Am I missing something with the help action?
up vote
6
down vote
favorite
I was looking at the thing a familiar could do in combat and found the help action.
The description of the help action is as follows:
Help
You can lend your aid to another creature in the completion of a task. When you take the Help action, the creature you aid gains advantage on the next ability check it makes to perform the task you are helping with, provided that it makes the check before the start of your next turn.
Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
As I see it the following could be possible.
- me, my familiar and a enemy are standing in a line so that I am standing between my familiar and the enemy.
- my familiar can use the help action on me to give me advantage while standing 5 feet from me and 10 feet from the enemy.
- the enemy can not hit (without ranged attack or reach) my familiar.
This seems strange to me as there are a lot of people saying that a non-owl familiar are very vulnerable when using the help action as they would be in range of the enemy, but in the situation that I just described it seems that my familiar seems safe.
Am I missing something here or is this totally possible?
dnd-5e familiars helping
edited 1 hour ago
NathanS
22.4k6104241
asked 1 hour ago
darnok
71119
add a comment |
up vote
6
down vote
favorite
I was looking at the thing a familiar could do in combat and found the help action.
The description of the help action is as follows:
Help
You can lend your aid to another creature in the completion of a task. When you take the Help action, the creature you aid gains advantage on the next ability check it makes to perform the task you are helping with, provided that it makes the check before the start of your next turn.
Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
As I see it the following could be possible.
- me, my familiar and a enemy are standing in a line so that I am standing between my familiar and the enemy.
- my familiar can use the help action on me to give me advantage while standing 5 feet from me and 10 feet from the enemy.
- the enemy can not hit (without ranged attack or reach) my familiar.
This seems strange to me as there are a lot of people saying that a non-owl familiar are very vulnerable when using the help action as they would be in range of the enemy, but in the situation that I just described it seems that my familiar seems safe.
Am I missing something here or is this totally possible?
dnd-5e familiars helping
edited 1 hour ago
NathanS
22.4k6104241
asked 1 hour ago
darnok
71119
2
Related: Is the 5ft range for Help to the ally, enemy, or both?
– Sdjz
1 hour ago
add a comment |
up vote
6
down vote
favorite
up vote
6
down vote
favorite
I was looking at the thing a familiar could do in combat and found the help action.
The description of the help action is as follows:
Help
You can lend your aid to another creature in the completion of a task. When you take the Help action, the creature you aid gains advantage on the next ability check it makes to perform the task you are helping with, provided that it makes the check before the start of your next turn.
Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
As I see it the following could be possible.
- me, my familiar and a enemy are standing in a line so that I am standing between my familiar and the enemy.
- my familiar can use the help action on me to give me advantage while standing 5 feet from me and 10 feet from the enemy.
- the enemy can not hit (without ranged attack or reach) my familiar.
This seems strange to me as there are a lot of people saying that a non-owl familiar are very vulnerable when using the help action as they would be in range of the enemy, but in the situation that I just described it seems that my familiar seems safe.
Am I missing something here or is this totally possible?
dnd-5e familiars helping
edited 1 hour ago
NathanS
22.4k6104241
asked 1 hour ago
darnok
71119
I was looking at the thing a familiar could do in combat and found the help action.
The description of the help action is as follows:
Help
You can lend your aid to another creature in the completion of a task. When you take the Help action, the creature you aid gains advantage on the next ability check it makes to perform the task you are helping with, provided that it makes the check before the start of your next turn.
Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
As I see it the following could be possible.
- me, my familiar and a enemy are standing in a line so that I am standing between my familiar and the enemy.
- my familiar can use the help action on me to give me advantage while standing 5 feet from me and 10 feet from the enemy.
- the enemy can not hit (without ranged attack or reach) my familiar.
This seems strange to me as there are a lot of people saying that a non-owl familiar are very vulnerable when using the help action as they would be in range of the enemy, but in the situation that I just described it seems that my familiar seems safe.
Am I missing something here or is this totally possible?
dnd-5e familiars helping
dnd-5e familiars helping
edited 1 hour ago
NathanS
22.4k6104241
asked 1 hour ago
darnok
71119
edited 1 hour ago
NathanS
22.4k6104241
asked 1 hour ago
darnok
71119
edited 1 hour ago
NathanS
22.4k6104241
edited 1 hour ago
NathanS
22.4k6104241
edited 1 hour ago
NathanS
22.4k6104241
22.4k6104241
asked 1 hour ago
darnok
71119
asked 1 hour ago
darnok
71119
asked 1 hour ago
darnok
71119
71119
2
Related: Is the 5ft range for Help to the ally, enemy, or both?
– Sdjz
1 hour ago
add a comment |
2
Related: Is the 5ft range for Help to the ally, enemy, or both?
– Sdjz
1 hour ago
2
2
Related: Is the 5ft range for Help to the ally, enemy, or both?
– Sdjz
1 hour ago
Related: Is the 5ft range for Help to the ally, enemy, or both?
– Sdjz
1 hour ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
up vote
8
down vote
It is not
you can aid a friendly creature [ in attacking a creature ] within 5 feet of you
but
you can aid a friendly creature in attacking [ a creature within 5 feet of you ]
You must be within 5' of the target of the attack you are helping with.
answered 1 hour ago
Szega
37.4k4155189
Those quotations seem equivalent. I guess you wanted your first quote to be "you can aid a friendly creature within 5 feet of you [ in attacking a creature ]"
– fabian
1 hour ago
1
@fabian But that changes the quote; as I understood it, Szega was showing different ways to parse the sentence as-is
– NathanS
1 hour ago
@NathanS the sentence needs to be "It is not <wrong rule> but <correct/clarified rule>" to make sense, but currently I read it as "It is not <some correct formulation of the rule> but <other way to express the rule>"
– fabian
1 hour ago
@fabian I see, so in other words you're saying that Szega needs to back up that the first parsing is wrong but the second is correct? I still don't think changing the quotes around will help with that, since that's then not what the rules actually say, but I don't dispute that further backing would improve this answer.
– NathanS
1 hour ago
1
@fabian The point is that the first seems wonky. It is because the second parsing is the correct one in English.
– Szega
53 mins ago
|
show 1 more comment
Your Answer
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["\$", "\$"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "122"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2frpg.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f137506%2fam-i-missing-something-with-the-help-action%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
8
down vote
It is not
you can aid a friendly creature [ in attacking a creature ] within 5 feet of you
but
you can aid a friendly creature in attacking [ a creature within 5 feet of you ]
You must be within 5' of the target of the attack you are helping with.
answered 1 hour ago
Szega
37.4k4155189
Those quotations seem equivalent. I guess you wanted your first quote to be "you can aid a friendly creature within 5 feet of you [ in attacking a creature ]"
– fabian
1 hour ago
1
@fabian But that changes the quote; as I understood it, Szega was showing different ways to parse the sentence as-is
– NathanS
1 hour ago
@NathanS the sentence needs to be "It is not <wrong rule> but <correct/clarified rule>" to make sense, but currently I read it as "It is not <some correct formulation of the rule> but <other way to express the rule>"
– fabian
1 hour ago
@fabian I see, so in other words you're saying that Szega needs to back up that the first parsing is wrong but the second is correct? I still don't think changing the quotes around will help with that, since that's then not what the rules actually say, but I don't dispute that further backing would improve this answer.
– NathanS
1 hour ago
1
@fabian The point is that the first seems wonky. It is because the second parsing is the correct one in English.
– Szega
53 mins ago
|
show 1 more comment
up vote
8
down vote
It is not
you can aid a friendly creature [ in attacking a creature ] within 5 feet of you
but
you can aid a friendly creature in attacking [ a creature within 5 feet of you ]
You must be within 5' of the target of the attack you are helping with.
answered 1 hour ago
Szega
37.4k4155189
Those quotations seem equivalent. I guess you wanted your first quote to be "you can aid a friendly creature within 5 feet of you [ in attacking a creature ]"
– fabian
1 hour ago
1
@fabian But that changes the quote; as I understood it, Szega was showing different ways to parse the sentence as-is
– NathanS
1 hour ago
@NathanS the sentence needs to be "It is not <wrong rule> but <correct/clarified rule>" to make sense, but currently I read it as "It is not <some correct formulation of the rule> but <other way to express the rule>"
– fabian
1 hour ago
@fabian I see, so in other words you're saying that Szega needs to back up that the first parsing is wrong but the second is correct? I still don't think changing the quotes around will help with that, since that's then not what the rules actually say, but I don't dispute that further backing would improve this answer.
– NathanS
1 hour ago
1
@fabian The point is that the first seems wonky. It is because the second parsing is the correct one in English.
– Szega
53 mins ago
|
show 1 more comment
up vote
8
down vote
up vote
8
down vote
It is not
you can aid a friendly creature [ in attacking a creature ] within 5 feet of you
but
you can aid a friendly creature in attacking [ a creature within 5 feet of you ]
You must be within 5' of the target of the attack you are helping with.
answered 1 hour ago
Szega
37.4k4155189
It is not
you can aid a friendly creature [ in attacking a creature ] within 5 feet of you
but
you can aid a friendly creature in attacking [ a creature within 5 feet of you ]
You must be within 5' of the target of the attack you are helping with.
answered 1 hour ago
Szega
37.4k4155189
answered 1 hour ago
Szega
37.4k4155189
answered 1 hour ago
Szega
37.4k4155189
answered 1 hour ago
Szega
37.4k4155189
37.4k4155189
Those quotations seem equivalent. I guess you wanted your first quote to be "you can aid a friendly creature within 5 feet of you [ in attacking a creature ]"
– fabian
1 hour ago
1
@fabian But that changes the quote; as I understood it, Szega was showing different ways to parse the sentence as-is
– NathanS
1 hour ago
@NathanS the sentence needs to be "It is not <wrong rule> but <correct/clarified rule>" to make sense, but currently I read it as "It is not <some correct formulation of the rule> but <other way to express the rule>"
– fabian
1 hour ago
@fabian I see, so in other words you're saying that Szega needs to back up that the first parsing is wrong but the second is correct? I still don't think changing the quotes around will help with that, since that's then not what the rules actually say, but I don't dispute that further backing would improve this answer.
– NathanS
1 hour ago
1
@fabian The point is that the first seems wonky. It is because the second parsing is the correct one in English.
– Szega
53 mins ago
|
show 1 more comment
Those quotations seem equivalent. I guess you wanted your first quote to be "you can aid a friendly creature within 5 feet of you [ in attacking a creature ]"
– fabian
1 hour ago
1
@fabian But that changes the quote; as I understood it, Szega was showing different ways to parse the sentence as-is
– NathanS
1 hour ago
@NathanS the sentence needs to be "It is not <wrong rule> but <correct/clarified rule>" to make sense, but currently I read it as "It is not <some correct formulation of the rule> but <other way to express the rule>"
– fabian
1 hour ago
@fabian I see, so in other words you're saying that Szega needs to back up that the first parsing is wrong but the second is correct? I still don't think changing the quotes around will help with that, since that's then not what the rules actually say, but I don't dispute that further backing would improve this answer.
– NathanS
1 hour ago
1
@fabian The point is that the first seems wonky. It is because the second parsing is the correct one in English.
– Szega
53 mins ago
Those quotations seem equivalent. I guess you wanted your first quote to be "you can aid a friendly creature within 5 feet of you [ in attacking a creature ]"
– fabian
1 hour ago
Those quotations seem equivalent. I guess you wanted your first quote to be "you can aid a friendly creature within 5 feet of you [ in attacking a creature ]"
– fabian
1 hour ago
1
1
@fabian But that changes the quote; as I understood it, Szega was showing different ways to parse the sentence as-is
– NathanS
1 hour ago
@fabian But that changes the quote; as I understood it, Szega was showing different ways to parse the sentence as-is
– NathanS
1 hour ago
@NathanS the sentence needs to be "It is not <wrong rule> but <correct/clarified rule>" to make sense, but currently I read it as "It is not <some correct formulation of the rule> but <other way to express the rule>"
– fabian
1 hour ago
@NathanS the sentence needs to be "It is not <wrong rule> but <correct/clarified rule>" to make sense, but currently I read it as "It is not <some correct formulation of the rule> but <other way to express the rule>"
– fabian
1 hour ago
@fabian I see, so in other words you're saying that Szega needs to back up that the first parsing is wrong but the second is correct? I still don't think changing the quotes around will help with that, since that's then not what the rules actually say, but I don't dispute that further backing would improve this answer.
– NathanS
1 hour ago
@fabian I see, so in other words you're saying that Szega needs to back up that the first parsing is wrong but the second is correct? I still don't think changing the quotes around will help with that, since that's then not what the rules actually say, but I don't dispute that further backing would improve this answer.
– NathanS
1 hour ago
1
1
@fabian The point is that the first seems wonky. It is because the second parsing is the correct one in English.
– Szega
53 mins ago
@fabian The point is that the first seems wonky. It is because the second parsing is the correct one in English.
– Szega
53 mins ago
|
show 1 more comment
Thanks for contributing an answer to Role-playing Games Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.
Please pay close attention to the following guidance:
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2frpg.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f137506%2fam-i-missing-something-with-the-help-action%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
2
Related: Is the 5ft range for Help to the ally, enemy, or both?
– Sdjz
1 hour ago