New answers tagged combat
2
Give them something to do besides using their attack power.
The Dungeon Master's Guide 2 introduced the idea of terrain powers, where you're in terrain and can burn a standard/move/minor to get a certain effect. Some terrain will let anyone take advantage of it for the whole battle. Other terrain, like a boulder to be set rolling or a hanging chandelier ...
5
Don't make eliminating minions part of a victory condition.
If I'm going to have more than a handful of minions in an encounter, my preference is to have endless minions: a couple more minions are going to be added every turn until the party solves the puzzle, or kills the boss, or makes it to the end of the trapped hallway. This makes minions obstacles ...
10
Both the wizard and other people can attack the target
Levitate has no special ending conditions for the target being attacked (the text description of levitate would have to say so). Further, a wizard can keep concentrating on a spell and cast other spells that don't require concentration (see this exact question). This means that casting levitate on a ...
-1
I disagree with the other answers and I think you stay on the bus and even supported by RAW. Let me explain.
I assume we can all agree that the 6 seconds of a round in dnd-5e are supposedly happening at the same time. However, as everyone moving at the same time would be a great chaos a round is split into turns. A necessary abstraction. A citation from ...
2
The dodge action is defined as:
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
(as explained in ...
35
A Prone Creature can Dodge
Nothing in the rules specifies that a creature cannot take the Dodge action while under the effects of the Prone condition.
The Prone condition (PHB, p. 292) states:
A prone creature's only movement is to crawl, unless it stands up and thereby ends the condition.
The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls.
An attack ...
17
You can Dodge when Prone
The rules for the Dodge action simply state:
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 ...
3
There is an optional rule written in the DMG (pg 272), 'Tumble', wherein a character can:
As an action or a bonus action, the tumbler makes a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by the hostile creature’s Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If the tumbler wins the contest, it can move through the hostile creature’s space once this turn.
It does not mention ...
5
It's not about the rounds
From the combat rules, on reactions:
When you take a reaction, you can't take another one until the start of your next turn.
This means that there are situations in which one could indeed have two reactions in the same round. Using your example, if the player took an opportunity attack before his turn came up, then at the start ...
11
Reactions reset at the start of your next turn.
Per the Player's Handbook, Chapter 9: Combat, on p190:
When you take a reaction, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn.
So in your situation, if the fighter tried to use their reaction to interact with the homebrew item before the start of their next turn, they could not, since they ...
-4
A reaction can be used once per round on anyone’s turn
A reaction is a once per round on any creature’s turn according to the PHB. Also remember that only certain spells and abilities allow you to use them as a reaction.
According to the rules on reactions (PHB, p. 190):
When you take a reaction, you can't take another one until the start
of your next ...
0
Remember that the DM's job is to run a fun adventure. The question you should ask is not: "is this okay?" but "will this be fun?".
There are things you can do to make this work better.
You want to make it really clear that "I just need to deal a lot of damage" is not a good solution to the encounter.
You can have obvious things in the environment they can ...
7
Read How can I make my PCs flee? I'll wait.
...
Welcome back.
The essential problem is that most modern players are trained from birth on video games and modern RPGs that a) they will win b) if they don't win, they will respawn. You have to overcome this training to make what you want to happen happen. This is really hard - even saying "This is me, the ...
0
Yes. Xanathar's Guide to Everything specifically refers to Random Encounters being "too difficult or dangerous for the characters in their present circumstances. They might want to flee to avoid contact or not to approach any closer after perceiving the monsters from a distance". (pg 92)
The real challenge is often communicating to your players that this ...
0
I am currently running ToA and my characters are in the Tomb of the Nine Gods. So for the Atropal fight, I am going to have the hag sisters involved heavily (as our cleric's mission is to rid them and free one of the children's souls for a noble in Baldurs Gate).
The final fight, I found a homebrew version of Acererak that is more befitting the lich that ...
4
A target that isn’t defending presents a difficulty of 1. (VtM 5E Core, p.302) There's always the chance that Dick or Harry could fail to connect.
11
Does a target have total cover from a ranged attacker positioned on an opposite corner of a hallway?
The target has total cover from the attack
The Core Rulebook doesn't cover this exact situation very well. As you say, you can draw lines parallel to, but not passing through, the wall. So it is possible this only provides cover, not total cover. My ruling is that the wall provides total cover in this situation and I will justify my reasons for it.
RAW ...
-1
Does a target have total cover from a ranged attacker positioned on an opposite corner of a hallway?
Yes
Assuming the wall does not touch/cross the line at any point. If the wall does touch the line than the target has total cover. Whether the wall touches the line depends on the convention that you use when drawing your maps - the wall can go up to the line or on to the line - if the former it has cover, if the latter total cover.
23
Players can't "check" with their passive Wisdom (Perception) score
The passive Wisdom (Perception) check only comes into effect when the DM chooses, with the two cases laid out in the rules being repeated tests or when the DM wishes to conceal information.
A passive check is a special kind of ability check that doesn't involve any die rolls. Such a ...
16
You can't make Passive perception checks. Passive perception is what you use when you don't roll any checks; it's the baseline enemies need to beat when trying to hide from you.
In the anti-magic cone situations, the player doesn't check anything. If the beholder is hidden (because its stealth check exceeded the player's passive perception) then the player ...
Top 50 recent answers are included
