After a volley of arrows that had predictably missed the Claires, the ambush departed the temporary stage of relative success and began its entry into the realm of regret.
A towering half-orc Paladin charged at a goblinoid, moving thirty feet in practically no time at all. He locked eyes with his chosen opponent-of-the-moment, and the air practically wailed as his warhammer struck out at his target.
Making an Attack
Whether you're striking with a melee weapon, firing a weapon at range, or making an attack roll as part of a spell, an attack has a simple structure.
Choose a target: Pick a target within your attack's range: a creature, an object, or a location.
It was a clear day, and for all that the goblins had managed to pop out of hiding, they weren’t under cover anymore. And for all that Jason was a kind and loving man, with a heart that went out to the poor and oppressed and wanted to ease all the burdens he could, he also had simple priorities.
Determine modifiers: Whether the target has cover and whether you have advantage or disadvantage against the target can apply penalties or bonuses to your attack roll, as can spells, special abilities, and other effects.
Resolve the attack: You make the attack roll. On a hit, you roll damage, unless the particular attack has rules that specify otherwise. Some attacks cause special effects in addition to or instead of damage. If there's ever any question whether something you're doing counts as an attack, the rule is simple: if you're making an attack roll, you're making an attack.
Attack Rolls
When you make an attack, your attack roll determines whether the attack hits or misses. To make an attack roll, roll a d20 and add the appropriate modifiers. If the total of the roll plus modifiers equals or exceeds the target's Armor Class (AC), the attack hits. The AC of a character is determined at character creation, whereas the AC of a monster is in its stat block.
Modifiers to the Roll
When a character makes an attack roll, the two most common modifiers to the roll are an ability modifier and the character's proficiency bonus. When a monster makes an attack roll, it uses whatever modifier is provided in its stat block.
Ability Modifier: The ability modifier used for a melee weapon attack is Strength, and the ability modifier used for a ranged weapon attack is Dexterity. Weapons that have the finesse or thrown property break this rule. Some spells also require an attack roll. The ability modifier used for a spell attack depends on the spellcasting ability of the spellcaster.
Proficiency Bonus: You add your proficiency bonus to your attack roll when you attack using a weapon with which you have proficiency, as well as when you attack with a spell.
The man was a Paladin with a warhammer and a Strength of 20, he was in melee range of someone who’d shot a bow in the direction of his wife and daughter with lethal intent, and things just weren’t all that complicated.
Rolling Attack (Warhammer) | 1d20+7
Result of 22 HITS | Rolling 1d8+5 Damage
His warhammer came down almost lazily across the intervening space between him and the goblinoid, not so much darting past the hob’s hasty attempt to get a shield between strike and head as just crashing through it.
The chainmail and helmet did very little, in the end, to blunt the blow.
Result of 12 KILLS Hobgoblin
“Hobgoblin down,” he called unnecessarily as the goblinoid’s brains splattered across the ground. “He was in good armor, but not very strong. Maybe not enough calcium in his diet?”
“Don’t be silly, dad.” Harriet was in motion, with an arrow on the string of her bow and the bow drawn in good form. “I’m sure they eat ration just like everyone else. If Lieutenant-Commanding what’s-her-name has good bones, so should they. It’s probably racial.”
She loosed her arrow. It flew straight and true, feathering the eye of a robe-wearing human off to the side of the bow-scrum.
Rolling 1 or 20
Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC. This is called a critical hit, which is explained later in this chapter. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC.
Rolling Attack (Shortbow) | 1d20+7
CRITICAL HIT | Rolling 2d6+5
Result of 12 KILLS Acolyte
“Harriet Joan Claire,” Cassandra snapped sternly, “I did not just hear you refer to speciation as racial. Do I need to put you in remedial biology this year for summer camp? You can think about your answer for a moment; apparently we’re taking turns in this fight. This fucking world, I swear. Fire Bolt.”
She flung the rolled-up orb of fire into the face of the nearest goblin, now that there wasn’t anything other than standard goblins in the ambush.
Rolling Spell Attack (Fire Bolt) | 1d20+7
Result of 18 HITS | Rolling 1d10
Goblin takes 5 damage
“Chumped on damage by my daughter,” she muttered with disgruntled happiness. “How—”
Unstable Sorcery Confluence | 1d100
Magic Surges Through Your Eyes
Rolling Insight (Charisma) | 1d20+7
“—terrible, and also, that seems to have done nothing, but I bet that’s because whatever form of vision boost I got isn’t relevant right now. Anyway, at least this goblin is—”
Goblin
Small humanoid (goblinoid), neutral evil
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Armor Class: 15 (leather armor, shield)
Hit Points: 7 (2d6)
Speed: 30 ft.
Stats: 8 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 8
Skills: Stealth +6
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages: Common, Goblin
Challenge: 1/4 (50 XP)
Nimble Escape: The goblin can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.
Actions
Scimitar: Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage.
Shortbow: Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
“—almost dead. Two hit points; I could still theoretically fail to kill it with a Fire Bolt.”
Even as she delivered her post-attack quip, the defenders of the caravan were already moving. With as close-quarters as the fight was, only the two remaining drovers and the Caravan Master stuck to their crossbows. The others all wielded melee weapons of some sort or another, and they closed rapidly with their targets and attacked.
Rolling 10 Entity Attacks
Of the fifteen people who had been with the caravan after the traitor had been thrice-shot, three of them were the Claires and two—predictably, Billy and Doug—were dead. Three crossbows fired in support of the seven charging guards, each of whom was either uninjured or seemingly apathetic to their injury, and both goblins who got hit by one of the heavy crossbow bolts died immediately.
Seven weapons swung, and three of them missed or were deflected by shields and leather armor.
Light Armor
Made from supple and thin materials, light armor favors agile adventurers since it offers some protection without sacrificing mobility. If you wear light armor, you add your Dexterity modifier to the base number from your armor type to determine your Armor Class.
Leather: The breastplate and shoulder protectors of this armor are made of leather that has been stiffened by being boiled in oil. The rest of the armor is made of softer and more flexible materials.
Of the other four, one was a mace of some sort—
Morningstar
Cost: 15 gp
Damage: 1d8 piercing
Weight: 4 lb.
—that simply obliterated the goblin’s entire head, and one was a longsword that neatly decapitated another goblin; the other two were no less lethal, if less flashy.
And then sixteen goblins moved and acted in extremely uncoordinated unison.
Eight goblins ran into range of the other melee combatants, for some reason going one-on-one with each of them.
Rolling 8 Entity Attacks (Scimitar) | 1d20+4
One scimitar glanced off of Jason’s armor, making a ringing noise that mostly served to emphasize how totally outclassed a slashing weapon is expected to be when wielded with very little skill against heavy armor.
Scimitar
Cost: 25 gp
Damage: 1d6 slashing
Weight: 3 lb.
Properties: Finesse, light
The other seven scimitars struck out at the group of Guards.
Guard
Medium humanoid (any race), any alignment
Armor Class: 16 (chain shirt, shield)
Hit Points: 11 (2d8 + 2)
Speed: 30 ft.
Stats: 13 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 10
Skills: Perception +2,
Senses: passive Perception 12
Languages: any one language (usually Common)
Challenge: 1/8 (25 XP)
Actions
Spear: Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage, or 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack.
Description
Guards include members of a city watch, sentries in a citadel or fortified town, and the bodyguards of merchants and nobles.
“You have got to be shitting me,” Cassandra snarked out of turn. “They’re better in every single way and half the challenge rating? Not that I’m complaining, but that’s idiotic!”
True to her words, the chain shirt and shield that the guards were armored with proved efficacious against most of the scimitar strikes. Other than the strike against her husband, she saw four of the attacks fail to do any damage, while three of them hit.
None of the guards went down to the scimitars, and then the arrows flew.
Rolling 8 Entity Attacks (Shortbow) | 1d20+4
Two of the arrows hit already-wounded guards, showing a surprising amount of tactical acumen compared to the scimitar-wielders—though given that these were the goblins smart enough to choose ranged combat over melee, that might have been to be expected. Five arrows missed.
One final arrow sank deep into Cassandra Claire’s shoulder, and she glared at it furiously.
Shortbow deals 5 damage to Cassandra Claire | 1HP Remaining
Next Round Begins
“Are you alright, dear?” Jason started to move as though to shield his wife, then thought better of it as she transferred the glare from the arrow to him. He winced as though it had dealt actual damage, and took two long strides to swing his warhammer—form excellent, for all that his worried eyes were still on that arrow stuck in her.
Rolling Attack (Warhammer) | 1d20+7 | 1d8+5
9 damage KILLS Goblin
“I’m really not a fan of this ‘speaking only when it’s your turn thing’,” Harriet half-whined, half-snarled. “I didn’t like it when stupid Miss Borlich used it to make me look dumb, and I don’t like it when you snap at me for using the same words that this stupid System uses!”
Rolling Attack (Shortbow) | 1d20+7 | 1d6+5
7 damage KILLS Goblin
“Young lady, I have never allowed you to use someone or something else’s failings as a cover for your own, including when you began describing yourself as a teeny baby with no teeth as a preschooler in order to get out of having yours brushed—and the day may yet come, but it is not today. Fire Bolt.”
Rolling Spell Attack (Fire Bolt) | 1d20+7 | 1d10
3 damage KILLS Goblin
Unstable Sorcery Confluence | 1d100
Your Will Warps Space Itself!
Cassandra Claire frowned, and then decided against using her new, temporary ability, which would have consumed her Bonus Action and not resulted in anything useful.
Three crossbows fired.
Rolling 3 Entity Attacks (Heavy Crossbow) | 1d20+5
Two bolts missed, and one goblin died.
Five guards struck out with their weapons.
Rolling 5 Entity Attacks (Various) | 1d20+3
One guard almost committed a pratfall, nearly dropping his weapon. The other four guards killed one goblin each.
And then eight goblins turned tail and fled, disappearing into the landscape as though jumping down through holes in the ground.