Iron Age gods and monsters clash in Celtic-inspired Dungeons & Dragons.
Making cover work for your group takes a bit of adaptability and teamwork.
Here’s how cover works and how to make the most of it in your game.
Adding a bit more complexity, theeffect of cover is dependent on the enemy and their positioning.
Crouching against a brick wall gives no bonuses against someone who snuck up behind you.
The best way is to look at a few examples of how it would work.
Tales From The Yawning Portal via Wizards of the Coast
Let’s say a monk is taking cover behind a wall.
They’re sticking their head around, so are stillvisible and have three-quarters cover.
If they castcatapult, the monk has +5 to their saving throw.
Alternatively, they could cast fireball, targeting a spot above the wall.
The cover would be tracked from the point of the explosion, allowing them to ignore the cover.
Lastly, they could cast psychic lance to force an intelligence saving throw.
Tales From The Yawning Portal via Wizards of the Coast
This is not a dexterity save or an attack roll so has no modifier from cover.
Cover might also be dependent on the person using it.
A halfling can get total cover from a 4ft wall that most other characters would stick out from.
Deadly Visit by Scott Murphy
Too many, and other players will feel unable to contribute.
A missed attack might kill the hostage without requiring a damage roll.
The rule of thumb is tomatch the tone of your players.
There are a few ways to handle situations where you feel your players are exploiting the system.
Have enemies take hide actions and prepare sneak attacks until the PCs learn the difference between DnD and XCom.
Use Prepared Actions
Preparing an attack is often weaker than making a straightforward strike at somebody.
Place Less Cover
Most of the time, the players are the ones on the attack.
Match The Style Of Your Players
There’s nothing stopping enemies using the same tactics available to the players.
An important tool for players who benefit from cover is to have some way of creating it unassisted.
Technique
Benefits
Drawbacks
Wall Spells
Wall of Force is an invisible barrier that protects against almost all attacks.
It doesn’t require any setup besides having the spell.
Since its invisible,it won’t provide you any benefits for stealth.
A Folding Boat is a cheaper alternative that also gives a useful piece of adventuring gear.
you’re able to adjust the amount of cover between rowboats and longships.
Daern’s Instant Fortresscan only be repaired by use of a Wish spell.
Folding Boats have no bonuses to durability for being magical, so can be easily destroyed.
This method meansstanding close enough together for area attacks to be very effective.
Do not attempt the same trick with a bag of holding.
It can be easily destroyed.
The only thing worse than a goblin in Dungeons & Dragons is a whole ambush of them.
