Saves, advantage and bonus actions

Some sims play fights the 5e way. Each rule below is an optional rule your sim switches on or off, so you may meet only some of them. If your fights don’t do what a part describes, your sim doesn’t use that part. Your sim’s own rules, and your class, say which ones you have.

Hitting

An attack rolls a d20, adds your modifier and anything else the ability adds, and compares it with the target’s Armor Class. If your sim uses meet or beat, a roll equal to the target’s AC hits.

Natural 20: a critical hit. It hits whatever the AC, and the damage dice are doubled.
Natural 1: a miss, whatever you add.
Some characters crit on more numbers. A Champion, for example, crits on a 19 or 20.

Chat shows the roll against the target’s AC, and whether it hit.

Saving throws

Some abilities, mostly spells, don’t roll to hit. Instead, each target saves: they roll a d20, add the ability score’s modifier the spell names (DEX, WIS and so on), and add their proficiency bonus if their class is trained in that save. Meeting the caster’s DC saves.

Chat tells everyone how it went, for example:

Mara Kell makes a DEX save against Bram’s Fireball: SAVED. Rolled 14 against DC 13.

Failed: the spell lands in full: its damage and everything else it does.
Saved: nothing happens, or, for a spell that says “half on a save”, half its damage and none of its effects.
Fails outright: a stunned character fails STR and DEX saves without rolling.
An area spell makes everyone inside it save.

Advantage and disadvantage

With advantage you roll two d20s and keep the higher. With disadvantage, two and keep the lower. If you have both, they cancel out and you roll once. Chat says which, and why:

With advantage (Goblin is prone).

You get advantage when:

the target is prone and you attack in melee;
the target is stunned, restrained or blinded;
a spell or ability gives it, such as Guiding Bolt on the target.

You get disadvantage when:

the target is prone and you attack from range;
you are prone, restrained, blinded, poisoned or frightened;
the target dodged (the Dodge action) or is blurred.

Spells and items can also give advantage or disadvantage on saves. Advantage only works on attack rolls and saves, not on dice checks from the dice page.

Your action and your bonus action

On a 5e-style sim, your turn has room for one action and one bonus action:

Your action: an attack, a spell, a potion, Dodge, and so on. Once you’ve used it, other actions are refused with “You’ve already made your Attack Action this turn.”
Your bonus action: an ability marked as a bonus action, such as Second Wind, Healing Word or a Rogue’s Cunning Action. You get one a turn, and it’s never your action.
Moving: a move costs Energy too. On many 5e-style sims, a turn is 2 Energy: 1 for a move and 1 for your action. Skip your action and you can move twice.

Your turn doesn’t end by itself when your Energy runs out, so you can still take a free bonus action. Press End turn when you’re done.

Extra attacks and class features

Extra Attack: some characters make more than one hit roll with a single weapon attack. Each hit rolls its own damage.
Sneak Attack: once a round, a hit with a finesse or ranged weapon deals extra d6s, if you had advantage or an ally hit the target in melee this round or last. Chat says “Sneak Attack” and the dice.
Action Surge: once a fight, one more action this turn, with the Energy for it.
Dash: more Energy this turn, for moving.
Disengage: moving away this turn doesn’t give your foes an opportunity attack.

Reactions

When someone attacks you, the HUD may ask whether you want to react, if you have a reaction, such as the Shield spell (+5 AC against that attack) or Uncanny Dodge. You get one reaction per enemy turn.

Opportunity attacks: when a foe moves out of your reach, you’re asked whether to strike. On a 5e-style sim this costs you no Energy. It still uses your reaction.

Spells and concentration

Spells cost Mana instead of spell slots. Cantrips are free, and stronger spells cost more. Out of a fight, your Mana fills back up over time, as fast as your sim sets.

Some spells need concentration: Bless, Hold Person, Blur and others that last. If your sim uses concentration, casting another concentration spell ends the first, and so does going down.

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.