Advantage? Advantage!

[TG Cid]

Say the title like Sandal says enchantment from Dragon Age: Origins.

Ive been looking at Elven Accuracy and was wondering ways to gain reliable advantage in melee.

I know that many people love the vengeance paladin's vow of enmity and the darkness/darkvision cheese of the warlock/shadow sorcerer over the constant hide action. Are there other ways to gain advantage consistently in melee combat?

[gloryblaze]

Be a kobold.

Alternately, since kobolds can't access Elven Accuracy: Get find familiar with Magic Initiate and have your familiar spam the Help action.

[KillingTime]

Familiars are handy, but the trick lasts exactly as long as the DM finds it amusing.
After that you'll find every stray arrow on the map is suddenly aimed at your owl and suddenly you have no familiar.

[Malifice]

Say the title like Sandal says enchantment from Dragon Age: Origins.

Ive been looking at Elven Accuracy and was wondering ways to gain reliable advantage in melee.

I know that many people love the vengeance paladin's vow of enmity and the darkness/darkvision cheese of the warlock/shadow sorcerer over the constant hide action. Are there other ways to gain advantage consistently in melee combat?

A helping hand from a familiar.

[Malifice]

Convince a buddy at the table to play a Wolf totem Barbarian.

[Contrast]

Reckless attack, though that obv doesn't work with elven accuracy.

Shieldmaster shove works but requires a decent athletics score.

Check if your DM uses the flanking variant rule (I advise against this personally).

[Waazraath]

Say the title like Sandal says enchantment from Dragon Age: Origins.

Ive been looking at Elven Accuracy and was wondering ways to gain reliable advantage in melee.

I know that many people love the vengeance paladin's vow of enmity and the darkness/darkvision cheese of the warlock/shadow sorcerer over the constant hide action. Are there other ways to gain advantage consistently in melee combat?

Spells. Like Greater invisibility, Guardian of Nature, Tensers transformation...

[JakOfAllTirades]

One of the best ways to get Advantage right away at first level is the Faerie Fire spell. Even better, your whole group gets Advantage against the targets of this spell! Bards, Druids, and Fey Pact Warlocks have this spell on their list.

Clerics can cast Guiding Bolt, but it only grants Advantage to a single attack.

Barbarians can get Advantage at will with the Reckless Attack feature at 2nd level, at the risk of giving Advantage to their enemies. You don't see a lot of Elf or Half-elf Barbarians.

Warlocks can pull of the Darkness + Devil's Sight combo as early as 2nd level. Note that the Fey Pact is a natural choice for Elf and Half-elf characters. (See a pattern forming here.)

Battlemasters can knock a target prone to gain Advantage in melee beginning at 3rd level. Note that this puts ranged attacks on the target at Disadvantage.

The Hold Person spell is available at 3rd level to pretty much all the full casters. It grants Advantage, and any hit on the target is a critical if the attacker is within 5 feet.

This is barely scratching the surface; maybe someone should put together a comprehensive guide on How to Get Advantage.

[djreynolds]

A dex based battlemaster can trip in melee

A half-elf champion could snag athletics expertise from human prodigy or 1 level of rogue, and even with a 10 in strength you could use shield master and succeed most of the time.

An open hand monk can trip also

Yes someone should put together a list

[TG Cid]

Thanks for the help. I seriously thought there was a guide somewhere, but couldn't find it on the list at the top of the 5e forum. Even if it did turn up i hadn't seen it since 5e first came out...if it was even on this site.

Mourn for the lost wotc forum guides.

[TG Cid]

I was reading in the phb about size, and thought i had seen this somewhere awhile ago, but couldnt verify. If you are 2 sizes smaller than the target, then you get advantage on attack rolls. Right? And if so does that mean all of the ancient red dragon's claw attacks are at disadvantage?

[Malifice]

I was reading in the phb about size, and thought i had seen this somewhere awhile ago, but couldnt verify. If you are 2 sizes smaller than the target, then you get advantage on attack rolls. Right? And if so does that mean all of the ancient red dragon's claw attacks are at disadvantage?

Wrong. That rule not exist.

[nickl_2000]

The mastermind rogue can help from 30 feet away as a bonus action. Having one of those in the party would be amazing.

[JackPhoenix]

I was reading in the phb about size, and thought i had seen this somewhere awhile ago, but couldnt verify. If you are 2 sizes smaller than the target, then you get advantage on attack rolls. Right? And if so does that mean all of the ancient red dragon's claw attacks are at disadvantage?

Sounds like Climb onto a bigger creature optional action from DMG. It's kind of a grapple replacement usable against creatures two or more size larger, but it's optional, not part of the default rules, and while the smaller creature gets advantage, there's no disadvantage for the larger creature's attacks.

[Vogie]

3 levels of Shadow Sorcerer can give the Darkness/Darksight combo, provided you cast Darkness via Sorcery Points.

Any bard at 10th level can use their Magical Secrets to pick up Shadows of Moil

EDIT: Attacking a blinded creature will give you advantage. So Bards, Clerics, Sorcerers, Wizards can use Blindness, and Arcane Archer Fighters can hit a target with Shadow Arrow, which makes the target blind to ranged attacks.

Anything that knocks a target prone will give melee an advantage. Command, Eldritch Smite, Thundering Smite, Battlemaster/Martial Adept's Trip attack, Cavalier's Ferocious charge, Hideous Laughter, et cetera

Magic Initiate on anyone can pick up Faerie Fire and/or the incredibly lackluster True Strike



Warlocks can pull of the Darkness + Devil's Sight combo as early as 2nd level.

Darkness is a 2nd level spell, so it can't be pulled off until Level 3

[Willie the Duck]

Say the title like Sandal says enchantment from Dragon Age: Origins.

Ive been looking at Elven Accuracy and was wondering ways to gain reliable advantage in melee.

Depends upon your definition or reliable. There are at least a dozen spells (from Shadows of Moil to Darkness to Invisibility to Hold Person) which grant advantage, but (excluding something like coffeelock cheese) spells are limited/precious resources, so unreliable in that regard. Trip (/grapple/shield bash) only takes actions (sometimes bonus actions) so is vaguely unlimited (action economy spent plus rounds exposing yourself to potential hp depletion aren't actually unlimited, but you get the idea) but have severe constraints (opponent size, opponent standing on feet) and can actually be counterproductive to your allies trying to attack the same opponent with ranged attacks. Familiars/friends/3rd parties helping you also grants advantage, but takes their action (and opening them up to attack).

I think my overall response is that if there was a single safe, cheap, reliable way to gain advantage, everyone would do it all the time, and WotC would have removed it in playtest. That said, I think people have laid out the reasonable options pretty well.

[GlenSmash!]

Barbarians can get Advantage at will with the Reckless Attack feature at 2nd level, at the risk of giving Advantage to their enemies. You don't see a lot of Elf or Half-elf Barbarians.

You only get Advantage from Reckless attack if using Strength and Elven Accuracy stipulates that the attack cannot be made with Strength. Without that stipulation I imagine we would see a lot more Elf and Half-Elf Barbarians.

Still all your other points are solid, especially Faerie Fire.

[JakOfAllTirades]

You only get Advantage from Reckless attack if using Strength and Elven Accuracy stipulates that the attack cannot be made with Strength. Without that stipulation I imagine we would see a lot more Elf and Half-Elf Barbarians.

Still all your other points are solid, especially Faerie Fire.

Good catch there.

[Malifice]

Mounted combat feat.

Ride a horse.

[CircleOfTheRock]

Get a familiar (perhaps through the Magic Initiate feat).

[Asmotherion]

Be a Gish like a Real (Half) Elf Man of Action!

-Darkness (with Devilsight as a Warlock or as a Shadow Sorcerer)
-Shadow of Moil
-Invisibility (Greater)
-Shadow Blade, And have an other caster use Darkness on you, or find some strategic way to put the opponent in shadows/dim light (not everything needs to be done with spells).
-Faerie Fire, even if it's not in your spell list, is a great spell to poach with Magic Initiate, as it can grant you advantage for an encounter's length, consting you your concentration though.

And that's only what I can remember right away. You'll be hiting like crazy, and, if combined with a solid build, doing tons of damage with each hit. You may even land the occasional critical more often, thus even more damage.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Be a Gish like a Real (Half) Elf Man of Action!

-Darkness (with Devilsight as a Warlock or as a Shadow Sorcerer)
-Shadow of Moil
-Invisibility (Greater)
-Shadow Blade, And have an other caster use Darkness on you, or find some strategic way to put the opponent in shadows/dim light (not everything needs to be done with spells).
-Faerie Fire, even if it's not in your spell list, is a great spell to poach with Magic Initiate, as it can grant you advantage for an encounter's length, consting you your concentration though.

And that's only what I can remember right away. You'll be hiting like crazy, and, if combined with a solid build, doing tons of damage with each hit. You may even land the occasional critical more often, thus even more damage.


I love the idea of poaching Faerie Fire via Magic Initiate; it's one of those spells that don't suffer from lack of scaling, and it's on the list of both Charisma and Wisdom based casters, so it's more likely to have a decent save DC.