D&D 5E is the dodge action broken?

[Croesus]

I'd be curious to hear some of the situations where they have used it to such great effect.

Three characters clearing out a tomb. They finally reached the mummy's chamber. The fighter/rogue charged the mummy, while the sorcerer and wizard stayed back. The mummy summoned his six skeleton minions who were in the back of the chamber, unseen. Hand to hand with the fighter/rogue, the mummy can't hit the broad side of a barn. Looks like a cakewalk.

In round three, the skeletons finally reach the characters. Unfortunately for the good guys, the skeletons get lucky - two crits, three other hits out of six attacks. The wizard goes down, the other two characters are reduced to half hit points. The fighter/rogue begins dodging, desperately trying to occupy the mummy and four of the skeletons. She dodges most of the attacks for three full rounds, finally dropping in the seventh round of combat (to yet another crit). During those rounds, the sorcerer takes down the two other skeletons, then uses a potion to get the wizard back in the fight. In their very next actions, the sorcerer and wizard finally drop the mummy, which causes the skeleton minions to freeze for a moment. One character grabs the fighter/rogue, the other grabs the McGuffin (mummy's staff), then they run like heck from the room and escape.

If the fighter/rogue had continued attacking, she would have easily dropped a skeleton or two, but would have gone down quickly, before the wizard was back up. The sorcerer would have been overwhelmed. By just staying upright, she occupied most of the enemies, allowing the other two party members to focus on the mummy at range. A really nasty fight that could easily have been a TPK.

The battle shouldn't have been that difficult - the players made some mistakes before reaching the final chamber, the biggest being they forgot to heal up from a previous fight. Still, when the dice started falling badly for them (3 crits in roughly 30 attacks), they reacted intelligently and earned a hard-fought victory. In the right circumstances, dodging can be a life-saver (literally).

 

[Charlaquin]

The fighter/rogue begins dodging, desperately trying to occupy the mummy and four of the skeletons. She dodges most of the attacks for three full rounds, finally dropping in the seventh round of combat (to yet another crit).

Why did the skeletons continue engaging with her for three rounds while they were struggling to hit her and she wasn’t posing a threat to them?

 

[SkidAce]

Why did the skeletons continue engaging with her for three rounds while they were struggling to hit her and she wasn’t posing a threat to them?

IMO, she was still fighting them (remember a dnd round is multiple strikes, feints, parries etc) just focused on not getting hit more than damage. So to a skeleton, she's a threat.

 

[SkidAce]

...continued...

its not like the skeletons know she traded her action for a dodge...she is still engaged.

 

[abirdcall]

...continued...

its not like the skeletons know she traded her action for a dodge...she is still engaged.

I disagree with that. I think it should be obvious when someone is being defensive.

I think if the Skeletons are not being actively commanded they would likely continue attacking the nearest creature they are ordered to kill.

In the case of a Mummy though that doesn't make a lot of sense to me esp. if the Mummy is commanding the Skeletons.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Why did the skeletons continue engaging with her for three rounds while they were struggling to hit her and she wasn’t posing a threat to them?

Probably because they were distractions to keep the fighter/rogue from focusing on the mummy and ending the fight faster.

 

[Iry]

Why did the skeletons continue engaging with her for three rounds while they were struggling to hit her and she wasn’t posing a threat to them?

Enemies don't know that, unless they are intelligent or insightful. Combat is an abstraction, so even fighting defensively involves dodging, parrying, shield blocking, and light attacks that don't break your opponent's guard. At no point does an enemy think an armed and armored man getting up in their face is "No Threat". That's a good way to suddenly get stabbed.

 

[Croesus]

Why did the skeletons continue engaging with her for three rounds while they were struggling to hit her and she wasn’t posing a threat to them?

The fighter/rogue actually hit the mummy in the first round, so the mummy wanted her taken down for such "insolence". And the two skeletons going after the other two characters seemed to have things in hand. The character engaging the mummy appeared to be a much greater threat at that point. In retrospect, the mummy should have sent a couple more skeletons after the sorcerer and wizard, but by the time the mummy realized its mistake, it was too late.

BTW, I roll all dice in front of the players, so there was no fudging. The fighter/rogue was hit a couple times while dodging, but I rolled low damage so she didn't actually drop until the crit (I think she had two hit points before the crit). The mummy had every reason to expect the battle would end in its favor, but the dice gods didn't quite agree.

 

[machineelf]

this is my understanding of dodge.
The defender uses the Dodge action thus causing the attacker to attack with disadvantage.

so whether the defender has a 2 dex or a 20 dex has no effect on the dodge action?

The attacker still has to hit whatever the AC is, so it does matter whether the target has a dex of 2 or a dex of 20. It's just that much harder if the target dodges, imposing disadvantage on the attacker.

It's obviously going to be easier to hit a target with a dex of 2, even with disadvantage, than a target with a dex of 20.

(Edit) I see this has already been beaten to death. I agree that dodge is often underutilized by players. My players learned to use it after they saw the bad guys use it several times. They learned to close the melee distance using dodge and how to shoot and then get behind cover as well. Combat in 5th edition can be much more dynamic than people often realize at first.

 

[machineelf]

Accidental repost.