5E Questions about conflicting Effects

[GunnarGreybeard]

OK, so this came up in my game last night and the question is . . . . In FG, should 2 opposing effects automatically cancel each other out when added to a PC in the Combat Tracker without GM intervention? Thinking about this last night I do not think it is supposed to work that way (automatic cancel out) as that removes control from the DM to "homebrew" those kinda things.

The situation in question was, the party had entered the Evil Cleric's hideout and because they failed to show proper respect to that Deity upon entry (say a little prayer), they got hit with a curse (except those whom saved). The curse is basically a Bane effect (-1d4). So now, down the stairs comes the PC Cleric (Good) and seeing the Evil confronting them, casts Bless (+1d4) on a couple PCs. Now you have players with both the Bane and Bless Effects active on them. Originally one of the PC's mentioned it being a bug because they did not cancel each other out automatically in FG (like I believe the Advantage/Disadvantage do??) but I do not think FG is coded that way. Does anyone know if they are supposed to (in the FG code) do it automatically or are the Effects coded in FG so that the GM to has remove both from the combat tracker manually?

Personally, I prefer to leave them both "in effect" for their duration as it creates more variance (rolling both -1d4 and +1d4) and imho, represents the "conflict" of the Deity's struggle to influence that PC so its can sway back and forth with each of their rolls.

Thoughts?

[Zacchaeus]

I think they should both be active anyway. To answer your question FG won't cancel them out because it will not recognise these two things as opposite sides of the coin as it were.

In any case I think they should both apply since they aren't a fixed bonus (they would, by default, cancel if they applied the same bonus/penalty like +2/-2). In this case you could have a +4 bonus and a -1 penalty or any other combination.

As the DM, of course, you could rule that they do cancel out and jut delete both effects from the character.

[VenomousFiligree]

Personally, I like them both being in effect. At the real table I might say they cancel as it's too much dice rolling. However at the virtual table where it's all done with the click of a dice, I say keep them both!

[Nylanfs]

Use it as a roleplaying element showing that the gods are struggling to aid "their" side. :)