New answers tagged combat
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A damage roll determines how much damage you deal with an attack. Damage rolls vary widely with the different powers and weapons that can be involved, but the basic formula is often the same. If you're using a weapon for the attack, the damage is often some multiple of your weapon damage dice.
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I recommend trying it and see what happens. In 5e usually you won't be rolling much more than a dozen dice at once, but in other systems (PF for example) you can start rolling dozens of dice at once fairly quickly into the game.
Does it bog down the game? No, not really.
Animate Objects is even simpler as the DM gets to do all the rolling and controlling. ...
-1
In 5e a "roll" is the dice rolled plus all bonuses. You can see the example in the introduction;
If the total equals or exceeds the target number, the ability check,
attack roll, or saving throw is a success.
The rules for making attacks explain what damage rolls are in relation to the attack process;
Whether you're striking with a melee weapon, ...
3
A damage roll is a roll of damage dice resulting from a weapon attack, spell, or monster ability (plus any bonus dice).
From the rules you quoted (emphasis mine):
Each weapon, spell, and harmful monster ability specifies the damage it deals. You roll the damage die or dice, add any modifiers, and apply the damage to your target. Magic weapons, special ...
7
It's all the damage dice that come specifically from hitting with the attack.
There isn't a clear and easy standard for this that applies across the board, but in general "the damage roll" is all the dice that apply to the attack, once you've factored in sneak attacks, smites, certain spells, or any other effects that the player gets to add in.
...
11
"Damage Roll" doesn't have a hidden meaning
It just means any roll of damage dice. The rules don't actually say about "damage rolls", the terms "damage" and "damage dice" are used instead:
"damage" — a numeric quantity with a specific damage type
"damage dice" — any dice which are used for ...
2
Seeing your description, I immediatly thought of your objects as a cloud or swarm of tiny annoying things. So I will put forward the suggestion of using your 10 tiny objects as a swarm and applying the swarm rules used for monsters.
You and your DM will should decide how many objects need to be grouped at minimum to form a swarm and the size of their ...
14
To add to KRyan's answer, KRyan suggested using dice pools in a dice roller.
That is a very helpful suggestion. It turns out that Avrae does support dice pools, although it doesn't call them that.
As an example, this Avrae command will roll 10 d20s and tell you how many are above 15:
!rr 10 (1d20 > 15)
You can add bonuses to the dice and then use the ...
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I'd recommend using the Handling Mobs section on page 250 of the DMG. With 10 objects to attack, it's perfect for it. This will forgo the need for attack rolls, though it means there's no chance of a crit. For damage rolls, you can go with the average.
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Share with your party!
When our Druid used his conjuration spells, he usually asked the party members to help with his attacks. There were 4 players, and basically each player (Druid included) rolled attacks for 2 of the beasts. This slows down combat, but each player is playing twice or thrice the turns, so it doesn't bother them too much.
The Druid still ...
15
First, use average damage: rather than rolling attack, finding out how many hit, and then rolling that much damage, using the average damage means you can just multiply hits by a static number: much easier and faster.
For determining the number of hits, the fastest way would be to use a dice roller that handles the concept of “dice pools,” a mechanic used in ...
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Multiple Attack Penalty (MAP) applies to each Strike in the sequence they are performed in. Some abilities refer to this in words like
Apply your multiple attack penalty to the Strikes normally.
Note the words like "to the Strikes" plural and "normally", indicating the rules without an exception. That rule is
The second time you use an ...
2
Things I have done, which worked.
Praise. Maintaining a positive feedback and even slightly ridiculous congratulations whenever the player not 'does their turn faster' but 'takes a less optimal action'. Whenever and wherever they take a less optimal action for roleplaying or other purposes, for speeding up the game or otherwise, tell them 'well done' or 'I ...
4
Be strict, and think about the others
7 players is quite a lot, waiting for your next turn can be boring even if no one is taking ages to decide. You did everything you could, talked with them, created a flowchart, suggested another character.
The hour glass stays
What is unfair is that he expects 6 others to have significantly less fun because of him. If ...
7
I'm a roleplayer and a GM, but I've also worked in sales and I want to approach this from the more general perspective of coaxing decisions out of people. It might sound manipulative (and it is) but it's also effective. If "manipulation" sounds harsh, replace it with "guidance". They're synonymous in sales.
Also, be aware that too much ...
5
First of all: this is not something to solve with game rules. As you say, introducing a time limit / punishing indecision definitely seems to make the game not fun and even stressful. On the bright side, it sounds like the player is understanding and willing to try to improve.
They only want to play this one specific character however: a highly intelligent ...
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Your goal here is to balance the slow player having fun with everybody else having fun (including you). If the other players are having fun with the game as is it's probably fine. If its not try the following:
scan and keep an extra copy of the spreadsheet
when they take to long on their turn, find the flowchart
when it rolls around to their turn asks them ...
8
This isn't about combat
You mentioned that this is a player that struggles with decision-making outside of gaming, too. And you've tried a number of good solutions for decision-making in this context, and they don't seem to have helped. So while you say you "don't accept answers based on speculations and that don't refer to decision making in the ...
18
I've been this indecisive player, and I might have some insight about where they're coming from. For me, the difficult thing was that while I hoped I was playing well, my inner voice always told me that there might be something I could be doing better. That nagging feeling caused my decision paralysis, but there were some preparations, tricks, and re-...
7
Provide Choices
I've run into this before in a 5e campaign with a new player who chose a wizard. What we realized was that the player was simply overwhelmed by the number of options available to them on a given turn and had a hard time focusing through the turn order.
Rather than asking the player what their character does, instead provide them with two or ...
20
From personal experience with such things, a few things help.
Warn them their turn is coming up.
What I normally do for time intensive characters is warn them a few turns in advance.
"Bill, you ready to do your barbarian justice in the Colosseum? And by the way, Jim, make sure you have a spell ready after for the slaves approaching."
This tends to ...
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I am the kind of player who likes to figure out the "optimal" strategy, in TTRPGs, in board games, in video games, etc. Not only that, the character I play (an abjuration wizard) shares this trait with me. So I will answer from the perspective of a player trying to avoid this issue for myself.
Play the character, not the game
The main strategy I've ...
38
We had players like this and our solutions were quite simple, but twofold:
A more experienced/strategic player/the GM gives them a few options like: "You could consider casting a fireball here, or giving bull's strength to the fighter?" This could also be a joined effort where people pipe up with their ideas like: "I would love it if you ...
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Overanalyzing the rulebook I found an answer (see quote below), it's not in the explanation of the text but the example below the text makes it clear. In an All-Out-Attack you roll ONCE but none of your successes negate your opponents successes, you take ALL damage dealt by your opponent as you are not being careful to avoid any hits from your opponent in ...
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So even though there is no "flat-footed" or "touch" AC, If you compare most things that are similar between the two editions you'll find most things now give you advantage or your target disadvantage.
Caught them off guard? Advantage to hit, disadvantage to dex saves
Easier to hit? Advantage to hit, disadvantage to saves
So essentially if ...
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