Your Turn in Combat, Move, Action, Bonus, Reaction

New players freeze on their first turn in a fight. Not from fear of the goblin: from not knowing what they are allowed to do. The answer fits on one line, and the SRD gives it.

On your turn, you can move a distance up to your Speed and take one action. You decide whether to move first or take your action first.

Everything else in this post hangs off that sentence.

The round, and who goes first

A round "represents about 6 seconds in the game world." Combat runs in three steps: the GM sets positions, everyone rolls Initiative, then each creature takes a turn in order until the fight stops.

Initiative is a Dexterity check. The GM ranks the totals from highest to lowest, and "the Initiative order remains the same from round to round." A group of identical monsters rolls once and acts together.

Ties have a rule too. The GM orders tied monsters, the players order tied characters, and the GM breaks a tie between a monster and a character.

Surprise

If a combatant is surprised by combat starting, that combatant has Disadvantage on their Initiative roll.

Surprise no longer costs you a turn. It costs you a place in line. Take two creatures with the same Dexterity modifier. Rolling straight, each beats the other 47.5% of the time, with a 5% tie. Surprised, you roll two d20s and keep the lower: now you beat the other creature only 30.9% of the time. The tie chance stays exactly 5%.

Moving

You can move up to your Speed, or not at all. A Speed of 30 feet is 6 squares on a grid. Difficult Terrain (rubble, steep stairs, snow) costs 1 extra foot per foot.

You can split the move around everything else you do:

For example, if you have a Speed of 30 feet, you could go 10 feet, take an action, and then go 20 feet.

Dropping Prone costs nothing: no action and no Speed.

Your one action

The SRD lists the main actions: Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Help, Hide, Influence, Magic, Ready, Search, Study and Utilize. You take one. Your class features and a monster's stat block add more, and you can describe something else entirely; then the GM tells you whether it works and what to roll.

Three of them earn a word here:

• Dash gives you "extra movement equal to your Speed" for the turn. A Speed of 30 becomes 60.
• Dodge gives attackers Disadvantage against you and gives you Advantage on Dexterity saves until your next turn, unless you are Incapacitated or your Speed is 0.
• Ready lets you hold your action for a trigger you name. The SRD's own example: "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it." When the trigger comes, you spend your Reaction to act.

Stuck for a choice? The rules say so themselves: "consider taking the defensive Dodge action or the Ready action to delay acting."

The free things

Two things cost neither your action nor your move.

Talking. "Brief utterances and gestures" are free. A speech or an attempt to persuade a foe takes an action, usually Influence.

One object. You can interact with one object for free, "during either your move or action." Open the door as you stride through it. A second object, or a stuck door, takes the Utilize action.

The Bonus Action you might not have

Most characters have no Bonus Action at all until a feature gives them one:

You can take a Bonus Action only when a special ability, a spell, or another feature of the game states that you can do something as a Bonus Action. You otherwise don't have a Bonus Action to take.

You get one per turn, at a time you choose. The Fighter's Second Wind is a level 1 example: "As a Bonus Action, you can use it to regain Hit Points equal to 1d10 plus your Fighter level." If you can't find "Bonus Action" on your sheet, you don't have one yet, and you have lost nothing.

The Reaction, on anyone's turn

A Reaction is "an instant response to a trigger of some kind, which can occur on your turn or on someone else's." You get one, and it comes back at the start of your next turn.

The common one is the Opportunity Attack. When a creature you can see leaves your reach, you can use your Reaction to make one melee attack against it, "right before it leaves your reach." The same goes for you: walk away from a goblin and it swings. Take the Disengage action and it can't. Being thrown, falling past it, or teleporting never provokes one either.

One turn, start to finish

A level 1 Fighter with Speed 30 and a Greatsword (+5 to hit, 2d6+3 damage) stands 25 feet from a goblin, behind a closed door.

1. Move 25 feet, opening the door on the way. That is the free object.
2. Attack: roll a d20 and add 5. On a hit, 2d6+3 damage.
3. Bonus Action: bloodied after the last round, the Fighter takes Second Wind and regains 1d10+1 Hit Points.
4. 5 feet of move left. Stepping away now would give the goblin an Opportunity Attack. The Fighter stays.

Then the goblin's turn, and the Fighter's Reaction waits for it.

At the table

Write your Speed in squares on your sheet. Circle every feature that says "Bonus Action" or "Reaction." When your turn comes, ask three questions in order: where do I move, what is my one action, and do I have a Bonus Action? Everyone else at the table will thank you for the speed.

The Book of Dice covers the d20 in Part I, The Object, and every way of rolling it in Part III.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.