🏃‍♀️5e - Movement🏃‍♀️

Adventurers come across a wide array of terrain and obstacles during their travels. For simplicity’s sake a Game Master is always free to summarize movement without determining exact distances or time frames.

However, in some cases it’s important to know the general time frame (minutes, hours, days, and so on) that it takes to go from one area to another.

When it comes to determining the time frames of movement, the most important factors are the Speed or travel pace of an individual or party and the terrain being traversed.

Speed

Every creature capable of movement has a Speed, measured in feet, that it can move in a single round. Travel pace is used when it comes to longer time periods of moment that take place over minutes, hours, or days.

Of course the world is wide and vast, leading to exceptions in mounts and methods of travel…

Vehicles

See 🛠️Vehicles for more Information.

Not all travel is done by foot. Vehicles and mounts are used by many adventurers to help travel the vast distances of the world.

Land-based vehicles can choose at which pace to move while water-based vehicles are restricted by the speed of the vehicle. A water-based vehicle gains no benefits from a slow pace, but has no penalties for moving at a fast pace. Depending on the vehicle and crew size, a ship can travel up to 24 hours a day.

Special Movement

Not all travel can be accomplished by simply walking from one point to another. Adventurers may be forced to climb, swim, or leap to reach their final destinations — nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling

Movement using these three methods is similar to traveling through difficult terrain though there are some key differences. First, it costs a creature an extra foot to move for every foot spent. Worse, if a creature is moving in actual 🏔️Difficult Terrain, it costs four feet to move for every foot spent. Moving by climbing or swimming through normal terrain by a creature with the corresponding speed costs no additional movement.

A Game Master may apply additional checks in certain scenarios, such as climbing a particularly slippery surface or swimming in churning water.

For example, a barbarian with a 30 foot movement speed only moves 15 feet on their turn while trying to climb a mountain. Should that same barbarian try climbing that same mountain during a snowstorm, they would only move 8 feet, and may even need to pass an Athletics check to maintain a hold or risk falling into the roaring water below.

Jumping

See 🏃‍♀️Jumping for more Information.

The distance a creature can jump is determined both by the method attempted and their STR modifier.

A long jump requires a creature to move at least 10 feet by foot immediately before making its jump and the distance covered is a number of feet equal to this formula: (STR Modifier + 5) x 2. Each foot covered by a jump costs the same in movement.

A Game Master can also request a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear low obstacles, which must be no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance. A failure indicates that instead of jumping over such an obstacle, a creature crashes into it.

Landing is also a fair challenge. Should a creature land in difficult terrain, perhaps jumping over a table in the kitchen only to land on a freshly mopped floor on the other side, the creature must make an additional DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) to actually land on its feet. Should it fail, it instead falls ☠️Prone.

A high jump is a bit more complex. To make a running high jump, a creature must move 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump, leaping up into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + STR Modifier (minimum of 0 feet). To make a standing high jump, a creature needs not move beforehand, but only jumps half the distance it would have doing a running high jump.

When a creature’s jumping distance exceeds its Speed, it can jump up to a distance equal to twice its Speed in a single leap so long as it takes no other movement on that turn other than to jump. In either case, a creature uses up a foot of movement for every foot it covers jumping.

There are a few special scenarios for high jumping though.

First, a creature can extend its arms up to half its height during a jump. Thus a creature can reach above itself equal to the height of a jump plus 1.5 times its height. In addition, the Game Master may allow a creature to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than it could otherwise.

Traveling

The majority of rules regarding exploration are in Trials & Treasures but some extend beyond journeys and into shorter forays as well.

Marching Order

When it’s relevant to the game — during a dungeon crawl or while traveling through a forest they know is brimming with bandits — the Game Master should have the party establish who is in the lead (and therefore the most likely to be targeted if a trap is triggered) and who is in the back (the first targeted in a flanking ambush). When it isn’t an important element to what’s currently happening in the game, whichever character is taking the lead on roleplaying is assumed to be in front of their companions.

Encounters and Threats

Whether or not creatures notice a hidden threat is determined by their passive Perception scores.

When players encounter other characters or creatures while traveling, both parties can choose what happens next. Either party can choose to attack, talk, flee, or wait to see what the other group does. In addition, a Game Master can decide whether or not a party is surprised by the other if combat ensues.

Stealth

A party looking to avoid threats can choose to travel at a slow pace and employ stealth, making a group Stealth check, typically using Dexterity.

A party with reasonable cover can do more than avoid ambushes — they may well surprise or sneak past their enemies.