77
votes
Accepted
It seems like every skill check should always be made with advantage due to the 'Working Together' rules. Is this accurate?
This is how skills are supposed to work!
If you are in a situation where there is only one person doing something, and they are rolling a single skill check, then yes, this is how it's supposed to ...
- 102k
71
votes
Accepted
Does advantage negate disadvantage (for things such as the rogue's Sneak Attack)?
Yes, advantage would negate disadvantage for purposes of Sneak Attack.
According to the rules on advantage and disadvantage (PHB 173, emphasis mine):
If circumstances cause a roll to have both ...
- 29.5k
66
votes
Accepted
Do monks have an off hand and disadvantage attacking with it?
No. There is no handed-ness in D&D, so characters do not have a dominant and weak hand. (Unless the player narrates them as such)
In addition, even when wielding two weapons, you don't have ...
- 77.8k
63
votes
Accepted
How does the Drow House Captain's whip attack work?
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Performance Improves
It does exactly what it says it does. The Drow House Captain can attack an ally with the whip, and that ally gains advantage to attack ...
- 47.5k
62
votes
Accepted
Is it okay to roll multiple attacks that all have advantage in one cluster?
Rolling 12d20 and taking the 6 highest is not equivalent
Taking the 6 highest rolls out of 12d20 is not equivalent to 6 attacks with advantage. It is significantly better. I could lay out the ...
- 54.7k
61
votes
Accepted
Is it better to dash or dodge across an open field?
There's a third option - and it's potentially much better
The other answers have dealt capably with your 1 vs. 2 scenario already. To recap what's been established elsewhere:
Dodge every round - ...
- 24.4k
55
votes
Accepted
Since advantage and disadvantage caused in a heavily obscured area cancel out, what effect does it have in combat?
It levels the playing field
Casting darkness will cancel out both advantage and disadvantage, due to the way they stack.
If your opponent has advantage and you have disadvantage, then cancelling both ...
- 27.1k
54
votes
Do you have advantage when multiple sources give advantage and only one gives disadvantage?
Having both advantage and disadvantage on your roll from any number of sources always means you have neither. (Even if you have a dozen sources of advantage, and just one source of disadvantage.)
...
- 36.9k
53
votes
Accepted
If I have both advantage and disadvantage, and my target has the Elusive rogue class feature, do I have disadvantage on the attack?
The attacking enemy has disadvantage on the roll.
The relevant quote from the PHB is here:
If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage
and disadvantage, you are considered to have ...
- 47k
52
votes
Accepted
Natural 20 when rolling with disadvantage
The rule on modifiers applies only after you've determined a base roll. And to do that you must first resolve disadvantage (PHB page 173):
Use the higher of the two rolls if you have advantage, and ...
- 4,149
52
votes
Accepted
What are my chances of rolling a natural 19/20 critical if I roll 3d20?
About 27%, or a little over 1/4
This is a pretty easy calculation to run in anydice:
As you can see, the percentage chance of rolling at least a 19 one of the d20 rolls is 27.10% So you can expect, on ...
- 25.9k
52
votes
Would this house-rule that treats advantage as a +1 to the roll instead (and disadvantage as -1) and allows them to stack be balanced?
This is going to be difficult to balance
Having advantage on a roll is roughly equal to having +5 to your roll, and having disadvantage is roughly equal to having -5 on your roll, as suggested by ...
- 35.4k
51
votes
Does a Wizard's Familiar grant advantage on every roll?
Not exactly. The rules on Working Together in order to give advantage are as follows:
A character can only provide help if the task is one that
he or she could attempt alone. For example, trying ...
- 141k
51
votes
Is giving one side advantage always equivalent to giving disadvantage to the opponent?
Possible exceptions:
The player already has advantage; granting them advantage again does nothing, but imposing disadvantage on the monster does.
The 'Lucky' feat allows the underdog with ...
- 766
51
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to gain the benefits of lying prone without incurring disadvantage on attacks? If so, is this broken?
You are describing a sound tactic
(in the game and in the real world)
It has been said that the goal of military action is to take a fair fight, and make it unfair. Most of martial history, from drone ...
- 37k
50
votes
Does rolling a 1 with Advantage cancel out the higher roll?
No, a Crit Fail doesn't automatically overrule Advantage.
The Advantage and Disadvantage section of the PHB clearly states:
Use the higher of the two rolls if you have advantage... (pg.173)
...
- 55.6k
49
votes
Accepted
Mathematically, is a +2 bonus to AC better than attackers having disadvantage?
In this case, the Cloak is better
To explain this, let's first look at some stats.
When no bonuses are involved, the Chances of rolling a 20 normally is 5% (1/20), while the chance for rolling 18 or ...
- 7,257
48
votes
Is a character swallowed by a giant toad considered "unseen" on an attack against the toad, granting advantage (which cancels out disadvantage)?
Neither advantage nor disadvantage
As you say, you have several sources of disadvantage and one source of advantage - being unseen. These cancel, leaving you with neither.
Even if you don’t ...
- 188k
47
votes
Is it possible to gain the benefits of lying prone without incurring disadvantage on attacks? If so, is this broken?
This is possible and not broken
No part of the rules prevents the scenario you've described so it does work. Now let's address why it isn't as strong as you think:
This requires a very specific kind ...
- 72.1k
45
votes
Since advantage and disadvantage caused in a heavily obscured area cancel out, what effect does it have in combat?
If you cannot see your opponent then you cannot use any spell or feature that says "that you can see".
For example, you cannot:
Use Protection fighting style.
Use Uncanny Dodge.
Make Opportunity ...
- 22.4k
45
votes
Accepted
What issues could arise with this Advantage/Disadvantage Variant?
It complicates what is intentionally simple.
One of the aims of the advantage/disadvantage system is to remove the payoff for "bonus-scrounging". It isn't desirable to have your players ...
- 61.6k
45
votes
A player rolls several 20-sided dice, takes the lowest value, ignores the rest. What is the probability of this value being at least 7?
AnyDice is straight forward for this
If you want to save yourself going through the maths, AnyDice will solve this for you.
While doing more complex things can get tricky (up to not possible), it's ...
- 43.4k
45
votes
Accepted
What is the statistical difference, if there is one, between attacking twice (action and bonus action) and attacking once with advantage?
It depends on your situation (typically, getting Sneak Attack is key)
Let's get something out of the way first: in the simple analysis, attacking twice is usually much better than attacking once with ...
- 37k
44
votes
Accepted
Can the Fog Cloud spell effectively increase archer range by canceling disadvantage at long range?
Yes, that is the rules-as-written.
It's worth noting, additionally, that there's actually no need for the archer to step out of the fog cloud in most circumstances: despite being effectively blinded, ...
- 50.7k
44
votes
Is it better to dash or dodge across an open field?
Depends on the probability of your enemies hitting you with an attack.
If you Dodge, the damage you take, on average, is given by the probability p of hitting you (squared because of disadvantage) ...
- 44.3k
43
votes
Accepted
Can a kenku wizard use Expert Forgery when copying a spell scroll into their spellbook?
Your ruling is unlikely to break anything. However, the rules on their own (and the underlying fictional significance of the rules) appear to answer this with a No.
The surface rules difficulty is ...
- 239k
43
votes
Accepted
A player rolls several 20-sided dice, takes the lowest value, ignores the rest. What is the probability of this value being at least 7?
Use a Tree Diagram
Because I am bad at remembering formulas and bad at probabilities in general I like to use a tree diagram. The other answers provide good straight forward solutions you can apply ...
- 758
42
votes
Accepted
Are attacks with nets always made with disadvantage?
Net attacks RAW are made perpetually with disadvantage.
They act as a normal ranged attack, so you are either always throwing them at long range (10-15 feet) and incurring disadvantage, or you are ...
- 40.6k
41
votes
Would it be fair to use 1d30 (instead of rolling 2d20 and taking the higher die) for advantage rolls?
No, because you're breaking bounded accuracy
Rolling a d30 would let you achieve results far beyond what the character can normally achieve. D&D 5e's 2d20 advantage mechanic specifically prevents ...
- 71.9k
40
votes
What is the difference between giving advantage on a roll and reducing the DC?
Just give advantage
I’ll get to the math in a minute, but the math really should be moot: there is no guidance for altering DCs based on PC actions because the point of the advantage mechanic is to ...
- 239k
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