T RIPPIN B ALLS FOR F UN AND P ROFIT

T HE 5 TH ED . T RIP A TTACK B EING P RONE

In 5th ed. resolving trip attacks is pretty simple. The ba- Being on the ground is a sucky place to be when pe-
sics are laid out in the section on shoving folks around, ople are trying to stab you. About the only nice thing
since if you win a shove you can knock your opponent about being prone is that people who are trying to shoot
prone. Like grappling there are some size limitations. you have disadvantage. In all other cases - yuck! While
prone:
SHOVE
A prone creatures only movement option is to
Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee crawl, unless it stands up and thereby ends the con-
attack to shove a creature, either to knock it prone or dition.
push it away from you. If youre able to make multiple
attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls.
of them.
The target of your shove must be no more than one An attack roll against the creature has advantage
size larger than you, and it must be within your re- if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature. Ot-
ach. You make a Strength (Athletics) check contested herwise, the attack roll has disadvantage.
by the targets Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acro-
batics)check (the target chooses the ability to use). If Well thats no good. How do you get of of being prone?
you win the contest, you either knock the target prone Well to stand up it:
or push it 5 feet away from you.
. . . costs an amount of movement equal to half your
The only real tweak in this comes from the Fighters speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must
combat maneuver Trip Attack which states spend 15 feet of movement to stand up. You cant stand
up if you dont have enough movement left or if your
speed is 0.
TRIP ATTACK
To move while prone, you must crawl or use magic
When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can such as teleportation. Every foot of movement while
expend one superiority die to attempt to knock the tar- crawling costs 1 extra foot. Crawling 1 foot in difficult
get down. You add the superiority die to the attacks terrain, therefore, costs 3 feet of movement.
damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it
must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, So while it isnt completely pants (no longer provoking
you knock the target prone. an attack of opportunity to stand up), it isnt exactly a trip
to the land of milk and honey.
Instead of making a contested roll as you do with a
shove, the target of the Fighters Trip Attack simply needs
to make a strength save. The DC of this save is set by the
players maneuver save DC of (8 + proficiency level +
strength or dexterity modifier). If they are large or smal-
ler and fail this save, they fall down and are prone, as if
they lost the shove contest. This is really the only weird
statement. With a shove you can knock a creature prone
as long as it is up to one size class larger than you, but
trip attack specifies a size of large or smaller. This really
would only be an issue if the Trip Attack user finds some
way of increasing their size class. I tried to find a clari-
fication on it from Mike Mearls, but have been unable to
do so thus far.

T RIPPIN B ALLS FOR F UN AND P ROFIT

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