D&D 5E Dodge and "Riposte"

[Whithers]

I am considering adding a bonus action to the Dodge.

Anytime a character takes Dodge as their action, once per round, they may Riposte as a bonus action if the opponent would have missed on a natural roll of 1-9. If their roll of 2-9 would have hit had the character not been dodging, then there can be no riposte.

I feel this can potentially decrease the number of rounds of combat with a legitimate implementation of a common heroic story element.

Open to constructive debate.

 

[TallIan]

There is a battle master manoeuver called riposte with a similar effect.

Your version does sound a little fiddly to calculate though. If you really want to keep it though, maybe just allow a riposte on a miss by 10 or if both d20 rolls would miss or whatever works best. Also consider something to replace the BM riposte, or seriously buff it.

EDIT: I should say I am not a fan of this idea as if seriously improves the dodge action, which should be a costly (in terms of action economy) choice of, "I want to hit" vs "I don't want to BE hit".

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

It should probably be a Reaction rather than Bonus action: generally bonus actions should be something that you take during your turn rather than someone else's.
This would limit it to once per round rather than once per turn as well.

Perhaps a mechanic more like "When taking the dodge action and your opponent is attacking with disadvantage, you may use your Reaction to make a single attack against them if both of their attack rolls would have missed."

 

[Xeviat]

I like if both Attack rolls would miss. I would bake this into a feat, not add to the base Dodge ability.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jaelis]

I feel this can potentially decrease the number of rounds of combat with a legitimate implementation of a common heroic story element.

It seems like this would encourage characters to dodge more often, which seems like it would make combat take longer?

 

[77IM]

Are your combats slow because people keep dodging too much???

To really speed things up, give the barbarian's Reckless Attack to everyone. When you start getting bored, all the monsters just start Reckless Attacking. It makes some sense; they are getting desperate. It also turns a tedious mop-up phase into a tense Mutually Assured Destruction.

 

[cooperjer]

I like the idea of adding something to the dodge action to make combat end sooner. However, instead of riposte, change it to disarm. A creature that has a weapon removed most likely will stop fighting or attempt to retrieve the weapon. If the weapon has been kicked away then it's not easily retrieved and there is even more reason to stop fighting. This assumes the creature fighting has a desire to live to see the next day.

I would recommend using the Reaction as mentioned above. If you use the disarm feature use the rules in the DMG that allows a Strength (Athletics) check DC of the attack score to keep the weapon in hand.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I like the idea of adding something to the dodge action to make combat end sooner. However, instead of riposte, change it to disarm. A creature that has a weapon removed most likely will stop fighting or attempt to retrieve the weapon. If the weapon has been kicked away then it's not easily retrieved and there is even more reason to stop fighting. This assumes the creature fighting has a desire to live to see the next day.

Adding special disarm rules wouldn't actually make the combat end sooner. It would just encourage players to not play characters that depend on weapons. Expect to see more monks and spellcasters, and fewer barbarians or paladins.

 

[pukunui]

As a DM whose monsters regularly go up against PCs who use the Dodge action, I can say that it's powerful enough on its own. Disadvantage is nasty.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

As a DM whose monsters regularly go up against PCs who use the Dodge action, I can say that it's powerful enough on its own. Disadvantage is nasty.

Yes. There's an interesting rocks-paper-scissors dynamic though between attack, Dodge, and Grapple.