Talk:Drop Prone (5e Variant Rule)

You should probably explain the timing of all of this. Like, if a player says they are dropping prone after you already rolled an attack on them, does that mean you need to re-roll it with advantage? What is there to stop a DM from including this rule in their game, always having enemies use it in the most efficient way possible, and always making ranged attacks on players without declaring said attacks, and then retconning a justification that "you didn't see it coming". As nice as it would be to design for only good DMs, That Guy is still out there somewhere running cruddy games by manipulating the wording of the rules at his table. --Kydo (talk) 04:38, 15 December 2016 (MST)

Feels like the best way would be:

• Monster makes a ranged attack roll.
• Would be inefficient to keep the roll secret and wait for players to drop prone, so let the players decide if they want to drop prone after the attack roll is known to be a hit or not.
• If they drop prone, roll attack once more as though it was the second roll of disadvantage. Marasmusine (talk) 05:41, 15 December 2016 (MST)

I reworded it to match the Protection fighting style. What are your thoughts now? Carcabob (talk) 14:21, 15 December 2016 (MST)

I like it! I might actually use this! An arsehole DM could still incorporate this rule with the intent of abusing timing to make it always disadvantage the players, but the extent to which that is within the letter of the rule has been reduced significantly. --Kydo (talk) 15:05, 15 December 2016 (MST)

Oh, I see what you're saying now. Protection is only an option for a select few, and only for guarding your allies, so Protection isn't a problem, but giving a similar option to every single creature could present an issue. On the other hand, even with devilish DMs, it would definitely motivate players to find a good way to get close to the enemy. In close combat, it'd be suicide to drop prone, since you grant advantage to attacks within 5 feet. Initiative order does present an issue with this though: if the enemy's turn is right after yours, he can Drop Prone and jump back up right afterwards, making it risk-free. The same goes for players, but which creatures could benefit would change from encounter to encounter, making initiative even more influential on the battle in an almost nonsensical way. I might be over thinking it, but either way, I'll keep thinking to see if there's a way to further improve it.