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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 6607770" data-attributes="member: 6777696">In a white room/open plains combat, disengage isn't going to help as a way to flee a combat, but it is very useful once you add even simple variables.For instance: a cleric gets into melee combat, along with the fighter. The monsters start focusing on the cleric, because he keeps doing interesting magic things, and the cleric gets dangerously close to going down. On his turn, the cleric can now use the disengage action to withdraw from the front lines, without suffering any risk of an attack. The fighter remains in place, hopefully discouraging monsters from rushing past the front line and engaging with the cleric. (Obviously, the more characters able to hold a line, the safer it will be to retreat behind that line, so a second fighter would make this option even more attractive.) Once the cleric withdraws, another PC might even be able to step in and close off a choke point, allowing the party to spread the damage around.There could be any number of other valuable positions to withdraw to. Maybe a character can get to a door? (A door can be opened or closed as part of a character's normal movement.) Can the character swim or climb better than the opponent? Can the character withdraw to a protected position which can't be surrounded by melee combatants? Better to run and face 1 or 2 opponents than stand in the middle of a room with 5 or 6 attacks against you every round.It's also worth noting that many other classes can do useful things with a bonus action. For instance, our cleric can disengage, retreat, and cast Sacred Weapon as a bonus action. You can't cast a bonus action spell and another leveled spell in the same turn, so this is a good use of action economy. A sorcerer could use sorcery points to "quicken" a spell, and cast that as a bonus action. Disengage from a group of enemies, and then use quicken an area of effect spell to target the place you were just standing. (Burning hands. Or web.)Disengage isn't so useful for total retreat (where you'll need a better contingency), but it's very useful for limited tactical withdraw during a combat. It is very common for an individual character to get in over their heads with a group of opponents, either because of a tactical miscalculation, or because of monsters attacking from an unexpected direction. The threatened character disengages, and the front line types step in. (I have seen so many situations in my game where a player should have taken disengage to withdraw, but opted to attack instead, and got knocked unconscious, raising the danger a lot for the rest of the party.)</blockquote>

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