I understand the rules and game mechanics. But how does attacking someone actually stop them from moving? Do you like jab your sword in them in such a way that you can hold onto them? You know a pressure point to strike that locks their legs in place temporarily?
You could consider it something like buckling their knees, tangling their limbs, or generally destabilizing them. Full on movement paralysis doesn't make much sense without a grapple, but standing up from prone costs half-movement, so being knocked "psuedo-prone" multiple times would effectively prevent them from fleeing.
There's also the possibility that they stop to avoid taking a lethal hit. DnD treats hp as a bit of luck and your natural tenacity, sentinel could represent stopping to avoid a hit that would ignore that buffer and take you straight to death saves.
Rather than "semi-prone" I sort of think of it as "semi-reeling". The blow staggers the target, though the target can still act during their turn, their ambulatory wind has fallen out of their sails.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Welcome to “fog of war” paralysis, keep in mind that a turn is 6 sec, they are not stopped for long just trying to catch up and respond to your actions - reelin, not fully stunned both pretty well describe it.
Lots of good suggestions above. Also, try to imagine that combat doesn't "really" involve creatures standing in 5 foot squares and swinging at one another. They would be circling, moving around, stepping to the side. We just use grid squares because it makes things simple. When you are grappling a creature, you are clearly actually in its square to some extent.
Sentinel could easily mean that you move to threaten the route that they were going to take, making a swing that drives them back, and they think better of trying to go around you. If they're moving away from you then the hit either forces them to keep facing you and protecting themselves, or you trip them up or deal a blow that momentarily stuns them for a few seconds.
I think IRL it would be more like controlling the battlefield so the enemy can't advance or retreat safely.
However, I think these such discussions are doomed to never be comprehensive, and you mostly need to approach IRL implications of mechanics with the mindset that combat in-game is partially a non-diagetical representation of something as complicated as IRL combat made simpler for the purposes of gaming/balance. This is just like how, in musicals, characters aren't really singing their innermost feelings for everyone to hear, it's just a narrative device to convey that information to the audience in an entertaining/moving fashion.
It's a thing you're going to do a hundred times in an adventure, I think they're intentionally leaving it pretty open to narrative description. Most fighter stuff is that way. Sharpshooter doesn't say you hit the cyclops in his eyeball, but we all know that's what you do with it when you're fighting a cyclops, for example.
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I understand the rules and game mechanics. But how does attacking someone actually stop them from moving? Do you like jab your sword in them in such a way that you can hold onto them? You know a pressure point to strike that locks their legs in place temporarily?
The simplest explanation is, just you make the hit super painful, painful enough to stop the enemy from advancing.
You could consider it something like buckling their knees, tangling their limbs, or generally destabilizing them. Full on movement paralysis doesn't make much sense without a grapple, but standing up from prone costs half-movement, so being knocked "psuedo-prone" multiple times would effectively prevent them from fleeing.
There's also the possibility that they stop to avoid taking a lethal hit. DnD treats hp as a bit of luck and your natural tenacity, sentinel could represent stopping to avoid a hit that would ignore that buffer and take you straight to death saves.
I look at it as the attacks are so relentless that you have to stop moving in order to properly defend yourself.
Rather than "semi-prone" I sort of think of it as "semi-reeling". The blow staggers the target, though the target can still act during their turn, their ambulatory wind has fallen out of their sails.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Welcome to “fog of war” paralysis, keep in mind that a turn is 6 sec, they are not stopped for long just trying to catch up and respond to your actions - reelin, not fully stunned both pretty well describe it.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Lots of good suggestions above. Also, try to imagine that combat doesn't "really" involve creatures standing in 5 foot squares and swinging at one another. They would be circling, moving around, stepping to the side. We just use grid squares because it makes things simple. When you are grappling a creature, you are clearly actually in its square to some extent.
Sentinel could easily mean that you move to threaten the route that they were going to take, making a swing that drives them back, and they think better of trying to go around you. If they're moving away from you then the hit either forces them to keep facing you and protecting themselves, or you trip them up or deal a blow that momentarily stuns them for a few seconds.
you could probably grasp a limb so fast that they go into shock, therefore unable to move. But I'm not an expert.
I think IRL it would be more like controlling the battlefield so the enemy can't advance or retreat safely.
However, I think these such discussions are doomed to never be comprehensive, and you mostly need to approach IRL implications of mechanics with the mindset that combat in-game is partially a non-diagetical representation of something as complicated as IRL combat made simpler for the purposes of gaming/balance. This is just like how, in musicals, characters aren't really singing their innermost feelings for everyone to hear, it's just a narrative device to convey that information to the audience in an entertaining/moving fashion.
very true!
It's a thing you're going to do a hundred times in an adventure, I think they're intentionally leaving it pretty open to narrative description. Most fighter stuff is that way. Sharpshooter doesn't say you hit the cyclops in his eyeball, but we all know that's what you do with it when you're fighting a cyclops, for example.