Movement

Swimming across a rushing river, sneaking down a dungeon corridor, scaling a treacherous mountain slope—all sorts of movement play a key role in fantasy gaming adventures.

The GM can summarize the adventurers’ movement without calculating exact distances or travel times: “You travel through the forest and find the dungeon entrance late in the evening of the third day.” Even in a dungeon, particularly a large dungeon or a cave network, the GM can summarize movement between encounters: “After killing the guardian at the entrance to the ancient dwarven stronghold, you consult your map, which leads you through miles of echoing corridors to a chasm bridged by a narrow stone arch.”

Sometimes it’s important, though, to know how long it takes to get from one spot to another, whether the answer is in days, hours, or minutes. The rules for determining travel time depend on two factors: the speed and travel pace of the creatures moving and the terrain they’re moving over.

Speed

Every character and monster has a speed, which is the distance in feet that the character or monster can walk in 1 round. This number assumes short bursts of energetic movement in the midst of a life-threatening situation.

The following rules determine how far a character or monster can move in a minute, an hour, or a day.

Travel Pace

While traveling, a group of adventurers can move at a normal, fast, or slow pace, as shown on the Travel Pace table. The table states how far the party can move in a period of time and whether the pace has any effect. A fast pace makes characters less perceptive, while a slow pace makes it possible to sneak around and to search an area more carefully.

Forced March. The Travel Pace table assumes that characters travel for 8 hours in day. They can push on beyond that limit, at the risk of exhaustion.

For each additional hour of travel beyond 8 hours, the characters cover the distance shown in the Hour column for their pace, and each character must make a Constitution saving throw at the end of the hour. The DC is 10 + 1 for each hour past 8 hours. On a failed saving throw, a character suffers one level of exhaustion (see Conditions).

Mounts and Vehicles. For short spans of time (up to an hour), many animals move much faster than humanoids. A mounted character can ride at a gallop for about an hour, covering twice the usual distance for a fast pace. If fresh mounts are available every 8 to 10 miles, characters can cover larger distances at this pace, but this is very rare except in densely populated areas.

Characters in wagons, carriages, or other land vehicles choose a pace as normal. Characters in a waterborne vessel are limited to the speed of the vessel, and they don’t suffer penalties for a fast pace or gain benefits from a slow pace. Depending on the vessel and the size of the crew, ships might be able to travel for up to 24 hours per day.

Certain special mounts, such as a pegasus or griffon, or special vehicles, such as a carpet of flying, allow you to travel more swiftly.

Travel Pace

Pace	Distance per: Minute	Hour	Day	Effect
Fast	400 feet	4 miles	30 miles	-5 penalty to passive Wisdom (Perception) scores
Normal	300 feet	3 miles	24 miles	-
Slow	200 feet	2 miles	18 miles	Able to use stealth

Difficult Terrain

The travel speeds given in the Travel Pace table assume relatively simple terrain: roads, open plains, or clear dungeon corridors. But adventurers often face dense forests, deep swamps, rubble-filled ruins, steep mountains, and ice-covered ground—all considered difficult terrain.

You move at half speed in difficult terrain—moving 1 foot in difficult terrain costs 2 feet of speed—so you can cover only half the normal distance in a minute, an hour, or a day.

Special Types of Movement

Movement through dangerous dungeons or wilderness areas often involves more than simply walking. Adventurers might have to climb, crawl, swim, or jump to get where they need to go.

Climbing, Swimming, and Crawling

While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed. At the GM’s option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.

Jumping

Your Strength determines how far you can jump.

Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.

This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn’t matter, such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your GM’s option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise, you hit it.

When you land in difficult terrain, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to land on your feet. Otherwise, you land prone.

High Jump. When you make a high jump, you leap into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + your Strength modifier if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing high jump, you can jump only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement. In some circumstances, your GM might allow you to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than you normally can.

You can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1.5 times your height.

Movement types

Movement Type	Description
Walking	Moving by physically working against a flat or gradually sloped surface. Relies on working legs (or similar appendages) and difficult-to-navigate surfaces may cause a reduction in speed.
Swimming	Moving by physically pushing through (or displacing) a thick and buoyant liquid (usually water). Relies on working limbs, fins, tail, or other form of propulsion and especially-thick liquids may cause a reduction in speed.
Climbing	Moving by grabbing and pulling up on a vertical or steeply inclined surface. Relies on working limbs with the capacity for pinching, sticking, or creating suction; and especially slick, smooth, crumbling, or upside-down surfaces may cause a reduction in speed or loss of grip leading to falling.
Flying (Glide)	Moving by slowing and controlling descent using air resistance created by appendages like wings or achieving near-weightlessness. While gliding, you descend at a rate of 30 feet per 6 seconds unless you spend a bonus action to maintain your height. You may only spend your bonus action in this way a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier before you must land and rest for at least 6 seconds. Additionally, you may spend an action to ascend vertically up to your strength score by flapping your wings or otherwise exerting your means of flight to gain altitude. After ascending in this way you continue to glide downward unless you also spent your bonus action to maintain your height or you are otherwise weightless (such as under the effect of Levitate ).
Flying (Hover)	Moving by sustaining position in the air and navigating in any direction—up, down, or laterally—through continuous resistance against gravity. This movement relies on active propulsion such as wings, magical means, or specialized organs. A creature with this movement may ascend, descend, or hold position at will. If reliant on physical appendages (such as wings), a creature can only hover and maneuver for a number of minutes equal to its Constitution modifier before becoming fatigued, at which point it must glide or land to rest. Turbulent winds, magical disruptions, or exhaustion can reduce speed or cause loss of altitude.
Burrowing	Moving by pushing through unworked, loose earth such as dirt, gravel, or stone, often using claws, spades, or natural adaptations. Burrowing requires suitable terrain and is performed at half the creature’s normal speed, or slower through rough conditions like marshes, sand, or root-bound ground. Standard burrowing produces a mound of disturbed material at the surface and typically allows the creature to travel no deeper than 5 feet below ground. Creatures with specialized means of burrowing—such as wyrms that consume or elementals which phase through earth—may descend to greater depths and move without leaving mounds of disturbed material behind.