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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6509812" data-attributes="member: 97077">I see what you mean. In my view, this is an easy situation to avoid as it has nothing to do with fiddling with mechanics and much more to do with <a href="http://dungeonmastery.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-goals-of-play.html" target="_blank">achieving the Goals of Play</a>. I thus have no problem adjudicating &quot;called shots&quot; as they arise because I know the players at the table agree with the Goals of Play and wouldn't seek to abuse mechanics in a way that causes them to fail to achieve them.As it relates to this thread, encouraging players to do things other than &quot;I swing my sword&quot; is key to mitigating the whiff factor that has plagued D&amp;D since its inception. There are many ways to affect the outcome of a conflict other than relying upon an attack roll. It just takes paying attention to the environment, remembering your goals, stating your approach, and having a DM that will fairly adjudicate (also with an eye toward achieving the goals of play).By way of example, my 3rd-level folk hero fighter, Butch Uprise, has used his battleaxe a total of 4 times despite being in many combats. What I do instead is look for creative and exciting things to do that are also effective and just say what I'm doing, allowing the DM to adjudicate accordingly. I've beaten kobolds to death with a kobold under the effect of a sleep spell, threatened a rat's nest to pull the swarms off my allies and onto me, knocked down pillars in a chamber so the roof collapsed on the beast within. And so on. Attack rolls come with a potential whiff attached. Do stuff that will likely be adjudicated into an ability check and the DM has more tools as his or her disposal to make failure on that check more interesting (progress with a setback, success at a cost, etc.).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="iserith, post: 6509812, member: 97077"] I see what you mean. In my view, this is an easy situation to avoid as it has nothing to do with fiddling with mechanics and much more to do with [URL="http://dungeonmastery.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-goals-of-play.html"]achieving the Goals of Play[/URL]. I thus have no problem adjudicating "called shots" as they arise because I know the players at the table agree with the Goals of Play and wouldn't seek to abuse mechanics in a way that causes them to fail to achieve them. As it relates to this thread, encouraging players to do things other than "I swing my sword" is key to mitigating the whiff factor that has plagued D&D since its inception. There are many ways to affect the outcome of a conflict other than relying upon an attack roll. It just takes paying attention to the environment, remembering your goals, stating your approach, and having a DM that will fairly adjudicate (also with an eye toward achieving the goals of play). By way of example, my 3rd-level folk hero fighter, Butch Uprise, has used his battleaxe a total of 4 times despite being in many combats. What I do instead is look for creative and exciting things to do that are also effective and just say what I'm doing, allowing the DM to adjudicate accordingly. I've beaten kobolds to death with a kobold under the effect of a [I]sleep[/I] spell, threatened a rat's nest to pull the swarms off my allies and onto me, knocked down pillars in a chamber so the roof collapsed on the beast within. And so on. Attack rolls come with a potential whiff attached. Do stuff that will likely be adjudicated into an ability check and the DM has more tools as his or her disposal to make failure on that check more interesting (progress with a setback, success at a cost, etc.). [/QUOTE]

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