVoid - I will try to find a way to fix that. Though this will help to let the rest of the "front line" move up. We'll see how it plays out. If we can't come up with a way to reverse it, we'll have Lord Darfin reward him for his bravery.
FitzTheRuke
Legend
No, you just missed that One-Eye had dashed over under the cliff before you posted your turn. I figured that your intention was to get into melee with him, rather than to move to the space you described, so I went with that. I think I'm going to avoid this kind of confusion in the future by waiting until all the players have gone before resolving any monsters. It rarely causes any issues, but sometimes things like this pop up.
I think the general order of my non-initiative will look like this:
1) PCs go.
2) BGs go.
3) NPCs go.
I will do away with Surprise, except in instances where the PCs get surprised (something that doesn't happen too often in my games). When it does, the monsters will go first, and then the PCs and NPCs. I don't really like Surprise when it causes some characters to go twice before the others do anything at all. It becomes even worse when, realistically, a lot of the time when surprise is really a factor, weapons need to be gathered and positions need to be taken, which takes even more time away from the surprised side anyway. Going second, and spending your first turn getting ready, should be enough without getting two rounds of attacks against you, IMO.
My bad -- thanks.
Similar Threads
