DMing Advantage and Disadvantage: How and When to Play With D&D 5E’s Most Elegant Tool

3 Wise DMs

One of the best new mechanics in Dungeons and Dragons 5E is the advantage/disadvantage system. It’s simple, elegant and we’ve played several other games that have blatantly stolen it. We think it’s here to stay. But the decision of when to apply discretionary advantage and disadvantage falls on the DM, and the many mechanical ways players have to get advantage themselves sometimes conflict with the DM’s intent when awarding advantage.

In this episode, hear how Thorin, Tony and Dave handle advantage and disadvantage along with plus and minus modifiers in their games along with plenty of examples from our gaming history (including the time a PC talked the DM into letting him one-shot the BBEG at 3rd level when they caught the guy simply walking across the road). You’ll also hear how you can use these mechanics to create the kind of game you want to run without making combat and skill checks overcomplicated or letting them overshadow the story.

2:00 Answering a listener question: How to DM high ground and when do we use discretionary advantage?

3:00 The math and mechanical impact of D&D 5E’s advantage and disadvantage

6:00 How we each approach advantage and disadvantage

17:00 Using these modifiers in combat vs. out-of-combat skill checks

22:00 Called Crits Gone Wild! How one player rules lawyered his way into one-shotting the campaign BBEG at 3rd level

27:00 The danger of excessive modifiers and complexity slowing combat down even more

30:00 More thoughts on how to reward high ground and why it may be best to hold onto advantage/disadvantage for discretionary use

31:00 Specifically, when do we use discretionary advantage and disadvantage?

40:00 DM inspiration and the case for stacking multiple inspirations

42:00 When do we use disadvantage?

46:00 Final thoughts