As a new player I have a question about the disengage action. If you are within 5' and want to maybe move back and use a ranged attack, obviously just moving provokes an opportunity attack. If you use disengage, can you also move on the same turn? It's probably just because I haven't had it explained to me properly, but the rule seems weird to me either way. If you can disengage and then move on the same turn, then that renders opportunity attacks basically useless, as you'd just always disengage then move. But if you disengage and then have to wait for your next turn before moving, you're probably going to be hit again on the enemy's turn anyway. Is disengage just buying you the chance that the enemy misses its roll?
As a scenario, let's say you're playing a wizard, and a monster melee attacks you. You want to move back to use a ranged spell attack. How do you minimize your exposure to damage?
The Disengage action is a Standard action. It would basically replace your attack, not your move. It's what you use to get away from trouble and not really a tactical way to back away from a monster and attack.
Some classes, like Rogue and Monk, have ways to use a Disengage as a Bonus action, allowing them to attack and still move away from harm using both their Standard action and Move action.
Does this help?
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As Metamingoose said, the Disengage is your action - yes you can avoid all Opportunity attacks whilst you move that round, but you also can't attack or cast spells (except for bonus action ones).
Disengage cost you 1 action (unless you have a particular class/race feature that make that cost 1 bonus action). And yes on the same turn you can also move. Now, if take the disengage as 1 action, you can do very little on the same turn. Disengage is worth using if you have some circumstantial advantages, like the position of the other party members and/or some cover.
As a wizard, if take Disengage, then you should have some spell with casting time of 1 bonus action.
This is all really helpful, thanks! So, my follow up is, why disengage when you can dodge? If I dodge then move, according to the rules attacks against me have disadv until the start of my next turn. Unless I'm reading this wrong, or there's another rule that supersedes this?
Dodge
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.
This is all that's stated for the rule... am I missing something? Or is this a thing?
YEs Dodge grants you disadvantage against any attack roll, disengage avoid only opportunity attacks. it is a choise you have to make depending on the circumstances.
Dodge gives all attacks against you Disadvantage - Disengage prevents all Opportunity attacks against you during the entire turn's moving.
Obviously, an attack with disadvantage can still hit you. Worse, if an attack would have advantage as well, it proceeds without either - a normal attack. It obviously can hit you as well.
In effect, Dodge is best when you expect a lot of attacks, or powerful attacks, whether those are Opportunity ones or not. Perhaps you're drawing fire to allow the wizard to catch the whole enemy group in an area, or you need to delay the Troll while your party finishes up the Orcs.
Disengaging allows you to move through enemy-threatened space without any issue or chance of opportunity attacks harming you (mind the exceptions...), but doesn't do anything during the rest of the round, when the creatures you walked next to gang up on you. :p
Good points there. I wonder what the probabilities are of being hit with disadvantage. Obviously your AC plays into the results as well. I suck at statistics and probability, so I shall look to google for the answer ;)
My group has a cleric with an AC of 18, ranger at 15, rogue at 15, monk at 14, and two wizards both at 12.
Using the analysis here, a goblin with +4 to hit with disadvantage has 12% chance of hitting the cleric, 25% for ranger and rogue, 30% for the monk, 42% for he two wizards.
Here's the table, without the explanation of the math and methodology behind it:
I'm pretty certain you can take decisions with a general feel of your chances without needing complicated tables (plus, your DM may get upset if you consult a table every time you need to take a decision >.> ). Experience (player experience) helps a lot with getting a good feel on what actions have better chances than others, so just have fun and remember your actions and their consequences. :)
...also, how'd the monk manage such a relatively low AC? Standard array, level <4?
I'm pretty certain you can take decisions with a general feel of your chances without needing complicated tables (plus, your DM may get upset if you consult a table every time you need to take a decision >.> ). Experience (player experience) helps a lot with getting a good feel on what actions have better chances than others, so just have fun and remember your actions and their consequences. :)
...also, how'd the monk manage such a relatively low AC? Standard array, level <4?
He didn't use the standard array, just rolled it all up. That 14 includes the Unarmored Defense feature too.
My thoughts with the probability wasn't to have a printout at the table, it was more just wondering how the math worked out. I've heard some criticism of disadvantage, basically saying that it's rare to succeed at anything when you have that as a condition. I guess I was getting at the theory that if your AC is good (like the cleric in my group) I was curious if it would be a benefit to use Dodge instead of disengage, since Disengage protects you from opportunity attacks, but dodge could possibly protect from more, since you only have a ~12% chance of getting hit.
I definitely agree with the idea that having a table like the one above during the game would not really be in the spirit of the game. Unless you are a hardcore optimizer, I guess.
With an AC of 18 you should absolutely take the dodge action as it benefits you until your next turn and will likely cause everyone to miss you for that round.
Getting away from the percentages for a moment, can a rogue use Cunning Action to Disengage, move away, then fire a ranged attack? Or maybe attack another enemy that is going after a vulnerable party member? I ask because Cunning Action can only be Dash, Disengage, or Hide, so that means it would be a bonus action first, then the regular attack action second. Can you reorder bonus actions and regular actions like that?
Getting away from the percentages for a moment, can a rogue use Cunning Action to Disengage, move away, then fire a ranged attack? Or maybe attack another enemy that is going after a vulnerable party member? I ask because Cunning Action can only be Dash, Disengage, or Hide, so that means it would be a bonus action first, then the regular attack action second. Can you reorder bonus actions and regular actions like that?
Yes you can. Action and bonus action do not need to be in a certain order, unless a particular bonus action say so.
Dodge if you're going to melee attack, so that all attacks against you have disadvantage. However, if you need to do a ranged attack, use disengage to try and get distance between you and the people in five feet of you. If I recall correctly, anyone within melee range of someone doing a ranged attack will cause the disadvantage, not just the target of the attack.
Dodge if you're going to melee attack, so that all attacks against you have disadvantage. However, if you need to do a ranged attack, use disengage to try and get distance between you and the people in five feet of you. If I recall correctly, anyone within melee range of someone doing a ranged attack will cause the disadvantage, not just the target of the attack.
Correct. But for everyone except a rogue you can't disengage and attack, so you would always be within 30ft and probably back into melee combat before you can attack.
Possible exception if you can do something as a bonus action.
If a rogue used all of his movement to move within melee range of an opponent to make an attack, can he then move away from the opponent when using Disengage as a bonus action? I guess I'm wondering if using it as a bonus action give additional movement after the original allowed movement is used.
If a rogue used all of his movement to move within melee range of an opponent to make an attack, can he then move away from the opponent when using Disengage as a bonus action? I guess I'm wondering if using it as a bonus action give additional movement after the original allowed movement is used.
The disengage action doesn't provide any additional movement, it just allows you to move out of reach of an enemy without provoking opportunity attacks.
As a new player I have a question about the disengage action. If you are within 5' and want to maybe move back and use a ranged attack, obviously just moving provokes an opportunity attack. If you use disengage, can you also move on the same turn? It's probably just because I haven't had it explained to me properly, but the rule seems weird to me either way. If you can disengage and then move on the same turn, then that renders opportunity attacks basically useless, as you'd just always disengage then move. But if you disengage and then have to wait for your next turn before moving, you're probably going to be hit again on the enemy's turn anyway. Is disengage just buying you the chance that the enemy misses its roll?
As a scenario, let's say you're playing a wizard, and a monster melee attacks you. You want to move back to use a ranged spell attack. How do you minimize your exposure to damage?
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
The Disengage action is a Standard action. It would basically replace your attack, not your move. It's what you use to get away from trouble and not really a tactical way to back away from a monster and attack.
Some classes, like Rogue and Monk, have ways to use a Disengage as a Bonus action, allowing them to attack and still move away from harm using both their Standard action and Move action.
Does this help?
As Metamingoose said, the Disengage is your action - yes you can avoid all Opportunity attacks whilst you move that round, but you also can't attack or cast spells (except for bonus action ones).
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Disengage cost you 1 action (unless you have a particular class/race feature that make that cost 1 bonus action). And yes on the same turn you can also move. Now, if take the disengage as 1 action, you can do very little on the same turn. Disengage is worth using if you have some circumstantial advantages, like the position of the other party members and/or some cover.
As a wizard, if take Disengage, then you should have some spell with casting time of 1 bonus action.
This is all really helpful, thanks! So, my follow up is, why disengage when you can dodge? If I dodge then move, according to the rules attacks against me have disadv until the start of my next turn. Unless I'm reading this wrong, or there's another rule that supersedes this?
This is all that's stated for the rule... am I missing something? Or is this a thing?
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
YEs Dodge grants you disadvantage against any attack roll, disengage avoid only opportunity attacks. it is a choise you have to make depending on the circumstances.
Dodge gives all attacks against you Disadvantage - Disengage prevents all Opportunity attacks against you during the entire turn's moving.
Obviously, an attack with disadvantage can still hit you. Worse, if an attack would have advantage as well, it proceeds without either - a normal attack. It obviously can hit you as well.
In effect, Dodge is best when you expect a lot of attacks, or powerful attacks, whether those are Opportunity ones or not. Perhaps you're drawing fire to allow the wizard to catch the whole enemy group in an area, or you need to delay the Troll while your party finishes up the Orcs.
Disengaging allows you to move through enemy-threatened space without any issue or chance of opportunity attacks harming you (mind the exceptions...), but doesn't do anything during the rest of the round, when the creatures you walked next to gang up on you. :p
Good points there. I wonder what the probabilities are of being hit with disadvantage. Obviously your AC plays into the results as well. I suck at statistics and probability, so I shall look to google for the answer ;)
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Assuming you have to roll a 11 to hit (it is an average situation), the probability to hit with disadvantage is 25 %.
Basically to hit with disadvantage, the two dice has to roll equal to or higher than 11 contemporary so is 10*10/400 = 0.25.
My group has a cleric with an AC of 18, ranger at 15, rogue at 15, monk at 14, and two wizards both at 12.
Using the analysis here, a goblin with +4 to hit with disadvantage has 12% chance of hitting the cleric, 25% for ranger and rogue, 30% for the monk, 42% for he two wizards.
Here's the table, without the explanation of the math and methodology behind it:
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
I'm pretty certain you can take decisions with a general feel of your chances without needing complicated tables (plus, your DM may get upset if you consult a table every time you need to take a decision >.> ). Experience (player experience) helps a lot with getting a good feel on what actions have better chances than others, so just have fun and remember your actions and their consequences. :)
...also, how'd the monk manage such a relatively low AC? Standard array, level <4?
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
With an AC of 18 you should absolutely take the dodge action as it benefits you until your next turn and will likely cause everyone to miss you for that round.
Getting away from the percentages for a moment, can a rogue use Cunning Action to Disengage, move away, then fire a ranged attack? Or maybe attack another enemy that is going after a vulnerable party member? I ask because Cunning Action can only be Dash, Disengage, or Hide, so that means it would be a bonus action first, then the regular attack action second. Can you reorder bonus actions and regular actions like that?
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Dodge if you're going to melee attack, so that all attacks against you have disadvantage. However, if you need to do a ranged attack, use disengage to try and get distance between you and the people in five feet of you. If I recall correctly, anyone within melee range of someone doing a ranged attack will cause the disadvantage, not just the target of the attack.
Thanks for the info everyone! Google "D&D 5e disengage" and this was the top link. Good job ;)
Just another 90's kid.
If a rogue used all of his movement to move within melee range of an opponent to make an attack, can he then move away from the opponent when using Disengage as a bonus action? I guess I'm wondering if using it as a bonus action give additional movement after the original allowed movement is used.
The disengage action doesn't provide any additional movement, it just allows you to move out of reach of an enemy without provoking opportunity attacks.
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