General 5e Combat
I know that not everyone is coming into the game with the same level of experience regarding combat interactions in 5e. I figured I would put together a quick primer along with some of the "quirks" that I tend to have (some of which ae_dd may adopt as well, some of which she will WHOLLY roll her eyes at me for and wave them off).
TL;DR
Rounds last 6 seconds, everyone gets a Turn (Action, Movement, Bonus Action) and a Reaction. Initiative controls the order of combat. Surprise isn't a Round, it's a Condition that stops someone from using the Action/Movement on their first turn. Play by Post means we do some funky things with story telling to account for the medium.
All the stuff:
1. General Terms
a. Round - A
round encompasses a period of 6 seconds (10 rounds per minute). A single
round is one pass through the initiative order. Every character has one
turn and one
reaction per
round.
b. Turn - A
turn is a single character's time to shine in the
round. When every character (PC or NPC) has had their turn, combat moves to the next round. A characters
turn consists of: an
action,
movement, and a
bonus action.
c. Action - An
action is the "main" thing that a character does on their
turn. With your
action you may do
one of the following:
*** Attack - Swing a weapon at an opponent. Class features may grant additional swings when you use this
action.
*** Cast a Spell - Bread and butter of spellslingers. Note that some spells have an alternative casting time (Such as Hex with a casting time of one Bonus Action or Ceremony with a casting time of one hour.
*** Dash - Immediately move up to your Movement speed.
*** Disengage - Carefully move out of combat. Typically prevents an opportunity attack.
*** Dodge - Move defensively, causes all attack rolls against you (spells or melee swings) to be made with Disadvantage.
*** Help - Harass an enemy in combat granting the next attack roll against them Advantage. The enemy must be within 5 feet of you in order to do this.
*** Hide - Make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to try hiding. If successful, you may gain some advantages in combat.
*** Ready - Prepare to take a certain action when a specific event occurs. For example "I ready an action to attack if a goblin comes close to me." This event consumes your reaction when the trigger occurs. If you prepare to cast a spell (which must have a casting time of 1
action) and the trigger doesn't occur, there is some debate. Originally, it was widely accepted that if your trigger doesn't occur, the spell is wasted. Apparently a 2018 errata seems to make it possible that you could indefinitely hold a spell. I'm not 100% settled on what I think on this.
*** Search - Use Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) to devote your attention to finding something.
*** Use an Object - Interacting with something in the environment such as drinking a potion, digging something out of your backpack, flipping levers, and pushing buttons.
d. Movement - On your turn, you can move up to your speed. This movement doesn't have to be taken all at once, meaning you could walk into a room, stab a goblin, and then walk out of the room.
e. Bonus Action - Certain
actions can be done as a bonus action. For example, if you are holding light weapons in each hand, you can use your bonus action to take a swing with your second weapon. This doesn't scale up with Extra Attacks for fighters, barbarians, and the like.
f. Reaction - The only
action you are allowed to take NOT on your turn. Reactions have specific triggers and you may take a single reaction in a round. One of the most common reactions is the
opportunity attack. Triggered when someone leaves your reach using their movement, action, or reaction (so being thrown away from someone by a spell doesn't trigger). You can then make a single attack swing. The Warcaster feat allows you to take OAs with spells that take 1 action to cast and only target a single creature.
2. Initiative
Combat is kicked off by all parties rolling initiative in some fashion. This is typically a dexterity check, though some classes and items provide features that further modify this. Typically, at the table, everyone rolls and then the turns proceed from highest to lowest in order.
Typically in Play by Post, I will have the
initiative broken into large groups (such as Enemies vs. Players) to help speed things up. I adjudicate this by rolling a single time for each group, using the average of the group's initiative bonuses. Character features that give advantage or bonuses to initiative ARE taken into account.
3. Surprise
Unlike previous editions, there isn't a "Surprise Round". Instead, the DM will determine who is Surprised at the start of combat. The first round then plays through. Anyone Surprised is unable to take Actions or use their Movement on their first turn, and cannot take their Reaction until AFTER their first Turn is over.
4. Order of Events
On your turn, you can take your Action, Bonus Action, and use your Movement as you'd like. There are certain Actions/Bonus Actions that can only be done at certain times. For example, the Bonus Action for Two Weapon Fighting requires you to take the Attack action first. Otherwise, it's your choice what to do when on your turn.
5. Play by Post Quirks
a. Because of the nature of play by post speed, sometimes we have to retcon (retroactive continuity for those unfamiliar with the term) the story to deal with players taking reactions and altering the flow of combat.
b. Using Inspiration for Advantage. Typically you make the decision to use this BEFORE taking the turn. Given how the forums work, I tend to let people use Inspiration retroactively. Once you see your roll, then you can make the decision to use it to try a second roll.
c. "Combat Stats". For those that have played with me, you're familiar with the Combat Stats that I post after my character's turns in combat. I do this to keep a running flow in the story of some vital pieces of information to make my life easier reading back through the story.
Example:
Movement to get next to Bob the Dying. Casting cure wounds as a first level spell.
22/22 HP | 18 AC | Lay Hands 10/10 | Divine Sense 2/2
1st 1/2
Currently Prepared ([$] indicates concentration):
1 - [Radiant damage if used to Smite - 2d8]: Cure Wounds, Bless[$]
d. Visualization. I tend to use a more Theater of the Mind approach to combat, with approximations of distance and not as much precision with spell placement and the like. However, if players prefer, I will usually try to do SOMETHING of a map to let players take more precision control.
I THINK that's it. Obviously, if I screwed something up in the stuff above, please let me know those in the know. ;-).
