Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheWriterFantastic™" data-source="post: 6878926" data-attributes="member: 88534">Or, imagine that Shocking Grasp actually required the hand to make full contact with the target to actually conduct the electricity --  I get how the "taze" effect of Shocking Grasp works -- but the steps of the attack have different phases: hit, then damage and/or effects. "On a hit, you roll damage, unless the particular attack has rules that specify otherwise. Some attacks cause special effects in addition to or instead of damage. In addition to: over, above, or besides. Instead of: In place of, or rather than. The language of "In addition to" and "Instead of" implies that the effects occur at the same time, or subsequent to, the damage. Since Uncanny Dodge interrupts damage to halve it (because it would be healing damage if it occurred subsequent to the damage), and the effect of Shocking Grasp occurs simultaneous to the damage interrupted, the effect must be interrupted as well. Again, (and my math was slightly off before), Shocking Grasp from a 5th level caster deals 2d8 damage (roughly 9 damage on average, not 6, as I had incorrectly stated before). Even so, the 5th level target burning their reaction for Uncanny Dodge only prevents 4 damage -- an amount that isn't going to break the game, and it prevents the target from using their reactions for anything else for the next round, such as an opportunity attack against the caster, if the caster is trying to flee. The caster is still able to avoid subsequent, more meaningful reactions, such as an opportunity attack, so everyone still has fun.</blockquote>

Verification