Level Up (A5E) Vampersan's Rules Inquiry Thread

[Vampersan]

Whirlwind Strike (Rapid Current)

In the Adventurer's Guide, this 3rd degree combat maneuver is listed as an Action. However, in the A5E Online Tool, it's listed as a Bonus Action. I assume that the Adventurer's Guide is the correct printing?

EDIT: It looks like there's a conflict with the Back to Back (Sanguine Knot) 2nd degree combat maneuver as well. The Adventurer's Guide has it listed as a Bonus Action, whereas the A5E Online Tool has it listed as an Action.

 

[DataDwarf]

My understanding is that the online tool was populated from a playtest version and there is still some work to be done to bring it up to date with the final rules. That being said there is an errata for the printed books here.

 

[Vampersan]

Blessed Prowess (Exalted Athlete 3rd, Adept Class): Starting at 3rd level, when you make a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution check, you can add your martial arts die. When you fail a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saving throw you can use your reaction to spend 2 exertion and reroll.

Subtly Skilled (Adept/Rogue Synergy Feat): A nightstalker’s true strength isn’t brute force — you are an infiltrator, deceiver, a voice in the right ear or a knife to the right neck, and you turn your physical and mental discipline into the subtlest of manipulations and subterfuge. You may add your martial arts die as a bonus to Acrobatics, Culture, Deception, Engineering, Intimidation, Investigation, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Perception, Performance, and Persuasion checks.

So, if you're an Adept (Exalted Athlete subclass)/Rogue with the Subtly Skilled Synergy Feat, would you be able to add your Martial Arts die twice to your Dexterity (Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth) checks? Or would this be akin to a case of receiving something like Extra Attack or Unarmored Defense from two different sources, where they don't stack under most circumstances?

 

[Faolyn]

Pretty sure that they don't stack.

 

[Vampersan]

Pretty sure that they don't stack.

I'm inclined to agree, as that would seemingly be in line with the idea that most stuff doesn't stack if it has the same name or is basically the same feature.

 

[lichmaster]

So yes, you can take it on your own turn to grant yourself an extra attack if you so choose. And for one of the most optimized combos, check out pairing it with Heightened Reflexes. If you’re a fighter, use your specialization, and at 20th level select Heightened Reflexes as your free maneuver. Now you can spend 4 exertion and get 4 additional attacks in a round. And you can do that 4 times per short rest (of course, that‘s all you’ll be doing if you do).

And there we have action surge again!

 

[lichmaster]

Blessed Prowess (Exalted Athlete 3rd, Adept Class): Starting at 3rd level, when you make a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution check, you can add your martial arts die. When you fail a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saving throw you can use your reaction to spend 2 exertion and reroll.

Subtly Skilled (Adept/Rogue Synergy Feat): A nightstalker’s true strength isn’t brute force — you are an infiltrator, deceiver, a voice in the right ear or a knife to the right neck, and you turn your physical and mental discipline into the subtlest of manipulations and subterfuge. You may add your martial arts die as a bonus to Acrobatics, Culture, Deception, Engineering, Intimidation, Investigation, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Perception, Performance, and Persuasion checks.

So, if you're an Adept (Exalted Athlete subclass)/Rogue with the Subtly Skilled Synergy Feat, would you be able to add your Martial Arts die twice to your Dexterity (Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth) checks? Or would this be akin to a case of receiving something like Extra Attack or Unarmored Defense from two different sources, where they don't stack under most circumstances?

The rules talk about expertise dice stacking, not martial arts die stacking, so I'd say no until we have an official reply from the designers.
As a home rule, I may consider martial arts die to stack like expertise dice do, i.e. rolling a higher die but not rolling twice the same die.

 

[Vampersan]

And there we have action surge again!

Huh, I guess that could indeed be seen as a new iteration of Action Surge lol

Although, at least in A5e you need to do more than just dip into Fighter for a couple of levels to gain access to it. ^.^

The rules talk about expertise dice stacking, not martial arts die stacking, so I'd say no until we have an official reply from the designers.
As a home rule, I may consider martial arts die to stack like expertise dice do, i.e. rolling a higher die but not rolling twice the same die.

Sounds like a reasonable house rule. Martial arts dice not stacking by no means invalidates an Exalted Athlete/Rogue multiclass build; it's still really, really good. But in comparison to a Warrior Monk/Rogue or Brawler/Rogue build, the Exalted Athlete does seem to lose out just a little bit since there's some overlap between the subclass feature and what the 2nd synergy feat offers.

Then again, 1d20+2d6+1d4+10 on an Acrobatics check does seem a little on the absurd side (assuming a 10th level character, 16's in both Dex and Wis, two martial arts dice, and an Expertise die). That's an average roll of 32 if my math is correct.

Of course, even without stacking the martial arts dice, it's still an average roll of 28, with a minimum non-fumble roll of 14 and a maximum non-critical roll of 39.

 

[Vampersan]

Battle Hymns

So, this Bard feature is a little unclear to me.

Just to be clear, and correct me if I'm wrong:

1. It takes no action to activate a Battle Hymn on your turn, but it does consume 1 Bardic Inspiration die.
2. You don't have to choose a target upon activating it, and if you don't, you can continue to maintain in round-after-round without spending an additional Bardic Inspiration die.

3. If you do choose a target (which can occur on any creature's turn), then you must spend another Bardic Inspiration die at the start of your next turn if you want to extend the effect for another round.

4. And lastly, if you take the Battle Hymn Focus feature that lets you ignore the concentration requirement of Battle Hymns, you can maintain concentration on both a Battle Hymn and a spell at the same time.

If all of that is correct, then are Battle Hymns, mechanically-speaking, just different ways of spending Bardic Inspiration dice beyond the usual "an ally adds your Bardic Inspiration die to one of its ability, attack, or saving rolls in the next 10 mins"?

 

[Faolyn]

Actually, there's another question there. It takes a bonus action to spend a Bardic Inspiration die. Does it still take that bonus action to spend the die to start the Hymn, but the Hymn itself doesn't require any other actual actions?