⚔️ Combat

1. ‼️ Determine surprise.

2. 🎳 Establish positions

3. 🎲 Roll initiative. Everyone involved in the combat encounter rolls initiative, determining the order of combatants' turns.

4. ⏱️ A round represents about 6 seconds in the game world.

   • 4.1. 🎠 During a round, each participant in a battle takes a turn.

   • 4.2. ⏲️ Take turns. Each participant in the battle takes a turn in initiative order.

   • 4.3. 🕰️ Begin the next round. When everyone involved in the combat has had a turn, the round ends.

5. ⚔️ Repeat step 4 until the fighting stops.

1. ‼️ Surprise

🎖️ The DM determines who might be surprised.

❕ If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other.

❔ Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (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.

2. 🦾 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 DM makes one roll for an entire group of identical creatures, so each member of the group acts at the same time.

🥇 The DM 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 DM decides the order among tied DM-controlled creatures, and the players decide the order among their tied characters.

🎯 The DM can decide the order if the tie is between a monster and a player character.

🐾 Optionally, the DM can have the tied characters and monsters each roll a d20 to determine the order, highest roll going first.

4.2 🦦 Your Turn

🐇 On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed and take one action.

• 🦫 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.

  • ✊🏼Attack

    • ✊🏽 With this action, you make one (or more, if a feature allows) melee or ranged attack.

  • 🫴🏻 Cast a Spell

    • 🫴🏼 Each spell has a casting time specified.
    • 🫴🏽 Casting a spell is, therefore, not necessarily an action.

  • 🥷🏾 Dodge

    • 🥷🏻 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.

  • 🦿 Dash

    • 🦵🏻 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.

  • 👰🏻‍♂️ Disengage

    • 👰🏼‍♂️ Your movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks for the rest of the turn.

  • 🧑🏻‍🍼 Help

    • 🧑🏼‍🍼 You can lend your aid to another creature in the completion of a task.
    • 🧑🏽‍🍼 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.

  • 🙇🏻 Hide

    • 🙇🏼 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.

  • 💁🏻 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.

  • 🔍 Search

    • 🔎 When you take the Search action, you devote your attention to finding something.
    • 🔎 Depending on the nature of your search, the DM might have you make a Wisdom (Perception) check or an Intelligence (Investigation) check.

  • 🧑🏻‍🔬 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.
    • 🧑🏾‍🔬 Your first interaction with a an object is a free action. Further interactions cost your action.
    • 🧑🏽‍🔬 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.

IMPROVISING AN ACTION

Your character can do things not covered by the actions in this section, such as breaking down doors, intimidating enemies, sensing weaknesses in magical defenses, or calling for a parley with a foe.

The only limits to the actions you can attempt are your imagination and your character’s ability scores.

See the descriptions of the ability scores in the Using Ability Scores section for inspiration as you improvise.

When you describe an action not detailed elsewhere in the rules, the DM tells you whether that action is possible and what kind of roll you need to make, if any, to determine success or failure.

• 🦾 Bonus Actions

  🦿 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 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.

• 🎢 Other Activity 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 DM 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 DM could reasonably expect you to use an action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge.

🪓 Reactions

🧨 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.

⚗️ 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.

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 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.

🧰 INTERACTING WITH OBJECTS AROUND YOU

🪛 Here are a few examples of the sorts of thing you can do in tandem with your movement and action:

• draw or sheathe a sword
• open or close a door
• withdraw a potion from your backpack
• pick up a dropped axe
• take a bauble from a table
• remove a ring from your finger
• stuff some food into your mouth
• plant a banner in the ground
• fish a few coins from your belt pouch
• drink all the ale in a flagon
• throw a lever or a switch
• pull a torch from a sconce
• take a book from a shelf you can reach
• extinguish a small flame
• don a mask
• pull the hood of your cloak up and over your head
• put your ear to a door
• kick a small stone
• turn a key in a lock
• tap the floor with a 10-foot pole
• hand an item to another character