Movement speed in combat is ridiculously low, even if you take the dash action. A dash action means that your character barely runs. For example a character with 30 feet speed would move 60 feet over 6 seconds (1 round) while Dashing, this would be about 11 km/h or 7 mph. This is really slow, an average man carrying some gear can easily run about 20 km/h. I did some testing on my own, as a man with decent physical health I had a sprinting speed of about 24 km/h, this would translate to roughly 120 feet over 6 seconds.
Why is the "combat" speed so low then? It all makes sense when you consider that your character has to avoid getting hit, interact with lesser objects, take bonus actions and generally be aware of the surrounding dangers. But what if a character simply wants to sprint at maximum speed to an important objective, ignoring to focus on defending himself/herself? Since this weird issue of unrealistically slow speed came up often in my campaigns I created a solution.
New Action - Sprint: your sprinting speed is equal to 4 times your speed. While sprinting you can’t take any actions and most attacks have advantage against you and you have disadvantage on most saving throws. Possible covers, projectile travel times and reaction times are taken into consideration, due to these factors some ranged attacks are rolled with no advantage on sprinting targets. Possible Constitution checks when sprinting for a longer duration.
I am aware that this could possibly belong into some Homebrew section of the forum, but it seems like such an important thing that the official rules completely left out.
3.5 had run as an action, to move 4x your movement speed. I think the point in DnD balance is that you are at least somewhat still maintaining awareness of your surroundings. And remember that sprinting even a short distance can leave you winded.
As mentioned, you are suggestion a new rule, not a ruling, so its a homebrew topic.
It's an interesting house rule, at that. I'd like to see it in homebrew.
It needs a few further considerations, but I'm pretty sure they can be handled.
For example, for it to be remotely balanced (as in "not break things all over the place"), it would need to be a "full round action" - an artifact of old - in order to prevent a lot of cheesing (such as the aforementioned monk/rogue thing; a monk will still be borderline supernaturally fast, but preventing bonus actions that add to that speed is likely a good idea. Not to mention Bonus Actions that provide attack options.). Suggestion for handling this? Use a bonus action to set up a goal (that you can see!). Use your action to Sprint to that goal. Ideally in a straight line. Wording should make clear that both actions have to happen in the same round (no setting up a goal with a Bonus on one round, and Sprinting on the next).
The rest you consider nicely: advantage on attacks against you, disadvantage on saving throws (and possibly Perception/etc).
How about Difficult Terrain? Can you Sprint over it (getting you to a net x2 speed), or is it impossible? Perhaps a Passive roll (Athletics or Acrobatics?) to manage or stumble? What if something causes Difficult Terrain after you have committed to a Sprint?
I think you need to do a lot more planning first. Many spells and special abilities had limits built based on RAW movement. Quick example, if fighter in plate can suddenly move a lot farther, then Misty Step is worthless.
And remember it is a lot easier to sprint on a track then over rough ground of a battlefield. I think the movement distances are right.
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--
DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
Not sure this mechanic is the solution but I agree that speed in 5E does not make much sense from a simulation perspective. The fact that an adult dragon on land moves the same speed as a house cat is a little silly, since their stride alone should cover more terrain than that. But then again, speeds are designed to accommodate game balance issues in combat for battle map grids. If we simulated realistic movement speeds, well... uh... we would definitely need a larger gaming table.
First, D&D 5e basic concept is to keep things simple. As a result, they scaled everything in a combat round to the basic 30' of movement for a humanoid. A character can use the dash action to move twice.The six seconds has to accomodate movement, an action, and a possible bonus action within the 6 second time frame.
If you find 30' to be unrealistically low then use another unit of measure to represent feet (call a foot 18" :) ) ... then everything scales up by 50% without affecting the game balance.
However, is 30 to 60' of movement in a combat round completely unrealistic? Keep in mind, that in a combat round you are typically not just sprinting without paying attention to opponents, looking around you, carrying a weapon and possibly a shield. You are also not wearing running shoes and shorts or typically moving over generally even and flat terrain. As a player character do you usually drop your backpack before engaging in combat? Look at the weights on those packs in the PHB ... they are 40 to 60 pounds ... not including the 10 to 65 lbs for your armor, another 6 lbs for your shield, 3 to 6 lbs for a weapon (long sword to great sword). I've carried a 60 lb pack on camping trips and honestly I wouldn't want to sprint with one on, I wouldn't want to risk twisting an ankle on the uneven ground and even if I did sprint, it doesn't take that long to end up winded. None of which you would want to happen in a combat situation. So, honestly, having a base movement that is slower than your all out sprinting speed as a base for average character movement in D&D makes some sense.
Each character is unique. They are carrying different amounts of equipment, have different weapons/armor and other toys, and have different physical and mental stats. However, unless you want to greatly complicate the game by trying to take into account all of these factors then the simplified D&D 5e system with a base movement of 30' as long as a character is carrying less than 15 * str works pretty well.
Movement speed in combat is ridiculously low, even if you take the dash action. A dash action means that your character barely runs. For example a character with 30 feet speed would move 60 feet over 6 seconds (1 round) while Dashing, this would be about 11 km/h or 7 mph. This is really slow, an average man carrying some gear can easily run about 20 km/h. I did some testing on my own, as a man with decent physical health I had a sprinting speed of about 24 km/h, this would translate to roughly 120 feet over 6 seconds.
I believe your premise for speed here is flawed. Your proposed speed of 20 km/h translates to 3 min per km. Olympic record stands at 2.12/2.29 respectively. That is olympic record, which means dedicated sportsfolks with training at the peak of their (lifetime) performance. I do not see 3 min/km realistic with having all your gear (armour, hanging weapon/carrying weapon, backpack) and the general mess of the battle ensuing is at all realistic. I would say that the 11km/h is already really really good. Further consider that while you can sprint at 24 km/h - did you feel like you are able to fight for another minute, waving long sword about or fully concentrate on casting spell/maintaining concentration? It's not about how fast can you as a person run. It's about how well would you be able to run in medieval combat circumstances, gear not made for running etc.
Relevant (I think): While a round is 6 seconds long, is your turn actually 6 seconds long?
Yes.
Despite resolving turns sequentially, all turns within a round are meant to be treated as happening simultaneously from a time-keeping stand-point - that's why there is no definition of how long a turn is.
Not sure this mechanic is the solution but I agree that speed in 5E does not make much sense from a simulation perspective.
This is the key to understanding 5E (bold stress in the quote is mine).
This edition of D&D is not attempting to be a reality simulator in any way, shape, or form. It's designed as a tight game with structures that reference each other and enable all kinds of fantasy actions and play - but it does not attempt to mesh the fundamental (or even extended) functions of gameplay with reality, physics, time, etc. It's a "gamist" game. An abstraction away from reality toward "fun" for the DM and players.
Improving, fixing, or making "more realistic" movement rules is definitely a house rule sort of thing, and will expose all kinds of flaws in 5e D&D compared to reality. It may add to your fun and you should definitely do this! Just don't expect it to all hold up against reality, as others are noting - and be wary of everything in the game that references a characters movement speed.
I agree that equipment and setting make a big difference. Sprinting while in full clothes, backpack, weapon, etc is difficult and slows things. If you did allow this action, maybe adding an Athletics check to it would help balance it.
"Possible Constitution checks when sprinting for a longer duration." This would take care of managing sprints that last longer than a few rounds, as long as the DM has any understanding of the situation.
My two cents: the 6 second round is not used to its full efficiency from the player perspective, but the character themselves is clanking swords with enemies and dodging opportunity attacks and witnessing firebolts slung across a rocky terrain. Its not exactly a drop everything and walk 30 feet, its more like: recover from blocking that attack last turn, dodging the opportunity attack and running to the mage in the back and winding up for the swing.
in order to prevent a lot of cheesing (such as the aforementioned monk/rogue thing; a monk will still be borderline supernaturally fast, but preventing bonus actions that add to that speed is likely a good idea. Not to mention Bonus Actions that provide attack options.).
What's wrong with a monk being supernaturally fast?
As for the OP- I like the idea, I might add this as a full-round action to my own games in the future, see how it turns out.
However, I think the base 30ft. movement does make some sense. Running full sprint is very different from real life when you are wearing full armor, wielding a giant battleaxe, and on your back have a zombie with bunny ears named Josay from when the Gunslinger rolled their only nat20 and a magical bag of holding that can fit up to 500 pounds of cheese, camping supplies, and dish soap.
This is also not counting how you feel winded after sprinting or how aware you are (as others have mentioned) fit into how you would be moving about. I think it makes sense if you consider 30ft to be more of like a jog or fast walk, all the while trying to take in your surroundings and swing a sword.
Battle maps, the physical ones, would have to become enormous. Miniatures have fixed real world base sizes, which correspond to square or hex grids of fixed real world sizes. If a DM had to make a map that accommodates the possibility of sprinting 120 feet in one round, everyone would need conference tables (or a couple) in their game rooms.
Even digital maps would get cumbersome to create, because you end up with a lot more area you need to fill, or your maps end up always looking like vast empty fields.
Real world realism/simulation does not make for fun games.
Movement speed in combat is ridiculously low, even if you take the dash action. A dash action means that your character barely runs. For example a character with 30 feet speed would move 60 feet over 6 seconds (1 round) while Dashing, this would be about 11 km/h or 7 mph. This is really slow, an average man carrying some gear can easily run about 20 km/h. I did some testing on my own, as a man with decent physical health I had a sprinting speed of about 24 km/h, this would translate to roughly 120 feet over 6 seconds.
Why is the "combat" speed so low then? It all makes sense when you consider that your character has to avoid getting hit, interact with lesser objects, take bonus actions and generally be aware of the surrounding dangers. But what if a character simply wants to sprint at maximum speed to an important objective, ignoring to focus on defending himself/herself? Since this weird issue of unrealistically slow speed came up often in my campaigns I created a solution.
New Action - Sprint: your sprinting speed is equal to 4 times your speed. While sprinting you can’t take any actions and most attacks have advantage against you and you have disadvantage on most saving throws. Possible covers, projectile travel times and reaction times are taken into consideration, due to these factors some ranged attacks are rolled with no advantage on sprinting targets. Possible Constitution checks when sprinting for a longer duration.
I am aware that this could possibly belong into some Homebrew section of the forum, but it seems like such an important thing that the official rules completely left out.
I'm pretty sure that this would, strangely enough, be considered a house rule, which would mean that it should be in the homebrew section.
Also, have you considered the effects that this might have on--say--area-effect hazards? And monk 18/rogue 2 speed builds?
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3.5 had run as an action, to move 4x your movement speed. I think the point in DnD balance is that you are at least somewhat still maintaining awareness of your surroundings. And remember that sprinting even a short distance can leave you winded.
As mentioned, you are suggestion a new rule, not a ruling, so its a homebrew topic.
It's an interesting house rule, at that. I'd like to see it in homebrew.
It needs a few further considerations, but I'm pretty sure they can be handled.
For example, for it to be remotely balanced (as in "not break things all over the place"), it would need to be a "full round action" - an artifact of old - in order to prevent a lot of cheesing (such as the aforementioned monk/rogue thing; a monk will still be borderline supernaturally fast, but preventing bonus actions that add to that speed is likely a good idea. Not to mention Bonus Actions that provide attack options.).
Suggestion for handling this? Use a bonus action to set up a goal (that you can see!). Use your action to Sprint to that goal. Ideally in a straight line. Wording should make clear that both actions have to happen in the same round (no setting up a goal with a Bonus on one round, and Sprinting on the next).
The rest you consider nicely: advantage on attacks against you, disadvantage on saving throws (and possibly Perception/etc).
How about Difficult Terrain? Can you Sprint over it (getting you to a net x2 speed), or is it impossible? Perhaps a Passive roll (Athletics or Acrobatics?) to manage or stumble? What if something causes Difficult Terrain after you have committed to a Sprint?
I think you need to do a lot more planning first. Many spells and special abilities had limits built based on RAW movement. Quick example, if fighter in plate can suddenly move a lot farther, then Misty Step is worthless.
And remember it is a lot easier to sprint on a track then over rough ground of a battlefield. I think the movement distances are right.
--
DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
Bran -- Human Wizard - RoT
Making D&D mistakes and having fun since 1977!
Not sure this mechanic is the solution but I agree that speed in 5E does not make much sense from a simulation perspective. The fact that an adult dragon on land moves the same speed as a house cat is a little silly, since their stride alone should cover more terrain than that. But then again, speeds are designed to accommodate game balance issues in combat for battle map grids. If we simulated realistic movement speeds, well... uh... we would definitely need a larger gaming table.
Em.
There are a bunch of things to consider. :)
First, D&D 5e basic concept is to keep things simple. As a result, they scaled everything in a combat round to the basic 30' of movement for a humanoid. A character can use the dash action to move twice.The six seconds has to accomodate movement, an action, and a possible bonus action within the 6 second time frame.
If you find 30' to be unrealistically low then use another unit of measure to represent feet (call a foot 18" :) ) ... then everything scales up by 50% without affecting the game balance.
However, is 30 to 60' of movement in a combat round completely unrealistic? Keep in mind, that in a combat round you are typically not just sprinting without paying attention to opponents, looking around you, carrying a weapon and possibly a shield. You are also not wearing running shoes and shorts or typically moving over generally even and flat terrain. As a player character do you usually drop your backpack before engaging in combat? Look at the weights on those packs in the PHB ... they are 40 to 60 pounds ... not including the 10 to 65 lbs for your armor, another 6 lbs for your shield, 3 to 6 lbs for a weapon (long sword to great sword). I've carried a 60 lb pack on camping trips and honestly I wouldn't want to sprint with one on, I wouldn't want to risk twisting an ankle on the uneven ground and even if I did sprint, it doesn't take that long to end up winded. None of which you would want to happen in a combat situation. So, honestly, having a base movement that is slower than your all out sprinting speed as a base for average character movement in D&D makes some sense.
Each character is unique. They are carrying different amounts of equipment, have different weapons/armor and other toys, and have different physical and mental stats. However, unless you want to greatly complicate the game by trying to take into account all of these factors then the simplified D&D 5e system with a base movement of 30' as long as a character is carrying less than 15 * str works pretty well.
Relevant (I think): While a round is 6 seconds long, is your turn actually 6 seconds long?
And that's all I have to say about that.
This edition of D&D is not attempting to be a reality simulator in any way, shape, or form. It's designed as a tight game with structures that reference each other and enable all kinds of fantasy actions and play - but it does not attempt to mesh the fundamental (or even extended) functions of gameplay with reality, physics, time, etc. It's a "gamist" game. An abstraction away from reality toward "fun" for the DM and players.
I agree that equipment and setting make a big difference. Sprinting while in full clothes, backpack, weapon, etc is difficult and slows things. If you did allow this action, maybe adding an Athletics check to it would help balance it.
Your houserule adds some complexity, but would generally be fine if you added one rank of exhaustion after using it.
You could go faster if you aren't concerned with defense or anything else, but sprinting with gear is going to tire you out real quickly
"Possible Constitution checks when sprinting for a longer duration." This would take care of managing sprints that last longer than a few rounds, as long as the DM has any understanding of the situation.
My two cents: the 6 second round is not used to its full efficiency from the player perspective, but the character themselves is clanking swords with enemies and dodging opportunity attacks and witnessing firebolts slung across a rocky terrain. Its not exactly a drop everything and walk 30 feet, its more like: recover from blocking that attack last turn, dodging the opportunity attack and running to the mage in the back and winding up for the swing.
What's wrong with a monk being supernaturally fast?
Gotta go fast man.
As for the OP- I like the idea, I might add this as a full-round action to my own games in the future, see how it turns out.
However, I think the base 30ft. movement does make some sense. Running full sprint is very different from real life when you are wearing full armor, wielding a giant battleaxe, and on your back have a zombie with bunny ears named Josay from when the Gunslinger rolled their only nat20 and a magical bag of holding that can fit up to 500 pounds of cheese, camping supplies, and dish soap.
This is also not counting how you feel winded after sprinting or how aware you are (as others have mentioned) fit into how you would be moving about. I think it makes sense if you consider 30ft to be more of like a jog or fast walk, all the while trying to take in your surroundings and swing a sword.
Battle maps, the physical ones, would have to become enormous. Miniatures have fixed real world base sizes, which correspond to square or hex grids of fixed real world sizes. If a DM had to make a map that accommodates the possibility of sprinting 120 feet in one round, everyone would need conference tables (or a couple) in their game rooms.
Even digital maps would get cumbersome to create, because you end up with a lot more area you need to fill, or your maps end up always looking like vast empty fields.
Real world realism/simulation does not make for fun games.
If you want to make more "realistic" movement you'd have to institute phased movement.
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One of my players is a tabaxi who also has boots of speed. But even with this ridiculous combo they aren't faster than Usain Bolt.
Round 1:
base speed: 30ft.
dash: 60ft.
boots of speed: 120ft.
feline agility: 240ft.
Round 2:
120ft (cant reuse feline agility).
Therefore in 12 seconds they can run 360ft. That's 109 meters. Using maths, they can run 100 metres in 10.4 seconds. The world record is 9.58 seconds.
I think that with magic boots you'd think youd be faster than the world's fastest non-magical human :p