egscomics
patreon
Who Is Ellen - 137 - HD
🕑 Added 2023-06-03 03:53:08 +0000 UTCCOVER MOVE!
Commentary
I'm not basing this on anything I'm aware of from any Table Top Role Playing Games, though I would be surprised if it wasn't possible to try and defend another player through various means.
I'm PRETTY sure there are games in which you'd have the option to say "I ready myself to defend those near me" or something, and then that character would attempt to do that if a nearby ally were attacked.
In any case, I wanted Rich to defend George, so there's a mechanic that let Rich defend George.
I did struggle wording it in a way that vaguely makes sense and is possible for anyone to follow, however. Hopefully pulled that off.
Comments
Ian Hart
In Forged in the Dark games (like Blades in the Dark) this is a default option available to all PCs. Can be used to protect against other types of harm too! You can just as easily throw yourself in the way of suspicion of a crime or social embarrassment as physical harm.
Cat Tillinghast
Not particularly? There's a LOAD of information in TTRPGs... it's easy to miss a niche mechanic, especially on a class you don't play. We also know that George learned the rules mostly by watching podcasts: maybe those Pallys were all about that Smite (no Defense)
A Red Mage Named Blue
I'm guessing he doesn't play with Paladins often (Or his normal play group doesn't include anybody who uses that ability)?
Some Ed
I recall there was something similar in 2nd ed. I don't recall the specifics. I kind of recall it was available as a feat for Fighters but Paladins automatically got it. There may have been some differences between the fighter feat and the Paladin class ability. It's been a long time and it was never a contentious thing.
John Trauger
Is anybody besides me surprised that there's something about a gaming topic Goerge didn't know?
Hurley
Yep! That and SCA melee battle experience. DJ (the half-orc) and I were both SCA fighters at the time. We basically looked at the hallway, looked back at the table in the banquet hall we'd just gone through, looked at each other, and went "shield wall!" Squad tactics, baby!
M.
Stuff like that is why TTRPGs are so great. :)
Thisguy
That is exactly what paladins (and fighters, and Clerics, and anyone wearing heavy armour) are for. So squishies can hide behind.
The Sunroses
oh lmao that's a genius house rule for Diplomacy, it feels so thematically fitting
Otter Annason
even in some PC RPG's i've played you can select "defend" for anyone with a shield and select the protectee from whoever's close enough
Michael Chui
Yeah, this is a basic bread-and-butter that's in lots of TTRPGs that include combat. Even games that use playbooks almost always have a playbook with moves about defending others from harm. (When they don't, it's either because it's out-of-theme for the players to be cooperating, or because there's no combat.)
Merle Blue
There are ABSOLUTELY several ways to do this, or things like it, in DnD 5e. First thought is Cavalier's Warding Maneuver and the Interception or Protection fighting styles.
Hurley
Oh, and the "defense of others" action sounds quite plausible as a Paladin special ability and makes sense with the archetype.
KC
Yep. In DnD the ability Rich is using is called a Protection Fighting Style and it is indeed available to Paladins starting at 2nd level. It works pretty much as you portrayed it, where if you still have a reaction and someone within five feet of you is attacked you "can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll." The caveat being you must be wielding a shield. Edit: this is specifically for 5e, the latest edition as of this post
Fairportfan
Basic Unwritten Rule: Anything yoi can think of that doesn't get instantly disallowed ios allowed. {The group i occasionally played Diplomacy with had an unwritten rule: if you could sneak an extra army or fleet on the map and nobody noticed till the next turn, you could keep it.}
Hurley
Once in a DnD 3.5 game, I (the gnomish battle cleric) and our tank (the half-orc fighter) defended the rest of the party from a hallway filled with poison dart traps by putting everyone under a feasting table and running the gauntlet. We used the table as a battering ram to clear the door at the far end, too. No injuries, except to the two goblins we crushed to death under the door and table. The DM was both impressed and annoyed with our ingenuity. She'd expected at least one of us to have to save vs. poison or get ganked by the goblins.
Stephen Gilberg
I once asked another player to walk back to back with me down an aisle for defense against hostile parties. It hadn't occurred to me to check whether this was an option, but nobody objected.
