What AOE Half on a save damage means in D&D 5E

AOE Half on a save damage and what it means.

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[Mass]

Gator forced a Wisdom save on Kobold by stealing his gold. Kobold saves but Gator still takes half his coin purse.

[renatocorvaro]

Remember kids, an arrow might have your name on it, but a Fireball is addressed "To whom it may concern".

[caespaillat]

Id like to think youd be proud of me for something i did the other day. I ran up to a wizard, disarmed his spellcasting focus, and used my item interaction to pick it up and run back to the party with a gift for our wizard.

[vagabondflow]

This makes the Evoker's lvl 6 ability better than expected.

[ricardopadulajr]

Man, this is awesome. Completely changed my perspective on some things like getting some AoE in my Bladesinger with INT as a third stat and giving more value to the level 6 ability of Evokers paired with Toll the Dead. You rock once more, Kobold!

[gasparperalta]

Generally the thing you want high save DC for is save or suck spells that dont do damage but instead entirely change the battle field or cripple a creature basically making the encounter a lot easier if they stick. Like slow, these are the spells legendary creatures want to save their resistance for

[DDCRExposed]

When I saw Gator in the thumbnail, I thought it was a guest on the subject. What I found was completely different and excellent! I enjoyed the updated look of Gator 👍

[Xane]

Some guy was arguing with me a while back on Reddit that against a single target, a 3rd level Scorching Ray is just as good as Fireball, and when I told him that Fireball will always do damage no matter what, they kept saying the chance to do full damage was basically the same mathematically so it doesn’t really matter, and that “wanting to do any amount of damage at all guaranteed doesn’t matter and is only an advantage if that’s specifically what you want out of a spell”, which of course is stupid. I feel so vindicated now. I really thought half on a save spells spoke for themselves.

[crimfan]

This is really useful to know. Single target and/or save neg effects demand higher save DCs but if you have half damage things aren't so bad. If you want to build a character like a War Cleric who's taken some levels of Fighter to be able to mix it up, you can afford to have some slack in the Wisdom.

[alanschaub]

You have a talent for seeing through what is superficially irrelevant by focusing on the actual math. 👍🏻

[FlutesLoot]

In the first half of this video, I wasn't sure it was going to be useful. Just good to know. But pointing out how this affects a player's decision to take feats or stat boosts is VERY helpful in the context of half-on-save AOE. Thanks, Kobold!

[jaredcarter]

It may help some to think of it this way: the spell does some decent damage, with a very sizable chance of critting. Saving types only change the crit chance, and only by a few percent.

[joshuawalsh]

WE GOT THE BYE-BYE BACK LETS

Ahem.
Well, this explaiins why my Forge Cleric has been walking into every fight and single handedly winning it all, purely on the back of Spirit Guardians.

[SamXala]

Nice stuff about AoE damage spells, I'm always looking for feats when it comes to ASI because it sounds more fun instead of a flat mental increase. Yeah I know, having more INT/CHA/WIS means that your saves and all that stuff is a little bit better, but a feat can do wonders to your character, even if its for a meme or thematic build.

[robertcrane]

I'm never missing a chance to get advantage! Enlightening video Kobold! Definitely makes me think about these spells in a better light.

[XerkDaniels]

This channel allows me to be bad at math. Thank you.

[godlessman]

Speaking of aoe spells, i am surprised not to see Hunger of Hadar mentioned in any of your videos. I've played quite a bit of this spell and almost always pick it if i have a chance to. It kind of has a half on save and is a blind, darkness, and difficult terrain at the same time. Not to mention that the blinded counteracts the dis. adv. of the darkness when attacking people in the darkness. There is lots of synergies that your other party members and you can do with it, and more so if you get the invocation that allows you to see through darkness. I truly think you could get some free content showing this spell off and think the other wonderful people would love watching it! :)
P.S. love ya vids

[taigerthetiger]

This is a big lore reveal
Gator is a kobold but uses his druid powers to be a coco-loco all the time
I love this channel's characters (Even if we only see 2 almost every time)

[gabemagicmaster]

Just found your channel and I LOVE YOUR CONTENT! Math is so interesting and with my break from college coming up I really hope to do my own calculations following your example. Keep up the work man!

[gahfwa]

This video is phenomenal! Props to you Mr. Tactics for plainly showcasing a huge fundamental concept behind the math of ttrpgs