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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6731528" data-attributes="member: 6787650">The sword-and-boarder doesn't have to stay close to the enemy. Either the enemy is going to pursue him (in which case stepping back is pure win) or the enemy is going to flee (in which case all he loses is a single opportunity attack that probably wouldn't change any important outcomes) or the enemy is going to overrun and/or bypass him and go straight for the back line. The third outcome is the only one you have to pay attention to, and it works basically the same way with or without stepping back. The main difference is that with shove prone, at least the enemy only gets 45' of movement toward the back line instead of 60'.Meanwhile, as the sword-and-shield guy is holding the front line, everybody else is killing the enemy with ranged weapons. Having a prone enemy is bad in the sense that it imposes disadvantage on ranged attacks, if there's just that one enemy available, but since the tank has a higher AC than the monster (generally) it still winds up a net advantage for the party. Under some circumstances the ranged guys can also hold their attacks until he stands up; or they can use tricks like heavy obscurement to cancel out their disadvantage. Both approaches turn a successful shove by the tank into pure win for the ranged guys--although you still ideally want a backup line of secondary tanks like zombies between the ranged combatants and the enemy.</blockquote>

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