If you've played much 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons, chances are you've seen a cowardly villain run for their life. More than likely, the player character with the highest speed quickly caught up to them and put an end to the villain's shenanigans. But what if we told you there's a more interesting way to handle this common situation?
Enter chases, a mechanic introduced on page 252 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. For simplicity's sake, a chase is a modified combat encounter that also includes other rules elements which make for a more heart-pounding scene. The focus is on bringing more fun to the table which is the whole reason we all show up to play D&D in the first place! Let's take a closer look at how chases can make that happen!
7 💜 🐬 Starting A Chase
A chase begins when a character attempts to flee. When the chase is initiated, the dungeon master decides the distance between the pursuers and their target. If the participants aren't already in combat, have them roll initiative. Just as well, if the chase involves any new characters during an ongoing combat, have them roll initiative as they arrive.
A chase works just like a regular combat initiative order while adding a few new rules to the mix. First, characters are allowed to dash a number of times equal to 3+ their Constitution modifier. You can dash more than that, but doing so requires your character to make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. If you fail this save, you suffer a level of exhaustion. It should be noted that 168澳洲幸运5🦩开奖网:characters who can dash twice per turn, such as the rogue and monk,🐼 still have bonus action dashes counted against their total number of dash actions. For example, if a rogue had already expended all of their free✤ dashes and then dashed twice on her turn, she would have to make a Constitution saving throw for both dashes.
6 Combat
Seeing as a dash happens during initiative, normal combat rules still apply. You are welcome to make an attack or cast a spell on your turn instead of dashing, however, in a chase all participants are strongly incentivized to dash. More on this in the escape factors below. One thing about normal combat rules that does change during a chase is the use of opportunity attacks. Since a chase represents all parties moving simultaneously, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:opportunity attacks cannot be made between chase participants. That being 🧜said, creatures that are not involved in the chase are welcome to make opportunity attacks against chase participants that pass by them.
5 Escape𝕴 Factors
During a chase, the figure being chased is provided an opportunity to escape at the end of each combat round. At that point, the chase target can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to slip aw🍌ay from its pursuers provided it left all of its pursuer's sights for at least a moment. If it gets to make this check, the result is compared against each pursuer's passive perception. If the target's Stealth check is higher than the greatest passive perception score amongst its pursuers, the target escapes.
Escape factors are circumstances surrounding the 🌼chase that can provide the target either advantage 🐷or disadvantage on its Stealth check. Examples of advantage could be that the target has many places to hide or is outpacing the party. Meanwhile, disadvantage might be incurred if the target has few places to hide, the target is running through a quiet area, or the lead pursuer is a ranger.
4 🌠 Complications
You may be thinking by now that this is all well and good, but won't the characters with the fastest movement still outpace everyone else? That's where complications come into play! Chase complications are by far the best reason to begin running chases in your game, introducing an element of randomness that not only evens the playing field between faster and slower characters but brings the game world to life, as well!
Here's how they work. At the end of each chase participant's turn, they roll a d20. Then, the dungeon master consults their chase table to see if a complication occurs. If one does, the complication affects the next participant in the chase initiative, not the one who rolled the die. Example tables are provided on page 254 of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Complications might include navigating a maze of cargo with an ability check, pushing through a throng of people with an ability check, or even a new creature joining the chase as it spots you and goes after you! These complications introduce random elements that might slow faster pursuers while leaving slower ones unhindered. That's the chaotic fun of chases!
3 Re✱solution
A chase is resolved in one of three ways: the pursuers give up on the chase, the pursuers catch their target, or th꧋e target escapes. Whatever the resolution, a chase is a great way to either foreshadow a future event or l🐼ead up into an exciting combat or roleplaying scene.
Most importantly, they're tons of fun! For instance, how could your players ever forget the moment they crashed through the forest after a group of faeries who stole their coin purses, only to draw the attention of a nearby young green dragon?!
2 Option: Split The Party ༒ 𒀰
Once you've become more accustomed to running chases, there are a couple of methods to spice them up even further. The first is to incentivize the party to do the one thing the🥂y never should: split up! In order to accomplish this goal, you'll need two targets to chase after heading in different directions. The easiest way to make this scenario happen is to have a group of baddies the party is chasing simply split off in different directions. If the players decide to split up as well and go after all of them, it's recommended to resolve each chase separately. Run one round of combat for one chase, then pivot into a round of combat for the other. This way, everyone at the table gets to stay a part of the action.
1 🐈 Option: Wait, Get Back Here!
A second and more hilarious way to turn a chase on its heels is to have the pursuers become the targets and the targets become the pursuers. Perh﷽aps the figure the party was chasing suddenly runs into the open arms of many more of his compani𝐆ons. Now the party is on the run from their original target! Run, Forest, run!!
