Hi, my name is CJ Leung, and welcome to the third episode of the "How to Play Dungeons & Dragons" series. This time we will talk about combat. Oh yes! This is the meat of the game; a great portion of the rule book is dedicated to it, and many class features are centered around it. To some players, it's their favorite part of the game (Yes!) And through your adventure, you should expect to get into a few scraps. To survive this, let us have a look at the rules of combat and saving throws. [Intro music] Again, we will be using Serio as our sample character But this time, he is joined by Leraline: the High-Elf Wizard, Winny: the Gnome Rogue, and Grent: the Dwarven Cleric Occasionally through your adventure you would most likely meet monsters and enemies who want to harm you - sometimes their motives are even justified Winny, our Gnome Rogue, has provoked a fight with this band of Goblins because... she is overcome by her boredom So we are now entering the combat phase. This is where your Dungeon Master will ask you to roll for Initiative You roll a 20-sided die or D20 and add your initiative bonus. In combat, you take turns. The Initiative roll result determines who goes first in the round of combat. The higher your result is the earlier you get to go in a round of combat. Once everyone had a go according to their initiative order, the round is over. Then we go back to the top and repeat the process until combat ends The monsters get to roll their initiative too. The Dungeon Master would do this for them, but for the sake of simplicity Rather than doing it individually that initiative is rolled for entire group of identical Creatures in this case one for a goblins and one for the orcs The Goblins tied with Leraline in case where the initiative tie involves a monster the DM gets to decide who goes first? since I'm a nice DM I decide that she gets to go first if a tie involves two players on the other hand they get to decide between themselves One more thing about initiative if a combatant is surprised like this dozing goblin and orcs Then they can't move or act on their first turn They can't even take their reaction until the end of their first turn okay now that we know our turn order Let's have our first round of combat on your turn the most common thing you can do is move and take an action Winny has decided to do just that So she moves up to this goblin and her chosen action is to attack this goblin by stabbing him in the face with her dagger You know whether her attack lands on the target she rolls a d20 and adds her attack multiplier +5 so she gets a total of 14 unfortunately it's under the goblins armor class which is 15, so she missed Armor class is an abstract number which represents a creatures defensive capabilities derived from its armor skill and speed to Land a hit on a creature you need to match the number with your attack roll Or get higher once you hit a creature you get to roll the damage dice to determine how much damage you have caused But you can do more than just moving and taking an action there are actually five categories of activities you can do move action bonus action interaction and reaction however, you don't have to use all of them on your turn. Now, let's start with move on Serio's character sheet you can see that his speed is 30 feet It shows how far can go on his turn if you are playing with a grid map Every square represents 5 feet so that means he can move 6 squares away vertically horizontally and diagonally Yes, diagonally to streamline grid based gameplay Designers have decided that moving diagonally counts as moving one space Combat can also take place in the theater of mind without using miniatures players Just roughly imagine where the characters are supposed to be Grid space Combat is more tactical while the other plays faster each have their own advantage Going back through movement rules moving through difficult terrain such as the sticky slime patch caused an extra spot for every foot move You can also break up your movement taking an action such as attacking between movements You can drop prone which cost no movement speed, but standing up takes up half your speed whoops Serio just did something dumb he had mindlessly entered the Goblin reach and moved out since he did not take a disengage action the goblin used its reaction to take an opportunity attack it took a whopping 7 slashing damage So in combat when your opponent leaves your melee attack range you can take an opportunity attack Which is just demonstrated by the goblins. Now let's move on to action well there are many things you can do that counts as an action there are standard action types such as the list you see below but you can improvise your action. For example, you can try to convince your enemies to calm down and tell that you mean no harm That's a creative way of playing your character. You may not always succeed, but trying something new is the best part of playing D&D you can try anything without being restricted by the game's programming there is no program because it is not a video game Now let's look at the standard actions Attack attack happens in two stages first you need to hit your opponent Then you check how much damage you have caused to hit an opponent you roll a d20 to make an attack roll and add your attack bonus You need to match that armor class or get higher Serio gets a total of 15 he hits so he gets to roll his weapons damage dice. A longsword's damage dice is the eight-sided d8 dice. He also adds his damage modifier Which in this case is his strength modifier because he used his strength to attack unluckily he only rolled a total of four points of slashing damage However, that's enough to leave the goblin in the bloodied condition Hmm bloodied What does that mean? Usually the Dungeon Master don't reveal the monsters hit point and armor class But for the sake of clarity I will do it for this video The Goblin has an armor class of 15 and a maximum of 7 hit points Hit points is an indicator of a creatures health. So having received four points of damage the Goblin is only three hit points away from death. To reflect the condition goblin is in the DM Would usually tell you that the creature is bloodied when it has under half of its hit points left Just like in real combat You would not know precisely just how badly wounded your enemy is but you can roughly tell when they're looking pretty beat up there are two kinds of attack roll Melee attack roll and Ranged attack roll Melee attack is when you attack with a handheld weapon such as a longsword or a war hammer when you use ranged weapons such as thrown darts and bows you are making a ranged attack the difference is that when you're making a range attack and an enemy within five feet range or prone enemies you will make your attack roll with disadvantage because it's more difficult to hit somebody with a range weapon when they're closer or when they are prone because they provide less target area for you to hit Conversely if you make a melee attack at a prone enemy you do it with with advantage being able to attack from a distance is safe and tactical but it has a few drawbacks. Oh wow! You rolled a 20 and that's a critical hit It's a lucky strike that hits regardless of your modifier and your targets armor class It also lets you wrote twice the number of damaged dice, but you only get to add your attack modifier once But if you rolled a one he would miss his target Regardless of his bonuses. You can also do a few out of things with your attack action among them is grapple and shove. As long as you have the use of a free hand you the option to substitute a melee attack roll with a grapple it's a contest between your athletic skill and your targets athletics or acrobatics skill if you overcome your opponent their speed will to drop to zero Basically you are holding them in place. If they want to escape the grapple they will have to use their action to contest your grapple again You can drag or carry the grappled creature, but your speed is half unless the creature is two category sizes smaller than you. Using the same mechanic as grappling you can shove a target Succeeding in shoving at target allows you to push him 5 feet away or knock him prone. Some classes upon reaching a certain level get the extra attack feature Which means that they can attack more than once as their action and you can even pick different targets for each attack. Another standard action you can do is dash. Grent being a dwarf can only move 25 feet on his turn But if he uses his to dash he can move again in the same turn, so in this case he can move a maximum of 50 feet. Dodge lets you focus on avoiding attacks if you take this action opponents will attack you with disadvantage until the start of your next turn and you can make dexterity saving throw with advantage when the situation calls for it I will explain saving throws later in this video. So let's put this aside for now. Disengage, this action allows you to move out of enemy's reach carefully without taking any opportunity attack Had Serio taken this action before moving out of the Goblins reach They wouldn't have been able to attack him. There are two kinds of help actions. You can use this action to give another creature Advantage on that ability check before the start of your next turn Grent the dwarf is encouraging Leraline to pursuade the monsters to put their weapons down but despite the Advantage given Leraline rolled miserably and offended them. Or you can also use the help action to aid your ally letting them attack an enemy with advantage but to do that you need to take the help action within 5 feet of the Target Ready lets you hold an action and execute it once your specified circumstance is met. For example, Grent readied himself to attack any enemy that approaches him or Leraline Leraline spends her turn grumbling about getting into another stupid fight So let's skip her for now. At the goblin's turn the goblin at the back recovers from a state of surprise Meanwhile the other goblins are approaching the player characters. Grent use his reaction to execute his readied action. The attack hits! Grent killed a goblin in one lucky hit, but another goblin approaches and Grent can't do anything because he is out of reaction. He will get his reaction back at start of his next turn. On their turn the orcs recovered from their state of surprise. Now we are moving to the next round and we are back to the top at Winny's turn. While the enemies are distracted she is using the opportunity to move out of their sight and hide. She rolled 17 for her stealth that's higher than their passive perception, so she succeeded in hiding. The enemies need to use their action to search to be able to find her so she's safe for now. On his turn, Serio uses a healing potion. He regained only four hit points. Wanting to recover just a little more hit points he uses his bonus action to activate his class feature Second Wind which allows him to roll a d10 plus his fighter level to recover hit points and he recovered six hit points, but since his maximum hit points is only twelve it cannot go above that. He can't use this feature again until he finishes a short or long rest Bonus actions are context-specific actions you can only use this action when specific features, spells, or abilities allows you to use it. It is almost like getting a free action except that you are still limited to one bonus action per turn, so choose wisely. Interaction accounts for small actions that would not usually constitute a normal action like flipping a switch Picking up a weapon or saying a few words But depending on what you want to do and the circumstance the DM might rule that you need a full action to do it. For example, using a potion requires you to pull the bottle out of your pocket and drink its contents. It is reasonable to rule that you would take a whole action to do it. This also has implications for your other actions. It means that, if your dual-wielding, you can only draw one of your weapons using interaction and you will have to use your action to draw the other one. It also means that even if you have extra attacks you can only pull out and attack with one thrown weapon unless you already have another throwable weapon in your other hand. Reaction, this is a different kind of context specific action. Not many abilities, spells, and features are classified as reaction but you can take a reaction anytime even when it's not on your turn. For example, the spell shield is activated with reaction. On his turn, Grent finished off the wounded goblin. On her turn, Leraline uses burning hands on the orcs and the remaining goblin. You can also use your action to cast spells. Spells are complicated that's why I'm saving it for another episode but just going through it briefly some spells are so powerful and covers such a wide area the targets are the ones who have to actively resist against it. Now this is where Saving Throw comes in. Let's imagine that this is the orc's Saving Throw column. The burning hand spell she had just used caused 3d6 dice of damage. She rolled a total of 15 fire damage, that is enough to incinerate one of the orcs and that goblin. To resist against it the orcs can roll a Dexterity Saving Throw If they match or get above her Spell Save DC that would reduce the damage received by half. DC means difficulty class it represents how hard it is to resist against the caster's spell One of the orcs succeeded in his Saving Throw and he receives a rounded down damage of 7. In D&D all calculations are rounded down to the nearest whole number unless the Rulebook specified otherwise for the spell or feature Saving Throws are used not only against spells, but also on other effects such as abilities, diseases, and even traps In general, it is used when resisting an effect that covers a large area or something your armor could not protect you from like mind control. Oh no! The orc has brought Leraline down to zero hit points, but, don't worry, she's not dead yet. If she's unlucky enough, she will bleed out and die. On her turn she gets to roll a Death Saving Throw if she rolls 10 or above she gets a success below that she will get a failure. If she rolls a 1 she gets two failures. If she receives damage she will also get a failure or two if that damage is from a critical hit. With three failures she would bleed out and die, but with three successes she will stabilize and wake up in 1 to 4 hours with one hit point but if she is lucky enough to roll a 20 she will immediately regain one hit point and consciousness Her friends can help stabilize her if they use that action to do a medicine ability check and get 10 or above Otherwise we can heal her and she would regain consciousness as long as she regains any hit points Generally there is plenty of time to save your character from death but instant death can still happen. If your character receives damage and is brought to zero hit points and the remaining damage is equal to or above your maximum hit point then your character dies. Finally you have the option to knock enemies unconscious instead of killing them. When you reduce a creatures hit point to zero with a melee attack declare your intention to the DM and the creature would fall unconscious, but stable. So that's how the D&D's combat works I've been talking for a long time because we have tons of materials to cover I have not covered everything but we have gone through all the essentials. If you have watched the first three videos I can say that you are more than ready to join a table as a beginner using a pre-created character but there are more rules in upcoming videos that you can learn from. Once we are done with a couple more of those, I will go through the character creation process with you so you can create your very own character. On the next episode we will cover Adventuring and Equipment. Before I sign out then we just say that if you like this video please give it a thumbs up subscribe if you want to be notified of future releases and comment below to tell me what else you would like to see covered. So until next time, CJ over and out!
