D&D 5E Telegraphing Attacks

[Xeviat]

@Xeviat

The dynamics above now has me looking in to how the defender is done in 5e not liking a lot of what I have seen so far. 4e marking had some quirkie bits but.

I have started looking in to how the "Protector Fighting Style" is handled in 5e and using up your reaction in the Fighting style even if the attack against your ally isn't going to hit is kind of very bad. Opportunity attacks are also tied to that reaction.

I think an intimidating glare which requires you hit with an attack and which influenced an enemy towards attacking you via reducing the damage of their attacks until they manage to hit you might be just the trick. (attacking your overcomes the effect)

The amount it protected might be based on proficiency to allow for it scaling.

Have you played "Pillars of Eternity"? It's a very 3E meets 4E D&D-esque CRPG. One of their mechanics is called "engagement". When you are fighting someone, you can "engage" with them. Most characters can only "engage" with one target, and that's the target they're attacking. If that target "disengages" from you (moves away, turns to attack someone else), you get an opportunity attack against them. Fighters (Warriors?) have an option they can choose which gives them a stance that lets them engage with 3 targets, but they take a penalty to their AC (AC in that system is damage reduction).

It's an interesting idea. Pathfinder 2 seems to be playing with something like that too.

 

[Garthanos]

Have you played "Pillars of Eternity"? It's a very 3E meets 4E D&D-esque CRPG. One of their mechanics is called "engagement". When you are fighting someone, you can "engage" with them. Most characters can only "engage" with one target, and that's the target they're attacking. If that target "disengages" from you (moves away, turns to attack someone else), you get an opportunity attack against them. Fighters (Warriors?) have an option they can choose which gives them a stance that lets them engage with 3 targets, but they take a penalty to their AC (AC in that system is damage reduction).

It's an interesting idea. Pathfinder 2 seems to be playing with something like that too.

Interesting indeed damage reduction for AC goes all the way back to RuneQuest. And that engaged controlling opportunity attacks is rather arguably in 1e but not the fighter getting special at it.

 

[Fenris-77]

I've been toying with an initiative system where the the lowest numbers actually act first with some rules for interrupts for higher initiatives, plus the ability to split a PCs actions, bonus actions, and reactions over several steps. You could fold the kind of telegraphed attack into that kind of approach pretty easily - declares first, starts winding up, and goes last (or the next round, whichever). I'd like to try and represent how characters with high initiative have an intuitive grasp of the battlefield and it's always bugged me a little that high initiative in 5E (and many systems) has to declare and act in the dark. When the high INIT PC can let the round develop and act when they need to, at the opportune moment, that feels more like what I want out of representing high initiative.

 

[Xeviat]

I've been toying with an initiative system where the the lowest numbers actually act first with some rules for interrupts for higher initiatives, plus the ability to split a PCs actions, bonus actions, and reactions over several steps. You could fold the kind of telegraphed attack into that kind of approach pretty easily - declares first, starts winding up, and goes last (or the next round, whichever). I'd like to try and represent how characters with high initiative have an intuitive grasp of the battlefield and it's always bugged me a little that high initiative in 5E (and many systems) has to declare and act in the dark. When the high INIT PC can let the round develop and act when they need to, at the opportune moment, that feels more like what I want out of representing high initiative.

I miss 3E's "ready action" mechanic.

 

[Fenris-77]

That's exactly the kind of mechanic I had in mind when I started fooling around with alternative ideas for initiative. When initiative = battlefield control (awareness?) you can do all sorts of interesting things.

 

[Garthanos]

I miss 3E's "ready action" mechanic.

Was it actually practical... without a DM telegraphing it seems like it would be blind guess and a lot of wasted actions