Community

May 29, 2012 -- 4:01AM, wizard-of-wor wrote:

my solution in the playtest i ran this weekend was  to grant advantage when flanking a la 3.x/4.

See my post above. Advantage is a much bigger benefit than Combat Advantage was in 4e so gaining advantage is therefore harder to do than simply flanking an opponent.

In addition remember that beyond first or second level the sneak attack in DDN is more powerful than the sneak attack in 4e, gaining +1d6 every level on the playtest character.   Yet another reason that the DDN sneak attack isn't meant to be used just by flanking an opponent like it was in 3e and 4e. It's supposed to be harder to do but, because of the extra bonus from Advantage and the extra damage done, is also more effective per use.

Jun 3, 2012 -- 7:37AM, Luis_Carlos wrote:

I suggest if there are more a factor (bonus and penalties by casual/temporary circumstances) about advantages and disadvantages:

They should have got different degrees (light, medium and great). With two or more factors a extra dice is used. If it only a light disavantage the dice is d4, but if there is a pile of bonus, the dice can be d12. Heroes throw extra dice and monsters too. The player who win can use advantage.

Nice idea, but I completely disagree with doing this.  There are game systems that do something like this (Savage Worlds comes to mind), but I think it has no place in D&D at least with how D&D Next is feeling.  When you do that, it adds more complexity and I think the point we're all trying to make is keeping it simple while having lots of options.


My Opinion on Advantage, Disadvantage, +2, -2
I do like the Advantage system a lot, but yes, lots of ambiguity on when it's used vs a +2 or -2.  I think Advantage should be when you have a HUGE advantage.  Being invisible and having advantage seems totally legit.  Maybe you're not getting that +2 to hit a full plated foe, but you have a higher chance that you will in fact, hit something instead of having one bad roll.

I think it should simply state that Advantages don't stack and neither do Disadvantages.  If you have 2 Advantages and a single Disadvantage, it just completely cancels them both out.  However, maybe for every aditional Advantage you have you instead gain +2.  Then in the earlier example you may no longer have the advantage, but have a +2.
No idea if this is a good idea, simply an idea.

For simplicities sake, they should probably just make it that they don't ever stack.  I do miss my easy "+2 or -2" and I hope that becomes the norm while Advantage is something that only happens every now and then. 

Jun 4, 2012 -- 10:50AM, Igfig wrote:

I'd err on the side of offering advantage whenever someone does something clever.  I mean, kobolds can get advantage just by outnumbering you.  It shouldn't be something rare.  And really, we want to encourage players to do clever things.

This is the right idea.