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[sambojin]

First one, don't know.

Second one: No. Standard AC,  Unarmoured Defense and Draconic armour are completely different AC calculations. You use one or the other. So, 13+dex OR 10+dex+con OR 10+dex+wis OR your normal AC calculation (assuming you had all of the above). It doesn't stack with wildshape's natural armour amounts either, but is usually superior anyway. That's why Animonks are a thing, even if the class level in Monk gives your Druid hardly anything else (but you'll probably be pumping Wis at some point, and 14-18AC is WAY better than 11-14AC, depending on which wildshape you take. It just makes your armour a "thing", even if it isn't an amazing thing).

It's also why Shield of Faith is quite a good spell in its own way, even in later level gameplay, and Mage Armour or Barkskin kind of isn't (even with concentration and duration taken into account). Fairly horrible AC for no concentration or reasonable duration, or damn near unhittable if you've got decent AC already, but you have to think about it. It's also why everyone just briefly glanced at the Mystic class and said "Not at my table" (they could run no-concentration +3AC easily). Big AC boosts are rare, and should be, because they skew the system horribly otherwise.

[Harry Baldman]

I have realized that the Battle Master's Commander's Strike can allow assassins another critical hitting attack. If that assassin had already hit with his sneak attack his last turn, does he get another one if the Strike hits? And does the supiority dice also double/triple in a crit?

And unrelated, does Mage Armor/Draconic Resilience/Armor of Peace stack with unarmored defense?

Well, the Player's Handbook says that Sneak Attack only procs once per turn, not specifically the turn of the character who made it. So I think if you did Commander's Strike one of two things would happen: the assassin either doesn't get the sneak attack the second time or they get it and don't get the crit because surprise only applies to the first turn of combat. On the bright side crit rules do specify that all of the weapon's damage dice are rolled again, so you'd likely be in the money for the superdice. It's a niche enough use of Commander's Strike that I'd probably allow you to get an extra crit on turn one without sneak attack.

[sambojin]

That was my reading of it too. You could use SA if you hadn't already, but it wasn't like it gave you an extra use of it that turn, even if it specifically pointed out that it *could* let you proc it.

Honestly, for any rogue other than an assassin, I'd probably allow two sneak attacks with Commanding Strike, just because it encourages teamwork and rogues could use a buff. Except for assassins. Their surprise mechanics probably shouldn't be allowed to be mega-diced twice over (though the superiority dice itself could probably be maxed if it ever came up that they were still in surprise mode, hadn't sneak attacked yet, etc).

[pikachu17]

Surprise is for the first round of combat, not just the first turn, right?

[Harry Baldman]

Yeah, first round. Even so it's not like you can use Sneak Attack on a reaction, or at least this doesn't seem to be the intended way to use it if you've already snuck attacked that round.

Really I'm only about 50% sure the writers of the PHB are any better at distinguishing turns and rounds than I am.

[sambojin]

It's the very niche case of where the BM goes before the rogue, the rogue is within sneak attack range of an enemy, you have surprise, and the BM superiority die's the rogue into action.

So even rarer than a surprise assassin round is against something "important", but a dexxy BM with Alert could probably do it to an assassin in that particular case.

[Kadzar]

It's very much intended that rogues can use Sneak Attack with Commander's Strike. This is from the Sage Advice Compedium, under Class Features for Rogue:
"Can a rogue use Sneak Attack more than once per round? The Sneak Attack description specifies that you can use the feature once per turn, but it’s not limited to your turn. The feature also doesn’t limit the number of times you can use it in a round.
You sometimes get a chance to use Sneak Attack on someone else’s turn. The most common way for this to happen is when a foe provokes an opportunity attack from you. If the requirements for Sneak Attack are met, your opportunity attack can benefit from that feature. Similarly, a fighter could use Commander’s Strike to grant you an attack on the fighter’s turn, and if the attack qualifies, it can use Sneak Attack. Both of those options rely on the use of your reaction, so you could do only one of them in a round.
Because you get only one reaction per round, you’re unlikely to use Sneak Attack more than twice in a round: once with your action and once with your reaction."

So, so long as you manage to surprise creatures (which could be ruined by a Battle Master Fighter in heavy armor failing a stealth check) and your Assassin has a target within weapon range (because the Commander's Strike only grants an attack, not movement), it should be possible to get another surprise crit.

[Mini]

Commander's strike only requires that the recipient be able to see or hear you, so theoretically the fighter could be a relatively large distance away (such that the target hasn't recognised them as a threat) or around a few corners. Or they could be a rogue/fighter multiclass, and if you have two rogue/fighters then you'd be able to get 4 sneak attacks.

[sambojin]

Dump Pass without Trace on the lot of them, and let them nearly auto-stealth for that surprise cluster-f*.

(yes, I tend to druid. That's just another reason to do so)



Oh, those rainy days and those elves. Stab you just because, they would.

[sambojin]

Probably a silly question, because I know the RAI answer:

If a Firbolg Druid casts Spike Growth on enemies, that will move that turn, bonus actions Invisible and then wanders off somewhere else, will he be invisible until the start of his next turn? You're not rolling the damage dice, the DM probably should be, because it's his movement causing it.

May have been asked before. May have been FAQ'd or saged. But still....  Firbolgs are way more awesome than the credit given. Invis on short rest always is, aside from all the other WTF(?) they give. 2-3-4e, you can keep it. Little giants o'death rule.

[Mini]

Spike growth uses the same language as fireball does for the damage it deals (i.e., they both use "takes xdx <type> damage"), so there's nothing exceptional there. I don't see any reason why someone other than the person who made an effect would be rolling dice for that effect (other than saving throws). There's nothing in Sage Advice that I could find relating to this, so it comes down to whoever is DMing, but my ruling would be that the invisibility ends when spike growth deals damage.

[sambojin]

So, it's essentially you rolling them (regardless of who actually rolls them, or how many times, or why the enemies triggered damage) because it was you that cast the spell? Sounds fair enough, and RAI. That's what I expected. But possibly rules-lawyerable (the worst form of RAW for such lawyers).


Still one of the best full knowledge character creation pages ever:

http://www.pathguy.com/ddnext.htm

Yes, the greyed-out options work fine. And it even works fine as a saved page (in case you don't have internet access). Can kinda understand why it's not getting updated. It's a bit clunky, but it has an option to check damn near anything

[Harry Baldman]

Commander's strike only requires that the recipient be able to see or hear you, so theoretically the fighter could be a relatively large distance away (such that the target hasn't recognised them as a threat) or around a few corners. Or they could be a rogue/fighter multiclass, and if you have two rogue/fighters then you'd be able to get 4 sneak attacks.

Suddenly an assassin appears behind you and sinks a dagger into your back in a surprise attack for 2d4 + 6d6 + 4 damage!

An authoritative voice comes from some bushes about forty yards down the road, "YEAH, THAT'S GOOD, THAT'S WHAT'S UP, STAB THE FUCKER"

Encouraged, the assassin stabs you again for 2d4 + 6d6 + 2d8 + 4 more damage!

The two-person battlemaster assassin (or just two assassins with the Martial Adept feat, come to think of it) variant would be even better. Imagine two assassin goons egging each other on as they stab some poor bastard they snuck up on, doing 2d8+6d6+4 twice and then 2d8+6d6+2d6+4 twice more (rapiers, level 5 assassins with Martial Adept, 18 dex, easily accomplished with Variant Humans by that point) in a surprise round.

[pikachu17]

My battle master PC is an archer, so he actually might make some stealth checks.
By the way, this probably works even better with a Half-Orc assassin with Dual-wielder.
He gets to to stab for 3d8+6d6+4, then 3d8, then 5d8+6d6+4. Although, you have to remember that Commander's Strike uses up one of the Commander's attacks, so they can't both hit someone at the same time if they are both assassins.

If a PC has natural flying speed, does gaining extra speed from Barbarian/Monk/Mobile allow him to fly farther, or does he have to walk part of it?

[Harry Baldman]

My battle master PC is an archer, so he actually might make some stealth checks.
By the way, this probably works even better with a Half-Orc assassin with Dual-wielder.
He gets to to stab for 3d8+6d6+4, then 3d8, then 5d8+6d6+4. Although, you have to remember that Commander's Strike uses up one of the Commander's attacks, so they can't both hit someone at the same time if they are both assassins.

Yeah, sadly for the cause of exploitation two assassins shouting at each other for large amounts of damage to the poor bastard caught in between is not rules legal (sadly dual wielding takes a bonus action to do, otherwise you could drop the second attack for the Commander's Strike). An archer deciding not to shoot but instead telling the assassin to stab harder, however, looks to be perfectly in keeping with the rules, so that's pretty good.

And yeah, suppose dual wielding does give half-orcs a bit of an edge, though it won't be a 3d8 because rapiers aren't light weapons. At best it'd be a scimitar or shortsword for 3d6, I think.