you are having it both ways. To start with she chooses what to do every single round,she does not go into a battle and say "i am dodging for 10 rounds". She can choose to dodge if 4 Orcs and two Orogs are attacking her. She can choose not to dodge if they are not.I'm not having it both ways!
Enemies will ignore the Bladesinger (who is doing NOTHING offensively, and just Dodging and spamming defensive spells) and will instead attack the other PCs (who die).
The encounter is balanced around you actually being present and doing something.
Let me get this straight - if she is doing something other than dodge they will attack her. If she dodges than they will never attack her. So I can make the enemy just run back and forth from me to another party member and then I can make them run from the other party member back to me by doing something else while he dodges. So the party can get them to spend the whole battle running back and forth from one PC to another and taking AOsy simply by taking a dodge every time they get close? SWEET!
I think we are going to do that next game. Next time we see a fight leave half the party bbehind and just get two party members to stand 35' away from each other. Whichever PC is closer to the enemy takes dodge so they run to attack the other PC. Then they switch next round so they run back to attack the first. All the enemy does is just run back and forth between the two party members to make certain they ignore the one taking dodge. After all, they are never going to bother attacking a character using dodge. I can't wait to play in your game.
Oh also, she can fireball them in round 1 like you want and then go back to using dodge when they turn around to attack her .... or are they going to ignore her again because she is taking dodge?
And by the way dodge is an action. It is in the rule book it is "doing something". It isn't there for no reason and if it was useless it would not be an action. The reason it is in the rulebook is it was used in playtesting.
By the way when I DM I have enemies use dodge all the time to kill sneak attack.
It "wastes" an action making me near impossible to hit. Moreover I can win that fight without using a 3rd level spell if I cast blur. So I still have fireball or anther 3rd level spell for a tougher battle.Blur would be a waste, because all it does is waste an action making you harder to hit.
No they won't, not on the first round. Not with any DM I have played with.You cast Blur and enter Bladesong, and the Orcs just ignore you and go for the other PCs that are actually hurting them.
If you used that action for Fireball then all the Orcs die, and the Orogs are seriously crippled (every single monster takes 8d6 damage (28 points) of damage).
If I use that action for fireball I use more of my limited resources for this battle than if I use blur. I can kill these orcs and orogs with blur and cantrips or even blur and weapon attacks.
It deals 28 damage to every single orc in the radius of the spell if they miss their save. On average 1-2 will make their save. By the way, yes I can likely target all of them, but I can't likley target all of them if someone else in in the front of me and mixed up with them (unless I target him too).Wut? It deals 28 damage to every single Orc in the room (well... within the 20' radius sphere) , likely killing the Orcs (even if they make their saves) or at least leaving all but one seriously injured (1 HP left) and seriously injuring the Orogs for easy clean up by your allies this round.
This is one way to play it, but I only get 2 3rd level slots, or 3 with AR and I think it is a waste when we don't have to use it.
I understand fireball and I understand the math. You said it "will kill all the orcs". If I do average damage the exact chance of that happening is 17.850625% in another words over 80% of the time the fireball will not "kill all the orcs" with average damage. On average 8 in 20 orcs will make their save against DC14 and have 1hp remaining. 8 in 20 is 1.6 in 4 or on average or one to two orcs that survive the fireball .... which is what I said.Im disturbed you claim to play Wizards all the time with two other Bladesingers, and dont know how fireball works.
It could kill them all with good rolls (either on damage or on saves) or they all could live with bad rolls.
If the remaining 1 Orc and 2 Orogs use their actions to wake up their 3 sleeping allies (45 HP, upcast sleep, averaging 5's on the d8's) you've just negated 8 Great-axe attacks (2 from each Orog, and 1 from each Orc) for an entire round, buying a whole extra round of offence for the rest of your party to slaughter them, plus you stopped the Orcs from using their Bonus action Aggressive ability to Dash and swarm the party (of ranged PCs).
And I accomplished nothing. If I take dodge I effectively negate 8 great axe attacks too. If I take blur I effectively negate 8 great axe attacks and don't waste a 3rd level spell.
And by the way you are assuming above average rolls to put 3 to sleep.
I am deliberately conserving respources for tougher fights. One 5th level character should be able to beat this encounter. It is not a tough fight (unless you make it tough by being stupid). A whole party shuld do it with ease. And the orcs are going to be among the PCs unless you keep the other PCs out of the way.If the party Wizard (5th level, knows Fireball, Counterspell, Sleep, Shield, Blur, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Scorching ray, utility spells) used his action to Dodge (instead of lobbing in a fireball) on an encounter with 4 Orcs and 2 Orogs, then unless he was deliberately conserving resources for a BBEG fight later that day, fireball was too risky due to the Orcs being among the PCs, or running low on Slots because of earlier encounters, he's not doing his job properly.
Last edited: