New Action: Flee

[Dausuul]

In other words, the foe gets to Opportunity Attack you every other round when they've caught up before you run. That's not "unbeatable" kite, just "favored rate of exchange" kite.

If you have unlimited room to run, and you don't care how long it takes, you can in fact use superior speed to kite indefinitely. The enemy will get one OA if you start in melee range, but they'll never get a second one.

Say you're a wood elf fighting a human. On your turn, you Dash away from the enemy, moving 70 feet. The enemy Dashes toward you, moving 60 feet. End result: You're 10 feet farther apart than when you started.

Repeat until the gap is at least 35 feet. Then, instead of Dashing, shoot your longbow and move 35 feet. You are now 70 feet away. The enemy Dashes toward you, moving 60 feet; the gap drops back down to 10 feet, but they're still not close enough for a melee attack. Wash, rinse, repeat. As long as you have time and space to run, the human will never get close enough for an OA.

In practice, you won't be able to do this very often. You will usually suffer from some combination of a) limited space, b) limited time, c) enemy ranged attacks, or d) slow teammates, any of which can prevent you from playing Kitemaster. But in ideal circumstances, it is possible.

 

[CubicsRube]

I like the idea of imposing a level of exhaustion to retreat. The pc may also take a downed character with rhem for an addituonal level of exhaustion.

It's going to be too gamey for some, but i like making retreat a viable option.

Also however most of my enemies will either not pursue fleeing enemies or will run themselves if they get too low.

A monster defending its lair usually won't attack a fleeing opponent unless it has rage issues like orcs do, or hate the living like undead do.

 

[Blue]

1: Start 70' away, and attack.
2: They are move 60' to 10'.
3: Then spend 6 turns dashing away, gaining 10' each time.
4: Your now 70' away, and can attack.
5: Repeat as until you win.

My example had them starting adjacent, no moving the goalpost to have them further away.

Also, mine just needs about 100' of distance - since when you are closed with you can go back the other direction.

 

[Li Shenron]

If the PCs can flee, the monsters can pursue. IMO, you're just extending the distances over which these things can happen in a given round with the introduction of the additional mechanics.

I had the same thoughts... unless these new actions options are allowed only to the PCs, they don't remove the fact that, as long as the turn-based initiative continues, the PCs can really move away only if they all have higher speed than the monsters, otherwise the monsters always catch up.

I think that it might be better to look into chase rules when the whole PC party (or the monsters party) announces they want to run away from a battle. The the tricky part is essentially how to connect the two together i.e. how to make the transition from turn-based initiative to a chase.

 

[Dausuul]

My example had them starting adjacent, no moving the goalpost to have them further away.

If you start adjacent, you eat one (1) opportunity attack. Then you move 70 feet away, and they never touch you again.

It's true that you do take some damage; but if you can eat that one hit (or if you don't get dropped onto the battlefield right next to the enemy), you can kite forever.

 

[Count_Zero]

I think, mechanically, if you're going to keep the Flee ability from being used for unlimited Kiting, rule that the next action after fleeing can't be an attack action. You can heal, you can hide, you can cast spells that aren't attacks (teleport, Sanctuary, etc.), but you can't fight. That would keep with what I think the intent is - to let the party (or enemy monsters) run away and lick their wounds.