D&D 5E How Do You View the Combat Round in 5E?

[DND_Reborn]

In AD&D 1E, a round was a full minute long. A lot was assumed to be going on during the round and when your turn came, it was your chance to get in a real strike or do something significant. Unsuccessful attacks and feints, parries, dodging and weaving, etc. were all part of the "back-and-forth" that happened during the rest of the time.

Now, in 5E rounds are just 6-seconds long. During that time you move, attack or cast a spell, possibly using bonus actions or reactions as well. In such a short time frame, does the game really become more of a "blow-by-blow" telling of the action or is there still enough time for all the extra stuff to go on? Personally, I am more inclined to think 5E does take a more literal every action is done. Sure, your AC assumes you are dodging, defending, or such in a passive way (unless, you actually take the Dodge action of course), so those actions don't need to be outlined in the flow of the action other than in the narrative.

My question is now how do you view the combat round in 5E? Is there extra stuff going on all the time or do you feel you are literally playing out each action?

EDIT: As @Charlaquin emphasizes, the combat round in 5E, although discrete in evaluating all the actions involved, is assumed to be simultaneous.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Six seconds is still a long time. The character's actions are just the "meaningful" part of the round -- other movement, feints, parries, and dodges still occur.

 

[Charlaquin]

I voted for blow-by-blow, but truthfully I think it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Because a round is 6 seconds, and each creature’s turn is also 6 seconds, in theory all of the action occurs simultaneously, rather than in discrete turns. So the way we narrate the combat can’t be entirely accurate. It’s an abstraction, meant to break the chaos of the fight down into more easily digestible snapshots.

 

[Marc_C]

I voted for blow-by-blow, but truthfully I think it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Because a round is 6 seconds, and each creature’s turn is also 6 seconds, in theory all of the action occurs simultaneously, rather than in discrete turns. So the way we narrate the combat can’t be entirely accurate. It’s an abstraction, meant to break the chaos of the fight down into more easily digestible snapshots.

I second that. It's how I view it too. I have one player who is really good at adding non-mechanical "roleplaying" bits during combat. He's fun to watch. 5e (or any other edition) doesn't prevent players from doing that.

 

[Puddles]

So I play a round is 6 seconds for mechanical aspects like spell durations, but when I am narrating the scene, characters’ and creatures’ actions are narrated to happen one at a time, and often I will describe a monster doing something in reaction to what a character has done to it or one of its allies.

It’s interesting that everything by the rules is assumed to happen simultaneously because it makes me ask “what is initiative order”? It seems like from the creature that goes first through to one going last is akin to a Cowboy high noon shoot-out with only nanoseconds of difference separating them.

I would much prefer a round to last 30 seconds, where it’s 6 seconds of action and the remainder of inaction. Dodging, weaving and hesitating etc. With a gap between those who act first and last filling up that 30 second window. It would make ability/spell durations more interesting too because some would actually run out, (I don’t have many combats that last more than 10 rounds).

The only time I would stick to the 6 seconds is when you are doing something like a chase scene where there is no inaction. But for chases I much prefer Skill Challenges anyway.

 

[toucanbuzz]

There's a great fight scene in The Last Samurai when Cruise's unarmed character (Nathan) gets ambushed in the village by 4 warriors. In the linked clip, the fight begins at 46 seconds and finishes at 70 seconds, a total of 24 seconds, or 4 D&D rounds.


In D&D rounds:

Round 1: Nathan grapples with the sword of enemy #1, dodges a sword blow, blocks an attack by enemy #2, karate kicks enemy #3, and flips his grappled target to the ground in a somersault. Enemy #4 comes charging into the fray but isn't close enough to attack.

Round 2: Nathan disarms enemy #1 and blocks attack by enemy #4 while prone. He blocks multiple attacks while getting on his feet and kills off one of the bad guys with one slice to the stomach.

Round 3: While parrying blows, Nathan disables an enemy, who falls to the ground dying and takes a sword from another, now dual wielding.

Round 4: In a dizzying flurry, he flips enemy #4 to the ground and kills off 2 others.

The battle is over as Nathan relives in slow-motion every move and how close to death he was. Then enemy #4 decides instead of playing dead, it'd be a good idea to try and sneak up on this guy who just, in 24 seconds, took out your assassination squad.

So, realistically, there's tons of action going on that isn't going to be captured by a single d20 roll, and movement obviously is happening simultaneously in a way D&D rules can't capture. D&D's "passing the baton" example highlights how it doesn't work perfectly if you had 500 soldiers all spaced out 60' who each, on their initiative, Dashed to the next guy and handed off the baton, allowing in 6 seconds the baton to move faster than the speed of sound.

 

[jasper]

Other. Just move your paragraph about 1E to 5e

 

[Mannahnin]

It's close to tracking blow by blow, but there's other stuff in there. I appreciate Charlequin's pointing out the abstraction inherent in rendering simultaneous action sequential for resolution.

 

[Helldritch]

I'm with @Charlaquin too on this one. Blow by blow but a lot more is hinted on. A six second round is both too short and too long when you consider all that happens. Too long at low level, too short at high level. 4 arrows in 6 seconds with any accuracy is insanely fast. Only one arrow is almost a joke... And the number of opponents also play a role in how much believability can be logical when considering that everything is occuring simultaneously.

1ed had it right. A one minute round was assuming a lot. A lot of parries and dodging to get that one opportunity to do a meaningfull attack sequence/spell/action was both more dynamic and allowed for a better narrative.

 

[Dr Magister]

It's not blow by blow. I mean, almost all of the defensive stuff is abstracted away into Armour Class. All the parrying, dodging, moving to let blows glance off armour etc is just assumed to be happening. Taking the Dodge action just means you're putting more effort into it.