So, I'm playing a ranger who has an animal companion. The ranger and animal companion roll separate initiative and have distinct attacks.
I know that I can, at the bottom right, select who I wish to "speak as" from a drop down menu, but having to switch back and forth constantly (multiple times per round) is tiresome and frustrating. It would make things much more convenient if I could simply have a command in my macro that set who was speaking. GMs apparently have similar functionality using the /as command. Players should be able to do the same, specifying which character they control to speak as.
An example of a typical combat where I would want to switch so many times in a short period:
I play a 5e UA Revised Ranger (Beast Conclave). This means I have a companion beast. Both I and my pet roll initiative separately and make separate attacks. My attacks can also trigger attacks from my pet.
Round 1:
- Roll Initiative as Ranger (with advantage)
- (Change to speak as pet) Roll initiative as Pet
- (Change to speak as Ranger) Attack with my bow
- (Change to speak as pet) Run at enemy and use Pounce.
Round 2:
- (Change to speak as Ranger) Attack with my bow
- (Change to speak as pet) Attack due to triggered reaction from Ranger attack
- (Change to speak as Ranger) Cast spell as bonus action
- (Change to speak as pet) Attack enemy.
As you can see, this leads me to having to change who I'm speaking as 3-4 times per round at minimum. If additional reaction abilities are triggered or save/skill checks need to be made, I may have to do so even more often. This can get even worse if I also use a spell to summon creatures which in turn also have attacks/spells/saves/etc that they may need to make. All of this being controlled by a single player who, for the sake of keeping things organized and distinct, would want to switch who they're speaking as.
This suggestion will make chat easier to decipher who's rolling what (especially at the beginning of combat when everyone is rolling initiative; it can be difficult to tell which init roll belongs to the ranger and which to the pet) while also making the entire process more streamlined and less frustrating.
I can see in the wiki documentation that GMs have the option to use
/as "character name" <stuff they want to say>
but this doesn't seem to work for players, even if the specified character name is one they control.