Combat
Eventually, everyone has to face the music, and it is then that the skills and talents you possess to fight come to the fore.
Something to keep in mind is that there are Moments, which are 1 second in length, Rounds, which are 6 seconds in length, and Turns, which is what you do in a given Round.
Order
A typical combat encounter is a clash between two sides, a flurry of weapon swings, feints, parries, footwork, and spellcasting. The game organizes the chaos of combat into a cycle of rounds and turns. A round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. During a round, each participant in a battle takes a turn. The order of turns is determined at the beginning of a combat encounter when everyone rolls initiative. Once everyone has taken a turn, the fight continues to the next round if neither side has defeated the other.
- Determine surprise. The GM determines whether anyone involved in the combat encounter is surprised.
- Establish positions. The GM decides where all the characters and monsters are located. Given the adventurers’ marching order or their stated positions in the room or other location, the GM figures out where the adversaries are, how far away and in what direction.
- Roll initiative. Everyone involved in the combat encounter rolls initiative, determining the order of combatants’ turns.
- Take turns. Each participant in the battle takes a turn in initiative order.
- When everyone involved in the combat has had a turn, the round ends.
- Begin the next round.
- Repeat taking turns until the fighting stops.
Surprise
A band of adventurers sneaks up on a bandit camp, springing from the trees to attack them. A gelatinous cube glides down a dungeon passage, unnoticed by the adventurers until the cube engulfs one of them. In these situations, one side of the battle gains surprise over the other.
The GM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the GM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the Perception score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.
If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren’t.
Initiative
Initiative determines the order of turns during combat. When combat starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their place in the initiative order. The GM makes one roll for an entire group of identical creatures, so each member of the group acts at the same time.
The GM ranks the combatants in order from the one with the highest Dexterity check total to the one with the lowest. This is the order (called the initiative order) in which they act during each round. The initiative order remains the same from round to round.
If a tie occurs, the GM decides the order among tied GM-controlled creatures, and the players decide the order among their tied characters. The GM can decide the order if the tie is between a monster and a player character. Optionally, the GM can have the tied characters and monsters each roll a d20 to determine the order, highest roll going first.
Actions
Each person engaging in combat has at least 2 and up to 4 Actions in a given round (6 seconds). The maximum number of possible (theoretical) actions a being can take in a round is 6, and the last two would require high level magic to obtain.
- The first is an Open Action,
- The second is a Move Action,
- The third is a Bonus Action,
- The fourth is a Reaction.
The third and fourth options come from some Aspect or Magic based on your character’s development. When one does gain them, they have specific things that the character can do, and are described in such circumstances in their description.
Open Actions can be used to do anything. They are essentially just called “Actions”.
Move Actions can be used for movement or shifted to an Open Action. This must be declared at the start of your turn. You must declare your actions when it is your turn if you are going to convert a Move action to an Open action.
Reactions can only be used to do the specific things allowed by whatever gives that reaction, or for Opportunity Attacks (see below). A person can have only one reaction in a given turn. You can take a reaction only when a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a reaction. You otherwise don’t have a reaction to take.
You can take only one reaction on your turn, so you must choose which reaction to use when you have more than one available.
Anything that deprives you of your ability to take actions also prevents you from taking a reaction.
Bonus Actions can only be used to do whatever that specific thing that grants the Bonus action is. A person can only have one Bonus action in a given turn. Various class features, spells, and other abilities let you take an additional action on your turn called a bonus action. You can take a bonus action only when a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus action. You otherwise don’t have a bonus action to take.
You can take only one bonus action on your turn, so you must choose which bonus action to use when you have more than one available.
You choose when to take a bonus action during your turn, unless the bonus action’s timing is specified, and anything that deprives you of your ability to take actions also prevents you from taking a bonus action.
Spell Casting: Mages always have the choice of converting the Open, Move, Bonus, and Reactions into Spell Casting Actions (see MageCraft, below).
Your Turn
On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed and take one action. You decide whether to move first or take your action first. Your speed— sometimes called your walking speed—is noted on your character sheet.
The most common actions you can take are described in the “Actions in Combat” section. Many class features and other abilities provide additional options for your action.
The “Movement and Position” section gives the rules for your move.
You can forgo moving, taking an action, or doing anything at all on your turn. If you can’t decide what to do on your turn, consider taking the Dodge or Ready action, as described in “Actions in Combat.”
When you take your action on your turn, you can take one of the actions presented here, an action you gained from your class or a special feature, or an action that you improvise. Many monsters have action options of their own in their stat blocks.
When you describe an action not detailed elsewhere in the rules, the GM tells you whether that action is possible and what kind of roll you need to make, if any, to determine success or failure.
Action Types
Attacking is the most common form of Action when in combat, but there are many other kinds of actions on can take, and they do not need to only be taken during combat.
Attacks
The most common action to take in combat is the Attack action, whether you are swinging a sword, firing an arrow from a bow, or brawling with your fists. With this action, you make one melee or ranged attack.
Certain features, such as the Extra Attack feature of the fighter, allow you to make more than one attack with this action.
Making an Attack
Whether you’re striking with a melee weapon, firing a weapon at range, or making an attack roll as part of a spell, an attack has a simple structure.
- Choose a target. Pick a target within your attack’s range: a creature, an object, or a location.
- Determine modifiers.
- The GM determines whether the target has cover and whether you have Advantage or Disadvantage against the target. In addition, spells, special abilities, and other effects can apply penalties or bonuses to your attack roll.
- Resolve the attack. You make the attack roll. On a hit, you roll damage, unless the particular attack has rules that specify otherwise. Some attacks cause special effects in addition to or instead of damage.
- If there’s ever any question whether something you’re doing counts as an attack, the rule is simple: if you’re making an attack roll, you’re making an attack.
When you make an attack, your attack roll determines whether the attack hits or misses. To make an attack roll, roll a d20 and add the appropriate modifiers. If the total of the roll plus modifiers equals or exceeds the target’s Armor Class (AC), you hit.
The AC of a character is determined at character creation and by equipment, whereas the AC of a monster is in its stat block.
When a character makes an attack roll, the two most common modifiers to the roll are an ability modifier and the character’s proficiency bonus. When a monster makes an attack roll, it uses whatever modifier is provided in its stat block.
Ability Modifier. The ability modifier used for a melee weapon attack is Strength, and the ability modifier used for a ranged weapon attack is Dexterity. Weapons that have the finesse or thrown property break this rule.
Some spells also require an attack roll. The ability modifier used for a spell attack depends on the spellcasting ability of the spellcaster.
Proficiency Bonus. You add your proficiency bonus to your attack roll when you attack using a weapon with which you have proficiency, as well as when you attack with a spell.
Melee Attacks
Used in hand-to-hand combat, a melee attack allows you to attack a foe within your reach. A melee attack typically uses a handheld weapon such as a sword, a warhammer, or an axe. A typical monster makes a melee attack when it strikes with its claws, horns, teeth, tentacles, or other body part. A few spells also involve making a melee attack.
Most creatures have a 5-foot reach and can thus attack targets within 5 feet of them when making a melee attack. Certain creatures (typically those larger than Medium) have melee attacks with a greater reach than 5 feet, as noted in their descriptions.
If holding a weapon in an offhand, you can attempt an attack with it should you have a bonus action or reaction, including Opportunity attacks. Offhand attacks are always at disadvantage.
When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in the other hand. You don’t add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack unless that modifier is negative.
If either weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it.
When you take the Bind Weapon action, you make a melee weapon attack contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). On success, you bind your target’s weapon. While bound, you and your opponent may not use the bound weapons or move. On their turn, your opponent may use an action to attempt to free their weapon with an opposed Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, or they can drop the weapon. If the creature does not free or drop their weapon, the creature cannot move. While binding your opponent, you suffer the same limitations, except that you may end the bind at any time.
On a successful roll, you disarm your opponent. Note, this can happen to PCs as well as opponents.
You mark your opponent, developing a fixation on them, and on a successful hit, you literally mark them with your weapon in a way that shows you have done so.
Any extra damage from an attack that drops a foe gets carried over to a hostile creature within reach, with damage carrying over to the next available creature until all of it has been applied to creatures or they are all dead.
Jumping up to attack a being within range of your jump ability is an attack at disadvantage.
Particles
When you take the Particles action on your turn, you can hurl sharp or stinging particles at a creature you can see within 5 feet of you. This cloud of particles could be glass shards, dirt, sand, ash, coals, or even a hat or handkerchief or bit of fabric. As an action, you must make a ranged attack to throw particles at a creature and being within 5 feet of a creature does not impose disadvantage on the ranged attack.
If hit, the creature has disadvantage on attack rolls until the start of your next turn. The target must also succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 8) or is sightless until the start of your next turn. Once sightless, a creature may spend an action to clear its eyes of the particles and end the condition.
Any weapon with a hook can be used to make a grapple attack that uses its weapon attack bonus instead of athletics. This attack can be made on any target within the weapon’s reach.
Affray
Affray is fisticuffs, unarmed combat, the use of the body as a weapon in and of itself; an attack that a character can do with their fists, legs, shoulder, elbow, or any other extremity. Even when wielding weapons, a character can attempt to swing on someone else with any way they can – most commonly with kicks.
Instead of using a weapon to make a melee weapon attack, you can use an unarmed strike: a punch, kick, head-butt, or similar forceful blow (none of which count as weapons). On a hit, an unarmed strike deals bludgeoning damage equal to 1+ your Strength modifier. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes.
For Affray, a STRength + Modifiers roll is made against the opponent’s AC. On a hit, you do 1 point plus your STRength modifier in bludgeoning or crushing damage. This number changes if you have the Affray skill, adding in that modifier to your damage as well.
Affray has certain actions that can be taken: Punch, Kick, Elbow, Knee, and Bash (using your head).
Brawling is a wild form of Affray that often uses improvised weapons. You can add your Brawling skill to your damage done with an improvised weapon.
When you want to grab a creature or wrestle with it, you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack, a grapple. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
The target of your grapple must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Using at least one free hand, you try to seize the target by making a grapple check instead of an attack roll: a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you succeed, you subject the target to the grappled condition. The condition specifies the things that end it, and you can release the target whenever you like (no action required).
When you take the Downing action on your turn, you can attempt to down a creature you have already grappled that is equal to or smaller than your size. To attempt to down a creature, you must make a Strength (Athletics), or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by your target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). If you succeed, you move the creature 5 feet in the direction of your choosing and the creature is prone.
When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.
Sometimes an attacker wants to incapacitate a foe, rather than deal a killing blow. When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable.
You can barrel through a group. Overrunning costs you one half your Speed, and those you barrel through must make a Con roll against a DC of your STR plus modifiers.
Shoving a Creature
Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature, either to knock it prone or push it away from you. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
The target must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Instead of making an attack roll, you make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you win the contest, you either knock the target prone or push it 5 feet away from you.
Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature in your movement path, either to knock it prone or push it away from you. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
The target must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Instead of making an attack roll, you make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you win the contest, you either knock the target prone or push it 3 feet away from you. Shoving Aside allows the creature shoved to make an opportunity attack against you.
When you strangle a victim, you apply a grappling test each round, and use the suffocation rules. You can only strangle a creature one size larger or smaller than you.
Tumble
Tumbling allows you to disengage and move up to 5’ away from your current opponent.
When you take the Tackle action on your turn, you can attempt to tackle a creature after moving at least half of your standard movement in a straight line towards your target. To tackle, you roll an unarmed attack roll. On a hit, the target takes the unarmed attack damage and both you and the target are knocked prone. If the creature is larger than you, you have disadvantage on your attack roll. You cannot tackle a creature that is two size classes bigger or smaller than you.
The toss is a bonus action permissible only when the person doing the tossing is at least 3 feet taller than the person being tossed. You pick someone up by the scruff and throw them five feet.
When someone moves through an adjacent grid area, you can attempt to trip them using your move action, opportunity attack, or reaction.
Martial Arts Attacks
For Martial Arts, a DEX + Modifiers roll is made against the opponent’s AC. On a hit, you do 1d6 points plus your STRength modifier in bludgeoning damage. This number changes if you have the Affray skill, adding in that modifier to your damage as well.
The damage die increases with each Degree of Mastery (1d6, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, 5d6). You can shift the Die chain using a Monk ability.
A target within 5 feet of you who is about to make an attack (later in initiative order) can have their attack interrupted. If you hit, their attack misses.
A Blow that moves the target 3 feet per degree of mastery.
A bow that disrupts concentration and inflicts Pain damage.
A standard blow.
A strike using foot, shin, or knee.
An elbow strike.
A nerve pinch. Causes the Stilled condition up for 1 turn per degree of Mastery
A shoulder strike. It can move a target 3 feet per degree of mastery.
A blow to the face that forces a Con roll if it hits. The DC is the attacker’s Level plus 5 to avoid being stunned.
Sends an opponent prone and moves them up to five feet away per degree of mastery, but with reduction to damage of -2 per die.
Renders an opponent prone, but at a -3 per die to damage.
Ranged Attacks
When you make a ranged attack, you fire a bow or a crossbow, hurl a handaxe, or otherwise send projectiles to strike a foe at a distance. A monster might shoot spines from its tail. Many spells also involve making a ranged attack.
You can make ranged attacks only against targets within a specified range.
If a ranged attack, such as one made with a spell, has a single range, you can’t attack a target beyond this range.
Some ranged attacks, such as those made with a longbow or a shortbow, have two ranges. The smaller number is the normal range, and the larger number is the long range. Your attack roll has Disadvantage when your target is beyond normal range, and you can’t attack a target beyond the long range.
Ranged Attacks in Close Combat
Aiming a ranged attack is more difficult when a foe is next to you. When you make a ranged attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have Disadvantage on the attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t incapacitated.
Shoot
Bows, Crossbows, and similar items are shot. This is a regular ranged attack.
Firearms are fired. This is a regular ranged attack.
Rocks, axes, anything you can throw with a single hand. This is a regular ranged attack.
Anything you can throw with both hands. This is a two-handed attack.
On occasion, someone may seek to tie a wire or rope to an arrow and soot it for various reasons.
These attacks are made at disadvantage.
Psychic Attacks
Psychic attacks are specific uses of psychic power that have unusual natures. Psychic abilities are explained in the Occultaria.
Psychic attacks use Psyche as their primary score for modifiers. Thus, making an attack is only somewhat different from a normal attack roll, and would be conducted on the turn for that action. Psychic attacks are always a Bonus Action.
Dominate is an attempt to seize control of the opponent’s mind.
Defend is defending oneself from an attempt at Domination.
Manipulate is using Psychic powers to manipulate objects and energies.
Enhance is using Psychic powers to enhance oneself or something else.
Opportunity Attacks
In a fight, everyone is constantly watching for a chance to strike an enemy who is fleeing or passing by. Such a strike is called an opportunity attack.
You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. To make the opportunity attack, you use your reaction to make one melee or thrown attack against the provoking creature. The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach.
You can avoid provoking an opportunity attack by taking the Disengage action. You also don’t provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction. For example, you don’t provoke an opportunity attack if an explosion hurls you out of a foe’s reach or if gravity causes you to fall past an enemy.
MageCraft
Spellcasters such as wizards and clerics, as well as many monsters, have access to spells and can use them to great effect in combat. Each spell has a casting time, which specifies whether the caster must use an action, a reaction, minutes, or even hours to cast the spell. Casting a spell is, therefore, not necessarily an action.
However, in combat, a Mage’s ability to Move, take an Action, and Reactions all count as actions for the purpose of how many actions a spell takes to cast. A Mage may choose to move, cast a spell, and make an opportunity attack and only use one action towards the spell casting, or they may choose not to move, not to take an opportunity attack, and spend three actions casting a spell.
This becomes of major importance when casting higher level spells in combat, as the longer a spell takes to cast, the greater the chance of being interrupted or targeted.
Cast A Spell
Many spells do have a casting time of 1 to 5 actions, so a spellcaster often uses his or her action in combat to cast such a spell.
It should be noted that unless an ability explicitly allows it, a mage can only cast one spell in a turn, no matter how many actions they have.
Ready a Spell
At any time, a Mage can choose to “ready a spell”. Readying a spell means casting it and setting it up for the final rune to be drawn, releasing the spell. This does not change the casting time of the spell – that still must happen before the combat begins (initiative roll). A caster can unleash a Readied spell on their turn and begin to cast another immediately.
Concentration
While casting a spell and often in the effort to maintain some spells (particularly defensive ones), depending on the spell itself, a mage will need to Concentrate on the casting or on maintaining the spell.
Concentration might be disrupted if you take damage. If seriously jostled, pushed, shoved, grappled, punched, or hit with an attack, you must make a Mana Saving Throw. The DC is 10 or half the damage you take, whichever is greater. If you take damage from multiple sources, you make a separate saving throw for each source of damage.
Broken concentration stops the spell from being cast and still costs mana, or it ends a spell that is being maintained.
Drop concentration
A caster can choose to stop concentrating for their action in a turn and begin a new spell in the same action.
Add concentration
In some cases, Mages have the ability to concentrate on more than one spell at a time, a skill developed through long hours of effort and development. Using this action, they can add an additional spell to cast or to maintain.
Movement
In combat, characters and monsters are in constant motion, often using movement and position to gain the upper hand.
On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed. You can use as much or as little of your speed as you like on your turn, following the rules here.
Your movement can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These different modes of movement can be combined with walking, or they can constitute your entire move. However, when you’re moving, you deduct the distance of each part of your move from your speed until it is used up or until you are done moving.
Modifiers to Movement
You can break up your movement on your turn, using some of your speed before and after your action. For example, if you have a speed of 30 feet, you can move 10 feet, take your action, and then move 20 feet.
If you take an action that includes more than one weapon attack, you can break up your movement even further by moving between those attacks. For example, a fighter who can make two attacks with the Extra Attack feature and who has a speed of 25 feet could move 10 feet, make an attack, move 15 feet, and then attack again.
If you have more than one speed, such as your walking speed and a flying speed, you can switch back and forth between your speeds during your move. Whenever you switch, subtract the distance you’ve already moved from the new speed. The result determines how much farther you can move. If the result is 0 or less, you can’t use the new speed during the current move.
For example, if you have a speed of 30 and a flying speed of 60 because a wizard cast the fly spell on you, you could fly 20 feet, then walk 10 feet, and then leap into the air to fly 30 feet more.
Combat rarely takes place in bare rooms or on featureless plains. Boulder-strewn caverns, briar- choked forests, treacherous staircases—the setting of a typical fight contains difficult terrain.
Every foot of movement in difficult terrain costs 1 extra foot. This rule is true even if multiple things in a space count as difficult terrain.
Low furniture, rubble, undergrowth, steep stairs, snow, and shallow bogs are examples of difficult terrain. The space of another creature, whether hostile or not, also counts as difficult terrain.
Unstable terrain is terrain that is itself in motion. Movement on unstable terrain costs 2 extra feet, or 3 feet of Speed to move 1 foot of distance. Additionally, any movement on Unstable Terrain requires a STR (athletics) or Dex roll against a DC determines by how unstable the terrain is or be laid prone. All Actions made while on Unstable Terrain are made with Disadvantage.
Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling
While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed. At the GM’s option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.
Movement Actions
This is a basic movement that takes you one half your Speed in a direction along the horizontal surface you are standing on.
Hold is a movement actions that involves moving to a place within your speed range and then holding that position against whatever comes to it. An example is holding a door that is being forced open, another is protecting a person.
When you take the stand movement, you draw attention to you from hostile folks around you, stomping and suggesting that you are challenging them to move you, to push you, to focus on you.
Evade is a movement action that involves moving to avoid a blow or other event and will set you five feet away from your original position. Evade allows you to avoid a single opportunity attack if in evading you end up disengaging.
You can drop prone without using any of your speed. Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed.
Escaping a Grapple. A grappled creature can use its action to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics), or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by your Strength (Athletics) check.
When you take the Dodge action, you focus entirely on avoiding attacks. Until the start of your next turn, any attack roll made against you has Disadvantage if you can see the attacker, and you make Dexterity saving throws with Advantage. You lose this benefit if you are incapacitated or if your speed drops to 0.
When you take the Dive action, you focus entirely on avoiding attacks. Until the start of your next turn, any attack roll made against you has Disadvantage if you can see the attacker, and you make Dexterity saving throws with Advantage. This only lasts during that turn, however, as you start the following turn Prone.
Shifting is an evasive action allowing you to move slightly out of the way of an attack. It grants a +1 to AC for a single attack.
When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement for the current turn. The increase equals your speed, after applying any modifiers. With a speed of 30 feet, for example, you can move up to 60 feet on your turn if you dash.
Any increase or decrease to your speed changes this additional movement by the same amount. If your speed of 30 feet is reduced to 15 feet, for instance, you can move up to 30 feet this turn if you dash.
When you crawl, you are down on your hands and knees or your belly, and you are able to move at ½ your Speed.
Your Strength determines how far you can jump.
Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.
This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn’t matter, such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your GM’s option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise, you hit it.
When you land in difficult terrain, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to land on your feet. Otherwise, you land prone.
High Jump. When you make a high jump, you leap into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + your Strength modifier if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing high jump, you can jump only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement. In some circumstances, your GM might allow you to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than you normally can.
You can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1½ times your height.
Leap. A leap is a jump from a standing start, or with less than five feet space to start. You can Leap 1+ your Strength Modifier + your Athletics skill in feet.
You climb something. While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed. At the GM’s option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.
Swimming movement allows you to move at your swimming speed. While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed. At the GM’s option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.
Burrowing movement allows you to move at your burrowing speed.
If you do not have a burrowing speed, and you have the ability to get through the surface, you can move at 1/10th your regular speed.
Flying creatures enjoy many benefits of mobility, but they must also deal with the danger of falling. If a flying creature is knocked prone, has its speed reduced to 0, or is otherwise deprived of the ability to move, the creature falls, unless it has the ability to hover or it is being held aloft by magic, such as by the fly spell.
Launching into flight takes an action, as does landing. In both cases, the Speed of movement is half for purposes of effects and location.
A Fly Speed can be used to travel through the air. While you have a Fly Speed, you can stay aloft until you land, fall, or die. While flying, you fall if you lack the Hover trait and have the Incapacitated or Prone condition, or your Fly Speed is reduced to 0.
Common Actions
Disengage
If you take the Disengage action, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks for the rest of the turn.
Change Weapon
Sometimes you need to change or add a weapon in hand, and this is the action you take to do that, specifying what the weapon is.
Ready
Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.
First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it.
Examples include “If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I’ll pull the lever that opens it,” and “If the goblin steps next to me, I move away.”
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger. Remember that you can take only one reaction per round.
When you ready a spell, you cast it as normal but hold its energy, which you release with your reaction when the trigger occurs. To be readied, a spell must have a casting time of 1 action, and
holding onto the spell’s magic requires concentration. If your concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without taking effect. For example, if you are concentrating on the web spell and ready magic missile, your web spell ends, and if you take damage before you release magic missile with your reaction, your concentration might be broken.
Improvise
This is exactly what it sounds like – you improvise something. It cannot be something already covered by another type of action, and it cannot combine actions.
Hide
When you take the Hide action, you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check in an attempt to hide, following the rules for hiding. If you succeed, you gain certain benefits, as described in the “Unseen Attackers and Targets” section.
Combatants often try to escape their foes’ notice by hiding, casting the invisibility spell, or lurking in darkness.
When you attack a target that you can’t see, you have Disadvantage on the attack roll. This is true whether you’re guessing the target’s location or you’re targeting a creature you can hear but not see. If the target isn’t in the location you targeted, you automatically miss, but the GM typically just says that the attack missed, not whether you guessed the target’s location correctly.
When a creature can’t see you, you have Advantage on attack rolls against it. If you are hidden—both unseen and unheard—when you make an attack, you give away your location when the attack hits or misses.
Being Prone
Combatants often find themselves lying on the ground, either because they are knocked down or because they throw themselves down. In the game, they are prone, a condition.
You can drop prone without using any of your speed. Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed.
For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to stand up. You can’t stand up if you don’t have enough movement left or if your speed is 0.
To move while prone, you must crawl or use magic such as teleportation. Every foot of movement while crawling costs 1 extra foot. Crawling 1 foot in difficult terrain, therefore, costs 3 feet of movement.
Cover
Walls, trees, creatures, and other obstacles can provide cover during combat, making a target more difficult to harm. A target can benefit from cover only when an attack or other effect originates on the opposite side of the cover.
There are three degrees of cover. If a target is behind multiple sources of cover, only the most protective degree of cover applies; the degrees aren’t added together. For example, if a target is behind a creature that gives half cover and a tree trunk that gives three-quarters cover, the target has three-quarters cover.
A target with half cover has a +2 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws. A target has half cover if an obstacle blocks at least half of its body. The obstacle might be a low wall, a large piece of furniture, a narrow tree trunk, or a creature, whether that creature is an enemy or a friend.
A target with three-quarters cover has a +5 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws. A target has three-quarters cover if about three-quarters of it is covered by an obstacle. The obstacle might be a portcullis, an arrow slit, or a thick tree trunk.
A target with total cover can’t be targeted directly by an attack or a spell, although some spells can reach such a target by including it in an area of effect. A target has total cover if it is completely concealed by an obstacle.
When opponents use cover to their advantage, one can choose to attack and destroy or grapple out the cover completely and leave them exposed. If the attack would have hit the creature without the benefit of cover, your attack hits the cover instead and damages it. With grappling, the cover may be pulled away, by either wrestling it out of the way or using a weapon to pull it away (such as with a Sibolan Shield).
Shield
This is an action meant to protect or defend another being. Shield sets your AC as the target, and if there is a hit, you take the damage instead of the thing being covered. This is often used to protect the innocent, guard mages, and secure large objects.
Cover move allows you to move up to your speed in distance and provide cover for someone in danger, but at the cost of any attack or movement actions.
Activity
You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn.
Your turn can include a variety of flourishes that require neither your action nor your move.
You can communicate however you are able, through brief utterances and gestures, as you take your turn.
You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.
If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions.
The GM might require you to use an action for any of these activities when it needs special care or when it presents an unusual obstacle. For instance, the GM could reasonably expect you to use an action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge.
Use a Feature, Specialty, or Ability
All Aspects, including Fortes, require an action to use, unless they specify a Bonus Action or Reaction.
Use an Object
You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn.
Study
When you take the Study action, you make a Knowledge check to study your memory, a book, a creature, a clue, an object, or another source of knowledge and call to mind an important piece of information about it.
The amount of time needed to study something is a number of rounds the DC of the knowledge being sought.
Search
When you take the Search action, you devote your attention to finding something. Depending on the nature of your search, the GM might have you make a Wisdom or Perception check, depending on if it is a matter of you feeling (Insight) the space or looking for things that are hidden.
Investigate
When you take the Investigate action, you devote your attention to looking for clues or hints. Depending on the nature of your search, the GM might have you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check.
Catch
You catch something thrown or shot at you. The DC of the action is determined by the DM.
Help
You can lend your aid to another creature in the completion of a task. When you take the Help action, the creature you aid gains Advantage on the next ability check it makes to perform the task you are helping with, provided that it makes the check before the start of your next turn.
Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with Advantage.
Bonus Actions
In certain circumstances, an individual will have a Bonus action. Bous actions only allow what is specified by the thing giving one the bonus action.
As always, mages can choose to use their Bonus action towards spell casting time.
Reactions
A Reaction is a thing that you do in response to some external stimuli. For example, you may choose to “ready” yourself as your action, and then set the nature of your reaction or the thing you are readying yourself as to happen as a reaction to events.
Certain special abilities, spells, and situations allow you to take a special action called a reaction. A reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind, which can occur on your turn or on someone else’s. The opportunity attack is the most common type of reaction.
When you take a reaction, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn. If the reaction interrupts another creature’s turn, that creature can continue its turn right after the reaction.
