How speedy can we get?

[Tectorman]

Exactly the title. The goal is to figure out everything that can contribute to the highest top speed we can get a character at.

Here's where I'm at so far:
Tabaxi 30ft base speed
20th level Monk (+30 ft) 60 ft
with the Mobile feat (+10 ft) 70 ft
and someone in the party cast Longstrider (+10 ft) 80ft

wearing Boots of Speed and having activated them (x2) 160 ft
using their Tabaxi Feline Agility (x2) 320 ft
and someone in the party cast Haste (x2) 640 ft
and they have the Urchin background and are in a city (x2) 1280 ft

moving, spending their action to Dash, spending their Haste-granted action to Dash, and spending a ki point and their bonus action to Dash (x4) 5120 ft

This puts them at 582 mph.

If they were to plan their route to put them within sight or sound of a Battle Master Fighter with Maneuvering Attack, then they also get to use their reaction for half their speed (+640 ft) 5760 ft

So for this round, they're now at 655 mph.

So am I missing anything else that could contribute? For example, could multiple castings of Longstrider change the outcome (or do you think it's a binary condition: you're under the effect of a spell or you're not)?

The other thing I'm wondering is, given the size of your typical city in a D&D setting, does running out of urban environment pose a legitimate concern (since Urchin only helps within a city)?

Thoughts?

[Puh Laden]

So am I missing anything else that could contribute? For example, could multiple castings of Longstrider change the outcome (or do you think it's a binary condition: you're under the effect of a spell or you're not?

Thoughts?

PHB pg. 205 says that multiple castings of a spell do not stack.

[JNAProductions]

Talk to Avatar Vecna. You want FTL? You've got FTL!

[suplee215]

Full monk is not the best. Monk's max speed boost is 30. Going 17 get you the same amount of speed, and you can multiclass into totem warrior barbarian and pick the Sword Coast Adventuring Guide totem Elk (+15 movement). This gives you +45. or you can go 15 in monk, 5 barbarian to get fast movement (+10) at the cost of 5 movement speed. so you end up with 80 speed just as a tabaxi, 90 with the mobile feat before spells and other things come into play.. Sadly going the new Unearthed arcana Scout does not net you anything (9 levels for the scout gives you the exact same speed).

[suplee215]

Also, more of a semantic argument but I don't think the Urchin backgrounds help. You move faster not because you can run faster in a city, but because you are using back alleys and other short cuts.

[Tectorman]

Full monk is not the best. Monk's max speed boost is 30. Going 17 get you the same amount of speed, and you can multiclass into totem warrior barbarian and pick the Sword Coast Adventuring Guide totem Elk (+15 movement). This gives you +45. or you can go 15 in monk, 5 barbarian to get fast movement (+10) at the cost of 5 movement speed. so you end up with 80 speed just as a tabaxi, 90 with the mobile feat before spells and other things come into play.. Sadly going the new Unearthed arcana Scout does not net you anything (9 levels for the scout gives you the exact same speed).

Thank you for that, and we can revise it even further. 14 levels in Monk gets you +25 ft, and 6 levels in Barbarian gets you +10 ft (fast movement), +15 ft (Elk Totem at 3rd), and doubled speed (Elk Totem at 6th).

30+25+10+15+10+10
100 ft
doubled five times
3200 ft
over a move, 2 Dash actions, a Dash bonus action, and a reaction for half
14400 ft

That's 1636 mph. We've just passed Mach 2. I am intrigued by the notion of getting to FTL in 5E, so I'll have to look into that.

And yes, I'm aware this isn't how the Urchin is meant to be used, but this is just a thought experiment. It's even more faulty considering the Urchin thing specifies out of combat and you need to have been raging and witness your Fighter buddy smack a guy to get your reaction.

[xyianth]

Don't forget a swift step drought from UA's alchemist artificer: +20ft for 1 minute.

[Aett_Thorn]

Thank you for that, and we can revise it even further. 14 levels in Monk gets you +25 ft, and 6 levels in Barbarian gets you +10 ft (fast movement), +15 ft (Elk Totem at 3rd), and doubled speed (Elk Totem at 6th).

30+25+10+15+10+10
100 ft
doubled five times
3200 ft
over a move, 2 Dash actions, a Dash bonus action, and a reaction for half
14400 ft

That's 1636 mph. We've just passed Mach 2. I am intrigued by the notion of getting to FTL in 5E, so I'll have to look into that.

And yes, I'm aware this isn't how the Urchin is meant to be used, but this is just a thought experiment. It's even more faulty considering the Urchin thing specifies out of combat and you need to have been raging and witness your Fighter buddy smack a guy to get your reaction.

I think that the Elk totem double movement at level 6 only applies to long-distance travel, not on a turn-to-turn basis. So that is one doubling that you don't get.

[Professor Gnoll]

Depends. How many pigeons do you have on hand, and how comfortable are you with being polymorphed into a snake demon?

[RickAllison]

Bladesinger gives +10 feet of speed for only two levels.

[Sianthus]

Gotta go fast. Gotta go faster, faster, fasterfasterfaster~

While I like this thought experiment and I say go for it, DM me would say you'd tear the fabric of the plane apart temporarily and knock yourself out from the incredibly high speed you're going. You'd receive a vision of a dark tall man who only calls himself Bolt hanging a strange gold medal around you, telling you to never do it again lest he comes after you for trying to break his record. You have been warned.

:D

[kladams707]

Wood elf gets a +5 to their speed.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Depends. How many pigeons do you have on hand, and how comfortable are you with being polymorphed into a snake demon?

Good times.

I still maintain, however, that the best way to get practical speed in D&D* is with the Find Vehicle spell, from the Modern Magic (http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA_ModernMagic.pdf) UA.
- A second level casting gets you a 'nonmilitary land vehicle of your choice', meaning the best option is a Thrust SSC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThrustSSC), current holder of the land speed record, which gives us a comfortable approximate 1225 km/h.
- A fifth level casting gets a 'nonmilitary air vehicle'. The nonmilitary clause unfortunately some more practical contenders such as the SR-71, but does leave us the North American X-15 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15) with a speed of 7274 km/h, which should generally be enough for most purposes, and I've never seen any way to practically beat it...
- ... at least, outside of a seventh level casting, which is where it gets really interesting. Here. you can summon 'any type of vehicle, subject to the DM's approval'. This not only puts things like the aforementioned SR-71 and various space exploration vehicles on the table, but also opens the floor to some of D&D's more esoteric conveyances, such as Spelljamming ships (http://spelljammer.wikia.com/wiki/Spelljamming), which can get a respectable clip of over 6.4 million km/h, which short of infinite loops I really don't see as beatable.

*Plans based on interstellar pigeon chains regrettably not qualifying as 'practical'.

[RickAllison]

Wood elf gets a +5 to their speed.

Tabaxi gets doubled speed on the relevant turns. So while Bosmer can have a higher average speed, Tabaxi have almost twice the maximum speed.

[ProphetSword]

Depends. How many pigeons do you have on hand, and how comfortable are you with being polymorphed into a snake demon?

According to my signature (which was pulled from an identical thread a couple of months ago), you only need 147,311,996 pigeons to achieve FTL travel. That's probably the fastest you can go. :smallbiggrin:

[Sicarius Victis]

And I came here to reference just that thread! Strange minda think alike, it seems.

But you shouldn't use pigeons. Use animated objects, they're more likely to do what you want them to.

[AvatarVecna]

Animated Objects or only more likely to do what you wanted if you were the one to personally animate them...and I'm pretty sure the limits on Concentration prevent you from animating millions of objects. Pigeons were not used because they're considered obedient, it was assumed that you'd arranged for the pigeons to obey you utterly through druid/deity BS. No, pigeons were used because I thought "pigeons" sounded like a funny word, and wanted an excuse to type it out over and over again.

Pigeons!

[Maxilian]

A lvl 9 Druid can transform into a Giant Eagle with 80 Flying Speed... so why not start as a Druid and then MC into Barb or Monk later? (Be a Tabaxii to use your Feline Agility while transformed), i think at lvl 10 (or 11) you can transform into a Wind Elemental with 90 speed

[RickAllison]

A lvl 9 Druid can transform into a Giant Eagle with 80 Flying Speed... so why not start as a Druid and then MC into Barb or Monk later? (Be a Tabaxii to use your Feline Agility while transformed), i think at lvl 10 (or 11) you can transform into a Wind Elemental with 90 speed

The problem with anything involving flying is that some of the boosters are restricted to your walking speed. For example, Boots of Speed doubles your walking speed. Trying to use a fly speed would mean your bonus has to be sufficient to replace a doubled speed, in addition to any speed lost from the levels.

[Maxilian]

The problem with anything involving flying is that some of the boosters are restricted to your walking speed. For example, Boots of Speed doubles your walking speed. Trying to use a fly speed would mean your bonus has to be sufficient to replace a doubled speed, in addition to any speed lost from the levels.

Then use an animal with Walking Speed, i mean you are getting only 60+ Speed with 20 lvls of monk, something that you can do with less of druid, so you could still get some monk lvls to get some of their speed boost (that will go over the 60+) -and you will still have space for your feats, etc...-

Note: with only 2 lvls in druid you can get your speed to 50+ (only by going with the Panther/Deer/Hyena/Elek form or a Riding horse and you got 60 speed)

[Naanomi]

Cant the party transmuter give you his stone for another small boost?

[Quickblade]

Those speeds sound great but as a DM I would have an easy solution. Movement speed far outstrips reaction time and you go splat against some hard surface like a wall, tree, building etc HaHa

[Tectorman]

Taking away two more levels of Monk, dropping that bonus from +25 ft to +20 ft. Adding two levels of Bladesinger Wizard for the +10 ft from the Bladesong. Also adding in the +20 ft from the party Alchemist Artificer. Also adding in the +10 ft from a Transmuter's Stone (good catch).

30 (Tabaxi) +20 (Monk) +10 (Barb) +15 (Elk) +10 (Bladesong) +10 (Mobile) + 10 (Longstrider) + 20 (Alchemist Swift Step Drought) + 10 (Transmuter's Stone)
= 135 ft

x2 (Boots of Speed)
x2 (Tabaxi)
x2 (Elk)
x2 (Haste)
x2 (Urchin)
= 4320 ft

x4.5 (one move, three Dashes, and one reaction for half from the Fighter)
= 19440 ft

Wait, can they really all apply?
Just to clarify, the hypothetical DM here is ruling that, purely for the sake of this thought experiment, the character can benefit from so-called long-term abilities while acting in combat time and witnessing other combats around him without participating his own self. No, it's not meant to represent anything I'd expect to legitimately do in any given game. In fact, even if I were the DM, I would be asking for an excessive number of Perception and Acrobatics checks just to avoid tripping and having to take an ungodly amount of skid damage.

A suggestion was made regarding using several levels of Druid to Wild Shape into something much faster while still benefiting from various speed boosts.
Regarding the Tabaxi boost, that depends on that being a race feature that the new form is physically capable of or not. I can honestly see that going either way, maybe still applying, maybe not. However, the real issue is the Boots of Speed. They either fall off (and don't help), get merged into the form (and have no effect and so don't help), or remain worn (which would probably not be the outcome, given that Wild Shape explicitly doesn't allow worn equipment to conveniently change size or shape for the new form). Starting with a slightly or even significantly higher walking speed doesn't make up for losing one of the doublings. But I love the thinking; keep it up!

Let's play around with that a little.

The speed is 2209 mph, which is Mach 2.86. Which is actually faster than the CW's Kid Flash (who was clocking about 1680 mph at the time) as of last week's episode (haven't seen this week's yet, so no spoilers please). On the other hand, it's still way slower than Rainbow Dash (who was at about Mach 10), so no Sonic Rainbooms yet (someday...).

What would happen if they ran into something at full speed? Falling damage caps at 20d6 which stands in for terminal velocity (at least, I recall it saying as much in previous editions, so we can safely assume it was meant to be the same here). Terminal velocity for a human is around 200 mph (assuming a similar body orientation to what your average falling adventurer looks like) so you'd be rolling 220d6 for this! Fortunately, you're a raging Barbarian, so you can resist some of it.

What does this look like in miniature scale? One inch equals five feet, so 19440 ft is 3888" or 324' or 108 yards. Your movement now exceeds football fields (well, not including the endzones)!

...

Now, could someone please explain this thing about snake demons and pigeons?

[Asmotherion]

Exactly the title. The goal is to figure out everything that can contribute to the highest top speed we can get a character at.

Here's where I'm at so far:
Tabaxi 30ft base speed
20th level Monk (+30 ft) 60 ft
with the Mobile feat (+10 ft) 70 ft
and someone in the party cast Longstrider (+10 ft) 80ft

wearing Boots of Speed and having activated them (x2) 160 ft
using their Tabaxi Feline Agility (x2) 320 ft
and someone in the party cast Haste (x2) 640 ft
and they have the Urchin background and are in a city (x2) 1280 ft

moving, spending their action to Dash, spending their Haste-granted action to Dash, and spending a ki point and their bonus action to Dash (x4) 5120 ft

This puts them at 582 mph.

If they were to plan their route to put them within sight or sound of a Battle Master Fighter with Maneuvering Attack, then they also get to use their reaction for half their speed (+640 ft) 5760 ft

So for this round, they're now at 655 mph.

So am I missing anything else that could contribute? For example, could multiple castings of Longstrider change the outcome (or do you think it's a binary condition: you're under the effect of a spell or you're not)?

The other thing I'm wondering is, given the size of your typical city in a D&D setting, does running out of urban environment pose a legitimate concern (since Urchin only helps within a city)?

Thoughts?

A 2 level Rogue Dip gives you a Bonus action Dash, and you still keep +30 from monk. However, ideally the character should be able to do everything by himself, including the spellcasting, and with no magic items.

So, here is my proposed build:

Race: Wood Elf or Half Elf Variant (35)
Classes:
Monk 6: +15=50
Barbarian 5: +10=60
Rogue 2: Dash as bonus action (without using ki points)
Wizard 5: Longuesrider (+10), Haste (140+extra action Dash)
Fighter 2: Action Surge (1 more extra action to use the dash action)

Overall, the base speed is 60, 70 with longuesrider, and can be boosted to 140 with Haste. This all is base speed with no dash action.

Now, first of all, we have your regular Action used on the Dash Action (1)
(2) the bonus action dash from rogue)
(3) the Haste dash action and
(4) the the Action Surge Dash action

Overall, this is 140x4=560 feet

Finally, wile not technically moving on his own, a Wizard can use the following spells in this order to run even faster:

Phantom Steed (100 feet)
Longstrider (110 feet)
Haste (220 feet)

It then has it's regular Dash action and an extra Dash Action from Haste, for a total of 660 feet.

PS: When you take more than one Dash action in your round, their doubling in speed do not stack with previous Dash actions, only with bonuses to your original speed. This means that with a speed 30 and 2 dash actions, you would run 90 feet, not 120, as in 30x3=90, not 30^3 or 30x2=60x2=120.

PS2: Just to inform, I made this in calculations to turn these speeds in miles per hour, and kilometers per hour:

The First Build would be moving with aproximately 63 m/ph, or 102 km/ph

The Phantom Steed would move with 75 mph or 120 km/ph

[Maxilian]

A suggestion was made regarding using several levels of Druid to Wild Shape into something much faster while still benefiting from various speed boosts.

Regarding the Tabaxi boost, that depends on that being a race feature that the new form is physically capable of or not. I can honestly see that going either way, maybe still applying, maybe not. However, the real issue is the Boots of Speed. They either fall off (and don't help), get merged into the form (and have no effect and so don't help), or remain worn (which would probably not be the outcome, given that Wild Shape explicitly doesn't allow worn equipment to conveniently change size or shape for the new form). Starting with a slightly or even significantly higher walking speed doesn't make up for losing one of the doublings. But I love the thinking; keep it up!

Magic Items do change size or shape as pointed out in the DMG (140 pg)

Note: In most cases, a magic item that's meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or the: magically adjust themselves to the wearer.

[Tectorman]

Dropping two more levels of Monk, which will still keep that bonus where it is, but the build can now accommodate two levels of Fighter. Which means Action Surge.

Same set up for walking speed: 135 ft
Same five doublings: 4320 ft
Now, five moves + reaction: 23760 ft

2700 mph, which is Mach 3.51!

[Tectorman]

Magic Items do change size or shape as pointed out in the DMG (140 pg)

Note: In most cases, a magic item that's meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or the: magically adjust themselves to the wearer.

Okay, but which wins out? The DMG, which says magic items adjust, or the PHB, which says worn equipment doesn't change size or shape (PHB 67)?

[Unoriginal]

The Swashbuckler NPC from Volo's guide always get a bonus action to Dash

Would it be possible to add it to the speedy build somehow?

[Tectorman]

The Swashbuckler NPC from Volo's guide always get a bonus action to Dash

Would it be possible to add it to the speedy build somehow?

Not much point to it. You can already Dash as a bonus action as a Monk by spending a Ki point.

Gaining that ability as a Swashy only removes the Ki point cost. And it requires you to take levels out of something actually giving you additional speed.

[Tectorman]

And now I've been reminded about the Epic Boons in the DMG.

Boon of Speed takes the 135 walking speed and increases it to 165. Take that up through the multipliers and it's 5280 ft. Take that through all the actions and it's 29040 ft.

3300 mph. Mach 4.3. And on the miniature scale, we're looking at 161.33 yards.