Would you rather have Expertise or Advantage on a roll?

[Keith Lamond]

Expertise. It is something that is always present when you roll, so all your checks in that ability are higher. Advantage is situational, and as others have said, I or the party can sometimes create a situation where I have advantage.

I'm playing a rogue for the first time, and seeing that the lowest I can roll in stealth or deception is an 11, two skills I should be using a lot, feels great.

 

[Blue]

Expertise.

This is assuming we're talking ability (& skill) checks that currently have expertise. I'd rather have the higher max roll, even if for most of my adventuring career my average roll would be a bit lower. Plus I can always do something else (like have someone do the help action) to get Advantage.

If you expand this out to saves, my answer stays the same.

But if you expand it to attacks, it becomes "it depends". In general, expertise would wreck bounded accuracy and allow me to hit more. But for a few builds, permanent Advantage would give a big bonus to crit fishing.

 

[Aenorgreen]

Expertise. It is not that difficult to have a party member help you to get advantage. Also expertise is an absolute addition to your check instead of just skewing the results toward the higher end.

 

[Harzel]

If you had to choose one, would you rather have Expertise or Advantage on a roll?

Let's say this choice would effect your character from level 1 all the way to level 20.

We would have to weigh the benefits of each -

Expertise -
+2 to roll
+3 to roll
+4 to roll
+5 to roll
+6 to roll

Expertise basically gets better as you advance, where as Advantage always stays the same.

Advantage -
If I am not mistaken it is determined Advantage is the equivalent of a +5 to the roll, unless the math on that has changed.

Did you mean 'proficiency'? The numbers you quoted are proficiency bonuses. Expertise doubles those.

 

[MarkB]

I'll buck the trend and go with Advantage, simply because it means that you can never be in the position of having to roll that check with Disadvantage.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Therefore, Most of the time, the +5 (on average) of having Advantage

+5 average is actually best case scenario. The average "average" is more like +3/+4 as I recall. It is highly dependent on the DC you need to hit. Someone probably has the math.

 

[Vymair]

I'm going to approach this differently that the math argument. Expertise defines your character. Choosing a few skills in which your character is an expert defines them. Stealth, the most popular choice, makes the character a far superior scout to anyone else in the party, especially since they probably have among the higher dexterity already. Persuasion, Insight or Deception means you have much greater gifts in social encounters and the party will rely on you in those situation. Less common esoteric choices would be even more character defining. A bard with expertise in history would get a lot of historical background information and would often be able to give historical context to items or places.

This ability to greater define the character would be the reason I'd always choose expertise.

 

[jgsugden]

From an efficiency standpoint: This is pure math, and the math is going to be heavily influenced by the situation. However, as Expertise increases the range of available results (and also raises the minimum roll), I would give it an edge. Also, the comments about still being able to gain advantage through other means hold true.

From a fun perspective: More dice is always fun, so advantage tends to be more fun.

From a thematic game standpoint: Expertise would reflect a greater capability - making the character more special. I do enjoy having a character that can do something fun that nobody else can do.

End result: Who cares, because I don't really need to make this choice.

 

[Bardbarian]

Assuming I could only have one on any given roll, it would depend on the difficulty of the task I am attempting. For moderate difficulties like a DC10-15 Advantage would probably serve me better as it would be far easier to roll the needed number range. For extremely difficult tasks like DCs in the high teens roughly 17+ and above Expertise would make it more likely to reach this higher numbers. These numbers are malleable and would vary heavily based on your base proficiency and applicable stats but hopefully you get the idea.

 

[Slit518]

Did you mean 'proficiency'? The numbers you quoted are proficiency bonuses. Expertise doubles those.

No, because the Proficiency bonus is half of that. Since the Expertise doubles it, it is really only adding 2, 3, 4, etc... to a roll that you're proficient in.

Though I didn't state it before, I must of forgot, you are proficient in said roll. I fixed that on the original post to reflect that.

Sorry for any confusion.