Timeline for How can I solve burst damage problem when rolling group initiative?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
28 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 3, 2022 at 18:48 | comment | added | KorvinStarmast | @Gandalfmeansme 😊 And your answer has stood the test of time. | |
| Mar 3, 2022 at 17:43 | history | edited | NotArch | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 38 characters in body
|
| Mar 3, 2022 at 17:35 | history | edited | NotArch | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
updated for improved screen reader readability
|
| Mar 3, 2022 at 17:23 | comment | added | Gandalfmeansme | @KorvinStarmast Just wanted to say "thank you." That comment really made my day (two years ago). | |
| Mar 3, 2022 at 17:22 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 21 characters in body
|
| Sep 30, 2021 at 16:19 | comment | added | TimothyAWiseman | This is a fantastic answer and I agree with all of it, but I think you are burying the lede a little bit. Point #4 is the biggest one. It becomes rational to spread out your fire, even irrational to concentrate it too much, if you expect every attack has a serious chance to kill or at least injure your enemy enough that they can't fight anymore. The archers at Agincourt did not all fire at one knight until he was down before firing at the next one....inside the fiction spreading firing is probably the more rational and realistic choice. | |
| Sep 30, 2021 at 15:43 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 152 characters in body
|
| Sep 20, 2019 at 12:50 | history | edited | NathanS | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited body
|
| Dec 29, 2018 at 10:21 | comment | added | Dungarth | @Gandalfmeansme It's a way to reduce burst damage while still giving the players a feel for greater numbers. While the kobolds could potentially deal more damage by attacking separately, OP's problem was burst damage from focus firing. Saying "4 kobolds attack you, 2 hit" feels exactly the same to the players whether or not the kobolds are attacking individually or "focus firing" by helping one another. You get to describe kobolds ganging up on the wizard just like kobolds would, but the odds of getting an "accidental" kill as all 4 attacks randomly hitting and killing him are gone. | |
| Dec 29, 2018 at 7:21 | comment | added | Gandalfmeansme | @Dungarth I'm not sure I understand the value of this tactic, unless the swarm includes some stronger creatures. Wouldn't the kobolds be better off both attacking (2 kobolds = 2 attack rolls, which do damage once if either hits or twice if both hit) rather than helping and attacking (2 kobolds = two attack rolls, but only does damage once if either of them or both hit)? | |
| Dec 29, 2018 at 5:50 | comment | added | Dungarth | As a very late addendum, one could add the "help" action. Some monsters, especially smaller creatures, like to use their large numbers to swarm their targets. While this is laughable to higher level adventurers, low level PCs are always a few lucky rolls away from a TPK when facing a horde of goblins or kobolds. A few DMs I know have such "swarms" use the help action. They get increased chances of hitting you (2 kobolds = one attack with advantage), but it limits the max damage you can take (only one attack can hit per 2 kobolds). | |
| Dec 29, 2018 at 5:34 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 14 characters in body
|
| Aug 3, 2018 at 22:47 | vote | accept | HellSaint | ||
| Jun 20, 2018 at 22:38 | comment | added | Pingcode | The last note here that probably bears mentioning is that later down the track when the PCs grow into their roles, focus fire won't necessarily be the best option - a higher level paladin or cleric (paladin especially) will likely want the enemy trying to focus them while leaving their allies free to blast with impunity | |
| Jun 20, 2018 at 22:17 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 4 characters in body
|
| Jun 20, 2018 at 21:44 | comment | added | KorvinStarmast | This is a very thorough and well thought out answer. I'm keeping a link to this. | |
| Jun 20, 2018 at 15:56 | comment | added | Gandalfmeansme | I do agree: monsters would have a decent sense of their own capacities, and would have a good sense of how combat works in their world. I guess what I'm getting at is that monsters don't know the combat capacity of their opponents. Even if you imagine the monsters as knowing what hit points are, they certainly don't know how many hit points the characters have (to start with). And so, they might reasonably expect a single attack to take each character down. | |
| Jun 20, 2018 at 14:46 | comment | added | Gandalfmeansme | NPCs definitely know when an enemy is in trouble ("bloodied" at half hit points). But keep in mind, the way hit points are described (PHB, p. 195-196) implies that many attacks don't actually physically damage a character when they "hit", but sap their stamina, will, or even use up their luck. "An attack that reduces you to 0 hit points strikes you directly, leaving a bleeding injury or other trauma, or it simply knocks you unconscious." Goblins definitely know that some enemies take more arrows to kill than others. But they may not know that a barbarian will take 5-14 arrows to drop. | |
| Jun 20, 2018 at 14:38 | comment | added | HellSaint | Yeah, fourth point is a little off for me. The NPCs know how damaged the party members are. Not an exact number, obviously, but they should be able to note a difference between 1 HP and full life. Other than that, the other reasons fit most of the time, so I upvoted it anyway. | |
| Jun 20, 2018 at 14:09 | comment | added | tex | Yes, effectively, monsters know what hit points are. Realistically, most humanoid creatures are going to be familiar with at least hunting or domestic conflict, and will know that a target isn't neutralized the second you injure them, unless you get lucky (say, massive nervous system damage). If a goblin knows it can't necessarily kill another goblin in one shot, then it certainly knows a big scary armored human won't die right away either. | |
| Jun 20, 2018 at 13:23 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
|
| Jun 20, 2018 at 5:39 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
|
| Jun 20, 2018 at 5:16 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 14 characters in body
|
| Jun 20, 2018 at 5:06 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 49 characters in body
|
| Jun 20, 2018 at 4:55 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited body
|
| Jun 20, 2018 at 3:35 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 787 characters in body
|
| Jun 20, 2018 at 3:29 | history | edited | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 787 characters in body
|
| Jun 20, 2018 at 3:24 | history | answered | Gandalfmeansme | CC BY-SA 4.0 |