So this is feedback (and request for comments) based off a new campaign with 5 players, 4 of whom are totally new to 5e, the other (me) is a relatively new actual player (although I have reasonable knowledge of the system), and a relatively new DM.
Character sheets were rolled up by all players, and in session 0 our DM took us all through a simple "here's how combat works" played example.
During this runthrough, our Tabaxi Monk (STR 7, DEX 18) pointed out that their character sheet seemed to have two different damage rolls for their "Claws" attack, and wasn't sure which one of them was the right one to use - understandable as they are a completely new player and the character sheet gave no indication which of the two were correct. The table in Actions had the roll button stating "1d4 +4", and when clicked did indeed roll 1d4 +4. However, immediately below this was the text explaining Claws, which said:
"Your claws are natural weapons that you can use for unarmed strikes that deal 1d4 -2 slashing damage."
Mousing over the "-2" showed the popup text "modifier:str", and yes, technically the modifier for Claws usually is strength so the text is right "as per the sourcebook" taking the action in isolation, however as the character had the feat Martial Arts, the rollable damage button was (correctly) +4 from the DEX modifier instead. Being a new player, they were not able to point to this as the reason though, and they wanted to know why the difference was there so they could work out which of the two to use.
Confused, they then clicked Claws and started to read the sidebar text and details, further compounding their puzzlement due to the block at the top saying "Damage: 1d4 +4" and "Stat: DEX", but the text immediately below it stating "If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier"... which they rightly pointed out was -2, not +4.
The DM and I had been sidetracked at this point, so cue 15 minutes of the rest of the players poring through the PHB until one suddenly went "Wait, you've got Martial Arts, that's why it's DEX instead of STR, so the +4 one is right in this case".
The Monk's immediate response: "Well why didn't it just tell me it was that feat causing the difference instead of making me look for it?"
So I guess my question is this... would anyone consider it to be useful that, if when there are differences to a feat/action/etc's text/roll caused by something else interacting with it, the reason that the values and stats being used are different had some (any!) sort of indication in the character sheet rather than expecting you to either "just know it" or search without any direction? At the moment, it's literally just going "Here's two alternatives, off you go, you research why the two options are different"; instead, maybe it could just have a little line of text at the bottom/end of the description pointing out that "This has been modified by the Martial Arts feat"? The anecdotal evidence above strongly implies to me that it would be useful, especially for new players who are trying to get into the game but are presented with conflicting information in a character sheet which is supposedly designed to reduce the need to go looking through the sourcebooks for things...
The conditional logic in the Actions section and the sidebar is already there (as shown by the fact that the roll in the main sheet is correct, and the sidebar shows both the correct roll and that the stat in use is DEX instead of STR), so even if "having the actual text description of the action always reflect what the sourcebook states" is an absolute requirement, having a single line of text appear at the bottom of the description pointing the player towards why there's a difference can't be that hard to implement, and surely must have some sensible use-cases, right?
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So this is feedback (and request for comments) based off a new campaign with 5 players, 4 of whom are totally new to 5e, the other (me) is a relatively new actual player (although I have reasonable knowledge of the system), and a relatively new DM.
Character sheets were rolled up by all players, and in session 0 our DM took us all through a simple "here's how combat works" played example.
During this runthrough, our Tabaxi Monk (STR 7, DEX 18) pointed out that their character sheet seemed to have two different damage rolls for their "Claws" attack, and wasn't sure which one of them was the right one to use - understandable as they are a completely new player and the character sheet gave no indication which of the two were correct. The table in Actions had the roll button stating "1d4 +4", and when clicked did indeed roll 1d4 +4. However, immediately below this was the text explaining Claws, which said:
"Your claws are natural weapons that you can use for unarmed strikes that deal 1d4 -2 slashing damage."
Mousing over the "-2" showed the popup text "modifier:str", and yes, technically the modifier for Claws usually is strength so the text is right "as per the sourcebook" taking the action in isolation, however as the character had the feat Martial Arts, the rollable damage button was (correctly) +4 from the DEX modifier instead. Being a new player, they were not able to point to this as the reason though, and they wanted to know why the difference was there so they could work out which of the two to use.
Confused, they then clicked Claws and started to read the sidebar text and details, further compounding their puzzlement due to the block at the top saying "Damage: 1d4 +4" and "Stat: DEX", but the text immediately below it stating "If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier"... which they rightly pointed out was -2, not +4.
The DM and I had been sidetracked at this point, so cue 15 minutes of the rest of the players poring through the PHB until one suddenly went "Wait, you've got Martial Arts, that's why it's DEX instead of STR, so the +4 one is right in this case".
The Monk's immediate response: "Well why didn't it just tell me it was that feat causing the difference instead of making me look for it?"
So I guess my question is this... would anyone consider it to be useful that, if when there are differences to a feat/action/etc's text/roll caused by something else interacting with it, the reason that the values and stats being used are different had some (any!) sort of indication in the character sheet rather than expecting you to either "just know it" or search without any direction? At the moment, it's literally just going "Here's two alternatives, off you go, you research why the two options are different"; instead, maybe it could just have a little line of text at the bottom/end of the description pointing out that "This has been modified by the Martial Arts feat"? The anecdotal evidence above strongly implies to me that it would be useful, especially for new players who are trying to get into the game but are presented with conflicting information in a character sheet which is supposedly designed to reduce the need to go looking through the sourcebooks for things...
The conditional logic in the Actions section and the sidebar is already there (as shown by the fact that the roll in the main sheet is correct, and the sidebar shows both the correct roll and that the stat in use is DEX instead of STR), so even if "having the actual text description of the action always reflect what the sourcebook states" is an absolute requirement, having a single line of text appear at the bottom of the description pointing the player towards why there's a difference can't be that hard to implement, and surely must have some sensible use-cases, right?