Burrowing speed

[quinron]

Just curious if there's been a ruling on whether burrowing requires that a creature use a portion of its speed to enter the ground. I'm wondering: if a creature has a higher burrowing speed than walking speed, would there ever be a reason for it not to burrow as long as it's not moving into solid rock?

[Plaguescarred]

Each feet (or square) moved is deducted from your speed, including the first 5 feet into the ground. A creature wanting to maintain line of sight/effect to creature above ground would not want to burrow into the ground. Apart from that, it's a more secure way of moving than above ground for sure.

[Maxilian]

Each feet (or square) moved is deducted from your speed, including the first 5 feet into the ground. A creature wanting to maintain line of sight/effect to creature above ground would not want to burrow into the ground. Apart from that, it's a more secure way of moving than above ground for sure.

Also is an easy way to get Cover

[quinron]

Each feet (or square) moved is deducted from your speed, including the first 5 feet into the ground.

Do you have a source for this? I'm not disagreeing - it's exactly how I think it should be done - but if it's a deviation from RAW or semi-official rulings like Sage Advice rather than just sensible RAI, I'd like to tell my players such up front instead of having someone get upset by the fact that I'm changing rules. I just can't find anything in the written rules for it.

Because diagonal movement doesn't cost extra speed in 5e, I could see someone arguing that they burrowed into the ground diagonally forward, putting them 5 feet ahead and 5 feet underground at the same time.

Obviously it's not that big an issue unless a creature's walking speed and burrowing speed are different, but I'm planning a home-brewed race that poses that exact problem.

[TheRedTemplar]

I think it comes from the 5 feet of movement being used to move one square down, to get underground: think of it like flying, you still need to expend movement to move upward, so expending movement to go down makes just as much sense. Well at least, that's how its ruled at my table.

[NNescio]

As DM I would require 10 ft movement to actually go truly underground -- otherwise you're just traveling at the immediate surface area (at the interface), which makes your movement painfully obvious even if you're allowed to travel just beneath (< 1 ft) the surface. You'll just be digging a ditch then.

Think of it as similar to Minecraft/Terraria/most games with grids. You need to move an additional cube/tile/minimum quantum of distance to go underground instead of just digging through the surface layer. In 5e (and most DnD versions) the minimum unit of distance (for movement/range/position considerations) is 5 ft.

Fortunately you can move diagonally (diagonal movement doesn't cost additional movement in 5e, despite counting against attack/spell/ability ranges), so it doesn't really cost you any horizontal movement.


Just curious if there's been a ruling on whether burrowing requires that a creature use a portion of its speed to enter the ground. I'm wondering: if a creature has a higher burrowing speed than walking speed, would there ever be a reason for it not to burrow as long as it's not moving into solid rock?

Burrowing breaks both LoS and LoE, even for creatures with tremorsense (earth glide does let you ignore LoE for melee attacks with reach though, but not for ranged attacks and non-touch range spells/abilities). You generally need to surface to attack or otherwise interact with other creatures. You can burrow between attacks though, which make such creatures very hard to fight against if they're played intelligently (some beastial types may actually not be that intelligent), at least until everyone decides to use ready attacks or get their feet off the ground to negate tremorsense.

[Plaguescarred]

Do you have a source for this? I'm not disagreeing - it's exactly how I think it should be done - but if it's a deviation from RAW or semi-official rulings like Sage Advice rather than just sensible RAI, I'd like to tell my players such up front instead of having someone get upset by the fact that I'm changing rules. I just can't find anything in the written rules for it.

Because diagonal movement doesn't cost extra speed in 5e, I could see someone arguing that they burrowed into the ground diagonally forward, putting them 5 feet ahead and 5 feet underground at the same time. Basically having a burrowing speed means The creature has a speed, which is the distance in feet that the character or monster can walk or move through sand, earth, mud, or ice in 1 round. No extra cost is specifically given here unless you use diagonal movement optional rule, which then there would be if the first space or square is moved diagonally into the ground.


Your Turn: Every character and monster has a speed, which is the distance in feet that the character or monster can walk in 1 round.

Burrow: A monster that has a burrowing speed can use that speed to move through sand, earth, mud, or ice. A monster can’t burrow through solid rock unless it has a special trait that allows it to do so.

[quinron]

Basically having a burrowing speed means The creature has a speed, which is the distance in feet that the character or monster can walk or move through sand, earth, mud, or ice in 1 round. No extra cost is specifically given here unless you use diagonal movement optional rule, which then there would be if the first space or square is moved diagonally into the ground.


Your Turn: Every character and monster has a speed, which is the distance in feet that the character or monster can walk in 1 round.

Burrow: A monster that has a burrowing speed can use that speed to move through sand, earth, mud, or ice. A monster can’t burrow through solid rock unless it has a special trait that allows it to do so.

I guess part of what's worrying me is that I don't run grid-based combat, so I don't end up thinking about the kind of problems that can impose on speed. Using the extra diagonal movement rules, I suppose moving down and forward would end up consuming just as much speed as moving down, then forward - either 5 ft. down/forward then 10 ft. to move forward one space, or 5 ft. down, then 10 ft. forward. I hadn't thought about that before, thanks.

I'll probably just tell my players they have to get underground before they can move laterally.

[Plaguescarred]

Wether you're using square or not the world is composed of space which the PCs move from and to, and if you think about it, it doesn't really change one way or another. A medium creature occupy a space of 5 feet by 5 feet, which correspond to 1 square if using square grid optional rule for exemple so it all equate in the end. Moving 5 feet below ground while deducting 5 from burrowing speed puts you at the same space into the ground wether you call it a square or not.