Dungeons & Dragons' 5th edition is a lot more accessible in its rules than previous editions. You don’t need to know what tumbling is, Breath Defence no longer exists and there are fewer scary acronyms like THAC0. Cross-referencing conflicting rules is also a lot easier when you can ask the developers on Twitter.
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Despite this, some words appear frequently in the books but are only properly explained one time in an easily passed-over section of the player’s guide. The dodge, dash & disengage actions are staple actions for both melee classes weaving through fights and the ranged casters trying desperately to keep out of the melee.
Dodge, Dash & Disengage In Brief
All three of these moves can be used as an action.Players have one action per turn, which is normally used for making weapon attacks and casting spells. These actions are useful forcharacters of any class and require no special training to use.
It can help to write them down next to your class abilities, so you remember them as options when it is your turn in combat. It is easy to forget them when they aren’t on your character sheet.
Attacks Of Opportunity are a special type of reaction that characters can takeonce per round, even outside their own turn. When an enemy tries to leave melee range (typically 5ft) without disengaging, you can make anAttack Of Opportunity as they expose their back to you. This is a normal attack using your currently held weapon. Think of disengaging as the difference between slowly walking backwards in a defensive posture and turning around to sprint away while someone stabs you in the back.
None of these actions can be used if your move speed is currently zero, as a result of a speed debuff or an entangling effect: It’s difficult to evade while being grappled, or flee from combat if you’re handcuffed to a wall.
When to use the Dodge, Dash and Disengage Options
All of these moves trade away your action for the turn,meaning often you can’t do anything else, such as fighting back with your own attack moves and spells.If you only dodge and run away eventually you’ll still be hit or cornered away from your team.
Knowing when to use these actions can turn them from being generic options tostrong competitors for your class-specific abilities.
When To Dodge
Dodge makes itself felt best when used by a character with naturally strong defences. A fighter with plate armour and a shield already have an Armour Class (AC) of 20: A character with no modifiers can only hit them by rolling a 20 and scoring a critical hit.
Forcing a disadvantage on the roll by dodging turns this from a one-in-20 chance to one in 400, as the attacker would need to roll 20 on both dice. A dodging character with 11 AC on the other hand would turn it from a one-in-two into a one-in-four chance of being hit.
A defensive character taking the dodge action also doesn’t sacrifice as much,as they can rely on teammates to deal damage. Characters with theEvasion class feature or the Shieldmaster Featalso benefit from the dodge action’s bonus to dexterity saves, as they can negate all damage from an explosion they dodge.
Dodging can also be used in longer-range battles. If the enemy cavalry will take a turn to reach you at a charge,you can take the dodge action the turn before they arriveto evade their first attack and then riposte. Alternatively, you may take thedodge action instead of dashing when trying to chase down an archer,so they are unable to hit you as you close the distance, even if this means moving more slowly.
The dodge action can be flavoured differently to match the character doing it.A monk might dodge by doing back flips,while an armoured fighter mighttake a defensive stance ready to parry attacks. A wizard dodging arrows could be hunching over to reduce the amount of body that is exposed.
When To Disengage
Disengaging is harder to weave into a fight than dodging, as it only lasts for your own turn. A disengage action can let you step away from an enemy threatening you at close range but does nothing to stop them from closing the distance on their own turn and ending up in the same position again.
Sometimes it’s better to take a dodge action instead of disengaging: It forces the attacks of opportunity to have a disadvantage alongside any further attacks made after you end your turn.
Disengage works best when there are allies to support you. Disengaging while another character remains behind allows them to attack enemies trying to chase them unless they also disengage.
If you have been pulled out of formation, by a shoving attack or a spell like vine whip you’re able to use the disengage action to safely get back into position where other people can protect you.
The disengage action sees the best use by Halflings:Their Halfling Nimbleness feature allows them to move through the spaces occupied by other creatures,allowing a disengaging halfling to move through tightly packed groups of people that other characters are too large to pass through. A halfling rogue can usedisengage to safely move behind a larger allyor to get behind a vulnerable enemy to set up sneak attacks.
When To Dash
The dash action can sometimes be used to replace the need for a disengage action. Doubling your speed and then giving melee opponents a wide berth can let you get behind them to set up attacks against vulnerable backline fighters such as casters and archers.
Dashing will often provide greater distance than running in a straight line while disengaging.
Dashing can buy you valuable distance if you use a ranged fighting style yourself. Most of the time if you run 60-80 ft away from a melee attacker they’ll prioritise easier targets and leave you free to attack on later turns.
Taking one attack of opportunity and then running as far as you canis often better than disengaging repeatedly and fleeing in short increments as they chase you.
Be careful about dashing into melee combat, as you will be unable to make any attacks on the turn you arrive. It can be safer to stop a distance away and allow them to close the distance instead. Alternatively, the Charger feat allows you to make a bonus action attack after dashing.
Dodge, Dash And Disengage For Rogues And Monks
Rogues and Monks both have class features that allow these actions to be used more easily:
Characters have one bonus action each turn, but they are only provided by character abilities. There are no bonus actions available to all characters.
A rogue canuse their cunning action to easily reposition within melee combat. Their Sneak Attack feature can be activated by attacking anenemy flanked by one of their allies(you don’t need to be on opposite sides, you just need an ally in melee range of the same enemy).
A Bread and Butter combo for rogues is to approach an enemy engaged in melee with a fighter or barbarian,sneak attack them for high damage and then use their Cunning Action to disengage and retreat.
Monks have the same options as rogues for positioning, but spending class resources to do it means that they will be repositioning less frequently. ThePatient Defence ability can allow for a monk to stay safely on the front linesof the fight, trading away the chance to take another bonus action for the disadvantage of enemies attacking them.
In some cases, you may want to both disengage and dash in the same turn, or even dash twice in a turn letting you put more distance from enemies than can be closed in a turn.You can use the bonus action alongside the main action to combine dash and disengage or to dash twice.
Monks also gain passive boosts to their overall move speed, meaning that a monk running from combat is very difficult to pin down.
