D&D 5E Question about Spells / Enchantments

[alazar14]

Hey guys, I got a quick question, hope you all can help me out!

If I am playing a Bard and am trying to charm an enemy humanoid with the charm spell, do I roll a D20+ my CHA modifier or only D20+ advantage / disadvantage or both? I know that they enemy gets to do a wisdom saving through, but I'm not sure about how I go about the charm attempt.

Secondly, are there action steps like in D&D 4th edition (e.g., minor action, major action, movement, etc.) if so can you guys direct me to the part of the book that talks about that, I've been unable to find it.

Thanks!

 

[The Crimson Binome]

If I am playing a Bard and am trying to charm an enemy humanoid with the charm spell, do I roll a D20+ my CHA modifier or only D20+ advantage / disadvantage or both? I know that they enemy gets to do a wisdom saving through, but I'm not sure about how I go about the charm attempt.

So normally, without magic, anyone can try to convince anyone to do anything by making an appropriate (d20 + Charisma modifier) check. When you cast your spell, if the target fails its Wisdom save, then for the next hour you have Advantage on those checks (take the higher of 2d20, and then add your Charisma bonus).

However the DM would tell you to convince the enemy normally, you use the same procedure while the spell is active - it should probably involve the Deception or Persuasion skill - and now you have Advantage because the enemy is your friend. The spell doesn't let you do anything that you wouldn't otherwise be able to do if you'd just rolled well.

Secondly, are there action steps like in D&D 4th edition (e.g., minor action, major action, movement, etc.) if so can you guys direct me to the part of the book that talks about that, I've been unable to find it.

It's kind of the same, but they don't want you to think of it that way. There's a thing called an Action, and that's pretty much the same as the old Major Action. There's a thing called a Bonus Action, which is a lot like the old Minor Action, except most people don't have anything to do with their Bonus Action so you just forget about it unless you specifically have an ability that requires a Bonus Action to use. Some spells - Healing Word, for example - can be cast as a Bonus Action. Even if you have a lot of abilities that can be used as a Bonus Action, you're still limited to one Bonus Action per round (just like a Minor Action).

Movement isn't an action type, anymore, but it's kind of its own resource. Like, you have a budget of 30 feet of movement on your turn, and you can split that up however you feel like - move 10 feet, then take your Action to attack, then move another 20 feet - or you can spend half of your movement to stand up if you're prone. As an Action, you can increase your movement for the round by another 30 feet.

 

[alazar14]

So normally, without magic, anyone can try to convince anyone to do anything by making an appropriate (d20 + Charisma modifier) check. When you cast your spell, if the target fails its Wisdom save, then for the next hour you have Advantage on those checks (take the higher of 2d20, and then add your Charisma bonus).

However the DM would tell you to convince the enemy normally, you use the same procedure while the spell is active - it should probably involve the Deception or Persuasion skill - and now you have Advantage because the enemy is your friend. The spell doesn't let you do anything that you wouldn't otherwise be able to do if you'd just rolled well.

It's kind of the same, but they don't want you to think of it that way. There's a thing called an Action, and that's pretty much the same as the old Major Action. There's a thing called a Bonus Action, which is a lot like the old Minor Action, except most people don't have anything to do with their Bonus Action so you just forget about it unless you specifically have an ability that requires a Bonus Action to use. Some spells - Healing Word, for example - can be cast as a Bonus Action. Even if you have a lot of abilities that can be used as a Bonus Action, you're still limited to one Bonus Action per round (just like a Minor Action).

Movement isn't an action type, anymore, but it's kind of its own resource. Like, you have a budget of 30 feet of movement on your turn, and you can split that up however you feel like - move 10 feet, then take your Action to attack, then move another 20 feet - or you can spend half of your movement to stand up if you're prone. As an Action, you can increase your movement for the round by another 30 feet.

Thanks for that! Just one more question, when the weapon in the book says you use a 1d8 (1d10) two handed use, but your character says your hit die is a 1D10, how would that work? Would the 1d8 be the hit dice if a warrior uses a long sword + shield combo, would it still be 1d10 if used with two hands?

Does the weapon trump the hit die mentioned in the class guide or does the class hit die trump the weapon?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Thanks for that! Just one more question, when the weapon in the book says you use a 1d8 (1d10) two handed use, but your character says your hit die is a 1D10, how would that work? Would the 1d8 be the hit dice if a warrior uses a long sword + shield combo, would it still be 1d10 if used with two hands?

Does the weapon trump the hit die mentioned in the class guide or does the class hit die trump the weapon?

Hit Dice refer to the amount of extra Hit Points you gain at each level, and you can also spend Hit Dice to heal during a Short Rest. It's unrelated to the amount of damage you deal with a weapon.

Whenever you gain a level, you roll the Hit Die for your class, and your maximum HP increase by that amount (plus your Constitution bonus). So when you go from level 1 to level 2, if you have a Con score of 14 (for a bonus of +2), your total maximum HP might increase from anywhere between +3 and +12. When you take a Short Rest, to bind your wounds and catch your breath, you can spend any number of Hit Dice and recover that many Hit Points (adding your Con bonus to each one). It's a lot like Healing Surges in 4E, except you have a total number of Hit Dice to spend equal to your level, and they recover a random amount of HP instead of always being a quarter of your total. (One of the optional rules is that you can just take the average values for Hit Dice, instead of rolling.)

The weapon damage die is just for calculating damage from your attacks, either 1d8 or 1d10 depending on how many hands you're using for it.