Oh, you kids, spoiled by getting to roll 2 d20s...Back in my day when we did the classic D&D circa 1986-92, we had to roll ONE d20 and LIKE IT! We had to hope our bonuses were good enough to boost a bad roll, because that was all we got! :P And Woe be the day the dice were not your friends because that meant your session could be easy as "quick in, quick out because you're dead too quick!"
I play a Lightfoot Halfling Ranger and, being a Halfling, I cannot roll a Nat 1 unless I roll a Nat 1 twice. This has led to a bunch of really frustrating moments where I roll a 2. Which has been pretty often. #TheDiceHateMe
@@theodorehsu5023 Pffft. Exept for the (optional during checks) critical fails and successes, the old/Pathfinder way actually PREVENTS you from failing (kind of like how passive checks do) because of how rediculous the bonuses can get.
@@nekoali2 I thought it was Bigby's Insulting Gesture. I seem to remember a Dragon Magazine back in the 1st Edition days having an April Fools issue with all kinds of goofy cantrips and 0 level spells like that. Another fun one was Purify Food 1/2, which involved pouring lots of ketchup and pepper on spoiled food on the assumption that enough ketchup and pepper will make anything taste better.
For a more expanded version - toss in some Lore bard (for cutting words, X times per long rest, where X is your Cha mod, and at 5th level of bard it becomes short rest, instead of long) and if you really feel like messing with every roll, get 6 levels of Grave Domain cleric to be able to degrade enemy crits to normal hits (X times per long rest, where X is your Wis mod). Very MAD build, and can be obnoxious and frustrating to your DM, as many of your abilities (Lucky (halfling racial), Bountiful Luck (halfling feat), Lucky (feat) and Portent (divination wizard ability) all don't use a reaction, so you can spam those). You'd only burn your reaction on Cutting Words (lore bard) and Sentinel at Death's Door (grave domain), and possibly Counterspell (which you definitely should take with this build, because at that point, why not?). And for the spells, other than counterspell, invest heavily in enchantment, so you can shut hostiles down with your action as well! A simple Command can really mess with people... And then dread the day when your DM starts to use that kind of a character against you.
3:27 I wanna remind folks out there, that you roll with disadvantage first, then choose the lower. Using the lucky feat allows you to roll an additional and choose if you wanna use that roll instead of the lowest of the first too! You cannot choose the highest of the first two rolls, has they had disadvantage on them. Just keep that in mind! :P
@@SuperSannylu From what I remember (this is a year old) she didn't point this out, which is why I did. I don't think she actually explained this specific detail. But I might be wrong.
@@SuperSannylu That doesn't sound right to me. So with the Lucky feat you suddenly get to turn disadvantage into Elven Accuracy? I'm pretty sure it's, the lowest of the two first, OR your roll from Lucky. I guess this would be up to the DM.
I actually houseruled that adv and disadv actually stack. I just love seeing my players trying to add as many spells and effects on a single boss creature to ensure they get the most of it. They enjoy it I enjoy it so try it out people..!
@Walt Aistir nah. Since I have many players(6), my bossfights have many monsters too so even if they do manage to stack up adv and disadv on the boss the rest are still a threat and an obstacle that stops them from blowing the boss up. It turned out to be a cool way to avoid the "oh...it has adv so I guess I won't use this spell...uhm...idk let's hit with a cantrip" that my players kept saying with a disappointed face.
It's made to make the game move along quicker. Once it is estabiled there is at least one advantage and disadvantage in the mix, no further discussion is necessary.
Exactly. If you have multiple things giving you advantage - you still only have advantage once since they don't stack. The same goes with disadvantage and so if you have multiple forms of both they all cancel out.
This video does all it needs to, but to expand a bit on what's said about the Lucky feat, because it's often forgotten, it really needs to be accentuated that the lucky feat doesn't give you advantage even though it also makes you roll an extra d20 you can choose to benefit from. Essentially, you can't use the luck feat to gain advantage for the purposes of triggering something like your sneak attack class feature as a rogue. A few people understandably get confused by the feat working very similar to advantage, without actually being considered advantage. You can can however do a lot of fun stuff with the Lucky feat. You can go for an attack, close your eyes in panic, effectively blinding you and posing disadvantage on yourself, and let Luck guide your hand as you now get to choose the best of three D20s rather than the worst of two. It's just a fun thing to do, especially if you really roleplay your lucky tendencies in a way that's entertaining to you party. A creative DM might even do that job for you. It's worth noting that quite a few DMs find this part of the feat to be quite overpowered. They either say that advantage/disadvantage is applied first and _then_ you get to choose between the remaining die and the die you roll with your luck feat OR they just ban the feat entirely. Good DMs will let you know beforehand if they ban stuff from the Player's Handbook, but it never hurts to ask your DM whether he allows the Lucky feat. It's worth it compared to finding out mid game that doesn't allow it or has a different ruling for how it is applied
Oooook! This was super useful for me! Advantage and disadvantage confused the heck out of me! Also now I can't help but imagine someone with the Lucky feat, each day finds 3, four leaf clovers and when they spend a "luck point", the clover burns or glows before dispersing into light becoming a offering to whatever deity of luck is responsible for the lucky feat, blessing them or cursing the enemy with good or bad luck respectively.
So I have been playing and dming for 36 years now (yikes) and while 5ed is not my game of choice (Pathfinders for d&d fix, along side a few others) I have started dming a 5ed game for my niece and her friends (she was not confident enough for dming but is learning while playing and I am sure she will take over, she is far more creative than me so I may ask to play then : ). I Read the rule and have watch a number of shows (CR obviously but also Satine Phoenix shows and girls gut glory to then recommend to them) and was confident of having a good grasp of the rules. Would have sworn blind these negated each other until you had one of the 3 results. So these are not just for beginners :) although I may house rule is as I have been playing it as I think it makes more sense. Oh the girls love the Handbooker helpers vids by the way.
remember "rules" in D&D can be changed to suit the needs of the players. Always discuss any rule changes so it doesn't blind side during combat or story elements. It will keep the game flowing and overall the players will have a better time if you, The DM, lay them out before hand. Been DMing 5th for a good 3~4 years and i have swapped and stripped some rules i didn't like. I have a quick print out of homebrewed rules I hand to my players on the session 0 so they can understand what rules at the table.
Thanks Marisha! I'm running a One-shot with my brothers (who taught me how to play 2nd Edition 25 years ago) when I go home for Christmas. This is the one major rule that's new, so thanks for the very TIMELY post! You, as always, are the best!
One homebrew rule I usually apply to my game sessions is that most creatures that can fly, while they are in flight, non magical ranged attack rolls made against them are disadvantaged. My personal rationale is that it would most likely be significantly harder to hit a quick flying target as opposed to a quick ground target. But to balance this, I also usually put a cap on the amount of times certain creatures can fly per day. The amount varies from creature to creature and it depends on a lot of factors that I take into consideration. But it overall applies to all flying creatures. From simple birds, to ancient dragons. Because even powerful creatures must at some point fatigue if constantly batting their wings to stay aloft.
I always play where adv/disadv stack. I like for my players to feel like epic warriors, and I always narrate stacking advantage as if it's some grand tale.
This is a fair point! Stacking advantages and disadvantages aren't RAW (rules as written), but like any other rule in D&D, you can change it in your own game if you want to. Although I suggest discussing it with your party first, if you're changing any rules. Most of the groups I know of have various homebrew rules at their tables :)
@@MsCunningLinguistic I imagine that stacking mechanic of opposites is purely there to make it manageable and quicken play. Perhaps the stacking of dis/adv is there to reduce the likelihood of absurd stuff happening. I'd be pretty salty if the enemy had a triple advantage against me. You're right, it's down to the DM and I hope the DM is aware of the consequences of the rules they choose.
The thing is, there's a rapidly diminishing return on stacked advantage. If you look at the probability of rolling 11 or above, that's 50%. Advantage takes it up to 75%. So that's cool. Double advantage only takes it up to 87.5%. But if you look at the probabilities for rolling 15 or above, the same progression goes 25% (1d20), 43.75% (2d20) and 57.81% (3d20). You just get much less of a boost the more you stack dice. Which _does_ mean you can add stacking advantage/disadvantage to your game without breaking the math. That's not the problem and that's not why they don't stack in RAW. Firstly, people are really crap at understanding probabilities (take it from someone who used to run a Keno game back in the day; people will bet an astonishing amount of money on the most idiotic assumptions about what a randomised computer algorithm "owes" them). Stacked Advantage seems intuitively like something that's worthwhile to chase, despite it rapidly becoming less and less of an influence as DCs go up. So players are going to blow all their resources on chasing that extra die roll for not much benefit like a problem gambler trying to get their rent money back. But second - and more importantly - the whole _point_ of advantage/disadvantage was to streamline things. Allowing them to stack puts you right back in the 3e/PF trap of having to account for a snowballing number of variables. RAW advantage/disadvantage just lets a DM eyeball a situation and easily determine if it's advantage, disadvantage or just a straight roll. Then they just call for the roll, and everyone gets to get on with playing D&D.
@@nickwilliams8302 Stacking advantages does considerably reduce the chances of getting a Nat1: 1/20=5% (1d20), 1/400=0.25% (2d20), 1/8000=0.01% (3d20), 1/160000=0.0006% (4d20). Also the stats you wrote are for getting equal or higher than 16 not 15.
Didn't know about that luck feat interaction with disadvantage (choosing between all 3 DICE?). It seems illogical at first but I kinda like it. It motivates getting into funny situations and rely on your luck (literally) to get you out. A lucky rogue might rather close it's eyes and rely solely on it's luck to make a very important shot (or they might just get high first :P)... Fun at the hands of most players, but beware of the Min-Maxers who already LOVE the Luck feat.
I'd imagine the main CR crew is gonna do any new classes they didn't do last campaign, ie Marisha will do Monk, Travis will do Warlock, Liam will do Wizard, maybe Taliesin will do Blood Hunter(oof that'd be hard to watch). That just leaves Paladin, Sorcerer, and Fighter, which coincides with us still having Laura, Sam, and Ashley still needing to do a second quick build video. Though maybe Mercer himself will do one/some/all of them.
in my game I have a house rule for double advantage and double disadvantage. the double (dis)advantage is a +(-)5 added(subtracted) to(from) the higher(lower) roll. so if your flanking a target with an ally and Faerie Fire was cast you would roll 2 d20 and add 5 to the higher roll. the reason I did this was, I made combat much more gritty in my games and I want the players to think more strategically.
This is a tough concept to get across to newer players sometimes because there's no real way of getting around saying the words "advantage" and "disadvantage" like a million times. That said, this video's really well done, and manages to balance conciseness with easily digestible but thoroughly explained information.
Who knew that after hundreds of hours of DnD I always thought that if I had 2 advantages and 1 disadvantage on roll meant 2-1=1, i.e. I still have advantage.
To clarify what Marisha said at 3:32, if you roll with disadvantage you take the lower number, but with the lucky feat you get to choose between the lower number of the first two results or the third die you rolled, you don't get to choose from all three dice, the same applies to advantage.
@@Shero1337 No, Marisha says you do get to choose from the 3 dice, and she's right. Search for "lucky" on this errata document: media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf (It does include an optional interpretation that looks similar to what you said but is statistically significantly different.)
also, the elven accuracy feat means that any Elf who takes that feat gets three dice on advantage with attack rolls based on Dex, Int, Cha or Wisdom as standard.
I know that this series largely focuses on the PHB, but will it continue and cover the DMG, Monster Manual and other books? Or can Matt do DM Tips for CR?
You ever have a rogue who has 4 advantages per turn, basically rolling 5 dice to hit and taking the highest. Then you watch this and finally have a reason to tell him to stop rolling d20s
They work in exactly the same way as advantage / disadvantage. Vulnerability makes the creature take double damage while Resistance halves the damage. In cases where a creature would have both the two cancel each other out and the damage is just normal.
I actually decided to run with tallying advantage/disadvantage in my game (not stacking, though) and it seemed to work out just fine. Like with any generic rule, I found that it worked because enemy NPCs could benefit from advantage tallying just like the players could, as well as disadvantage tallying.
This ruling of the Lucky feat. Means you are better off doing the Luke thing from the original Star Wars and switch off your "targetting computer". If you close your eyes you get Disadvantage than use Luck to get Super Advantage where the odds of a Nat20 are 14% and Nat1are 0.01%.
I feel immensely dumb for only discovering D&D at the age of 39 but being raised by a mother who was raised in the Prussian way and a very strict father as well, I only got a computer at the age of 19 (mainly because I did some really stupid stuff on my father's workstation) and being a metalhead, I kind of avoided the geeky kids, mostly because they were usually a bunch of fatty full fledged RPing Nerds, which is great but back then I was more of the grungy, later metalhead type so I missed that opportunity. And to my surprise, many of those nerds turned out to be awesomely beautiful and smart women so... If I ever have kids, I want to give them as many chances as they want to play whatever they want (respecting age limitations of course), instead of making me to this day, look behind my shoulder to make sure my mom isn't watching! :D During this year, after rejoining my old M&B Napoleonic Wars regiment, now playing Arma 3 reenacting WW2, I had the chance and pleasure of being helped to learn and play D&D variants like Starwars and Elder Scrolls. Now, I'm trying to take of the most of it and learn what I can. Lovely post! Thanks for sharing you knowledge!
Huh, I didn't know that about stacking Advantages not having an effect against one disadvantage. Good to know if I ever try out a Mastermind rogue with their bonus help ability.
I feel like I keep hearing different things when it comes to the lucky feat and (dis)advantage. Here, it's said that YOU get to choose which of the 3 dice you want to use. But I have also heard that lucky should only be about 1 die at a time, so you choose which of the 2 (dis)advantaged dice is being possibly replaced. Example to clarify: If you roll atk with disadvantage, and you roll a nat 20 and a nat 2, you need to take the 2. With the lucky feat of the video, you just roll an extra die, and the result of it doesn't matter, cause you just take the 20. In the rule I have heard before, you need to choose if you want to contest the 20 or the 2. So if the third die is a 13, your choice, since you rolled with disadvantage, is between a 2 and a 13. I don't know which is more common, and I don't feel like the rules under the Lucky feat is clear about it, so I guess this would be up to the DM
For Sneak Attack (which you can get from having Advantage), if you have both it counts as having *neither*. So you don't get Sneak Attack underwater with Vow of Enmity or other source of advantage. (Unless you the target is engaged with another creature, in which case the part of Sneak Attack that only works if you don't have Disadvantage does work.) open5e.com/classes/rogue.html#sneak-attack Not sure if there are any other things in the game that require no disadvantage, or require advantage, but adv+dis cancelling out happens *before* you apply those rules. This is the one thing about Advantage + Disadvantage that I know but this video didn't mention, so nice job. (Other than facts about probability, and how Advantage is worth about +5 for a DC10 with no modifiers, but much less valuable compared to a +modifier for things that you have a very small chance of succeeding at. It will double your chance of critting, though.)
Here's an interesting situation involving advantage plus the Luck feat... let's say some Big Bad is launching a large, powerful area-effect spell that will affect the whole party. The DC is 12 and the bad guy has advantage, rolling a 13 and a 16 (either way, it's a hit). But *one* of the party members has the Luck feat, and picks that moment to use it to hijack the roll, throwing an 11 with their extra dice and choosing to count *that* as the Big Bad's score, causing it to fail. I can see this going one of two ways... *- Option 1:* The DM decides that everyone in the party *except* the one with the Luck feat gets hit with the score of 16, but the Lucky character is miraculously unscathed since they *alone* have the Luck feat. *- Option 2:* The Luck feat just straight applies to the attack roll, which means it fails *completely* - which is to say, the spell fizzles out as it leaves the caster's hand, meaning that *none* of the party are hit. Option 1 means that the individual with the Luck feat is particularly fortunate but the rest of the party isn't, while option 2 means that one individual just saved the *whole damn party* from a damage spike because that one character's good luck has rubbed off on them for a moment. Both could be considered to be "lucky" within the context of the story, but only one potentially saves the day for the whole group. Which way does the DM rule in that case...?
They wouldn't? Area of effect spells always require saving throws, not attack rolls. If attack rolls were used, they would be seperate for each target...
@@justmonica9253 Fair enough... I'll admit D&D is not my game - the last time I played I was maybe 14 and it came in a red box and talked about THAC0, so I'm a little hazy on the rules! I generally watch Critical Role more for the story and characters than the dice rolls, so I'm usually more interested in the outcome than the means. Vampire: The Masquerade works a little differently, and I rarely had to run actual combat in my games anyway - it was mostly intrigue and low-key Disciplines rather than big combat set-pieces, and I could often go a whole session without having to roll a single die because we were mostly about character interaction.
Your example works well, just zap powerful aoe attack with eldritch blast attacks.(not as much damage but they're targeted at each player so attack rolls have to be made)
Though then he'd roll for each attack, your example is really interesting though, I believe rule as written if you take over someone's roll then that's their roll. So everyone is saved. But as I understand that shluldnt happen due to each attack being separate roll for each person or it being a saving throw from the player/target
"Can I have advantage, because the ground is prone?"
(for clarification, it was someone doing a check for putting a flag into the ground)
I don't get the joke.
Why would you even roll there?
@@thehiddenninja3428 It's a reference to a Runesmith episode
@@thehiddenninja3428 just because youre on the ground doesnt mean its an auto hit.
As a dm, this physically hurts me
@@nikolaykomissarenko7822 Not _on_ the ground
You're trying to hit the ground itself
God I love that goofy Matt drawing whenever someone refers to the DM
That drawing is awesome!
He just looks so!!! Fbsjcjsjj!!
I like the one where it’s taliesin with two fingers on his head
4 minutes for advantage and disadvantage? I'm intrigued.
Ah, the Lucky Feat.
Oh, you kids, spoiled by getting to roll 2 d20s...Back in my day when we did the classic D&D circa 1986-92, we had to roll ONE d20 and LIKE IT! We had to hope our bonuses were good enough to boost a bad roll, because that was all we got! :P And Woe be the day the dice were not your friends because that meant your session could be easy as "quick in, quick out because you're dead too quick!"
I play a Lightfoot Halfling Ranger and, being a Halfling, I cannot roll a Nat 1 unless I roll a Nat 1 twice. This has led to a bunch of really frustrating moments where I roll a 2. Which has been pretty often. #TheDiceHateMe
You'd think rolling 2d20 is great... until you roll two ones.
@@theodorehsu5023
Pffft. Exept for the (optional during checks) critical fails and successes, the old/Pathfinder way actually PREVENTS you from failing (kind of like how passive checks do) because of how rediculous the bonuses can get.
A bonus DING? Christmas came early
One might say, this was Advanding! .. no? allright, must've been disadvanding then.
Pedro Scoponi What did I miss? Where is a bonus DING?
@@stella1996able 0:45
I believe you mean Critmas came early (*rimshot*)
I love Bigby's hand giving the finger
That's at 1:51
I believe the proper title is Bigby's Gesturing Finger of Enragement.
@@nekoali2 I thought it was Bigby's Insulting Gesture. I seem to remember a Dragon Magazine back in the 1st Edition days having an April Fools issue with all kinds of goofy cantrips and 0 level spells like that. Another fun one was Purify Food 1/2, which involved pouring lots of ketchup and pepper on spoiled food on the assumption that enough ketchup and pepper will make anything taste better.
A Halfling Divination Wizard with the Lucky Feat.
And bountiful luck
I feel a Disturbance in the Force, Like a thousand DM's screaming in horror and then silence.
@Joshua Mcclung Build Murray.
For a more expanded version - toss in some Lore bard (for cutting words, X times per long rest, where X is your Cha mod, and at 5th level of bard it becomes short rest, instead of long) and if you really feel like messing with every roll, get 6 levels of Grave Domain cleric to be able to degrade enemy crits to normal hits (X times per long rest, where X is your Wis mod).
Very MAD build, and can be obnoxious and frustrating to your DM, as many of your abilities (Lucky (halfling racial), Bountiful Luck (halfling feat), Lucky (feat) and Portent (divination wizard ability) all don't use a reaction, so you can spam those).
You'd only burn your reaction on Cutting Words (lore bard) and Sentinel at Death's Door (grave domain), and possibly Counterspell (which you definitely should take with this build, because at that point, why not?).
And for the spells, other than counterspell, invest heavily in enchantment, so you can shut hostiles down with your action as well! A simple Command can really mess with people...
And then dread the day when your DM starts to use that kind of a character against you.
*laughs in DM* By all means my pretties, build a character meant to break the game.
I am eternal and there are plenty of rockslides.
3:27
I wanna remind folks out there, that you roll with disadvantage first, then choose the lower. Using the lucky feat allows you to roll an additional and choose if you wanna use that roll instead of the lowest of the first too! You cannot choose the highest of the first two rolls, has they had disadvantage on them. Just keep that in mind! :P
Many DM's outright ban the lucky feat because of how it works with advantage and disadvantage.
From what I've read from sageadvice marisha explained it the right way
@@SuperSannylu From what I remember (this is a year old) she didn't point this out, which is why I did. I don't think she actually explained this specific detail. But I might be wrong.
@@christofferhougaard the gist is disadvantage and lucky you roll 3 and pick whichever of the three you want
@@SuperSannylu That doesn't sound right to me. So with the Lucky feat you suddenly get to turn disadvantage into Elven Accuracy? I'm pretty sure it's, the lowest of the two first, OR your roll from Lucky. I guess this would be up to the DM.
I actually houseruled that adv and disadv actually stack. I just love seeing my players trying to add as many spells and effects on a single boss creature to ensure they get the most of it. They enjoy it I enjoy it so try it out people..!
@Walt Aistir nah. Since I have many players(6), my bossfights have many monsters too so even if they do manage to stack up adv and disadv on the boss the rest are still a threat and an obstacle that stops them from blowing the boss up. It turned out to be a cool way to avoid the "oh...it has adv so I guess I won't use this spell...uhm...idk let's hit with a cantrip" that my players kept saying with a disappointed face.
Fighting underwater? Hah, when is that ever going to happen?
Stares in triton*
*cough* Kraken *cough*
Yeah! Totally not because they might end up with a sailor in their party! pffft!
Hmmm, didnt know that even if you have 5 things giving advantage, and 1 disadvantage, you only get 1 roll.... interesting
Fourleafclov I don’t like that ruling :(
It's made to make the game move along quicker. Once it is estabiled there is at least one advantage and disadvantage in the mix, no further discussion is necessary.
I didn't like the ruling at first but it really is in favor of the player and super simplified. nothing like the advanced chess that was 4th ed
Exactly. If you have multiple things giving you advantage - you still only have advantage once since they don't stack. The same goes with disadvantage and so if you have multiple forms of both they all cancel out.
@@emmote77 That's much clearer phrasing for this.
I love Marisha so much!!!!
@Lars Dols nope :D I can still adore people I don't know really, can't I?
I think we ALL do
Gotta love Marisha. She has a unique kind of swag to her
"Do I get advantage?" - Marisha Ray
Guess when it comes to chance, you just gotta roll with it.
Would you say you have to "put fate in your hands take a chance roll the dice"
@@zazi5305 Are they 'bout to be dead?
@@zazi5305 With a DM to guide you, they'll rise from the flames for the battles ahead.
@@zazi5305 Waiting for inspiration, just rise up without thinking twice.
@@zazi5305 You missed your turn to roll.
This video does all it needs to, but to expand a bit on what's said about the Lucky feat, because it's often forgotten, it really needs to be accentuated that the lucky feat doesn't give you advantage even though it also makes you roll an extra d20 you can choose to benefit from. Essentially, you can't use the luck feat to gain advantage for the purposes of triggering something like your sneak attack class feature as a rogue.
A few people understandably get confused by the feat working very similar to advantage, without actually being considered advantage.
You can can however do a lot of fun stuff with the Lucky feat. You can go for an attack, close your eyes in panic, effectively blinding you and posing disadvantage on yourself, and let Luck guide your hand as you now get to choose the best of three D20s rather than the worst of two. It's just a fun thing to do, especially if you really roleplay your lucky tendencies in a way that's entertaining to you party. A creative DM might even do that job for you.
It's worth noting that quite a few DMs find this part of the feat to be quite overpowered. They either say that advantage/disadvantage is applied first and _then_ you get to choose between the remaining die and the die you roll with your luck feat OR they just ban the feat entirely.
Good DMs will let you know beforehand if they ban stuff from the Player's Handbook, but it never hurts to ask your DM whether he allows the Lucky feat. It's worth it compared to finding out mid game that doesn't allow it or has a different ruling for how it is applied
Oooook! This was super useful for me! Advantage and disadvantage confused the heck out of me! Also now I can't help but imagine someone with the Lucky feat, each day finds 3, four leaf clovers and when they spend a "luck point", the clover burns or glows before dispersing into light becoming a offering to whatever deity of luck is responsible for the lucky feat, blessing them or cursing the enemy with good or bad luck respectively.
This was probably the most educational episode to date.
So glad I took the lucky feat for my warrior monk. Totally felt great getting that super advantage.
So I have been playing and dming for 36 years now (yikes) and while 5ed is not my game of choice (Pathfinders for d&d fix, along side a few others) I have started dming a 5ed game for my niece and her friends (she was not confident enough for dming but is learning while playing and I am sure she will take over, she is far more creative than me so I may ask to play then : ). I Read the rule and have watch a number of shows (CR obviously but also Satine Phoenix shows and girls gut glory to then recommend to them) and was confident of having a good grasp of the rules. Would have sworn blind these negated each other until you had one of the 3 results. So these are not just for beginners :) although I may house rule is as I have been playing it as I think it makes more sense. Oh the girls love the Handbooker helpers vids by the way.
remember "rules" in D&D can be changed to suit the needs of the players. Always discuss any rule changes so it doesn't blind side during combat or story elements. It will keep the game flowing and overall the players will have a better time if you, The DM, lay them out before hand. Been DMing 5th for a good 3~4 years and i have swapped and stripped some rules i didn't like. I have a quick print out of homebrewed rules I hand to my players on the session 0 so they can understand what rules at the table.
Thanks Marisha! I'm running a One-shot with my brothers (who taught me how to play 2nd Edition 25 years ago) when I go home for Christmas. This is the one major rule that's new, so thanks for the very TIMELY post! You, as always, are the best!
Elven Accuracy feat + Lucky feat = 4D20 rolled on advantage, pick your favorite of the four, have fun.
And Wild Magic Sorcery to give yourself advantage on it in the first place
One homebrew rule I usually apply to my game sessions is that most creatures that can fly, while they are in flight, non magical ranged attack rolls made against them are disadvantaged. My personal rationale is that it would most likely be significantly harder to hit a quick flying target as opposed to a quick ground target. But to balance this, I also usually put a cap on the amount of times certain creatures can fly per day. The amount varies from creature to creature and it depends on a lot of factors that I take into consideration. But it overall applies to all flying creatures. From simple birds, to ancient dragons. Because even powerful creatures must at some point fatigue if constantly batting their wings to stay aloft.
I always play where adv/disadv stack. I like for my players to feel like epic warriors, and I always narrate stacking advantage as if it's some grand tale.
This is a fair point! Stacking advantages and disadvantages aren't RAW (rules as written), but like any other rule in D&D, you can change it in your own game if you want to. Although I suggest discussing it with your party first, if you're changing any rules. Most of the groups I know of have various homebrew rules at their tables :)
@@MsCunningLinguistic I imagine that stacking mechanic of opposites is purely there to make it manageable and quicken play. Perhaps the stacking of dis/adv is there to reduce the likelihood of absurd stuff happening. I'd be pretty salty if the enemy had a triple advantage against me. You're right, it's down to the DM and I hope the DM is aware of the consequences of the rules they choose.
House rules and "rule of cool" can dominate all else. As long as it's fun!! Sounds like your custom rule works well!
The thing is, there's a rapidly diminishing return on stacked advantage.
If you look at the probability of rolling 11 or above, that's 50%. Advantage takes it up to 75%. So that's cool. Double advantage only takes it up to 87.5%.
But if you look at the probabilities for rolling 15 or above, the same progression goes 25% (1d20), 43.75% (2d20) and 57.81% (3d20). You just get much less of a boost the more you stack dice.
Which _does_ mean you can add stacking advantage/disadvantage to your game without breaking the math. That's not the problem and that's not why they don't stack in RAW.
Firstly, people are really crap at understanding probabilities (take it from someone who used to run a Keno game back in the day; people will bet an astonishing amount of money on the most idiotic assumptions about what a randomised computer algorithm "owes" them). Stacked Advantage seems intuitively like something that's worthwhile to chase, despite it rapidly becoming less and less of an influence as DCs go up. So players are going to blow all their resources on chasing that extra die roll for not much benefit like a problem gambler trying to get their rent money back.
But second - and more importantly - the whole _point_ of advantage/disadvantage was to streamline things. Allowing them to stack puts you right back in the 3e/PF trap of having to account for a snowballing number of variables.
RAW advantage/disadvantage just lets a DM eyeball a situation and easily determine if it's advantage, disadvantage or just a straight roll. Then they just call for the roll, and everyone gets to get on with playing D&D.
@@nickwilliams8302
Stacking advantages does considerably reduce the chances of getting a Nat1: 1/20=5% (1d20), 1/400=0.25% (2d20), 1/8000=0.01% (3d20), 1/160000=0.0006% (4d20).
Also the stats you wrote are for getting equal or higher than 16 not 15.
It's simple. I see Handbooker Helper update, I click!
I'm update. I helper a click, I handbooker!
MsCunningLinguistic, even the name gave me a slight 'the fu-..' moment.
Great Job Marisha with the video. You are awesome!
One good way to gain advantage: bargain something very valuable like some supplies for your very own familiar
clear, great use of graphics, really helpful! thanks Marisha :)
Didn't know about that luck feat interaction with disadvantage (choosing between all 3 DICE?).
It seems illogical at first but I kinda like it. It motivates getting into funny situations and rely on your luck (literally) to get you out. A lucky rogue might rather close it's eyes and rely solely on it's luck to make a very important shot (or they might just get high first :P)...
Fun at the hands of most players, but beware of the Min-Maxers who already LOVE the Luck feat.
That rogue would still have disadvantage so they could not use sneak attack
Handbooker Helper is the most important playlist for me.
Wow, they are getting better at this with each video.
I know these have been recorded a while ago, but I still hope Mary E is gonna teach us how to warlock :D
I'd imagine the main CR crew is gonna do any new classes they didn't do last campaign, ie Marisha will do Monk, Travis will do Warlock, Liam will do Wizard, maybe Taliesin will do Blood Hunter(oof that'd be hard to watch). That just leaves Paladin, Sorcerer, and Fighter, which coincides with us still having Laura, Sam, and Ashley still needing to do a second quick build video. Though maybe Mercer himself will do one/some/all of them.
PLGRN8R they probably won’t do blood hunter since I don’t think that’s in the PHB
Taliesin already did Fighter.
i love these so much. ty guys for making them so people, like me, can understand some of the rules :D
Ding!
I love how the Lucky feat turns Advantage against you into Super Disadvantage.
I didn’t even know about those features of the Lucky feat!!! Holy cow that’s so cool!
I love those videos.
in my game I have a house rule for double advantage and double disadvantage. the double (dis)advantage is a +(-)5 added(subtracted) to(from) the higher(lower) roll. so if your flanking a target with an ally and Faerie Fire was cast you would roll 2 d20 and add 5 to the higher roll. the reason I did this was, I made combat much more gritty in my games and I want the players to think more strategically.
Let's not even get into the Halfling Divination Wizards, you could Bill Murray your way through anything with that kind of setup.
Holy shit, did NOT realize just how useful Luck is. Super-Advantage? My kind of Advantage! Especially if it was originally a Disadvantage roll!! Lol
Oh! I hadn't thought about the Lucky feat in combination with disadvantage... huh, good point!
I took the advantage of handbooker helper, but I did this with a disadvantage, since I did this while working.
That ruling about the lucky feat is almost a necessity feat for those who like to always have the rolls in their favor!
Thanks for the tip on using the luck feat to give me an edge on advantages rolls.
How is it now I only just notice how nice Marisha’s eyes are? Mercer is lucky to have someone as beautiful as her as a wife.
This is a tough concept to get across to newer players sometimes because there's no real way of getting around saying the words "advantage" and "disadvantage" like a million times. That said, this video's really well done, and manages to balance conciseness with easily digestible but thoroughly explained information.
Who knew that after hundreds of hours of DnD I always thought that if I had 2 advantages and 1 disadvantage on roll meant 2-1=1, i.e. I still have advantage.
I was surprised that there was a question I didn't know I had about Advantage/Disadvantage. Interesting. I learned something today.
LOL the bigby's hand flipping off got me. XD
To clarify what Marisha said at 3:32, if you roll with disadvantage you take the lower number, but with the lucky feat you get to choose between the lower number of the first two results or the third die you rolled, you don't get to choose from all three dice, the same applies to advantage.
The would be logical, and a fine houserule. But I do not think that is how the rules are written
@@MasteJonjon1 It is as far as I'm aware.
@@Shero1337
No, Marisha says you do get to choose from the 3 dice, and she's right. Search for "lucky" on this errata document:
media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf
(It does include an optional interpretation that looks similar to what you said but is statistically significantly different.)
Okay, let me rephrase that. You are wrong and Marisha are right. Here is a link to Sage advice:
dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sageadvice_feats/
That would make luck a little more balanced. Removing disadvantage (or adding advantage/super advantage) 3 times a day is overpowered
I loved that crowned d20!
Matt must have the luck feat to have married such a unicorn. Damn you, Mikisugi, you fortunate SOB.
Stubbed your toe, just as likely to hit your opponent as if you're blind, cursed, underwater, and exhausted (at the same time).
I may know all these little tidbits, but I still rewatch some of these lmao. Homework for new players.
The Lucky Feat
Or as my DM called it: I swear to the gods if you choose that fuckin' feat you're getting struck with lightning whenever you use it.
Just ban it at that point.
also, the elven accuracy feat means that any Elf who takes that feat gets three dice on advantage with attack rolls based on Dex, Int, Cha or Wisdom as standard.
I love it when someone gets double Nat 20s with Disadvantage or double Nat 1s with Advantage.
I know that this series largely focuses on the PHB, but will it continue and cover the DMG, Monster Manual and other books? Or can Matt do DM Tips for CR?
You ever have a rogue who has 4 advantages per turn, basically rolling 5 dice to hit and taking the highest. Then you watch this and finally have a reason to tell him to stop rolling d20s
Not how that works. You can only roll with or without advantage. Advantage do not stack.
I'll take advantage of you, and by that I mean I'll use this video to teach others how the advantage and disadvantage mechanic works.
Now that I've seen this, I have to decide if I tell my DM that my triple-advantage shenanigans are bogus...
Nice ending, Marisha.
Can you do weaknesses and resistance next
^this
They work in exactly the same way as advantage / disadvantage.
Vulnerability makes the creature take double damage while Resistance halves the damage.
In cases where a creature would have both the two cancel each other out and the damage is just normal.
That ding is my only reason for living.
this was ridiculously helpful, thank you!
I love the sneaky middle finger
Marisha's shirt is too real
Lucky feat, a lifesaver, literally in many cases.
0:46
DING
I actually decided to run with tallying advantage/disadvantage in my game (not stacking, though) and it seemed to work out just fine. Like with any generic rule, I found that it worked because enemy NPCs could benefit from advantage tallying just like the players could, as well as disadvantage tallying.
This is the best mechanic ever to come to D&D. It makes resolving situations so much easier than stacking up all kinds of situational modifiers.
Bonus points for the advantage pun!
Who else waits for "...ker Helper" to sing along?
I sing the whole song...
@@johnharrison2086 Same! Why wait when you can enjoy the whole thing!
I've been a fan of Marisha since she presented on Node. You guys remember that? Yeah. Node... doesn't look the same anymore does it?
Advantage changes the expected value of d20 from 10.5 to 13.3, FYI.
The mean is 13.82
With the way it's worded, lucky wouldn't make disadvantage super advantage because it picks the lower of the two, then you choose one of the two dice.
Not according to Jeremy Crawford at sage advice:
dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sageadvice_feats/
As Matt would say: Disad FUCKING vantadge
This ruling of the Lucky feat. Means you are better off doing the Luke thing from the original Star Wars and switch off your "targetting computer".
If you close your eyes you get Disadvantage than use Luck to get Super Advantage where the odds of a Nat20 are 14% and Nat1are 0.01%.
It is the one change that I really like from 5E ...
My party will be happy to hear that I've been treating Luck points improperly this whole time.................
I feel immensely dumb for only discovering D&D at the age of 39 but being raised by a mother who was raised in the Prussian way and a very strict father as well, I only got a computer at the age of 19 (mainly because I did some really stupid stuff on my father's workstation) and being a metalhead, I kind of avoided the geeky kids, mostly because they were usually a bunch of fatty full fledged RPing Nerds, which is great but back then I was more of the grungy, later metalhead type so I missed that opportunity. And to my surprise, many of those nerds turned out to be awesomely beautiful and smart women so...
If I ever have kids, I want to give them as many chances as they want to play whatever they want (respecting age limitations of course), instead of making me to this day, look behind my shoulder to make sure my mom isn't watching! :D
During this year, after rejoining my old M&B Napoleonic Wars regiment, now playing Arma 3 reenacting WW2, I had the chance and pleasure of being helped to learn and play D&D variants like Starwars and Elder Scrolls. Now, I'm trying to take of the most of it and learn what I can. Lovely post! Thanks for sharing you knowledge!
For strongjaw!!!!!!!!
I just realized that the purple hand below the title is Bigby’s hand.
Love this series
Huh, I didn't know that about stacking Advantages not having an effect against one disadvantage. Good to know if I ever try out a Mastermind rogue with their bonus help ability.
I new Lucky was good but I didn't know about the 3 dice thing that's busted
Yeah, a lot of people won't run it this way but this way was confirmed as the ruling.
Lucky is clearly broken.
The RUclips stats show that the video has been seen 40 times, and liked 56 times. Are... you okay, RUclips?
Views are updated less frequently and with a higher delay, that's why.
Love those doodles. 😆
@Critical Role: Where do we get Marisha's top? That's a pretty funny slogan...
1:18 GROG!
I feel like I keep hearing different things when it comes to the lucky feat and (dis)advantage.
Here, it's said that YOU get to choose which of the 3 dice you want to use. But I have also heard that lucky should only be about 1 die at a time, so you choose which of the 2 (dis)advantaged dice is being possibly replaced.
Example to clarify: If you roll atk with disadvantage, and you roll a nat 20 and a nat 2, you need to take the 2. With the lucky feat of the video, you just roll an extra die, and the result of it doesn't matter, cause you just take the 20.
In the rule I have heard before, you need to choose if you want to contest the 20 or the 2. So if the third die is a 13, your choice, since you rolled with disadvantage, is between a 2 and a 13.
I don't know which is more common, and I don't feel like the rules under the Lucky feat is clear about it, so I guess this would be up to the DM
Awesome! I'm just waiting for Sumalee to teach us how to Druid!
For Sneak Attack (which you can get from having Advantage), if you have both it counts as having *neither*. So you don't get Sneak Attack underwater with Vow of Enmity or other source of advantage.
(Unless you the target is engaged with another creature, in which case the part of Sneak Attack that only works if you don't have Disadvantage does work.)
open5e.com/classes/rogue.html#sneak-attack
Not sure if there are any other things in the game that require no disadvantage, or require advantage, but adv+dis cancelling out happens *before* you apply those rules.
This is the one thing about Advantage + Disadvantage that I know but this video didn't mention, so nice job. (Other than facts about probability, and how Advantage is worth about +5 for a DC10 with no modifiers, but much less valuable compared to a +modifier for things that you have a very small chance of succeeding at. It will double your chance of critting, though.)
Her lips look full and pretty. Girl what is that gloss
I'm surprised Laura didn't do this episode
Only D&D players know the pain of rolling a natural 20 and natural 1 on disadvantage.
Here's an interesting situation involving advantage plus the Luck feat... let's say some Big Bad is launching a large, powerful area-effect spell that will affect the whole party. The DC is 12 and the bad guy has advantage, rolling a 13 and a 16 (either way, it's a hit). But *one* of the party members has the Luck feat, and picks that moment to use it to hijack the roll, throwing an 11 with their extra dice and choosing to count *that* as the Big Bad's score, causing it to fail. I can see this going one of two ways...
*- Option 1:* The DM decides that everyone in the party *except* the one with the Luck feat gets hit with the score of 16, but the Lucky character is miraculously unscathed since they *alone* have the Luck feat.
*- Option 2:* The Luck feat just straight applies to the attack roll, which means it fails *completely* - which is to say, the spell fizzles out as it leaves the caster's hand, meaning that *none* of the party are hit.
Option 1 means that the individual with the Luck feat is particularly fortunate but the rest of the party isn't, while option 2 means that one individual just saved the *whole damn party* from a damage spike because that one character's good luck has rubbed off on them for a moment. Both could be considered to be "lucky" within the context of the story, but only one potentially saves the day for the whole group.
Which way does the DM rule in that case...?
They wouldn't? Area of effect spells always require saving throws, not attack rolls. If attack rolls were used, they would be seperate for each target...
@@justmonica9253 Fair enough... I'll admit D&D is not my game - the last time I played I was maybe 14 and it came in a red box and talked about THAC0, so I'm a little hazy on the rules! I generally watch Critical Role more for the story and characters than the dice rolls, so I'm usually more interested in the outcome than the means.
Vampire: The Masquerade works a little differently, and I rarely had to run actual combat in my games anyway - it was mostly intrigue and low-key Disciplines rather than big combat set-pieces, and I could often go a whole session without having to roll a single die because we were mostly about character interaction.
Your example works well, just zap powerful aoe attack with eldritch blast attacks.(not as much damage but they're targeted at each player so attack rolls have to be made)
Though then he'd roll for each attack, your example is really interesting though, I believe rule as written if you take over someone's roll then that's their roll. So everyone is saved.
But as I understand that shluldnt happen due to each attack being separate roll for each person or it being a saving throw from the player/target
9 people roll like Wil Wheaton WITH advantage.
That was a really helpful video, thank you.
Luck sounds pretty OP
Am I the only that hears handbooger helper at the end of the intro jingle?