Disclaimer: this guide assumes you have created a character and know your ability scores, modifiers, AC, and initiative. If you do not know any of those please visit my other guides, linked at the bottom, and then come back when you’re ready.

Combat can be confusing from time to time, and this guide hopes to clear up some of that confusion by explaining what a round of combat is, how long it lasts, and what your character can and cannot do. Part 2 will explain how to make attack and damage rolls with both weaponry and spells.

Rounds

A round of combat consists of all player characters, monsters, and other NPCs involved in any given combat. The round begins with everyone getting a turn by rolling initiative, and ends after each combatant has finished their turn. A round lasts for 6 seconds of in-game time. This is important because it not only helps players visualize any given conflict, but it also helps spell casters know how long they need to concentrate on spells that require it. Each combat encounter is structured into 5 steps:

1. Determine surprise.

The DM determines whether anyone involved in the combat encounter is surprised.

2. Establish positions

The DM 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 are̶, how far away, and in what direction.

3. Roll initiative

Everyone involved in the combat encounter rolls initiative, determining the order of combatants’ turns.

4. Take turns

Each participant in the battle takes a turn in initiative order.

5. Begin the next round

When everyone involved in the combat has had a turn, the round ends. Repeat step 4 until the fighting stops.

Taking your turn

Play enough Dungeon’s an Dragons and you’ll start hearing about “action economy”. This refers to all the actions you can do on your turn, and how you use them. There are many different things you can do on your turn: move, attack, cast a spell, prepare for a specific thing to happen, or help one of your companions. The list goes on, and I aim to explain it to you. In combat your character will have:

1 Action

You can use your action to take any of the following actions:

•Attack

•Cast a spell

•Dash

•Disengage

•Dodge

•Help

•Hide

•Ready

•Search

•Use an object

•Improvised action

When choosing your action it’s important to that you will only be able to do one of these things on your turn. I will explain what each of these do later on in this guide.

1 possible Bonus action

Bonus actions are just that: a bonus. You can only use one if a class feature, spell, item, etc. allows you to do so. You can also use your bonus action at any point throughout your turn. You will be told what you can use your bonus action for by whatever feat, feature, item, or racial trait that grants you the bonus action in the first place. Just that you can only use one bonus action for each turn.

Possible bonus actions (granted by class):

•cunning action (rogue)

•second wind (fighter)

•bardic inspiration (bard)

1 Reaction

Similar to the bonus action you may only use your reaction when something triggers it, and because of this it can be used even if it’s not your turn. Possible uses of your reaction include, but are not limited to, making opportunity attacks against fleeing enemies who have neglected to make a disengage action, casting the shield spell, and halving weapon damage with uncanny dodge. , you can only use a reaction if a feature, feat, spell, situation, etc. allows you too.

Ways to use your reaction:

•the Shield spell

•uncanny dodge (rogue)

•opportunity attacks

1 Free action

A free action can be used to draw or sheathe your weapon. It can also be used to interact with your environment.

Movement

It is important to realize that you do not need to spend an action to move, and that you are allowed to move up to your maximum speed, measured in feet. This max speed of course varies from race to race, but the average speed is 30ft. While moving you are able to break your movement up throughout your turn.

For example: a human rogue begins their turn. They can move 10ft, then use their Cunning Action feature to hide behind something (as a bonus action), move another 10ft, use an attack action in order to finish off an enemy, and then end their turn by moving the final 10ft of their speed maximum of 30ft.

Explaining Actions

I dumped a lot of actions on you earlier, so now it’s time we broke those down and see what you are allowed to do with the actions.

Attack

You can make one melee or ranged attack. Some features may allow you to make more than one attack with this action.

Cast a spell

You can cast any spell that you are capable of casting that has a listed casting time of one action.

Dash

Rather than performing any other action, you spend the entire round moving. This allows you to move twice as far this round. It is effectively a double move action. (You use your dash action to move your speed then use your move to go that distance again.)

Disengage

If you start the round within 5 feet of an opponent that can see you, you can use this action to move away from him without provoking an opportunity attack. (The disengage action does not include a move. You use the disengage action to avoid an opportunity attack while you use your move to travel up to your speed.)

Dodge

This is a total defense action. You spend the round trying to avoid being hit. 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.

Help

You can use your action to help an ally attack an opponent within 5 feet of you. You don’t make an attack yourself, but when your friend attacks, his first attack roll is made with advantage.

Or you can help him with any other task. If you are in position to do so, and your assistance could reasonably be seen to be of help, he will gain advantage on his ability check to accomplish the task.

Hide

The act of hiding requires an action to attempt. You must make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to see if you successfully hide from your opponents.

Ready

Rather than taking and action during your turn, you wait for some specific event and then take your action as a reaction. You can still move up to the distance indicated by your move rate, but you can take no other action this round.

You must specify two things:

1) What the triggering event will be.

This can be anything you think might happen that you can observe. If the event occurs before the start of your turn on the next round you can perform your readied action at that time. Some examples could be: If the sniper sticks his head up, If more Orcs come around the corner, If the rope brakes, If the water level rises, If the evil magic starts to cast a spell, If the guard spots the thief, If the prisoner attempts to escape.

2) What action you will take.

This can be any of the combat actions.

Note that this action will be a reaction and you can only have one reaction per round. This means that if you take another reaction, you lose your readied action. Conversely, if you use your readied action you can have no other reactions this round.

• If the triggering event occurs, you can choose to not take your readied action.

• If you choose Dash as a readied action, you can move up to your move rate.

• If you choose Cast a Spell as a readied action, you cast the spell during your turn but hold off on releasing the energy of the spell until the triggering event occurs. You must concentrate to hold the spell’s energy. Anything that breaks your concentration before the final release of the spell’s energy results in the loss of the spell. If the triggering event doesn’t occur this round, you can continue to hold the spell with continued concentration into the following round, or you can cast it as an action on your next turn, or you can lose it.

Search

You can use your action to attempt to find something. The DM might require you to make a Wisdom (Perception) check or an Intelligence (Investigation) check.

Use an object

An object may require an action for you to use it, or you may need to use this action to interact with more than one object in a round.

Improvised action

There are many more things that a combatant could do during a round than can be ed for in the above actions. When you want to attempt something that is not covered by any of the above actions, you can use an improvised action.

Examples of an improvised action:

“I want to pull the rug out from under that guy.”

“I want to jump on the monster and attack him with my sword while I ride on to his back.”

“I want to talk them into surrendering.”

“I want to break that flask the bad guy is holding.” (attack an object)

“I want to slide down the stairs on my shield while I fire arrows at the enemy.”

“I want to intimidate then into running away.”

“I want to grab that piece of folded parchment that is sticking out of his vest pocket.”

“I want to hit that rope with my arrow in such a way as to cut the rope and let the body that is hanging from it fall to the ground.”

The following rules apply to improvised actions:

1. You must explain the improvised action to the DM. The DM may rule that what you want to do will require more than one round, or that it is simply impossible (you can’t fire an arrow into the sky and hit the moon). He may ask you to be more specific regarding the action you want to take and how the action will achieve the results you want.

2. The improvised action can also include all or part of your move. Successfully jumping on – or diving into a creature will give you advantage on the attack roll. A failed attempt results in your move stopping at the point there the attack takes place and may grant your opponent an advantage on his next attack against you.

3. To perform the improvised action the DM will normally have you make an ability check. The DM will assign an appropriate difficulty class and will explain possible consequences if the attempted action fails. For example, if you attempt to jump off of the balcony onto the monster in the center of the room and miss you may end up prone.

Believe it or not I didn’t have all of this information in my noggin. I went to olddungeonmaster.com and Roll20’s compendium for some of this information. This concludes part one of my combat guide. Next time we’ll walk through how to make attacks and cast spells with a step by step combat encounter.

Happy gaming!