Negative Die Modifiers?

I'm sure this has been asked and answered, but a 5 minute keyword search didn't turn up anything useful. If someone could point me in the right direction, I'd be much obliged. I'm setting up characters for a one shot, and one the characters can do the 5e Enlarge/Reduce effect. I'd tried to set these up in the damage modifiers section of the sheet, have one add 1d4 damage, the other add -1d4. The +1d4 works as expected, but the die portion of the negative modifier is being ignored: with that damage modifier selected, it doesn't roll a die, but produces a result of -1. I've experiemented with different formats: -(1d4), (-1d4), [-1d4], {-1d4}, but those always return a error: if the negative is the first character in the modifier, the next character had to be a digit: SyntaxError: Expected [0-9] but "d" found. Any thoughts? What am I missing?

I'm assuming you're using the 5th edition by Roll20 sheet - if that's the case, just plain -1d4 works in the damage field of global damage modifiers.

I'm not really familiar with the 5e sheet, but I was able to use 1d8-[[1d4]] You could get a negative value though.  Just figure that negative means "0" since kh1{ 0, 1d8-[[1d4]] } does not work either. ;-(

vÍnce said: I'm not really familiar with the 5e sheet, but I was able to use 1d8-[[1d4]] You could get a negative value though.  Just figure that negative means "0" since kh1{ 0, 1d8-[[1d4]] } does not work either. ;-( It doesn't work because you need the same type of expression on all entries of a keep/drop roll - that is, you need to replace the 0 with a 0d0 for it to work. [[{ 0d0, 1d8-[[1d4]] }kh1]]

You're right Tuo.  [[{ 0d0, 1d8-[[1d4]] }kh1]] works.   Could have sworn I've done the keep/drop without the "0d0" trick... Wait, I have but it was comparing with an attribute value not a roll value.  ie kh1{0,@{selected|hp}}  Just assumed it would work the same. ;-)

Hi folks,  To clarify, assuming this is the D&D 5e (2014) sheet (formerly D&D 5e by Roll20) then I believe that Jason M. is asking about the damage modifier field in an attack (see red section in image).  That field will not take any value other than a numeric value.  Jason M., I suggest adding it directly to your damage section (see green section in image). Then, in the Crit section put the damage dice you want your critical roll to be. For example, if you are rolling a 1d8 you would put 1d8 in the Crit section. " A note for everyone else regarding the "kh" discussion, that won't work because the -1d4 can reduce the value to zero, but only after modifiers are added. Since you cannot include the modifier section in the kh section you will need to accomodate it in your damage calculation and then have no ability modifier to damage in the next section (STR in the image below, between the red and green boxes). OR you can just know that any negative value is actually 0...as would be typically done when at a physical table. :)

Thanks Gauss.  The green field in your image is where I was using 1d8-[[1d4]] and that "seems" to work other than it can give a negative damage roll.  hence I brought up the kh1 option which also "seems" to accept [[{ 0d0, 1d8-[[1d4]] }kh1]] Just using the 1d8 upfront since I wasn't sure of the actual application of the OP.

Gauss said: A note for everyone else regarding the "kh" discussion, that won't work because the -1d4 can reduce the value to zero, but only after modifiers are added. Since you cannot include the modifier section in the kh section you will need to accomodate it in your damage calculation and then have no ability modifier to damage in the next section (STR in the image below, between the red and green boxes). OR you can just know that any negative value is actually 0...as would be typically done when at a physical table. :) Well, you can make the kh option work from the sheet, but you need to replace the whole damage roll with row injection and make custom damage rolls for it - probably not worth the effort for a one-shot. Global damage modifiers still seem the most straightforward option.

Tuo said: I'm assuming you're using the 5th edition by Roll20 sheet - if that's the case, just plain -1d4 works in the damage field of global damage modifiers. So... yes, but also no. I set up a global damage modifier of -1d4, and it says it's rolling it, but I'm only ever getting a -1 result. I understand that a pseudo-random number generator might be a bit streaky, but I've rolled this several dozen times, and I think we're outside the realm of probability here.  If I have a positive 1d4 global damage, it rolls it correctly. 

Jason M. said: So... yes, but also no. I set up a global damage modifier of -1d4, and it says it's rolling it, but I'm only ever getting a -1 result. I understand that a pseudo-random number generator might be a bit streaky, but I've rolled this several dozen times, and I think we're outside the realm of probability here.  If I have a positive 1d4 global damage, it rolls it correctly.  Ah, I see - it looks like the negative roll doesn't parse on it's own. Easy enough to fix, though a bit unsightly - you can either force the roll to parse by putting it in an inline roll (so -[[1d4]]), or by putting a fake roll in front of it (so 0d0-1d4).

Tuo said: Ah, I see - it looks like the negative roll doesn't parse on it's own. Easy enough to fix, though a bit unsightly - you can either force the roll to parse by putting it in an inline roll (so -[[1d4]]), or by putting a fake roll in front of it (so 0d0-1d4). Both of your proposed solutions worked; I went with the -[[1d4]], because it looks less weird in the character sheet. Thanks for the help!