How useful is the Dodge action?

If the enemies are stupid (unintelligent animals, bloodthirsty savages, etc.) then a really good move is to have the tank charge forward on round 1 and then Dodge. The enemies will "focus fire" on him and waste their attacks, likely wasting more damage than the tank would have output against them had he attacked. You get bonus points if your tank is a raging barbarian so even if she gets hit she's resistant to the damage. Extra double bonus points if the tank has some ability that lets them attack as an action!

Let's take the stereotypical party, fighter (let's say great weapon), rogue (uses a mix of ranged and melee), wizard, cleric (sword and shield)

The rogue goes first. He readies an attack for when an ally and become adjacent. The wizard goes and firebolts the closest enemy. The Fighter moves adjacent to the closest enemy. The rogue fires possibly killing it. The fighter then takes the dodge action and moves back between 2 other enemies taking the OA. The cleric moves forward and attacks the enemy the rogue and wizard hit.

This leaves 2 enemies beside the dodging Great Weapon Fighter. 1 enemy beside the cleric that is heavily injured and the furthest enemy is free roaming but likely a dash action away from the rogue and wizard.

The injured enemy attacks the cleric not wanting to risk an OA. The 2 enemies on the GWF move off to help their ally and attack the cleric that is beside, one of them taking the OA. The party has taken 3 attacks on the highest AC party member and 1 on the dodging fighter.

Next turn the Rogue moves close to the wizard and attacks the enemy on the wizard with his bow, and then stows it. The wizard magic missles the severly injured enemy beside the cleric killing it. The fighter adjacent to the cleric and attacks the enemy that he attacked with his OA. The cleric uses dodge this time and possibly casts healing word on himself if he needs it.

The remaining enemies go. The enemy that has been hit twice by the fighter now attacks the fighter. The other enemy takes his lead and attacks the fighter as well. The last enemy standing attacks the wizard.

The fighter and cleric have both taken a bit of damage. The wizard has taken some damage. The rogue moves in pulls out his sword and attacks the enemy on the wizard. The wizard casts magic missle at this enemy to finish it off. The fighter and cleric both team up on the injured enemy and finish it off. One enemy is left and attacks the fighter.

The party then all attacks that remaining enemy and kills it.

Summary
Turn 1: 3 attacks on the cleric, one attack on dodging fighter
Turn 2: 2 attacks on the fighter, 1 on the wizard
Turn 3: 1 attack on the fighter

Total attacks, 7 and 1 against a dodging character. 3 on the cleric, 3 on the fighter + 1 at disadvantage, 1 on the wizard.


How does such a fight play out when the PC's don't dodge but simply try to focus fire an enemy down each turn? On turn 1 there will be 2 enemies attacking the fighter and one moving to the wizard. Turn 2 everyone focus fires on the next enemy near the fighter and cleric. The fighter takes an attack and the wizard takes an attack. Turn 3. Everyone focus fires on the next enemy near the fighter and cleric and that enemy dies. The cleric gets to move closer to the wizard. The wizard takes an attack. The fighter can't get to the wizard this turn. The cleric can and healing words the wizard if needed. The enemy takes 3 attacks and is near dead. The wizard takes a third attack.

The group attempting to focus fire ends up having the wizard take 3 attacks and the fighter take 3 attacks. Is scenario 1 really worse than scenario 2? I tend to find the results in the dodging scenario to be more appealing. Don't you?

77IM said:

If the enemies are stupid (unintelligent animals, bloodthirsty savages, etc.) then a really good move is to have the tank charge forward on round 1 and then Dodge. The enemies will "focus fire" on him and waste their attacks, likely wasting more damage than the tank would have output against them had he attacked. You get bonus points if your tank is a raging barbarian so even if she gets hit she's resistant to the damage. Extra double bonus points if the tank has some ability that lets them attack as an action!

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Assuming a balanced group of ranged and melee I would think that having all the melee characters charge forward and dodge could make a very good engaging turn. If the enemies split evenly across the melee characters, pick 1 that the ranged party members support by attacking his enemies while he helps attack them and the other PC's dodge. Clear each PC 1 at a time until it's mop up time on the last pc.

If the consolidate on one ally then he stays dodging the whole time while the other allies all start hammering away at the enemies.

Saelorn said:

Based on what I've heard around these boards, I can't imagine that spreading the damage around would be something that you want to incentivize, if you have a lot of Healing Words available and only rarely have short rests in which to spend your hit dice. If you can't take advantage of free healing from hit dice, then you might still want the enemies to attack a tank that's low on HP, because higher AC and overflow negation will reduce the amount of healing magic required in the long run.

The same would be true if you're using a combination of healing variants which reduce the rate of natural healing, such as to mimic the effects of earlier editions.

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The tactic you describe of letting PC's fall before healing them is a fine resource preservation strategy but it does greatly increase the chances for PC death.

In my experience resource starvation is typically not an issue. Instead people dying to focused damage while more than half the team sits at full hp is a bigger issue.

I don't think I've ever seen Dodge used in any game I've played or DMed, even in situations where it might be helpful. I think it's mostly because players completely forget it's an available option.

EDIT: I've used it as a DM when I had goblins charge the enemy with their wolf allies backed up by hobgoblin archers.

The goblins were much more valuable as creatures that could grant advantage to the wolves and extra damage for the hobgoblins.

I have a player in my group who uses dodge a lot. He plays a dwarf battlemaster with the Dwarven Fortitude feat and defensive fighting style (AC19). If he as taken some damage, he will use his action to dodge and use a hit die to heal, use Second Wind to heal with his bonus action, and then when the dodge sets up a missed attack from an enemy he will use his reaction to Riposte the miss. It's very effective for tanking the front line. After tier 1 multi attack will be better than dodging but at level 3 it works.

FrogReaver said:

#2 I am advocating that dodging more often than is currently done is a more effective strategy than is commonly believed.

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My group uses dodge frequently. Usually when they lure the monsters back to a choke point and the tank can block a doorway or narrow passage, or station themselves over difficult terrain combined with forced movement to make melee enemies attack the tank or waste their turns trudging through the terrain.

The only downside to their heavy use of tactics is often letting runners escape.

The mantra at our table is, "When in doubt, dodge." Basically, if you don't know what to do with your action or none of the obvious choices seem attractive, dodge instead.

The reason Dodge isn't taken more frequently has little to do with its tactical benefit. Players like dealing damage, and taking the Dodge action tends to reduce this.

I feel that Dodge's best (and most underutilized) use, other than blocking a choke-point, is while at range. All too often, I see melee PCs Dash forward, trying to get to the enemy while bombarded with arrows or whatever. Sometimes they'll use a thrown weapon at disadvantage, usually missing badly. Instead, they would be far better off to take the Dodge action, and ideally move forward between points of cover. They'll take attacks, but disadvantage (plus hopefully cover) should cause most of those to miss.

Hjorimir said:

The mantra at our table is, "When in doubt, dodge." Basically, if you don't know what to do with your action or none of the obvious choices seem attractive, dodge instead.

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I forget about Dodge all the time. There were a few times I should have used it in the two sessions I played. Oops.