D&D 5E The Nature of the Shield Spell

[Yardiff]

You don't have roll in the open, you can do it how Matt Mercer does. When he rolls an attack, which he rolls behind a DM screen, he tells the target of the attack what his total roll was and asks if that hit.

 

[Tanin Wulf]

So Sage Advice is not consider 'official' rulings? Sage Advice is a rules question and answer forum on the WotC website and answer by designers and developers.

My understanding is that unless it's in the Sage Advice Compendium (a PDF you can download), it's not official UNLESS Jeremy Crawford tweets it.

...huh, this Shield query isn't in the compendium. Well, that makes me feel better about quietly ignoring the ruling. ^_^ (Though I do often tell my players things like, "That won't help..." as a hint that the action is impossible and not to waste resources - with things like Cutting Words often getting more nuanced responses from me.)

 

[Yardiff]

So someone tweet Jeremy Crawford and ask him. Then there will be an 'official' answer.

 

[lonelynoose]

You don't have roll in the open, you can do it how Matt Mercer does. When he rolls an attack, which he rolls behind a DM screen, he tells the target of the attack what his total roll was and asks if that hit.

Every DM I've ever played with does this.

 

[Mort]

You don't have roll in the open, you can do it how Matt Mercer does. When he rolls an attack, which he rolls behind a DM screen, he tells the target of the attack what his total roll was and asks if that hit.

Honestly not sure if it's actually RAW but that's the way I do it too. It obviates questions like this one and just seems to save time in general.

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

Honestly not sure if it's actually RAW but that's the way I do it too. It obviates questions like this one and just seems to save time in general.

That is the way I think is best too. My comments earlier were just about what the rules say or don't say and how they interact pre-houserulings. I use those as the standard for rules discussions because houserules can vary greatly from table to table/game to game.

 

[Tanin Wulf]

Honestly not sure if it's actually RAW but that's the way I do it too. It obviates questions like this one and just seems to save time in general.

I don't think there is a RAW way to do it. I think Chapter 8 of the DMG pretty much says, "There isn't one way."

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I still believe that the standard is rolling in full view of everyone. The second line of the dice rolling section is " Rolling in full view of everyone is a good starting point." The bullet points after that are potential reasons a DM might want to hide a roll, but the standard is to roll in full view.

Another reason I believe the standard is to for the rolls to be in plain sight is that the valor bard combat inspiration ability allows the recipient of bardic inspiration to use their reaction to add the bardic inspiration roll to their AC after seeing the roll. I don't think that they intend for everytime that the valor bard uses their inspiration that the recipient has to move their chair over behind the DM screen so only they can see the DM hit rolls but that the base rules assume players can see the rolls.

You don't have roll in the open, you can do it how Matt Mercer does. When he rolls an attack, which he rolls behind a DM screen, he tells the target of the attack what his total roll was and asks if that hit.

The problem with the class abilities that assume rolls are in the open is that they don't take into account modern technology. My group plays online. The players use dice cups because it is faster for them to just click on a labeled cup like "Attack: Longsword" or "Strength Proficiency" than to look at their character sheet. The DM rolls physical dice because it is faster for him to do so than to try to make dice cups for every monster attack/check/save.

I personally think deriving a number, and then conveying that number to someone else is just adding an extra step that slows down the game. The DM should always have his player's stats in front of him. It just baffles me that so many DMs want to ask their players what they rolled each time, or "What's your AC? Does X hit?" Holy crap! You need players' AC all the time, just write it down!

The more time we spend in unnecessary number conveying steps the less time we have to actually enjoy the role-playing game.

DM's, use something like this.

View attachment QuickPlayerRef5ed - Sample.pdf

 

[cbwjm]

The problem with the class abilities that assume rolls are in the open is that they don't take into account modern technology. My group plays online. The players use dice cups because it is faster for them to just click on a labeled cup like "Attack: Longsword" or "Strength Proficiency" than to look at their character sheet. The DM rolls physical dice because it is faster for him to do so than to try to make dice cups for every monster attack/check/save.

I personally think deriving a number, and then conveying that number to someone else is just adding an extra step that slows down the game. The DM should always have his player's stats in front of him. It just baffles me that so many DMs want to ask their players what they rolled each time, or "What's your AC? Does X hit?" Holy crap! You need players' AC all the time, just write it down!

The more time we spend in unnecessary number conveying steps the less time we have to actually enjoy the role-playing game.

DM's, use something like this.

View attachment 90532

While that is nicely laid out, do you actually need all of that information? The main items I'd have thought are just the static ones like AC and passive perception and possible Spell DCs of casters or do you sometimes roll a player's save in secret to keep the mystery for something?

 

[Yardiff]

I always find it funny when people say things 'slow down the play', how much faster are you getting by cutting out 10 sec of time a round in a 3 round combat? Saving 30 sec really speed up the game.