Just wondering exactly how does one use the protection fighting style?
Like, if a party member is within 5 feet of me, and the DM says, this orc hits them. Do I just say I'll try and protect them and the DM has to roll again for the purposes of disadvantage?
Well typically the DM says the orc attacks your adjacent party member. Then yea you announce you spend a reaction to try and defend with your shield and the DM rolls with disadvantage.
If your DM typically rolls first and announces a hit or not, talk with them first that you got the Protection fighting style and you'd like more of a warning in order to benefit from it.
No. It counts as your reaction for the turn. You still get to take your move and action as normal. However, you would not get to take another reaction, such as an opportunity attack.
Your reaction interrupts the creature’s action so if your DM doesn’t give enough warning they might be ok with stating your use after attack and damage is announced, especially if your table is in the habit of rolling both attack and damage dice at the same time to make combat run faster.
But talk to them so they know ahead of time that you have this ability you are using so they can decide when you should tell them you are using it.
Protection is ok at tier 1, but very quickly looses effect when facing either multiple opponents or one opponent with multiple attacks. At higher tiers it is really bad when facing multiple opponents with multiple attacks.
Just to clarify.. you get 1 Reaction per ROUND, not TURN. This means you can you reaction during any other creatures turn, but then do not get your reaction back until the beginning of the next Round.
Exactly, besides the finicky maneuvering, with protection you use your reaction for the chance to make an enemy miss one attack. And you have to declare it before the dice are rolled. And the enemy may just roll well and hit anyway.
Which is why the Interception fighting style works much better. You still have the maneuvering, but you're using your reaction to prevent damage.
Which is why the Interception fighting style works much better. You still have the maneuvering, but you're using your reaction to prevent damage.
Came here just to say this. Interception is much better. First of all, the timing let's you see, if the attack hit or not, making your Reaction that much more useful. Secondly you straight out prevent a portion of the damage from being dealt. While Protection is good, Interception is better.
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Hey there,
Just wondering exactly how does one use the protection fighting style?
Like, if a party member is within 5 feet of me, and the DM says, this orc hits them. Do I just say I'll try and protect them and the DM has to roll again for the purposes of disadvantage?
Well typically the DM says the orc attacks your adjacent party member. Then yea you announce you spend a reaction to try and defend with your shield and the DM rolls with disadvantage.
If your DM typically rolls first and announces a hit or not, talk with them first that you got the Protection fighting style and you'd like more of a warning in order to benefit from it.
Awesome, thanks for the tip!
Following up on this, if you perform the protection reaction does this count as your action for your turn?
No. It counts as your reaction for the turn. You still get to take your move and action as normal. However, you would not get to take another reaction, such as an opportunity attack.
Yeah, that's what I thought. Our DM is getting hung up on the verbiage regarding the ready action and is now thinking reactions count as your action.
Your reaction interrupts the creature’s action so if your DM doesn’t give enough warning they might be ok with stating your use after attack and damage is announced, especially if your table is in the habit of rolling both attack and damage dice at the same time to make combat run faster.
But talk to them so they know ahead of time that you have this ability you are using so they can decide when you should tell them you are using it.
That's the thing: he WAS running this correctly and only within the past couple days has confused the issue.
Just a side note, make sure your DM's also understand that it only protects against one attack roll, not multiple.
If you want sugar coating, go buy a dessert....
Protection is ok at tier 1, but very quickly looses effect when facing either multiple opponents or one opponent with multiple attacks. At higher tiers it is really bad when facing multiple opponents with multiple attacks.
Just to clarify.. you get 1 Reaction per ROUND, not TURN. This means you can you reaction during any other creatures turn, but then do not get your reaction back until the beginning of the next Round.
Exactly, besides the finicky maneuvering, with protection you use your reaction for the chance to make an enemy miss one attack. And you have to declare it before the dice are rolled. And the enemy may just roll well and hit anyway.
Which is why the Interception fighting style works much better. You still have the maneuvering, but you're using your reaction to prevent damage.
Came here just to say this. Interception is much better. First of all, the timing let's you see, if the attack hit or not, making your Reaction that much more useful. Secondly you straight out prevent a portion of the damage from being dealt. While Protection is good, Interception is better.