D&D 5E Reasonable Movement and Athletic Feats?

[DND_Reborn]

Well, I think the hardest thing is getting a proper balance between accuracy and simplicity.

Following the information on chases, you can dash for 3 rounds + your Constitution modifier. Each round after, you make a DC 10 Constitution check or suffer a level of exhaustion.

Honestly, I think this is too low. First I would increase the number of rounds by your proficiency bonus if you have proficiency in Athletics. Second, I would change it to a DC 10 Constitution (Athletics) check to avoid the level of exhaustion.

Now, on to altering the Dash action:

Dash
When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement for the current turn. The addition equals your speed, after applying any modifiers, plus 5 times your Strength modifier.

When you take the Dash action, you can use your Bonus action to run.
Running. You make a DC 5 Strength (Athletics) check and the additional movement you gain from dashing is doubled. Each round you spend running or sprinting increases the DC by 1.

When you take the Dash action , and use your bonus action to run, you can use your reaction to sprint.
Sprinting. You make a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check and the additional movement you gain from dashing is tripled. Each round you spend running or sprinting increases the DC by 1.

Examples:
A character with STR mod +3 would be able to move (30) and either: dash (45), run (90), or sprint (135). Thus, moving and "sprinting" would have a total movement of 165 (30 + 135). This would be a 11.93 second 100-m sprint.

A character with STR mod +5 would be able to move (30) and either: dash (55), run (110), or sprint (165). Thus, moving and "sprinting" would have a total movement of 195 (30 + 135). This would be a 10.09 second 100-m sprint, so falls short of the current world record. But for races like Wood Elf, or using feats like Mobility, or classes like rogue and monk, you could be faster than the WR.

Now, I toyed with the idea of using proficiency bonus instead of STR mod, but with expertise the numbers become ridiculous. I also toyed with the idea of making a check and increasing speed by the result, as @doctorbadwolf did.

 

[Garthanos]

Obviously, for sprinting we aren't concerned with Travel speed.

I mentioned the Gilgamesh and lets throw in Beowulf there too because that variety of legendaries in epic tier really might make use of sprinting speed for days and days. /js. It has been noted that end game potentially evolves a lot and even if you can do that you are probably riding a Griffin or something else anyway most of the time.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

What people keep saying is that Olympic events happen in safe, perfect conditions, so they're pointing out that there may be a category of terrain beyond standard and difficult, an optimal above standard. I'm not sure we'd need that level of granularity: standard and difficult is good enough for me.

We aren't looking to be able to use the system to play D&D simulation baseball, we just want numbers that can actually do the things humans can do at a reasonable level and without, like, everyone being monks with 60 movement.

How about working on the basis that the situation in olympic events and similar are perfect enough that they allow the athletes to effectively "take 20" on their athletics check?
I mean there is very little variation in track times: probably less than a single gradation of a d20.

Well, I think the hardest thing is getting a proper balance between accuracy and simplicity.

Following the information on chases, you can dash for 3 rounds + your Constitution modifier. Each round after, you make a DC 10 Constitution check or suffer a level of exhaustion.

Honestly, I think this is too low. First I would increase the number of rounds by your proficiency bonus if you have proficiency in Athletics. Second, I would change it to a DC 10 Constitution (Athletics) check to avoid the level of exhaustion.

Now, on to altering the Dash action:

Dash
When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement for the current turn. The addition equals your speed, after applying any modifiers, plus 5 times your Strength modifier.

When you take the Dash action, you can use your Bonus action to run.
Running. You make a DC 5 Strength (Athletics) check and the additional movement you gain from dashing is doubled. Each round you spend running or sprinting increases the DC by 1.

When you take the Dash action , and use your bonus action to run, you can use your reaction to sprint.
Sprinting. You make a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check and the additional movement you gain from dashing is tripled. Each round you spend running or sprinting increases the DC by 1.

Examples:
A character with STR mod +3 would be able to move (30) and either: dash (45), run (90), or sprint (135). Thus, moving and "sprinting" would have a total movement of 165 (30 + 135). This would be a 11.93 second 100-m sprint.

A character with STR mod +5 would be able to move (30) and either: dash (55), run (110), or sprint (165). Thus, moving and "sprinting" would have a total movement of 195 (30 + 135). This would be a 10.09 second 100-m sprint, so falls short of the current world record. But for races like Wood Elf, or using feats like Mobility, or classes like rogue and monk, you could be faster than the WR.

Now, I toyed with the idea of using proficiency bonus instead of STR mod, but with expertise the numbers become ridiculous. I also toyed with the idea of making a check and increasing speed by the result, as @doctorbadwolf did.

I would not alter the Dash action personally: leave that as a way of moving faster without sacrificing combat awareness.

Add penalties for Running and Sprinting in combat as a tradeoff to represent you're an easy target for anyone you pass, and to make sure its not just a free upgrade to Dashing.
Reduced defences when running and reduced defences and limitations on changing direction for sprinting perhaps.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I would not alter the Dash action personally: leave that as a way of moving faster without sacrificing combat awareness.

Add penalties for Running and Sprinting in combat as a tradeoff to represent you're an easy target for anyone you pass, and to make sure its not just a free upgrade to Dashing.
Reduced defences when running and reduced defences and limitations on changing direction for sprinting perhaps.

I am not crazy about altering dash, THB, but otherwise the options are for run/sprint to have bigger multipliers. As they are written, I think having to use your bonus action to run (after using your action to dash) and your reaction to sprint as well, means you are already paying for them.

As I've already said in other posts, I see no reason to penalize defenses (after all, reactions are already used for sprinting) because although your path may be easier to follow, you are moving more quickly. IMO, those factors cancel out and net should have no impact. Others have argued otherwise, but that is my take and I stand by it.

In our house-rule several months ago, we played your normal move could be however you wanted, but running (and especially sprinting) had to be "in a straight path"

 

[Xeviat]

How about working on the basis that the situation in olympic events and similar are perfect enough that they allow the athletes to effectively "take 20" on their athletics check?
I mean there is very little variation in track times: probably less than a single gradation of a d20.

Every once in a while, someone here says something that makes my jaw drop for it's pure perfection. That's amazing. That would be a great way to model that.

 

[Xeviat]

As I've already said in other posts, I see no reason to penalize defenses (after all, reactions are already used for sprinting) because although your path may be easier to follow, you are moving more quickly. IMO, those factors cancel out and net should have no impact. Others have argued otherwise, but that is my take and I stand by it.

You might be moving fast, but it's in a straight line and you're really not focused on dodging. I imagine if I tried to sprint past someone with a bat, they'd be able to hit me a lot easier than if I was actively trying to dodge it. 5E doesn't have flat-footed anymore, so advantage seems to be it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You might be moving fast, but it's in a straight line and you're really not focused on dodging. I imagine if I tried to sprint past someone with a bat, they'd be able to hit me a lot easier than if I was actively trying to dodge it. 5E doesn't have flat-footed anymore, so advantage seems to be it.

Its actually really hard to hit someone who is sprinting full speed past you. I've tried in the SCA, and that was with a better more accurate weapon than a baseball bat. It's probably just as hard as hitting someone who is trying to defend themselves, IME.

 

[DND_Reborn]

You might be moving fast, but it's in a straight line and you're really not focused on dodging. I imagine if I tried to sprint past someone with a bat, they'd be able to hit me a lot easier than if I was actively trying to dodge it. 5E doesn't have flat-footed anymore, so advantage seems to be it.

Well, I stand by my statement. If I joined a table and they ruled the attack had advantage, I would debate it but yield to the majority. Given things like sneak attack rely on advantage, I would think getting that extra SA damage would be harder on someone sprinting by me... but opinions vary of course. No harm, no foul

 

[mrpopstar]

I do that for a lot of stuff, but I’ve never decided the dimensions of terrain that way.

Using terrain to grab characters by the skills is survival horror at its finest.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Using terrain to grab characters by the skills is survival horror at its finest.

Yeah I don’t really do survival horror, to be fair.