When every moment counts, and a few wasted seconds might change the outcome of events, you've entered an encounter. An encounter is a mode of play where time is divided into rounds, each of which represents 10 seconds in the game world. Every round, each participant takes a turn in an established order.
The order of turns is determined at the beginning of an encounter, when everyone rolls initiative. Once everyone has taken a turn, the encounter continues to the next round if there are still time sensitive threats in play.
While these encounter mechanics are most commonly used when two sides are facing off in
combat, this pacing can also be used any time a dangerous time sensitive event is occurring.
Basics Steps of an Encounter
- Determine surprise. The GM determines whether anyone involved in the encounter is surprised.
- Establish positions. The GM decides where creatures are located and helps the players determine where their PCs would be based on their formation or stated position in the area prior to the encounter.
- Roll initiative. Everyone involved in the encounter rolls initiative, determining the order of characters' turns.
- Take turns. Each participant in the initiative order takes a turn.
- Begin the next round. When everyone involved in the encounter has had a turn, the round ends. Repeat step 4 until no time sensitive threats remain, ending the encounter.
Initiative
Initiative determines the order of turns during an encounter. When an encounter starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their place in the initiative order. The GM makes one roll for an entire group of identical creatures, so each member of the group acts at the same time.
The GM ranks the participants in order from the one with the highest Dexterity check total to the one with the lowest. This is the order (called the initiative order) in which they act during each round. The initiative order remains the same from round to round.
If a tie occurs, the GM decides the order among tied GM-controlled creatures, and the players decide the order among their tied characters. If the tie is between an NPC and a PC, the creature with the higher Dexterity modifier goes first. If their Dexterity modifiers are also tied, the tied characters each roll a d20 to determine the order, highest roll going first.
Taking a Turn
On your turn, you can utilize one of each of the options mentioned earlier in the following way:
- Move a distance up to your speed
- Take an action
- Take a bonus action
- Take an interaction
Reactions are special actions you can take in response to specific situations, but they don't necessarily happen on your turn.
Move
On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed or less. Or you could decide not to move at all.
Your movement can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These different modes of movement can be combined with walking, or they can constitute your entire move. However you're moving, you deduct the distance of each part of your move from your speed until it is used up or until you are done moving.
Breaking Up Your Movement
You can break up your movement on your turn, using some of your speed before and after your action. For example, if you have a speed of 30 feet, you can move 10 feet, take your action, and then move 20 feet.
Difficult Terrain
Combat rarely takes place in bare rooms or on featureless plains. Boulder-strewn caverns, briar-choked forests, treacherous staircases—the setting of a typical fight contains difficult terrain.
Every foot of movement in difficult terrain costs 1 extra foot, even if multiple things in a space count as difficult terrain.
Low furniture, rubble, undergrowth, steep stairs, snow, and shallow bogs are examples of difficult terrain. The space of another an enemy also counts as difficult terrain.
Dropping Prone
On your turn, you can drop prone without using any of your speed, but you can't do so if your speed is 0. Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to stand up. You can't stand up if you don't have enough movement left or if your speed is 0.
To move while prone, you must crawl or use magic such as teleportation. Every foot of movement while crawling costs 1 extra foot. Crawling 1 foot in difficult terrain, therefore, costs 3 feet of movement.
Moving around Other Creatures
During your move, you can pass through the space of an ally or an incapacitated creature. In contrast, you can move through enemy's space only if the enemy is at least two sizes larger or smaller than you.
During combat, you can't willingly end your move in a space occupied by another creature. If you somehow end a turn in a space with another creature, you fall prone unless you are either Tiny or are at least one size larger than the other creature.
Creature Size and Positioning
Each creature takes up a different amount of space. The Size Categories table shows how much space a creature of a particular size controls in combat. Objects sometimes use the same size categories.
Size Categories
| Size | Space |
|---|
| Tiny |
2.5 by 2.5 ft. |
| Small |
5 by 5 ft. |
| Medium |
5 by 5 ft. |
| Large |
10 by 10 ft. |
| Huge |
15 by 15 ft. |
| Gargantuan |
20 by 20 ft. or larger |
Space
A creature's space is the area in feet that it effectively controls in combat, not an expression of its physical dimensions. A typical Medium creature isn't 5 feet wide, for example, but it does control a space that wide. If a Medium hobgoblin stands in a 5-foot-wide doorway, other creatures can't get through unless the hobgoblin lets them.
A creature's space also reflects the area it needs to fight effectively. For that reason, there's a limit to the number of creatures that can surround another creature in combat. Assuming Medium combatants, eight creatures can fit in a 5-foot radius around another one.
Because larger creatures take up more space, fewer of them can surround a creature.
If four Large creatures crowd around a Medium or smaller one, there's little room for anyone else. In contrast, as many as twenty Medium creatures can surround a Gargantuan one.
Squeezing into a Smaller Space
A creature can squeeze through a space that is large enough for a creature one size smaller than it. Thus, a Large creature can squeeze through a passage that's only 5 feet wide. While squeezing through a space, a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it's in the smaller space.
Interaction
An interaction is an exceedingly limited action that include a gesture, flourish, or brief communication, allowing you to interact with objects or other creatures.
Communicate
A round represents 6 seconds of time, allowing you to speak ten to fifteen words in a single round in this way. This kind of speech accounts for brief utterances, gestures, requests, or short instructions. Extended communication, or such as an attempt to persuade or deceive another creature, requires using the
Influence Action.
Interact with Object
You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment. For example, you could open a door, draw or sheathe a sword, withdraw a potion from your belt, take a book from a nearby shelf, drop your shield, etc. If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your utilize action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions.
The GM might require you to use an
action any of these activities when it needs special care or when it presents an unusual obstacle. For instance, the GM could reasonably expect you to use an action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge. When in doubt about what you can do with your interaction, consider whether the act in question could be accomplished in a couple of seconds or less with minimal effort.
Ending an Encounter
An encounter ends when there are no more time sensitive threats in play. In the case of combat, this most commonly means all the combatants on one side have either been defeated, surrendered, or successfully escaped. When this happens, the GM will inform player that they can drop out of the initiative order. However, in some cases there may still be time sensitive threats that are best handled by remaining in the initiative order, even if no enemies are in that order.
For example, if a PC or one of the player's allies was reduced below 0 hit points and is dying, then initiative continues. That character's condition is still time sensitive, if none of the characters can successfully stabilize or heal them in time, they may die.
Similarly, if a party is currently trapped in a room that is filling with lava, and they vanquish all the Fire Elementals guarding the room, the GM will likely maintain initiative order as the party still has to make time sensitive decisions, and based on their position in the room, any one of them could still be harmed by the lava.
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