So - the following situation is part of an NPC enocounter that the PCs merely observe after the fact, but I want to somehow turn it into viable D&D mechanics. (I don't like it when players say "Hey - you never let us PCs do cool things like that!" because I never liked it when I was a player.)
So -
A high-level adventuring party is fighting an Ancient Red Dragon.
(Yeah, I know. That's high.)
The dragon - annoyed at the halfling Rogue's antics - blasts them with a full-on fire breath.
The rogue manages to completely dodge the attack and escape unharmed, albeit he himself doesn't get an attack off that round.
If i were to tell you that this happened at the table, what would you assumed happened?
The rogue dived into cover right before the breath, or they rolled out of the cone, possibly by going toward the dragon.
Yes, the abstracted game mechanics don't have the rogue moving, but that's a reasonable assumption of what happened. Presumably their movement on the next round was from this new position.
Rogue took the Dodge Action, giving himself Advantage on Dexterity Saves, made a successful Save against the fire breath and took no damage because of the 7th level Rogue feature, Evasion.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
In terms of what happened I'm assuming Evasion (passed their Dexterity save or used a ring of evasion, thus taking no damage)? Not getting "an attack off" in their own turn is a bit confusing, as they shouldn't have needed to use their own action to evade, so did they just miss their own attack? The only alternative I can think of would be using the Ready to prepare a move if the dragon uses its fire breath, and moved into cover or out of the cone?
Narratively I find it sometimes helps to consider that just because something ended the turn in the same position it started, doesn't necessarily mean that it didn't move at all. As jl8e suggests, the Rogue could have darted forward out of the cone (ending up closer to the dragon), but then hastily retreated back again before it can claw them to death, so they end in the same basic position.
Alternatively, you don't have to consider the dragon's breath as actually firing out in a cone; it could be a jet of flame fired out in a line, but with the dragon sweeping it across the area to creature the roughly conical/triangular pattern. In this case all the Rogue needs to evade is the jet of flame, either by limboing under it, leaping over it, or blocking it enough to protect only themselves.
Rogue took the Dodge Action, giving himself Advantage on Dexterity Saves, made a successful Save against the fire breath and took no damage because of the 7th level Rogue feature, Evasion.
In terms of what happened I'm assuming Evasion (passed their Dexterity save or used a ring of evasion, thus taking no damage)? Not getting "an attack off" in their own turn is a bit confusing, as they shouldn't have needed to use their own action to evade, so did they just miss their own attack?
If they took the Dodge Action that would mean they took their entire Action to give themselves Advantage on their Dexterity Saving Throws and wouldn't have been able to take th Attack Action.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
So - the following situation is part of an NPC enocounter that the PCs merely observe after the fact, but I want to somehow turn it into viable D&D mechanics. (I don't like it when players say "Hey - you never let us PCs do cool things like that!" because I never liked it when I was a player.)
So -
A high-level adventuring party is fighting an Ancient Red Dragon.
(Yeah, I know. That's high.)
The dragon - annoyed at the halfling Rogue's antics - blasts them with a full-on fire breath.
The rogue manages to completely dodge the attack and escape unharmed, albeit he himself doesn't get an attack off that round.
If i were to tell you that this happened at the table, what would you assumed happened?
The rogue dived into cover right before the breath, or they rolled out of the cone, possibly by going toward the dragon.
Yes, the abstracted game mechanics don't have the rogue moving, but that's a reasonable assumption of what happened. Presumably their movement on the next round was from this new position.
Rogue took the Dodge Action, giving himself Advantage on Dexterity Saves, made a successful Save against the fire breath and took no damage because of the 7th level Rogue feature, Evasion.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
In terms of what happened I'm assuming Evasion (passed their Dexterity save or used a ring of evasion, thus taking no damage)? Not getting "an attack off" in their own turn is a bit confusing, as they shouldn't have needed to use their own action to evade, so did they just miss their own attack? The only alternative I can think of would be using the Ready to prepare a move if the dragon uses its fire breath, and moved into cover or out of the cone?
Narratively I find it sometimes helps to consider that just because something ended the turn in the same position it started, doesn't necessarily mean that it didn't move at all. As jl8e suggests, the Rogue could have darted forward out of the cone (ending up closer to the dragon), but then hastily retreated back again before it can claw them to death, so they end in the same basic position.
Alternatively, you don't have to consider the dragon's breath as actually firing out in a cone; it could be a jet of flame fired out in a line, but with the dragon sweeping it across the area to creature the roughly conical/triangular pattern. In this case all the Rogue needs to evade is the jet of flame, either by limboing under it, leaping over it, or blocking it enough to protect only themselves.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
The rogue dashed into cover as the fire blasted, and came out unharmed due to his ring of fire elemental command.
This seems helpful! Thanks!
Sounds like the rogue just used Evasion and succeeded the save, taking no damage instead of half damage. That's literally an ability rogues get.
If they took the Dodge Action that would mean they took their entire Action to give themselves Advantage on their Dexterity Saving Throws and wouldn't have been able to take th Attack Action.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I would assume it's the dragon's turn since it's using Fire Breath, which by the way is not an attack.
I would assume the rogue successfully made it's Dexterity saving throw and took no damage due to Evasion.
I would assume the rogue took the Dodge action before on it's turn.