(This is taken directly from the Players Handbook. All praise the Wizard Gods of the Coast for this system. Please note that class abilities and spells and stuff that you read about in here does not necessarily apply to our world.) This extended example of combat demonstrates the most commonly used combat rules. Setup Tordek, the dwarven fighter; Mialee, the elven wizard; Jozan, the human cleric of Pelor; and Lidda, the halfling rogue, are in a 10-foot-wide dungeon corridor at a door. Tordek is making Strength checks to try to break it down. The DM asks the players to tell him where their characters are. Tordek is in front of the door. Lidda and Jozan are to either side of it, and Mialee is behind Jozan. The players are playing with miniatures, so they arrange their miniatures in a line: Lidda, Tordek, Jozan, and Mialee. The DM looks at his notes, rolls some dice, and determines that a gang of four orc marauders has arrived, having heard Tordek banging against the door. The orcs have come around the corner at a T-shaped intersection at the end of the corridor. They’re 50 feet away from the door, so they’re 40 feet away from Mialee, 45 feet away from Jozan, 50 feet away from Tordek, and 55 feet away from Lidda. The orcs know that the adventurers are there. The DM needs to know who among the adventurers is aware of the orcs. Those who are caught unaware will be surprised. The DM asks each player to make a Listen check (DC 9). Jozan and Lidda succeed. Tordek and Mialee fail. Surprise Round During the surprise round, only the characters who are aware of their enemies can act, and each takes only a partial action. The orcs, Jozan, and Lidda all act during the surprise round. The DM asks Jozan’s and Lidda’s players to make initiative checks. Jozan’s initiative modifier is –1 (the same as his Dexterity penalty). Lidda’s is +7 (+3 for her Dexterity bonus and +4 for her Improved Initiative). They get 7 and 19 as their initiative results. The DM rolls for all four orcs (+0) and gets a result of 11. The order of battle during the surprise round is Lidda first, followed by the orcs, followed by Jozan. The DM calls on Lidda’s player. Lidda recognizes the bloody eye symbols painted on the orcs’ shields: The symbol identifies them as marauders. She steps to one side to get a clear line of sight past her friends and shoots a crossbow bolt at one of the orcs. Lidda’s attack bonus with a crossbow is +4 (+0 base attack bonus, +3 Dexterity bonus, +1 size bonus). The orc is 55 feet away, well under the light crossbow’s range increment of 80 feet. Lidda therefore suffers no range penalty. Even though the orc is flat-footed, Lidda can’t sneak attack it because it is more than 30 feet away. Lidda’s player rolls a 17 for an attack result of 21, well over the orc’s AC of 16. She rolls 1d8 for damage and gets a 3. The orcs have 4 hit points each, so the wounded orc has 1 hit point left. “He staggers,” says the DM, “but he doesn’t fall.” Then it is the orcs’ turn. Two orcs have javelins, and they throw them. The DM decides that the two javelins head toward Mialee, 40 feet away. Javelins have a range increment of 30 feet. The targets are located more than one range increment and less than two range increments away, for a range penalty of –2. So, the orcs have a –2 attack penalty with their javelins (+0 base attack bonus, +0 Dexterity bonus, +0 size bonus, –2 range penalty). Mialee’s AC is usually 13 (due to a +3 Dexterity bonus), but she can’t use her Dexterity bonus while she’s flat-footed, so her AC right now is 10. Rolling for the orcs, the DM gets an 18 and a 13 for results of 16 and 11. That means both javelins aimed at her hit. The orcs deal 1d6+2 points of damage with their javelins (1d6 for the javelin, +2 Strength bonus), so the DM rolls 2d6+4 and gets a result of 12 points of damage. Mialee is knocked from 7 hit points to –5. She falls to the stone floor, unconscious and dying. Then Jozan takes his action. He is next to Mialee already. He reaches down and casts cure minor wounds on her. Her hit points rise to –4, and she is no longer dying. (If he had not cured her, she would probably have lost another hit point at the end of the round.) With that, the surprise round ends. First Regular Round The DM asks Tordek’s player to make an initiative check because he’s the only conscious character who hasn’t done so. He gets a 14, so he goes after Lidda and before the orcs. The order of battle is: Lidda, Tordek, orcs, Jozan. (Mialee is unconscious and can’t take an action.) On her turn, Lidda fires another crossbow bolt, but she misses. She drops her crossbow and switches to her short sword (rather than reloading her crossbow). Then Tordek moves 15 feet to get between the orcs and Mialee. (The orcs are 50 feet away from him, too far for him to reach them and attack, even with a charge.) The corridor is too wide (10 feet) for him to keep the orcs from getting past him, but he will at least get an attack of opportunity on any single orc that tries it. On their action, the orcs are 35 feet away from Tordek. That’s within charging range. (They can charge 40 feet.) The two orcs with battleaxes in hand charge and attack. In a 10-foot-wide corridor, only two can fight side by side. The other two in the back ready their axes and wait to get in. One orc could try to move past Tordek so another orc could get at him, but then Tordek would get an attack of opportunity on the first orc. The orcs have a +4 attack bonus on their attack rolls with their battleaxes (+0 base attack bonus, +2 Strength bonus, +2 charge bonus). Tordek’s AC is 17 (+4 armor bonus, +2 shield bonus, +1 Dexterity bonus), and neither charging orc hits him. “Their battleaxes clang against your shield and armor,” says the DM, “and you can feel the strength behind their blows, but you’re not hurt.” Jozan casts cure light wounds (his 1st-level domain spell) on Mialee. That spell restores 1d8+2 hit points to Mialee, but Jozan’s player rolls a 1 for a result of only 3 hit points cured. Mialee’s hit points rise to –1, but that’s not enough to get her back on her feet. Second Regular Round Lidda steps in next to Tordek and thrusts with her short sword at the orc she wounded with the crossbow bolt. Her attack bonus is +0, and she misses even though the orc’s AC is penalized by –2 because he charged in the previous round. Tordek swings his dwarven waraxe at the orc in front of him. His attack bonus is +4 (+1 base attack bonus, +2 Strength bonus, +1 Weapon Focus bonus). He hits the orc (whose AC is also penalized) and deals 2d4+2 points of damage. His total is 7, which is enough to take the orc out. Another orc marauder steps over the body of his fallen comrade and swings his battleaxe at Tordek. He hits and deals 1d8+2 points of damage (1d8 for a battleaxe, +2 Strength bonus). Tordek sustains 7 points of damage, and his hit points drop to 6. He’s now hurt badly enough that one more hit could easily drop him. The orc that Lidda tried to stab curses her for hitting him with a crossbow bolt, swings his battleaxe at her, misses, and curses again. Jozan, worried that the team could lose its fighter, drops her prepared bless spell to spontaneously cast cure light wounds on Tordek. Jozan’s player rolls a 7, for a result of 8 hit points cured. Tordek is now healed back to his original 13 hit points (he only needed 7 of the 8 points of curing). Third Regular Round Lidda moves back away from the orc to let Jozan step in. Since Lidda is taking a double move (doing nothing but moving), and since she moves directly away from the orcs, the orcs don’t get to make attacks of opportunity against her. Tordek’s player rolls a natural 20 on his attack roll. That’s a threat (a possible critical hit). He makes a critical roll (1d20 + his total attack bonus), and the result is 17. Since that would hit the orc, Tordek’s hit is a critical hit. Dwarven waraxes deal 1d10 points of damage on a normal hit and ¥3 damage on critical hits, so Tordek’s player rolls 3d10. He gets a result of 19 points of damage, which is more than enough to kill the orc instantly. The last orc steps in to attack Tordek. He swings and misses. The orc that had been attacking Lidda also attacks Tordek and misses. Jozan steps in next to Tordek with his heavy mace, hits the orc that Lidda had wounded, and downs it. Now only one orc is left, and he’s 10 feet away from Tordek and Jozan. Fourth Regular Round Lidda darts between Tordek and Jozan and swings at the orc, but she misses. Tordek moves up and swings but also misses. The orc takes a double move and moves 25 feet back to the T-shaped intersection and 15 feet around the corner. Since this action involved only movement and the orc moved away from Tordek and Lidda without entering another area threatened by them, they do not get attacks of opportunity against him. Jozan and Lidda each can run as fast as the orc. They might be able to catch him. But Tordek can’t keep up, and Mialee is still unconscious, so they let him go. Combat Sequence As seen in the example, combat is cyclical. (Everybody acts in turn in a regular cycle.) Generally, combat runs in the following way: 1. Each combatant starts the battle flat-footed. Once a combatant acts, she or he is no longer flat-footed. 2. The DM determines which characters are aware of their opponents at the start of the battle. If some but not all of the combatants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round happens before regular rounds begin. The combatants who are aware of the opponents can act in the surprise round, so they roll for initiative. In initiative order (highest to lowest), combatants who started the battle aware of their opponents each take a partial action during the surprise round. Combatants who were unaware do not get to act in the surprise round. If no one or everyone starts the battle aware, there is no surprise round. 3. Combatants who have not yet rolled initiative do so. All combatants are now ready to begin their first regular round. 4. Combatants act in initiative order. 5. When everyone has had a turn, the combatant with the highest initiative acts again, and steps 4 and 5 repeat until combat ends.
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