Rolling Dice and Getting Started
Jul 14, 2016 21:54:55 GMT -6
Post by frozendm on Jul 14, 2016 21:54:55 GMT -6
Rolling Dice and Getting Started
This section will explain getting started in the game and how to roll dice in a forum format.
1. Rolling Dice
Rolling dice in a forum format is very simple. To roll a d20 dice, something you'll be using a lot. You type roll=1d20 and surround it with brackets, ie these []
The same is for, 1d4, 1d6, or things such as 10d12, anything is usable.
Lastly you can also add any modifiers you may have. An example of this is if you wanted to roll 1d20, but you had a modifier of +3 to the roll. To do this you would type roll=1d20+3 and surround it with brackets.
Be sure to place all your rolls at the top of the post you are making.
2. When to roll?
Rolling will only occur when the character is under the risk of failure, and the failure means something to the action of the moment.
An example of this would be you would be required to roll when you're stealthily picking a lock and someone might come by any minute.
An example of when not to roll would be trying to keep yourself stable on a horse you've rode for years.
Of course there will be exceptions with a game that is meant to cover every possible action a person could do and more, but these times will be adjudicated by your dm and you will be directly told to roll either in the forum, or by pm.
3. Combat
The most common time you will need to roll will be combat. Combat involves 5 different topics including: Initiative, Movement, Attacks, Damage and additional actions.
3A Actions in combat
In a single combat round you get the following actions.
1. Up to your full movement
2. 1 action
3. 1 reaction
4. 1 bonus action
3B Initiative
Initiative is the order of combat and who will move first. In most cases I will preform these rolls in order to keep things moving quickly. However I will explain how they are rolled for your benefit.
Initiative is determined by first taking 1d20, adding your imitative modifier which is your dexterity modifier plus any other miscellaneous modifiers you may have.
3C Movement
Each character has a movement speed determined by their race. This movement determines how far you can move in a single action. This movement can be changed dependent on terrain which may reduce it.
While your character is prone, whether they actively decided to lay down or if they chose to stand up this movement costs half of your full movement. Example if your full movement is 30 feet. If you stand from a prone position you would have a remaining speed of 15 feet left. While prone you may crawl at the cost of double movement.
In addition you do not need to take your full movement before making an action. If you have a move of 30 ft, you may instead move 10 feet then attack then move your remaining 20 feet
3D Actions
Your single action covers many of the different things you can do in combat.
3E Attacking
To make an attack you first choose an attack target, determine any modifiers you may have for the attack, and then roll your attack.
Attack modifiers are determined like this.
These attacks are made with a d20, so you would use the formula roll=1d20+(modifiers) surrounded by brackets.
In addition, a natural roll of a 20 is considered an automatic hit, while a roll of a 1 is considered an automatic miss.
Natural rolls are when the dice equal that number without adding in any modifiers
Opportunity Attacks
Opportunity attacks are attacks made when it is not your turn. These attacks are made when when an enemy is making an action that leaves them open against their enemy and they still are within reach of their enemy. This happens when an enemy moves out of your reach. Additionally some spells may cause Opportunity attacks. To use this opportunity attack you must use your reaction for the turn.
Two Weapon Fighting
When attacking with a light melee weapon you may use your bonus action to attack with an additional light melee weapon if it is in your other hand. If either of these attacks are successful you may not add any damage modifiers from your strength or dexterity, unless that modifier is negative in which case it must be added.
Grappling
As an attack action you may replace one of your attacks with a grapple attempt, effectively wrestling with the opponent.
To do this the target must be no more than one size larger than you, and within your reach. You will make a grapple check, and they will defend with their own Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) whichever the target prefers. If you
succeed the target is now grappled, making it's effective speed 0.
A grappled creature can use it's action to escape, to do so they must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) vs the Grappler's Strength (Athletics).
When you move you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is half unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.
Shoving
As an attack action you may replace one of your attacks with a shove attempt, effectively pushing your opponent.
To do this the target must be no more than one size larger than you, and within your reach. You will make a shove check, and they will defend with their own Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) whichever the target prefers. If you succeed you push the target 5 ft away from you.
3F Damage
Damage is determined by the weapon you are using and adding any additional modifiers you may have. The modifiers are determined just as the attacking modifiers were used moments ago, excluding the proficiency bonus. So a melee attack's damage roll would instead by the dice determined by the weapon and then you add the modifier determined by the weapon type. An example of this would be a longsword, a melee weapon that deals 1d8 damage. You would roll 1d8 damage then add your strength modifier to the damage roll.
If at any point the damage caused by an attack would be enough to bring the character down to 0 HP the attacker may instead choose to only knock out the character instead of killing blow.
3G Critical Hits
When you roll a natural 20, you score a critical hit. When this happens all damage dice are doubled for that attack. So if your weapon normally does 1d8 and you rolled a 6 for that damage, you would now deal a total of 12 damage from the dice alone before modifiers. This includes any other dice used for the attack such as a rogue's sneak attack.
4. Skills and Saves
Skills and saves are quite simple. To make the roll use roll=1d20 then add your modifier. An example would be a character rolling their perception which they get a bonus +4 to the roll. To make this roll they would type roll=1d20+3 and surround it with brackets at the beginning of their post.
5. Short Rest vs Long Rest
There are some skills or spells that mention either a short rest or a long rest. These are as follows.
Short Rest
A short rest is a period of downtime lasting at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading or tending to their wounds.
At the end of a short rest a player may a character may spend a number up to their hit dice, then rolling those dice adding their constitution modifier for each die they roll, this amount may be added back to their hp as healing.
Long Rest
A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long during which a character sleeps or performs light activity such as: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for more than two hours. If the rest is interrupted by any strenuous activity, at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity, the character must begin the rest again to gain any benefit.
At the end of a long rest a character regains all lost HP, The character also regains any spent hit dice up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total hit dice. Example, if a level 4 character with 4 Hit dice, spent 3 of those hit dice on regaining HP during their short rest, they would be able to regain a max of 2 of those hit dice to be used in a similar way.
A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hr period. A character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain any of these benefits.
6. Hit Points
Hit points are the amount of physical and mental durability has. Once your Hp is brought down to 0 you either die outright, or fall unconscious.
Instant Death
This is an extremely rare circumstance as in order for this to happen the Player Character must take damage in a single attack that deals enough to reduce your HP total to zero, and then the remaining damage equals your Total HP.
Falling Unconscious
If damage reduces your hit points to 0, your character is considered unconscious and falls to the ground. This unconsciousness ends if you ever regain any hit points.
While unconscious you are:
Unable to move or speak and are unaware of your surroundings
You drop anything you are currently holding and fall prone
You automatically fail any strength or dexterity saving throws
Attack rolls against the you have advantage
Any attack that hits the you is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5ft
Death Saving Throws
Whenever you start your turn at zero hit points you must roll a Death Saving throw. This Saving Throw is not tied to any Abilities. To roll a success on this roll you need to roll a 10 or higher. If a 1 is rolled it is counted as two failures, while if a 20 is rolled you regain 1 hp. Each time you roll above 10 is counted as a success, while below that is a failure. After succeeding 3 times, these do not need to be consecutive, your character is considered stabilized. If your character makes 3 failures, it is considered dead. These successes or failures are removed once your character becomes stable.
If you take any damage while at 0 hp the hit counts as a failed saving throw. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point total you suffer instant death.
Stabilizing
A stable creature doesn't need to make any death saving throws even though it has 0 hp. A creature stops being stable if it ever takes damage while being at 0 hp.
A stable creature that isn't healed in some way regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours.
Another character can attempt to forcibly stabilize a creature. To do this they must make a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) roll to attempt first aid. If successful the creature is stabilized.
Resistance and Invulnerability/vulnerable
Some creatures have resistances to certain types of damage. A resistant character only takes half damage from the damage type they are resistant to. An invulnerable creature takes no damage, while a vulnerable creature takes double the damage.
The following damage types are as listed
Acid, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, Slashing, and Thunder.
This section will explain getting started in the game and how to roll dice in a forum format.
1. Rolling Dice
Rolling dice in a forum format is very simple. To roll a d20 dice, something you'll be using a lot. You type roll=1d20 and surround it with brackets, ie these []
The same is for, 1d4, 1d6, or things such as 10d12, anything is usable.
Lastly you can also add any modifiers you may have. An example of this is if you wanted to roll 1d20, but you had a modifier of +3 to the roll. To do this you would type roll=1d20+3 and surround it with brackets.
Be sure to place all your rolls at the top of the post you are making.
2. When to roll?
Rolling will only occur when the character is under the risk of failure, and the failure means something to the action of the moment.
An example of this would be you would be required to roll when you're stealthily picking a lock and someone might come by any minute.
An example of when not to roll would be trying to keep yourself stable on a horse you've rode for years.
Of course there will be exceptions with a game that is meant to cover every possible action a person could do and more, but these times will be adjudicated by your dm and you will be directly told to roll either in the forum, or by pm.
3. Combat
The most common time you will need to roll will be combat. Combat involves 5 different topics including: Initiative, Movement, Attacks, Damage and additional actions.
3A Actions in combat
In a single combat round you get the following actions.
1. Up to your full movement
2. 1 action
3. 1 reaction
4. 1 bonus action
3B Initiative
Initiative is the order of combat and who will move first. In most cases I will preform these rolls in order to keep things moving quickly. However I will explain how they are rolled for your benefit.
Initiative is determined by first taking 1d20, adding your imitative modifier which is your dexterity modifier plus any other miscellaneous modifiers you may have.
3C Movement
Each character has a movement speed determined by their race. This movement determines how far you can move in a single action. This movement can be changed dependent on terrain which may reduce it.
While your character is prone, whether they actively decided to lay down or if they chose to stand up this movement costs half of your full movement. Example if your full movement is 30 feet. If you stand from a prone position you would have a remaining speed of 15 feet left. While prone you may crawl at the cost of double movement.
In addition you do not need to take your full movement before making an action. If you have a move of 30 ft, you may instead move 10 feet then attack then move your remaining 20 feet
3D Actions
Your single action covers many of the different things you can do in combat.
Attack | Making an attack |
Cast a Spell | Casting a spell |
Dash | Effectively moving your full movement an additional time this turn. |
Disengage | If this action is taken your movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks this turn. |
Dodge | Until your next turn all attacks made against you suffer disadvantage. |
Help | Give a friendly adjacent creature advantage on their next ability check, or give an ally against a hostile creature within 5 ft of you to give them advantage on their next attack |
Hide | First attempt a Stealth check, if successful you are hidden from sight. This causes hostile creatures to have disadvantage on attacks against you. You have advantage on attack rolls against any enemies. |
Ready | First you determine circumstance you are readying against and then a response to that occurrence if the circumstance occurs you immediately preform your desired action. |
Search | On your turn you may devote your turn purely to trying to find something. To do this make a perception check, and the result will be determined by the DM |
Use an Object | Interacting with objects that are not clearly defined, the length of time depends on the object and the desired outcome. |
3E Attacking
To make an attack you first choose an attack target, determine any modifiers you may have for the attack, and then roll your attack.
Attack modifiers are determined like this.
Melee Attack | Add your strength bonus, and then if proficient add your proficiency bonus |
Finesse Weapon | Add your dexterity bonus, and then if proficient add your proficiency bonus |
Ranged Attack | Add your dexterity bonus, and then if proficient add your proficiency bonus |
Thrown Weapon | Add your strength bonus, and then if proficient add your proficiency bonus |
These attacks are made with a d20, so you would use the formula roll=1d20+(modifiers) surrounded by brackets.
In addition, a natural roll of a 20 is considered an automatic hit, while a roll of a 1 is considered an automatic miss.
Natural rolls are when the dice equal that number without adding in any modifiers
Opportunity Attacks
Opportunity attacks are attacks made when it is not your turn. These attacks are made when when an enemy is making an action that leaves them open against their enemy and they still are within reach of their enemy. This happens when an enemy moves out of your reach. Additionally some spells may cause Opportunity attacks. To use this opportunity attack you must use your reaction for the turn.
Two Weapon Fighting
When attacking with a light melee weapon you may use your bonus action to attack with an additional light melee weapon if it is in your other hand. If either of these attacks are successful you may not add any damage modifiers from your strength or dexterity, unless that modifier is negative in which case it must be added.
Grappling
As an attack action you may replace one of your attacks with a grapple attempt, effectively wrestling with the opponent.
To do this the target must be no more than one size larger than you, and within your reach. You will make a grapple check, and they will defend with their own Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) whichever the target prefers. If you
succeed the target is now grappled, making it's effective speed 0.
A grappled creature can use it's action to escape, to do so they must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) vs the Grappler's Strength (Athletics).
When you move you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is half unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.
Shoving
As an attack action you may replace one of your attacks with a shove attempt, effectively pushing your opponent.
To do this the target must be no more than one size larger than you, and within your reach. You will make a shove check, and they will defend with their own Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) whichever the target prefers. If you succeed you push the target 5 ft away from you.
3F Damage
Damage is determined by the weapon you are using and adding any additional modifiers you may have. The modifiers are determined just as the attacking modifiers were used moments ago, excluding the proficiency bonus. So a melee attack's damage roll would instead by the dice determined by the weapon and then you add the modifier determined by the weapon type. An example of this would be a longsword, a melee weapon that deals 1d8 damage. You would roll 1d8 damage then add your strength modifier to the damage roll.
If at any point the damage caused by an attack would be enough to bring the character down to 0 HP the attacker may instead choose to only knock out the character instead of killing blow.
3G Critical Hits
When you roll a natural 20, you score a critical hit. When this happens all damage dice are doubled for that attack. So if your weapon normally does 1d8 and you rolled a 6 for that damage, you would now deal a total of 12 damage from the dice alone before modifiers. This includes any other dice used for the attack such as a rogue's sneak attack.
4. Skills and Saves
Skills and saves are quite simple. To make the roll use roll=1d20 then add your modifier. An example would be a character rolling their perception which they get a bonus +4 to the roll. To make this roll they would type roll=1d20+3 and surround it with brackets at the beginning of their post.
5. Short Rest vs Long Rest
There are some skills or spells that mention either a short rest or a long rest. These are as follows.
Short Rest
A short rest is a period of downtime lasting at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading or tending to their wounds.
At the end of a short rest a player may a character may spend a number up to their hit dice, then rolling those dice adding their constitution modifier for each die they roll, this amount may be added back to their hp as healing.
Long Rest
A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long during which a character sleeps or performs light activity such as: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for more than two hours. If the rest is interrupted by any strenuous activity, at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity, the character must begin the rest again to gain any benefit.
At the end of a long rest a character regains all lost HP, The character also regains any spent hit dice up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total hit dice. Example, if a level 4 character with 4 Hit dice, spent 3 of those hit dice on regaining HP during their short rest, they would be able to regain a max of 2 of those hit dice to be used in a similar way.
A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hr period. A character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain any of these benefits.
6. Hit Points
Hit points are the amount of physical and mental durability has. Once your Hp is brought down to 0 you either die outright, or fall unconscious.
Instant Death
This is an extremely rare circumstance as in order for this to happen the Player Character must take damage in a single attack that deals enough to reduce your HP total to zero, and then the remaining damage equals your Total HP.
Falling Unconscious
If damage reduces your hit points to 0, your character is considered unconscious and falls to the ground. This unconsciousness ends if you ever regain any hit points.
While unconscious you are:
Unable to move or speak and are unaware of your surroundings
You drop anything you are currently holding and fall prone
You automatically fail any strength or dexterity saving throws
Attack rolls against the you have advantage
Any attack that hits the you is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5ft
Death Saving Throws
Whenever you start your turn at zero hit points you must roll a Death Saving throw. This Saving Throw is not tied to any Abilities. To roll a success on this roll you need to roll a 10 or higher. If a 1 is rolled it is counted as two failures, while if a 20 is rolled you regain 1 hp. Each time you roll above 10 is counted as a success, while below that is a failure. After succeeding 3 times, these do not need to be consecutive, your character is considered stabilized. If your character makes 3 failures, it is considered dead. These successes or failures are removed once your character becomes stable.
If you take any damage while at 0 hp the hit counts as a failed saving throw. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point total you suffer instant death.
Stabilizing
A stable creature doesn't need to make any death saving throws even though it has 0 hp. A creature stops being stable if it ever takes damage while being at 0 hp.
A stable creature that isn't healed in some way regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours.
Another character can attempt to forcibly stabilize a creature. To do this they must make a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) roll to attempt first aid. If successful the creature is stabilized.
Resistance and Invulnerability/vulnerable
Some creatures have resistances to certain types of damage. A resistant character only takes half damage from the damage type they are resistant to. An invulnerable creature takes no damage, while a vulnerable creature takes double the damage.
The following damage types are as listed
Acid, Bludgeoning, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Piercing, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, Slashing, and Thunder.