D&D 5E Starter Set: Excerpt 3 (actual)

[Kobold Stew]

Really? My PF players use Aid Another on pretty much every single skill check, except for when it wouldn't make sense (like Perception to notice an ambush).

As always, different players make for vastly different games.

This is interesting: do you also allow them multiple attempts? I like to play that with aid another, you're foregoing the multiple attempts, but it's never very clear. I'd be interested to to hear about your experiences.

If you check the very first (partial) paragraph of the equipment preview, you'll see that holy symbols (and presumably other implements) can now be used to forgo any non-costly material components in a spell.

Good catch!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This is interesting: do you also allow them multiple attempts? I like to play that with aid another, you're foregoing the multiple attempts, but it's never very clear. I'd be interested to to hear about your experiences.

I'm not TwoSix, but just to add to the sample, what I've noticed my players do is, if any of them think the DC is remotely possible, they all have a go separately, because they're instinctively worked out that the odds of one of them succeeding that way tend to be a fair bit better than if they actually use Aid Another, which requires a successful (if every easy) check to grant +2 to someone who might get a terrible roll anyway.

If they don't think the DC is possible for someone untrained or with a weak skill, then anyone who can will use Aid Another on whatever PC has the highest skill.

It's pretty reliable. Like you I feel there's some ambiguity over Aid Another vs Multiple Attempts, but I don't typically allow multiple attempts unless there's a clear reason to (like, trying to climb something or whatever). I notice that players who roll Aid Another typically do not also attempt to then roll for themselves, but it's not a hard rule, afaik.

Gotta agree with those who hope Detect Magic is something more impressive than the usual Detect Magic if it's actually a first-level spell. I really really do not want to go back to 2E days on that, especially as the problem of having to memorize Detect Magic (or use spell slots on it, as it would be in 5E) was solved by lots and lots and lots of scrolls of Detect Magic, generally. I never saw it make the game more interesting, only slightly more irksome.

 

[Ace]

Really? My PF players use Aid Another on pretty much every single skill check, except for when it wouldn't make sense (like Perception to notice an ambush).

As always, different players make for vastly different games.

Absolutely. My group is rules lazy and rarely remembers to use aid another..

As an aside, aid another actually makes sense for perception. As long as multiple party members are scouting and wary its much easier to spot trouble in groups. This seems to match reality AFAICT . Of course I allow scouts to take 10 and as a passive save so what do I know.

As to guidance, in Next it seems to be " aid another usable in combat with a variable (1d4) bonus requiring touch" its probably combat balanced with groups that use aid another a lot as the opportunity costs in attacks or other spells balances things out but it might not be as balanced outside combat as its basically +2 to any task not requiring stealth.

Still with multiple attempts, I dunno many skills IRL can be tried again and again. Opening locks is a classic example, given enough time almost any lock at the D&D level of sophistication could be opened the exception being magic locks and trick locks with tamper proof mechanisms . If you Google locksport you'll see this in action, take for example a bicycle lock (which is harder to pick than a standard D&D lock) anyone here could pick it with bobby pins, its not a matter of skill but of time. How good you are is how fast same with many skills, anyone can make a pot with enough clay and so on. This just speeds things up a bit.

 

[TwoSix]

This is interesting: do you also allow them multiple attempts? I like to play that with aid another, you're foregoing the multiple attempts, but it's never very clear. I'd be interested to to hear about your experiences.

Multiple attempts, as in allowing multiple characters to make the roll? I do as long as the situation seems to allow it. Honestly, outside of Knowledge checks, it doesn't come up very often.

I'd partially agree with Ruin that as long as the characters think the check might be easy (and the results fairly binary) they'll all give it a shot. But the party's characters usually end up with a fairly broad spectrum of maxed out skills, and the presence of a guy with a +20 modifier will usually get the players with a +7 or +8 to chip in with Aid Another. The fact that I often scale results based on the magnitude of success certainly encourages this, however.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Multiple attempts, as in allowing multiple characters to make the roll? I do as long as the situation seems to allow it. Honestly, outside of Knowledge checks, it doesn't come up very often. .

Or on a fail, the same charter tries again:

"I pick the lock" (roll.)
"You are not successful."
"I try again" (roll).

 

[TwoSix]

Or on a fail, the same charter tries again:

"I pick the lock" (roll.)
"You are not successful."
"I try again" (roll).

Aid Another, and take 20 is our standard approach.

 

[CM]

In my 4e game our houserule is that people who use aid another can contribute their +2 or their d20 result, whichever improves the task leader's result the most. It gets used pretty frequently.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Guidance has never seemed all that useful to me except as a corner case. The main reason being that I'm not going to have my character go around spending 5%-10% of his life casting a spell over and over again. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to adventure with "that guy"?

Of course, from a purely gamist standpoint it's a bit more useful, and I don't contest that.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Guidance has never seemed all that useful to me except as a corner case. The main reason being that I'm not going to have my character go around spending 5%-10% of his life casting a spell over and over again. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to adventure with "that guy"?

Of course, from a purely gamist standpoint it's a bit more useful, and I don't contest that.

Oh, it might be fun, for a one shot, to play a cleric who really needs affirmation.

"Do you need any help with that scythe trap or do you have it? Oh, you probably have it. Never mind. Sorry. Wait. You do want help? Are you sure? You're not just saying that?"

Ok. Maybe for one encounter it would be fun.

Thaumaturge.

 

[occam]

Gotta agree with those who hope Detect Magic is something more impressive than the usual Detect Magic if it's actually a first-level spell. I really really do not want to go back to 2E days on that, especially as the problem of having to memorize Detect Magic (or use spell slots on it, as it would be in 5E) was solved by lots and lots and lots of scrolls of Detect Magic, generally. I never saw it make the game more interesting, only slightly more irksome.

Remember that the rules for detecting magic have changed:

Simply handling a normal magic item is enough to determine that it is imbued with mystical power. Detect magic is still useful to pinpoint magic items from a distance, or to detect auras from items that do not innately hint at their magical nature.

So detect magic isn't an essential spell like it used to be.