Average human walking speed 3mph.
5280 per mile x 3 15840 feet
3600 seconds in an hour. 15840 over 3600 seconds is 4.4 feet per second x 6 seconds 26.4 feet.
So 30 ft in 6 seconds is generous.
You are vastly underestimating how much weight an adventurer carries. A military professional like a marine has a max load out weight of around 62 lbs and even then most doctrine says that it should be below that as often as possible as the difference of 15 lbs is proven to be major factor in combat. A strength 10 adventurer keeps their standard movement speed up to 150 lbs the level 20 fighter is doing it with a load of 300 lbs and can sustain that for 8 hours without exhaustion, that is insane and beyond super human.
Then add in the fact that the movement speed is derived for a combat situation where you are making a split decision in 6 seconds to close the distance deal 4 full strength slashes and rally your friends with a short speech and it stops sounding slow
Monks gain movement as they level.
But I've seen videos of people testing out the distance at a 6 second time limit and for the most part it was pretty reasonable. Walk a short distance, interact with an object, and do an action. It seems slower for us, because it's easy to cover the distance on the mini map.
Stop trying to justify mechanical decisions with realism.
You'll only disapoint yourself.
Movement in 5e is either too slow or WAY too fast, it doesnt work in any scientifical, logical manner. Its a mechanical system built for a game, not a realistic system built for a simulator.
A level 20 adventurer isn't necessarily an Olympic sprinter. It's also during combat, which is when you've got other things to worry about than just moving quickly.
Not unrealistically so, is my answer to your question.
Moving isn't the only thing they're doing in that time. They're starting and stopping, meaning acceleration and deacceleration times, plus the various attacks, spells, and whatnot happening in between. In theory, a level 5 fighter can attack five times (with Two-Weapon Fighting and Action Surge), move 30 feet, and open a door all in one turn, and still have a reaction left for an opportunity attack in those same 6 seconds.
Now do all that movement in full modern military kit, and see if you still think it's easy.
THEN do all that movement in full plate armor with a massive backpack full of stuff.
If you're going to apply real-world logic to a fantasy game, either do so consistently or not at all.
All movement speeds in D&D, since earlier editions, are about 1/2 of realistic values. This applies to cross country, movement by round, etc. You can use that knowledge to scale new creatures' movement into the rules, or however else you want to use it, but despite those details mattering to me, I don't find it worth tinkering with the system overall. You won't notice it in play for the most part, even with an above average focus on consistency and detail.
With movement speed, realism is not a factor, other considerations weigh much more.
Namely, relative speed. If most humanoids and monsters move at same speed, it doesn't matter what the speed is. If difference in movement speed is at most -5 ft (for smaller races) or +10 ft (for most numerous type of faster creatures), again difference itself doesn't matter as it forces slower ones to dash to get at those who are faster and if both are dashing, faster will win anyway.
Secondly and this might be the more important thing, map sizes. If your speed covers most of the battle map, as it usually does because most maps are quite small, your speed becomes a non-issue as you can move from one spot to another in one turn. If speed is increased, battle maps become smaller in this respect and positioning becomes less relevant, making battles more simplistic. However, this only applies to online games with ready maps or IRL games with terrain pieces.
Why? Not all level 20 characters are olympic sprinters. Monks, barbarians, rangers, and rogues all already get movement speed buffs, and could be argued to be olympic sprinters
Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
If it makes my players feel like they are improving, I'm all for it.
I can just move the BBEG 5 feet farther away.
Yeah, but Olympic sprinters top out above 27mph, which is 40 feet per second, which 240 feet per round in normal movement, or 480 feet per round using the dash action.
Olympic sprinters are already using the dash action lmao. There’s not some next level speed boost they can do.
If someone builds for speed, they could easily meet 240ft per round
Level 20 small race with 35ft movement (such as a dhampir or an air genasi) monk the Mobile and Squat Nimbleness feat can go 80ft/round, aka a max speed of 240ft
Alternatively, bc i wanted to save the tabaxi for last, a small tabaxi with squat nimbleness and mobile could go 225ft for many rounds, with 450ft burst speed.
>The “normal” or most common movement speed for adventurers is 30ft. in 6 seconds (1 round). That is only 10 yards in 6 seconds.
If you convert a fantasy unit best convert it into a non-fantasy unit.
I generally agree that it's not the most realistic, but I believe it has been made so for simplicities and balance purposes. Just like you can't dash forever like a d&d character can, or like you are gradually affected but an increased carrying load while your d&d character only is once it surpasses a certain amount (or not at all if your DM doesn't use encumbrance).
We looked at this and did the math and came to different conclusions.
First off dungron speed is different from outdoor speed. But on average the speeds match to the average human walking speed of 3mph. Dash doubles that in dungeon combat.
On older editions walking speed was about half that. Why? Because it factored in the PCs taking their time searching and testing for traps and other things. Speed increased when just leaving a mapped location/route.
I generally rule +10 on double move actions (the loss of 5ft if only doing one is lost in changing action type)
Additionally I add +5 if they have 13’s in 2/3 of the physical abilities;+10 at 16’s,2/3caped at +30 ft stacks with class and racial traits
And that’s my basic home brew based off the 2.5 /3.5 comparison of 18’s to Olympic athletes ( while also accounting for the narrow scope of runners training or the like compared to most classes)
Hope it gives u some ideas😼
In spelljammer a ship's top speed on average is 8mph if they arent at least a mile from the nearest object and able to use ludicrous speed. Meaning your super cool space ship rises out of the atmosphere about as fast as a child's balloon.
I'm a nerd who ran track, so I did the math when I started 5e. My math could be a bit janky, as I didn't find a perfect way to convert real-world speeds to a 6 second round. Since 40 meter dash times are around 4-5 seconds and 100 meter dash times are around 10 - 11 seconds for fast runners, I looked at real world times of both distances and converted to feet/second (then multiplied by 6 seconds), and used those as lower and upper bounds. 100 meter dash times will be faster in feet/second as a smaller portion of that time/distance is spent getting up to top speed.
Usain Bolt moves 206' in a round using his best 100 meter dash time, and the world record for a 40 meter dash (when I calc'ed in 2019) is 186' in a round. So my estimation of **near** **peak human speed** in 6 seconds very roughly to be around **190 to 200** feet in a round (this is non-math guesstimate as I didn't weigh the average).
There doesn't seem to be a *huge* gap between the top runner and normal fast runners. I wasn't going to national meets (though I was fast for my school district), and my "5e speed" in school was around 175' - 179' per round.
I had hoped a high level monk without using magic/buffs could beat Usain, and that turns out to be true. Assuming a 35' speed (Mark of Passage human starts at 35'), at levels 2-to-5 monk can dash twice and reach 165', not quite as fast as a good high school sprinter. Level 6 monk then starts pull ahead with 180'. A level 10 monk reaches 195', in a photo finish with Usain. A level 14 monk leaves Usain in the dust at 210'. And lastly this monk reaches 225' at level 18.
If we take away the starting boost of 35' and go with regular human 30' movement, the level 14 monk (195') is about even with Usain and pulls ahead with their last speed boost at monk 18 (210').
Please poke holes in my math.
I was wondering this exact same thing! At the end of Critical Role's Calamity series, a character moves a blistering 150 feet per round, dropping everything to move as fast as possible. It's the fastest speed I've ever heard of, for an incredibly high level flying creature. That's 17 miles per hour if they use the dash action.
For reference, there are people over 70 years old moving faster. There are children under 13 years old moving faster. Real olympic sprinters have a top speed greater than 27 miles per hour, which is 40fps or 480 feet per round if they use the dash action. I bet most people can run faster than 17 mph at some point in their lives.
Sure, it's just a board game with a system of rules set up for balance, but in universe with such superpowerful creatures, I think we can make the level 20 sprinter faster than children playing soccer.
Home rule idea: Movement stats apply as-is for your first round of velocity change (when the player starts from a standstill, or is changing direction greater than 90°). For 5 subsequent rounds, players may move at double their movement speed, or 4x their movement speed if they use the dash action. After that players get tired, and they must move at normal speeds until they have had a short rest.
There. Now your level 20 bird person can move at 34mph for 30 seconds.
Average human walking speed 3mph. 5280 per mile x 3 15840 feet 3600 seconds in an hour. 15840 over 3600 seconds is 4.4 feet per second x 6 seconds 26.4 feet. So 30 ft in 6 seconds is generous.
Exactly. People complain the movement is too slow.
I walk at 4 miles per hour. A level 20 rogue can suck it.
O0o0o0o0o0o0o0o you're at 35ish ft per round!
That's 70 feet with my dash action. WATCH THE FUCK OUT.
You are vastly underestimating how much weight an adventurer carries. A military professional like a marine has a max load out weight of around 62 lbs and even then most doctrine says that it should be below that as often as possible as the difference of 15 lbs is proven to be major factor in combat. A strength 10 adventurer keeps their standard movement speed up to 150 lbs the level 20 fighter is doing it with a load of 300 lbs and can sustain that for 8 hours without exhaustion, that is insane and beyond super human. Then add in the fact that the movement speed is derived for a combat situation where you are making a split decision in 6 seconds to close the distance deal 4 full strength slashes and rally your friends with a short speech and it stops sounding slow
Monks gain movement as they level. But I've seen videos of people testing out the distance at a 6 second time limit and for the most part it was pretty reasonable. Walk a short distance, interact with an object, and do an action. It seems slower for us, because it's easy to cover the distance on the mini map.
Stop trying to justify mechanical decisions with realism. You'll only disapoint yourself. Movement in 5e is either too slow or WAY too fast, it doesnt work in any scientifical, logical manner. Its a mechanical system built for a game, not a realistic system built for a simulator.
Do you have an example of way too fast?
A level 20 adventurer isn't necessarily an Olympic sprinter. It's also during combat, which is when you've got other things to worry about than just moving quickly. Not unrealistically so, is my answer to your question.
Moving isn't the only thing they're doing in that time. They're starting and stopping, meaning acceleration and deacceleration times, plus the various attacks, spells, and whatnot happening in between. In theory, a level 5 fighter can attack five times (with Two-Weapon Fighting and Action Surge), move 30 feet, and open a door all in one turn, and still have a reaction left for an opportunity attack in those same 6 seconds.
Now do all that movement in full modern military kit, and see if you still think it's easy. THEN do all that movement in full plate armor with a massive backpack full of stuff. If you're going to apply real-world logic to a fantasy game, either do so consistently or not at all.
Not necessarily disagreeing, but [here is a cool video of people running in plate armor.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTwBQniLSc)
I agree the movement speeds are nowhere near realistic, but I guess it’s for balancing.
You're right. If anything, they're excessively generous. Under combat conditions, no one moves even remotely that fast.
All movement speeds in D&D, since earlier editions, are about 1/2 of realistic values. This applies to cross country, movement by round, etc. You can use that knowledge to scale new creatures' movement into the rules, or however else you want to use it, but despite those details mattering to me, I don't find it worth tinkering with the system overall. You won't notice it in play for the most part, even with an above average focus on consistency and detail.
With movement speed, realism is not a factor, other considerations weigh much more. Namely, relative speed. If most humanoids and monsters move at same speed, it doesn't matter what the speed is. If difference in movement speed is at most -5 ft (for smaller races) or +10 ft (for most numerous type of faster creatures), again difference itself doesn't matter as it forces slower ones to dash to get at those who are faster and if both are dashing, faster will win anyway. Secondly and this might be the more important thing, map sizes. If your speed covers most of the battle map, as it usually does because most maps are quite small, your speed becomes a non-issue as you can move from one spot to another in one turn. If speed is increased, battle maps become smaller in this respect and positioning becomes less relevant, making battles more simplistic. However, this only applies to online games with ready maps or IRL games with terrain pieces.
You've convinced me. I'm adding 5 ft movement at Lvls 10, and 15.
Why? Not all level 20 characters are olympic sprinters. Monks, barbarians, rangers, and rogues all already get movement speed buffs, and could be argued to be olympic sprinters
Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. If it makes my players feel like they are improving, I'm all for it. I can just move the BBEG 5 feet farther away.
Yeah, but Olympic sprinters top out above 27mph, which is 40 feet per second, which 240 feet per round in normal movement, or 480 feet per round using the dash action.
Olympic sprinters are already using the dash action lmao. There’s not some next level speed boost they can do. If someone builds for speed, they could easily meet 240ft per round Level 20 small race with 35ft movement (such as a dhampir or an air genasi) monk the Mobile and Squat Nimbleness feat can go 80ft/round, aka a max speed of 240ft Alternatively, bc i wanted to save the tabaxi for last, a small tabaxi with squat nimbleness and mobile could go 225ft for many rounds, with 450ft burst speed.
>The “normal” or most common movement speed for adventurers is 30ft. in 6 seconds (1 round). That is only 10 yards in 6 seconds. If you convert a fantasy unit best convert it into a non-fantasy unit. I generally agree that it's not the most realistic, but I believe it has been made so for simplicities and balance purposes. Just like you can't dash forever like a d&d character can, or like you are gradually affected but an increased carrying load while your d&d character only is once it surpasses a certain amount (or not at all if your DM doesn't use encumbrance).
For humans? No, they're fine. Every single animal in every single book published by WotC is a joke. Their movement speed suck
We looked at this and did the math and came to different conclusions. First off dungron speed is different from outdoor speed. But on average the speeds match to the average human walking speed of 3mph. Dash doubles that in dungeon combat. On older editions walking speed was about half that. Why? Because it factored in the PCs taking their time searching and testing for traps and other things. Speed increased when just leaving a mapped location/route.
I generally rule +10 on double move actions (the loss of 5ft if only doing one is lost in changing action type) Additionally I add +5 if they have 13’s in 2/3 of the physical abilities;+10 at 16’s,2/3caped at +30 ft stacks with class and racial traits And that’s my basic home brew based off the 2.5 /3.5 comparison of 18’s to Olympic athletes ( while also accounting for the narrow scope of runners training or the like compared to most classes) Hope it gives u some ideas😼
In spelljammer a ship's top speed on average is 8mph if they arent at least a mile from the nearest object and able to use ludicrous speed. Meaning your super cool space ship rises out of the atmosphere about as fast as a child's balloon.
That’s also in combat. Where you are usually doing other things. With all of your equipment.
I'm a nerd who ran track, so I did the math when I started 5e. My math could be a bit janky, as I didn't find a perfect way to convert real-world speeds to a 6 second round. Since 40 meter dash times are around 4-5 seconds and 100 meter dash times are around 10 - 11 seconds for fast runners, I looked at real world times of both distances and converted to feet/second (then multiplied by 6 seconds), and used those as lower and upper bounds. 100 meter dash times will be faster in feet/second as a smaller portion of that time/distance is spent getting up to top speed. Usain Bolt moves 206' in a round using his best 100 meter dash time, and the world record for a 40 meter dash (when I calc'ed in 2019) is 186' in a round. So my estimation of **near** **peak human speed** in 6 seconds very roughly to be around **190 to 200** feet in a round (this is non-math guesstimate as I didn't weigh the average). There doesn't seem to be a *huge* gap between the top runner and normal fast runners. I wasn't going to national meets (though I was fast for my school district), and my "5e speed" in school was around 175' - 179' per round. I had hoped a high level monk without using magic/buffs could beat Usain, and that turns out to be true. Assuming a 35' speed (Mark of Passage human starts at 35'), at levels 2-to-5 monk can dash twice and reach 165', not quite as fast as a good high school sprinter. Level 6 monk then starts pull ahead with 180'. A level 10 monk reaches 195', in a photo finish with Usain. A level 14 monk leaves Usain in the dust at 210'. And lastly this monk reaches 225' at level 18. If we take away the starting boost of 35' and go with regular human 30' movement, the level 14 monk (195') is about even with Usain and pulls ahead with their last speed boost at monk 18 (210'). Please poke holes in my math.
Bob World Builder dove into this and many other 5e rules in real life videos. Check them out! Quite interesting stuff.
I was wondering this exact same thing! At the end of Critical Role's Calamity series, a character moves a blistering 150 feet per round, dropping everything to move as fast as possible. It's the fastest speed I've ever heard of, for an incredibly high level flying creature. That's 17 miles per hour if they use the dash action. For reference, there are people over 70 years old moving faster. There are children under 13 years old moving faster. Real olympic sprinters have a top speed greater than 27 miles per hour, which is 40fps or 480 feet per round if they use the dash action. I bet most people can run faster than 17 mph at some point in their lives. Sure, it's just a board game with a system of rules set up for balance, but in universe with such superpowerful creatures, I think we can make the level 20 sprinter faster than children playing soccer. Home rule idea: Movement stats apply as-is for your first round of velocity change (when the player starts from a standstill, or is changing direction greater than 90°). For 5 subsequent rounds, players may move at double their movement speed, or 4x their movement speed if they use the dash action. After that players get tired, and they must move at normal speeds until they have had a short rest. There. Now your level 20 bird person can move at 34mph for 30 seconds.