10 Combat Mistakes Even Experienced Dungeons & Dragons Players Still Make Regularly

Combat forms a significant portion of any Dungeons & Dragons playthrough, and it can be especially fun for players who love making characters who can wreak havoc on the battlefield - whether through Spells or up close and personal. Plus, with 2024's Revised Edition or 5.5e giving a fresh take on a large portion of the core Fifth Edition ruleset, today's D&D offers a lot of options - and equally a lot of constraints - when it comes to the way characters approach their roles in a fight.

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However, it's this rules creep that can sometimes overwhelm even D&D veterans - specifically when interpreting mechanics to use in combat. With 2024's Revised Edition giving tables more options to use when engaging foes, just what combat mechanics do players consistently misinterpret, and what is the correct way to interpret these mechanics?

Spells Now Interact Differently With Magic Actions

Not All Spells Can Be Cast Freely

Spells form the backbone of a spellcaster's arsenal - they need just the right Spells for any occasion, and even more so when engaging enemies in combat. Ideally, a spellcaster must have a mixture of damaging, utility, and even mobility Spells. This is how some Wizards end up casting a Fireball to nuke a battlefield, and then dish out Misty Step to get to a safe area before enemies react. Unfortunately, this kind of setup is actually wrong because of how spellcasting works in the game.

As it turns out, both Fifth Edition (2014) and the Revised Edition (2024) have different approaches to spellcasting rules that aim to balance the game. They are as follows:

• Fifth Edition: One Leveled Spell and one Cantrip per turn
• Revised Edition: One Leveled Spell per turn, but as many Cantrips and "free" castings as the Action Economy permits

With games like Baldur's Gate 3 allowing Leveled Spells to be cast whenever possible, it's no surprise players may misinterpret the mechanic by the time they play the actual TTRPG. These rules were put in place mostly to help balance encounters, as allowing full spellcasting even with Bonus Actions can deplete Spell Slots rather quickly.

Help Has To Be Very Explicit

The Bonus Can Only Be Applied With Specific Conditions

Image Source Revised Edition Player's Handbook

Despite many players creating powerful D&D builds and backstories fit for a protagonist, Dungeons & Dragons is still a cooperative game. Aside from exploring dungeons and solving problems from town to town, encounters also rely on teamwork to succeed. This is further encouraged by the Help Action, where a doer can "assist" in a target's Check and provide Advantage to the roll in question.

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However, this rule is commonly misinterpreted as something readily available when a target is about to do something. To clarify, Help isn't "always" an automatic option just because a character is close to an ally about to make an Ability Check or an Attack Roll. Instead, the Help Action only provides an Advantage to a target ally's next Ability Check or Attack Roll under specific circumstances:

• When Helping an Ability Check, they need to be close enough to help the ally physically or verbally.
• Helping with an Attack Roll requires the doer to be 5 feet away from the target. Both conditions require the specificity of the action that Help will be cast on.

Readying A Spell Is Very Sensitive

Breaking Concentration When Readying A Spell Also Uses The Spell Slot

Image from Revised Edition Player's Handbook

One of the more innovative mechanics introduced in Dungeons & Dragons gameplay is the Ready Action - essentially a way for characters to anticipate an event and have an appropriate countermeasure against it. Ordinarily, the Ready Action consumes an Action so a player can assign an Action to be done - say, make a Weapon Attack or interact with an object - as a Reaction as soon as a trigger event occurs.

This sounds simple enough until players start doing this with Spells. The premise remains the same: a Ready Action helps players prepare a Spell to be cast as a Reaction when a trigger is met. However, there are certain conditions to keep in mind:

• Readying a Spell requires Concentration, and breaking Concentration cancels the Readied Spell
• Readying a Spell consumes Components as normal, and they are consumed regardless of the Readied Spell's success
• Readying a Spell is only successful if cast as a Reaction via the trigger, or before the start of the character's next turn.

The most important and misunderstood caveat here is that breaking Concentration and failing to cast the Readied Spell will not refund the consumed Components - including the Spell Slot. This is because the act of charging the Spell includes actually already "casting" it, with Concentration just needed to delay the release of its effect.

There Is No Surprise Round, At Least Not Formally

There Is Only The Surprised Condition

Image from Revised Edition Dungeons and Dragons

Ambushes are an annoying occurrence in a Dungeons & Dragons session, especially when it happens to the party. If they stumble upon a bandit camp in the forest and they end up getting Surprised, they suffer an entire turn, practically being helpless to their initial attacks. Initiative only gets into play when the bandits make their first move, and only then is the order followed. If the party's Rogue is still alive, it's only around this time that they can score a counter-attack. A lot of players can relate to this situation, but it's also a wrong interpretation of the mechanics.

Surprised in Dungeons & Dragons is a condition applied to creatures, of which its effects vary depending on the edition:

• Original (2014): A Surprised creature cannot Move, make Actions, and Reactions until the start of their next turn
• Revised (2024): A Surprised creature rolls initiative at a Disadvantage

The important distinction here is that "A Surprised creature" is in play - meaning, there are creatures that might not be Surprised. Now, a Dungeon Master can choose which interpretation of the Surprised mechanic they want to follow. However, for tables that want to apply the homebrew Surprise Round into their tables, perhaps the 2014 mechanics add more weight to the condition.

Temporary HP Cannot Be Stacked

Only One Source Can Be Chosen At Any Given Time

Image from Revised Edition Dungeons and Dragons

Healers in Dungeons & Dragons need to pay close attention to their Healing abilities, as some of them do directly restore Hit Points while others grant Temporary Hit Points. As players may already know, Temp HP is a set of Hit Points that "absorb" damage before applying the rest to the character's HP. Given how valuable this resource can be, there are a myriad of ways to obtain it - whether from Spells, effects, or even items.

However, a common mistake players commit when dealing with Temp HP is attempting to stack them. After all, it's not like Temp HP can actually reach the 20s and above, right? Sadly, this isn't how the mechanics work. Since Temp HP is already "temporary" Hit Points, they cannot be stacked regardless of how many different sources a player has. On the bright side, they can repeatedly cast or use these Temp HP-granting sources, so they can have a buffer for damage throughout most encounters.

The 5-Foot Step Rule Does Not Exist In 5e

Disengage Is Still The Best Way To Safely Avoid Opportunity Attacks

Image from Revised Edition Player's Handbook

Opportunity Attacks can be among the deadliest mechanics a character can encounter in Dungeons & Dragons - especially in melee, where a frontline Fighter may meet their doom not at the hands of a boss but rather the attacks of minions whose space they have to enter to navigate the battlefield. Thankfully, some players do something called the 5-Foot Step, where they only move five feet and do no other movement afterwards. Doing this won't provoke an Opportunity Attack, allowing them to safely get distance between them and the closest enemy.

However, the 5-Foot Step is actually a rule taken from two major sources: first, D&D 3.5e, where it's part of its core ruleset. And secondly, the same 5-Foot Step mechanic from 3.5e that was adapted into Pathfinder, another TTRPG similar to Dungeons & Dragons. In parties with strict rules, the 5-Foot Step may not be allowed to carry over. This means the only "safe" way to get out of tricky engagements with nearby foes would be the Disengage Action - where, this time, the character doesn't do any other Action in exchange for going through an enemy's space without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Counterspell Is Not Limited

Not All Counterspells Must Come From Targets

Image from Complete Arcana 3.5e

Counterspell is one of the most unique mechanics introduced in Dungeons & Dragons, as it's essentially a Spell that uses up a Spell Slot in order to dispel a Spell of a similar strength. At the hands of a powerful-enough magic user like a Warlock, Counterspell can be an ace in the hole against a boss's more powerful tricks. And on the off-chance that the original caster Counterspells the player's Counterspell, the latter better have another Counterspell at their disposal to put the odds in their favor.

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However, this isn't necessarily the case. As games like Baldur's Gate 3 have demonstrated, any caster within range of another caster using a Spell can essentially Counterspell it - even Counterspell itself. What's important is that the said caster not only has the means to use Counterspell, but also has enough resources in the round to use it. In an all-spellcaster party, they might just have enough Counterspells to clap back at any attempt to interrupt their casts.

Moving Through Creatures Is Not Completely Illegal

Move Through Enemies With A Condition

Image taken from Dungeon Masters Guide of 3.5e

Movement is a crucial part of combat in D&D, especially when much of the fighting happens across a grid that determines which actions can be done with respect to the space characters are occupying. Most of the time, players want to move around characters they interact with, which shouldn't be a problem, as most characters can move an average of around six spaces (not including diagonal movement). However, in highly-populated game boards, players can actually consider moving through creatures, as long as they meet specific criteria.

For starters, characters can move through the spaces of other allies. This is imagined as an ally giving some space for the player to move around them, and they are not hostile, so this can be done without risk. Meanwhile, characters can also move through enemy space, as long as they are two sizes bigger or smaller than the enemy. This is imagined as moving beneath the legs of a large dragon, or easily skipping through a shrunken enemy's space.

Fall Damage Isn't As Fatal As One Would Seem

D&D Has An Equivalent For Terminal Velocity

Image taken from Perilous Voyage card of Magic the Gathering

Despite the glitz and glamor of living in a world of sword and sorcery, Dungeons & Dragons mechanics do have some level of realism with them. For instance, a character falling suffers 1d6 Bludgeoning Damage for every 10 feet they fall. Which means they can still die after falling from an incredibly high distance - explaining why some Spells like Feather Fall are invaluable to Sorcerers and other magic users.

However, if one were to be technical about it, Fall damage is perfectly survivable... With the right resources. Characters take 1d6 Bludgeoning every 10 feet they fall, up to a maximum of 20d6 (averaging 69, maximum of 120). This is regardless of the height, which reinterprets the real physical concept of terminal velocity. Interestingly enough, this is technically survivable with the right conditions, such as a Level 12 Fighter with +3 CON and Tough, which will bring their HP to around 138.

Diplomacy Doesn't Stop At Combat

There's Always Room For Negotiation Until There Isn't

Image from the Revised Edition Player's Handbook

Any D&D player knows their Dungeon Master has spent time preparing for certain eventualities that might happen throughout the session, and this is especially the case with encounters and the stat blocks of monsters they'll be bringing to the fold. Unfortunately, some encounters get bad enough that the party is either brought to the brink or results in actual character deaths.

This is perfectly avoidable if players remember one thing: there is always room for negotiation, until there isn't. When facing intelligent foes, players could try to reason with them or find some sort of compromise instead of resuming with the rest of the engagement. If the Dungeon Master is open to the idea, players may have unlocked an interesting subplot. At the worst, they may have surprised their Dungeon Master by taking their combat in an interesting direction.

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Dungeons & Dragons

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Created by

E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson

Movie

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Video Game(s)

Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Baldur's Gate 3, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2, Neverwinter, Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard, Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance

Creation Year

1974

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