D&D 5E Using the Lucky feat

[John Aitken]

Hello, I'm a first time poster, but have played D&D since 1975. I pose a simple DM question regarding the Lucky feat. Does using a Lucky point counter a natural 20? As a DM, I have been thwarted more times than I can care to count by this. Any thoughts?

 

[Chuck Ocenasek]

Yup. RAW says you can be made to refill the D20. Stop seeing it as players twarting you buy a storytelling element you are getting salty at.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Hello, I'm a first time poster, but have played D&D since 1975. I pose a simple DM question regarding the Lucky feat. Does using a Lucky point counter a natural 20? As a DM, I have been thwarted more times than I can care to count by this. Any thoughts?

Welcome!

Lucky can be used to force a natural 20 to be rerolled. Of course, there's a 1 in 20 chance that another 20 will be rolled, meaning that the luck point made no change.

Feats are meant to be fairly potent in 5e, and Lucky is one of the better ones.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Yup. RAW says you can be made to refill the D20. Stop seeing it as players twarting you buy a storytelling element you are getting salty at.

Indeed. Thwarted makes it sound like actively rooting against the players. While some DMs have this adversarial style, I'm not one that supports it.

 

[Leatherhead]

Yes, the Lucky feat can counter a natural 20, on an attack roll. It's similar to Disadvantage in that way. If that was all it did, negating up to three crits a day (note it can't be used on enemy skill checks or saving throws) it wouldn't be particularly noteworthy, and most people wouldn't even bother with it.

The thing that everyone talks about though, is that you can turn Disadvantage into Super Advantage whenever you use it on your own rolls.

 

[Li Shenron]

Hello, I'm a first time poster, but have played D&D since 1975. I pose a simple DM question regarding the Lucky feat. Does using a Lucky point counter a natural 20? As a DM, I have been thwarted more times than I can care to count by this. Any thoughts?

Short answer: yes. A natural 20 is just one possible roll result, and so Lucky (used against an opponent's natural 20) can force the opponent to use a second d20 roll.

Long answer: if you're the DM, know that Lucky is a seriously poorly worded feat. It can be read differently in more than one place, yielding terribly broken results. My suggestion is that you adjudicate it in whatever way you want, and if a player objects to it, do not attempt to discuss it and just ban the feat.

Edit: by the way, if you want to try and understand the RAI - "rules as intended" for the Lucky feat, do not read the "Sage Advice" about it (which typically answers in terms of RAW - "rules as written") but instead double-check what is said under "Advantage and disadvantage" on PHB page 173.

 

[CapnZapp]

If you don't like Lucky, you should probably ban Bards. [emoji4]

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[CapnZapp]

Long answer: if you're the DM, know that Lucky is a seriously poorly worded feat. It can be read differently in more than one place, yielding terribly broken results. My suggestion is that you adjudicate it in whatever way you want, and if a player objects to it, do not attempt to discuss it and just ban the feat.

Edit: by the way, if you want to try and understand the RAI - "rules as intended" for the Lucky feat, do not read the "Sage Advice" about it (which typically answers in terms of RAW - "rules as written") but instead double-check what is said under "Advantage and disadvantage" on PHB page 173.

Not sure what you are getting at.

If you're thinking about the [surprising / ridiculous] way Lucky interacts with disadvantage, you should probably say so outright.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[Warmaster Horus]

I know players who select Lucky on every one of their PCs when they get a chance. I like the Feat as I like mechanics that allow rerolls, but am selective on characters I assign it to. So far only one of my PCs (out of around 10 active ones) has it.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

I love the Lucky Feat. I took it on my Fighter/Cleric and it is something I have not regretted at all. My character is a gambler to begin with (big part of his backstory and one of his character flaws), so Lucky also fits thematically. Its saved my butt so many times. I definitely save the uses for when the DM rolls a Natural 20 on me, and typically I save my last Lucky roll just in case there is an important Saving Throw I need to make. Its rare I use it to reroll Offensive rolls.

As a DM, I would recommend just letting your players who have this breath sigh of relief and then tell them, "You're LUCKY you didn't get hit with that". =)