Monks, Martial Arts, and Movement

[Ziegander]

I posted the following in the Simple Q&A thread, but it got no response, apparently it's not that simple:

"Can a Monk character move in-between his regular attack and his bonus action Martial Arts unarmed strike attack? What if he uses flurry of blows? And what about a character choosing to TWF? Can a TWF-er move in-between her main-hand attack and her bonus action off-hand attack?"

I can find no rules in the PHB that would deny movement, but it seems that the spirit of the RAI is that you can only move in between attacks if you use a "real" action, and not a bonus action, to attack. Has there been an answer to this yet?

[Gurka]

As I understand it, by RAW, you may move between attacks, and between bonus attacks, however before you may take a bonus action attack, you must satisfy the condition that allows the bonus action.

So, a TWF fighter may use his regular attack, move, regular attack, move, bonus attack from dual wielding. He may also take the bonus attack between regular attacks. What he may not do is take the bonus attack FIRST, as the conditions allowing it are to 1) wield a weapon in both hands and 2) make an attack.

As for the monk, if have to check if flurry specifies that you must attack and spend ki, or just spend ki. I'm inclined to assume it's the same as dual wielding.

I don't have my book in front of me right now though, so it's possible I'm wrong on all of that.

[Yorrin]

You can do it. Why? Because movement is no longer an action, and therefore does not "interrupt" your action sequence. So you can insert movement between anything so long as you have movement remaining and the only thing that will be affected is ranges (and hit points if you eat an AO).

[Z3ro]

The rules are clear, though unhelpful:

Page 190 "If you take an action that includes more than one weapon attack, you can break up your movement even further by moving between those attacks."

Now, nothing in this addresses what happens when you get a bonus attack; is a bonus action attack part of "an action that includes more than one weapon attack"? Is it a seperate action? The rules are not clear, due to the nature of the wording of this edition.

In my opinion, the intent is clear; you can move between a regular attack and bonus action attack. That ruling fits with the spirit of more free-range movement of melee combat.

[HugeC]

What's so special about the cheese-makers?
Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally, it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products!

Or in other words, as long as you're making the attack on your turn, who really cares whether the bonus action happens before or after? There's no need to fish for restrictions with literal-minded reading of the text. You get to make more attacks, so treat them like any other attack and move around freely between them, says I!

[Person_Man]

I've never been a great expert on RAW. But in my games, we don't even bother tracking movement anymore. I've learned that mostly pointless in the theater of the mind anyway.

If an enemy retreats or otherwise tries to move away from a non-disabled/dead enemy, they triggers an Opportunity Attack. If an enemy starts combat in a place that's clearly too far away for the player to target them in melee the first round (or vice-verso), then you need to use Dash in order to move adjacent to them (or it takes you 2ish round of normal movement to get there). If you're in a narrow dungeon hallway or whatever, players need to decide on marching order before combat, and enemies can't attack players in melee outside of that order unless they come from behind (or rarely, the ceiling, hidden doors, etc, unless some one is using a reach weapon or legitimately has the room they need to maneuver through an ally).

Otherwise, there is no benefit to keeping track of discrete movement. Just let players attack whomever they want in whatever order they want, given the above restrictions.

[odigity]

As I understand it, by RAW, you may move between attacks, and between bonus attacks, however before you may take a bonus action attack, you must satisfy the condition that allows the bonus action.

You sure about that? I had this same question in another thread about the bonus action attack granted by Polearm Master. Specifically, I asked if I could take my attack action vs creature A (killing it), then move to creature B, then use a bonus action to hit creature B with the butt of my polearm, as granted by Polearm Master. I was told no -- that the triggered bonus action had to be used immediately without first moving.

[Ziegander]

You sure about that? I had this same question in another thread about the bonus action attack granted by Polearm Master. Specifically, I asked if I could take my attack action vs creature A (killing it), then move to creature B, then use a bonus action to hit creature B with the butt of my polearm, as granted by Polearm Master. I was told no -- that the triggered bonus action had to be used immediately without first moving.

I can find no actual rules that would disallow such a thing. Again, I think it's probably against the spirit of the RAI, but RAW, I haven't yet found any evidence in the text that suggests you can't move in between normal attack action attacks and bonus action attacks. I don't think any such evidence/rule exists.

[Tenmujiin]

You sure about that? I had this same question in another thread about the bonus action attack granted by Polearm Master. Specifically, I asked if I could take my attack action vs creature A (killing it), then move to creature B, then use a bonus action to hit creature B with the butt of my polearm, as granted by Polearm Master. I was told no -- that the triggered bonus action had to be used immediately without first moving.
From what I remember of that thread there was a lot of arguing which basically ended with some people say yes, others no, RAI says you can.