Choose a race that has built-in extra mobility options like Winged Tiefling, Fairy, Aarakocra, Eladrin, or Shadar-Kai, and you can easily make hit-and-run attacks with Swashbuckler since you just have to attack to avoid the opportunity attack.
Getting Booming Blade is also a good idea, either through feats, multiclass, or ancestry. Since it uses your weapon attack, you don’t need a good mental stat for its attack roll, and it applies sneak as long as you’re using a finesse weapon. If you hit the enemy, you can back off and they’d have to take extra damage to approach you.
Sadly, as it’s a cantrip and not the Attack action, you can’t use dual wielding/two-weapon fighting with it. A level dip in Fighter can be a good idea to get shield proficiency to wield in your off hand. It’s called a swash-*buckler*, after all. A fighting style and second wind are nice bonuses, and options like Defense, Dueling, or Blind Fighting are all good picks.
Bonus suggestion if you’re interested in a multiclass build: go up to lv3 or 4 in fighter and pick up the Battle Master subclass. First of all, you get Action Surge so in case you miss your Booming Blade, you can try again. Pick up Precision Attack, Brace, and Quick Toss.
Since you’re making only one attack at a time, Precision significantly increases your reliability, and Brace gives you a way of attacking again as a reaction and applying Sneak Attack again (it’s once per turn, rather than round) as another punishment for your opponent to approach you. Quick Toss is a nice way of getting a bonus action attack for a second/third try and trigger your sneak attack if your Booming Blade misses.
If you go this route, I’d pick up Superior Technique as your fighting style, for an extra maneuver die and maneuver known, probably Riposte as another option to trigger a reaction attack.
I've played this, and I recommend taking the Athlete feat so you can climb away from people after hitting them. I climbed up curtains, certain walls, and if need be I used my grappling hook and climbed up the rope all so I could attack someone and be out of reach.
I was thinking about this just yesterday and realized that if you're specifically after the ability to attack and move away, the mobile feat on any martial character is better than having to take 3 levels in Rogue
That’s not the only reason, but it’s a class feature that adds mobility and a dodging to the rogue chassis which already does well with what he’s asking for
3 levels if swashbuckler, 2 if you can spare the bonus action to disengage. And no, Mobile is not better. If you end up in melee with multiple enemies, you have to attack each one of them to be able to slip away, which is not an ideal strategy. It’s a bit of a specific scenario, I can concede, but my point is that there are plenty of quicker or more effective options than Mobile.
Imho the idea of a "dodge tank" in DnD has to fire from all cylinders meaning you need high armor class, high saving throws and ideally some other means to simulate damage avoidance or redirection. A prime example of the latter is Rogue: EDIT2 while Uncanny Dodge works only against attacks and Evasion only against Dex save-based effects, both can lead to damage mitigation with whatever flavor you want to give it. ~~, and as much as Rogue doesn't have ways to directly boost saves (except Slippery Mind at high levels) Evasion Uncanny Dodge means even a Con save-based effet (White Dragon Breath) will do less damage, so you can flavor it as "dodging" part of the damage.~~ EDIT: ~~Evasion is nice, though limited to Dex save~~s, thanks u/YasAdMan .
Still, there are a couple of builds which tackle saves and AC at the same time. Let's take a high Dex Hexadin: Half-Elf, 13 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 16 Cha. Paladin 1, Hexblade 1, Paladin 2 to 7 (Oath of Glory to boost mobility). +2 Cha at level 4.
By level 8, you have +10 ft movement speed, 18 Cha and a +4 Aura of Protection (+4 to all saving throws). You also have 19 AC in mage armor + shield (+1 magical studded leather armor, Defense Fighting Style), 24 AC when you pop the Shield spell. Your stock movement speed is 40 ft and you get +10 ft to all jumps when your CD is active.
If your GM allows you to add Longstrider and/or Jump to your Paladin spell list, things get even crazier. Otherwise, dip Bard and get Longstrider the regular way, or dip Sorc and get Jump the regular way (nab Absorb Elements too).
Congrats on your first reddit post!
>Evasion means even a Con save-based effet (White Dragon Breath) will do less damage, so you can flavor it as "dodging" part of the damage.
What do you mean by this part? Evasion only affects Dex saves last I checked.
Thanks I updated my post.
Btw, if I take a Wizard dip on Arcane trickster, grab Absorb Elements, and call it "Supreme Dodge", I guess that at least works vs Con-based dragon breaths.
Take a 2 level dip for arcane deflection from war wizard, you aren't casting many levelled spells in combat anyway so that +2 AC or +4 to saves could be massibe
You're welcome! only thing I'd add is that if your build happens to rely on Wisdom (think Ranger, Monk...) then Peace Cleric 1 offers quite a bit in the saves department. It's similar to a discount Armor of Protection imho, and it does work for the whole team. Thus if your idea of a speed&evasion character is a Ranger and you want boosted saves,, Peace Cleric 1 exists.
Monk and Rogue can both Dash as a bonus action, although Monk has to spend a resource for it. Orc gets a limited version (legacy orc must move towards an enemy, MotM orc can only do it PB times per day).
Monk can Dodge as a bonus action by spending a resource.
Rogue and Goblin can Disengage as a bonus action.
Monk gets increased movement speed as you level, and eventually the ability to run up walls or across water.
Air Genasi, Centaur, Wood Elf, Satyr, and the Mobile feat give you increased movement speed. Half-wood elves can optionally get increased movement speed. Swiftstride Shifters get increased movement speed while shifted. Tabaxi can increase their movement speed for one turn and have to spend a turn not moving to recharge the ability. Legacy aarakocra have increased fly speed. Hadozee can glide their walking speed when they fall.
Astral Elf, Eladrin, and Shadar-kai can teleport as a bonus action. Harengon can jump as a bonus action.
Swashbuckler Rogue, Chronurgy Wizard, War Wizard, Gloom Stalker Ranger, Harengon, and Alert feat all increase your initiative.
Swashbuckler Rogue and Mobile feat both mean you can't be targeted with an opportunity attack by a creature you attack.
Rogue, Goliath, and Hadozee can reduce damage they take. Monk can reduce damage they take from a ranged weapon attack or falling.
Overall, I would recommend a Monk with the Mobile feat, preferably with a race that has increased movement speed. (I vote centaur. It's got the highest base speed except legacy aarakocra, and a centaur running up a vertical surface is funny to me. Although a hadozee running up a wall, falling at the end of their turn, and gliding could get you some serious distance.) If you can fit it in, two levels of Rogue gets you some additional out of combat utility with skills, resource-free bonus action disengage/dash, and an extra d6 of damage if you make use of a finesse or ranged weapon and meet sneak attack requirements.
Tell me why the first thing I thought of when you mentioned the Centaur was a mental clip of a Centaur running across water with their hair flying behind them in the wind.....
Variant Human Monk with the Mobile feat would have 50ft movement and the ability to attack and move without taking opportunity attacks. Your speed will continue to improve as you level up and you will get Evasion at the same level as Rogue.This is an optimization sub, but if Swashbuckler was suggested and you find that appealing, you might as well consider a Monk (neither are strong).
Monk subclass Drunken Master (from Xanathar) lets you disengage whenever you Flurry, and redirect attacks at other people at lv6 (however, this costs 1 Ki, which a Monk never has an excess of).
Yeah, been told about drunken master a lot, and u checked out the features and it looks great, maybe I’ll reflavour the drunk part as my character being really high all the time lol
The archetype of a drunk master doesn’t actually have to be drunk, it’s more about unpredictable movements and chaotic fighting style that’s secretly extremely polished and exact. The drunken master sways and dodges in a way that can look like a drunk guy stumbling around, but in reality it’s a martial art.
Monk and rogue are good shouts.
For martially casters you have the options of bladesinger and swords bard, though both don't get extra attack until 6.
Bladesingers can have pretty high AC complemented by shield castings for dodging, and bladesong, ashardelon's stride, and long Strider can all help with mobility and moving around the battlefield freely.
Swords bards only get the 10 extra feet of mobility when attacking and longstider, but blade flourishes and silvery barbs and later magical secrets of shield and ash stride can boost both further too.
The extra reach of the bugbear race lets you stay out of a lot of enemies range and avoid attacks of opportunity. Their first rounds can quickly become devastating.
Monks get great speed and are great strikers. Starting at lvl 5 having two attacks helps a ton. Ki is best spent on stunning strike and disengage/dodge when needed. Also being a short rest resource, you don’t need to feel guilty for using it.
The one dnd playtest monk is pretty solid! Im assuming The final version will be posted on their YouTube relatively shortly so you can get a good idea of what they changed, but mostly they made it so that a lot of your evasion and movement abilities no longer cost ki and overall increased the amount of ki you’ll have throughout the day.
The Monk in the new PHB is going to be great for this. They changed Deflect Missiles to just be Deflect Attacks so it works for melee attacks too, plus they gave non-ki options for mobility on the battlefield
Swashbuckler rogue + Monk levels for extra movement speed to get/stay further away, as well as step of the wind for bonus action dodge when cunning action disengage isn't enough
An attack that doesn't meet your AC is no different to an attack that misses, so high armour can be flavoured as dodging well.
High movement is thematic.
Mobile is a nice feat. Extra move speed and you don't provoke Opportunity Attacks from targets you attack.
Rogue's Cunning Action fits the theme too.
Use a weapon with Reach and stay out of enemy melee range. Battle Master fighter, GWM, PAM, sentinel. Boom done.
I know you said you'd prefer to be a martial character, but I would really recommend that if this campaign is gonna go to a higher level, consider taking 5 or 6 levels in Bladesinger specifically for the spell Ashardalon's Stride. This may or may not fit the play style you had in mind, but the spell basically gives you a speed boost to let you run around the battlefield dealing damage to anyone you run past without getting hit.
I'm playing a Tabaxi Hexbuckler now & I think he's the king of Speed. (Without having a big investment in it.)
The Tabaxi get **Feline Agility**. *Your reflexes and agility allow you to move with a burst of speed. When you move on your turn in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the turn. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.*
Mix that with Swashbuckler Rogue. (Free disengage when you attack) It's not uncommon for me to start combat with 30' move + 30' BA dash. Kick in Feline Agility and that 60' is now 120' & pick out a creature that's 5' away from the others. Hit him with a Booming Blade + Sneak Attack, then be able to move far enough away to be out of melee range of any of them. Next turn, Steady Aim (resets Feline Agility) short bow w/adv to hit a creature. Then, on the next turn, move + Feline Agility and finish off one that's 1/2 dead.
If you really want to push it, you could play a different subclass of Rogue and take the Mobile feat. It adds 10' extra movement. Or multi into Monk or Barb to get the boost to movement, too.
Rogues are the masters of this since they can disengage as a bonus action.
Monks get this too in the new edition of dnd si you could consider that.
I'm gonna suggest a martial caster build tho, built around use of ashardalons stride. It gives you +20 move speed, you don't trigger opportunity attacks and automatic 1d6 fire damage to each creature you move adjacent to.
Play a dog using the sidekick rules. Best evasion. Seems reasonable and underpowered at first, but keep in mind: your DM is really going to do THAT to a dog?
Swashbuckler rogue is pretty good for this. Hitting someone lets you move away without opportunity attacks triggering
Correction. You don't have to hit them to do that, just attack them.
That is an important correction, thank you sir
That sounds good, plus rogue has all the dodge stuff, and swashbuckler means I’m not just hiding the whole time
Choose a race that has built-in extra mobility options like Winged Tiefling, Fairy, Aarakocra, Eladrin, or Shadar-Kai, and you can easily make hit-and-run attacks with Swashbuckler since you just have to attack to avoid the opportunity attack.
Getting Booming Blade is also a good idea, either through feats, multiclass, or ancestry. Since it uses your weapon attack, you don’t need a good mental stat for its attack roll, and it applies sneak as long as you’re using a finesse weapon. If you hit the enemy, you can back off and they’d have to take extra damage to approach you. Sadly, as it’s a cantrip and not the Attack action, you can’t use dual wielding/two-weapon fighting with it. A level dip in Fighter can be a good idea to get shield proficiency to wield in your off hand. It’s called a swash-*buckler*, after all. A fighting style and second wind are nice bonuses, and options like Defense, Dueling, or Blind Fighting are all good picks. Bonus suggestion if you’re interested in a multiclass build: go up to lv3 or 4 in fighter and pick up the Battle Master subclass. First of all, you get Action Surge so in case you miss your Booming Blade, you can try again. Pick up Precision Attack, Brace, and Quick Toss. Since you’re making only one attack at a time, Precision significantly increases your reliability, and Brace gives you a way of attacking again as a reaction and applying Sneak Attack again (it’s once per turn, rather than round) as another punishment for your opponent to approach you. Quick Toss is a nice way of getting a bonus action attack for a second/third try and trigger your sneak attack if your Booming Blade misses. If you go this route, I’d pick up Superior Technique as your fighting style, for an extra maneuver die and maneuver known, probably Riposte as another option to trigger a reaction attack.
I've played this, and I recommend taking the Athlete feat so you can climb away from people after hitting them. I climbed up curtains, certain walls, and if need be I used my grappling hook and climbed up the rope all so I could attack someone and be out of reach.
Can't you already do that with Cunning Action?
Yeah, but I this lets you keep your bonus action
I am assuming for other stuff like a Dash or an offhand attack?
Yep
I was thinking about this just yesterday and realized that if you're specifically after the ability to attack and move away, the mobile feat on any martial character is better than having to take 3 levels in Rogue
That’s not the only reason, but it’s a class feature that adds mobility and a dodging to the rogue chassis which already does well with what he’s asking for
3 levels if swashbuckler, 2 if you can spare the bonus action to disengage. And no, Mobile is not better. If you end up in melee with multiple enemies, you have to attack each one of them to be able to slip away, which is not an ideal strategy. It’s a bit of a specific scenario, I can concede, but my point is that there are plenty of quicker or more effective options than Mobile.
Move away from anyone*
Imho the idea of a "dodge tank" in DnD has to fire from all cylinders meaning you need high armor class, high saving throws and ideally some other means to simulate damage avoidance or redirection. A prime example of the latter is Rogue: EDIT2 while Uncanny Dodge works only against attacks and Evasion only against Dex save-based effects, both can lead to damage mitigation with whatever flavor you want to give it. ~~, and as much as Rogue doesn't have ways to directly boost saves (except Slippery Mind at high levels) Evasion Uncanny Dodge means even a Con save-based effet (White Dragon Breath) will do less damage, so you can flavor it as "dodging" part of the damage.~~ EDIT: ~~Evasion is nice, though limited to Dex save~~s, thanks u/YasAdMan . Still, there are a couple of builds which tackle saves and AC at the same time. Let's take a high Dex Hexadin: Half-Elf, 13 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 16 Cha. Paladin 1, Hexblade 1, Paladin 2 to 7 (Oath of Glory to boost mobility). +2 Cha at level 4. By level 8, you have +10 ft movement speed, 18 Cha and a +4 Aura of Protection (+4 to all saving throws). You also have 19 AC in mage armor + shield (+1 magical studded leather armor, Defense Fighting Style), 24 AC when you pop the Shield spell. Your stock movement speed is 40 ft and you get +10 ft to all jumps when your CD is active. If your GM allows you to add Longstrider and/or Jump to your Paladin spell list, things get even crazier. Otherwise, dip Bard and get Longstrider the regular way, or dip Sorc and get Jump the regular way (nab Absorb Elements too). Congrats on your first reddit post!
>Evasion means even a Con save-based effet (White Dragon Breath) will do less damage, so you can flavor it as "dodging" part of the damage. What do you mean by this part? Evasion only affects Dex saves last I checked.
Thank you! I meant Uncanny Dodge!
But Uncanny Dodge only effects attacks, not save based effects?
Thanks I updated my post. Btw, if I take a Wizard dip on Arcane trickster, grab Absorb Elements, and call it "Supreme Dodge", I guess that at least works vs Con-based dragon breaths.
Take a 2 level dip for arcane deflection from war wizard, you aren't casting many levelled spells in combat anyway so that +2 AC or +4 to saves could be massibe
Yeah, definitely!
All of this sounds awesome, thanks
You're welcome! only thing I'd add is that if your build happens to rely on Wisdom (think Ranger, Monk...) then Peace Cleric 1 offers quite a bit in the saves department. It's similar to a discount Armor of Protection imho, and it does work for the whole team. Thus if your idea of a speed&evasion character is a Ranger and you want boosted saves,, Peace Cleric 1 exists.
Monk and Rogue can both Dash as a bonus action, although Monk has to spend a resource for it. Orc gets a limited version (legacy orc must move towards an enemy, MotM orc can only do it PB times per day). Monk can Dodge as a bonus action by spending a resource. Rogue and Goblin can Disengage as a bonus action. Monk gets increased movement speed as you level, and eventually the ability to run up walls or across water. Air Genasi, Centaur, Wood Elf, Satyr, and the Mobile feat give you increased movement speed. Half-wood elves can optionally get increased movement speed. Swiftstride Shifters get increased movement speed while shifted. Tabaxi can increase their movement speed for one turn and have to spend a turn not moving to recharge the ability. Legacy aarakocra have increased fly speed. Hadozee can glide their walking speed when they fall. Astral Elf, Eladrin, and Shadar-kai can teleport as a bonus action. Harengon can jump as a bonus action. Swashbuckler Rogue, Chronurgy Wizard, War Wizard, Gloom Stalker Ranger, Harengon, and Alert feat all increase your initiative. Swashbuckler Rogue and Mobile feat both mean you can't be targeted with an opportunity attack by a creature you attack. Rogue, Goliath, and Hadozee can reduce damage they take. Monk can reduce damage they take from a ranged weapon attack or falling. Overall, I would recommend a Monk with the Mobile feat, preferably with a race that has increased movement speed. (I vote centaur. It's got the highest base speed except legacy aarakocra, and a centaur running up a vertical surface is funny to me. Although a hadozee running up a wall, falling at the end of their turn, and gliding could get you some serious distance.) If you can fit it in, two levels of Rogue gets you some additional out of combat utility with skills, resource-free bonus action disengage/dash, and an extra d6 of damage if you make use of a finesse or ranged weapon and meet sneak attack requirements.
Thanks for all of this info! When you said about the centaur running up a vertical surface, I immediately thought of Skyrim lmao
Tell me why the first thing I thought of when you mentioned the Centaur was a mental clip of a Centaur running across water with their hair flying behind them in the wind.....
Variant Human Monk with the Mobile feat would have 50ft movement and the ability to attack and move without taking opportunity attacks. Your speed will continue to improve as you level up and you will get Evasion at the same level as Rogue.This is an optimization sub, but if Swashbuckler was suggested and you find that appealing, you might as well consider a Monk (neither are strong).
I feel like the bare fisted style that monk has fits better with what I’m going for, so this is perfect, thank you
Monk subclass Drunken Master (from Xanathar) lets you disengage whenever you Flurry, and redirect attacks at other people at lv6 (however, this costs 1 Ki, which a Monk never has an excess of).
Yeah, been told about drunken master a lot, and u checked out the features and it looks great, maybe I’ll reflavour the drunk part as my character being really high all the time lol
The archetype of a drunk master doesn’t actually have to be drunk, it’s more about unpredictable movements and chaotic fighting style that’s secretly extremely polished and exact. The drunken master sways and dodges in a way that can look like a drunk guy stumbling around, but in reality it’s a martial art.
I know about this, just trying to be funny
Gotta get that supply of "special cabbages" *wink wink*
Going athlete background and getting under common as my language lol
Patient defense will help.
Very much this. Not only are you a speed demon, but you are protecting allies by doing it https://youtu.be/KZqCIpjg5XM?si=XzMjESuQMkxYa8o_
Monk and rogue are good shouts. For martially casters you have the options of bladesinger and swords bard, though both don't get extra attack until 6. Bladesingers can have pretty high AC complemented by shield castings for dodging, and bladesong, ashardelon's stride, and long Strider can all help with mobility and moving around the battlefield freely. Swords bards only get the 10 extra feet of mobility when attacking and longstider, but blade flourishes and silvery barbs and later magical secrets of shield and ash stride can boost both further too.
The extra reach of the bugbear race lets you stay out of a lot of enemies range and avoid attacks of opportunity. Their first rounds can quickly become devastating. Monks get great speed and are great strikers. Starting at lvl 5 having two attacks helps a ton. Ki is best spent on stunning strike and disengage/dodge when needed. Also being a short rest resource, you don’t need to feel guilty for using it.
I know you said martial, but 3 levels of any caster class that gives you mirror image really helps create the vision you’re looking for.
The one dnd playtest monk is pretty solid! Im assuming The final version will be posted on their YouTube relatively shortly so you can get a good idea of what they changed, but mostly they made it so that a lot of your evasion and movement abilities no longer cost ki and overall increased the amount of ki you’ll have throughout the day.
The Monk in the new PHB is going to be great for this. They changed Deflect Missiles to just be Deflect Attacks so it works for melee attacks too, plus they gave non-ki options for mobility on the battlefield
I heard, they’re basically turning monk into ultra instinct lmao
It’s awesome lol
Where did you find what exactly they're changing?
Gloomstalker Ranger Tabaxi utilizing Zephyr Strike.
Swashbuckler rogue + Monk levels for extra movement speed to get/stay further away, as well as step of the wind for bonus action dodge when cunning action disengage isn't enough
[удалено]
Does that have the dodging part though? Having both is the hard part I’m having
An attack that doesn't meet your AC is no different to an attack that misses, so high armour can be flavoured as dodging well. High movement is thematic. Mobile is a nice feat. Extra move speed and you don't provoke Opportunity Attacks from targets you attack. Rogue's Cunning Action fits the theme too. Use a weapon with Reach and stay out of enemy melee range. Battle Master fighter, GWM, PAM, sentinel. Boom done.
Monk basically is all this. Mercy is generally considered the best subclass.
I know you said you'd prefer to be a martial character, but I would really recommend that if this campaign is gonna go to a higher level, consider taking 5 or 6 levels in Bladesinger specifically for the spell Ashardalon's Stride. This may or may not fit the play style you had in mind, but the spell basically gives you a speed boost to let you run around the battlefield dealing damage to anyone you run past without getting hit.
My [backup character](https://www.reddit.com/r/3d6/s/vEBmZRG2LB) might be something you are interested in.
I'm playing a Tabaxi Hexbuckler now & I think he's the king of Speed. (Without having a big investment in it.) The Tabaxi get **Feline Agility**. *Your reflexes and agility allow you to move with a burst of speed. When you move on your turn in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the turn. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.* Mix that with Swashbuckler Rogue. (Free disengage when you attack) It's not uncommon for me to start combat with 30' move + 30' BA dash. Kick in Feline Agility and that 60' is now 120' & pick out a creature that's 5' away from the others. Hit him with a Booming Blade + Sneak Attack, then be able to move far enough away to be out of melee range of any of them. Next turn, Steady Aim (resets Feline Agility) short bow w/adv to hit a creature. Then, on the next turn, move + Feline Agility and finish off one that's 1/2 dead. If you really want to push it, you could play a different subclass of Rogue and take the Mobile feat. It adds 10' extra movement. Or multi into Monk or Barb to get the boost to movement, too.
Rogues are the masters of this since they can disengage as a bonus action. Monks get this too in the new edition of dnd si you could consider that. I'm gonna suggest a martial caster build tho, built around use of ashardalons stride. It gives you +20 move speed, you don't trigger opportunity attacks and automatic 1d6 fire damage to each creature you move adjacent to.
Tabaxi monk with mobile is the epitome of speed and elusiveness
Play a dog using the sidekick rules. Best evasion. Seems reasonable and underpowered at first, but keep in mind: your DM is really going to do THAT to a dog?