After all, helping someone search a room amounts to two separate searches. The second alternative is letting everyone make an attempt. The rule assumes skilled characters assist the rest, so only half the group needs to succeed. Group checks come when everyone might need to make at a check. ![]() The D&D rules offer two alternatives to assistance. When two or more characters contribute to an interaction, I typically grant advantage without a player request. Only characters with speaking parts-the characters who contributed to a scene-get to assist. But during role-playing interaction, I stick to the protocol.Īfter a player acts in character to persuade a non-player character, I don’t let bystanders volunteer to assist the check. Typically, I don’t insist on this order, so I happily ask players how they help. The player describes how they help, and then the DM grants advantage. In an ideal game, players describe their actions and DMs respond by calling for ability checks. Casting a rope to a sinking character’s flailing hands might require a dexterity check. Suppose a helper chooses not to risk the thin ice and opts to throw a rope instead. Nonetheless, the actions made to assist might require a check. Unlike past Dungeons & Dragons rules, fifth edition lets characters assist without a required check. Often, assistance means coming in range of a potential trap. Offering a hand out of that river would mean crawling onto the cracking ice. Specific actions to assist might expose a helper to danger. Encouragement shouted from the shore probably won’t.ĭescribing the assistance immerses players in the game world and helps the story come alive. ![]() ![]() If a character tries to climb from a frozen river onto the ice, a hand up will probably help. The Dungeon Master’s Guide explains, “You decide whether a circumstance influences a roll in one direction or another, and you grant advantage or impose disadvantage as a result.” Rather than making “I assist” a real-world incantation that grants advantage, judge assistance as a circumstance that might merit advantage. Because no one needs to engage with the game world to gain an edge, routine assistance discourages ingenuity.Ĭhris Sniezak offers a potential remedy: “When someone says that they want to help, the first question that the dungeon master should ask is, ‘How do you help?’”Īsk players to describe how they assist, and then grant-or deny-advantage based on whether the assistance could help. This pattern brings advantage to every check, trivializing the game’s challenges. “Someone tries to do something, and someone will just pipe up, ‘I assist.’” “In a lot of games that I’ve run, everyone is always assisting every check they possibly can,” Shawn explains. In episode 124 of the Down with D&D podcast, hosts Shawn Merwin and Chris Sniezak discussed a scene that reoccurs at my tables too.
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