How Best to Kite?

[QUARE]

What are some of the best ways to kite in 5e? Either solo or in a party.

[Specter]

Kiting has always been a weird D&D concept to me. But there are some ways to make it work:

Wood Elf/Tabaxi Hunter Archer: fire arrows at them. If they come too close, use Escape the Horde to give disadvantage on attacks against you and start over. Next turn, they can't reach you (because you are faster) and attack at the same turn.

Rogue + Booming Blade: attack them and disengage. They can either give you some distance or eat more damage. If they choose the second, back away and attack from range. That's yet another turn they miss.

Open Hand Monk's Flurry: attack them at all four attacks. Remove their reaction with one of the last. Back away with your superior speed. Next turn, close in again or attack and back away again.

These are all assuming a solo guy. For teams, everybody would have to be on the same page, otherwise the enemy can just attack the slowest guys.

[NNescio]

What are some of the best ways to kite in 5e? Either solo or in a party.

Wizards and Tomelocks can kite with Phantom Steed. Bard can try with Magical Secrets but he generally has better picks.

Casters can kite with Fly + Cantrips when they're up against enemies without ranged attacks or without enough range on their ranged attacks to hit them.

Fly on a Longbow martial character (or even on the caster himself, for Elves) can be even more effective, due to the extended range.

Greater Invis Rogues (Arcane Trickster or a buff from an allied caster) can kite more aggressively by taking Cunning Action Hide as bonus actions.

Greater Invis anybody with enough movement can also kite by moving away without drawing OA (assuming the opponent can't see invisible creatures).

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Warlock with Repelling Blast and Eldritch Spear, using Phantom Steed (via Tomelock) or Haste if you don't have the ritual.

[Geodude6]

Warlock with Repelling Blast and Eldritch Spear, using Phantom Steed (via Tomelock) or Haste if you don't have the ritual.

Or 2 levels of Rogue.

[NiklasWB]

Kiting doesn't really work well in D&D I have found. If my players try to kite I might let it happen for a round or two, but most monsters/enemies are smart enough to eventually Dash into melee, use some form of pack tactic to surround an enemy, Hide and try to get the drop on the player, or use ranged attacks.

That being said, I'm really looking forward to my future swashbuckler/battlemaster. Always having a Cunning Action for Dash as well as the Fancy Footwork ability should mean that you can at least somewhat dance into combat, attack (negating attack of opportunity), move away, potentially kiting an enemy for a while.

[djreynolds]

Or 2 levels of Rogue.

2 levels of rogue, that's it. Shoot, move, and dash.

It only requires a 13 in dexterity... that's it. And cunning action works with flying, climbing and swimming movements if you have them from spell, class feature, or magic item.

And as long as you have a BA to use, you can dash.

Now can you hide all the time?
How good is your stealth score and does the terrain let you?
Swashbuckler needs a lone opponent?

[Unbodied]

Wizards and Tomelocks can kite with Phantom Steed. Bard can try with Magical Secrets but he generally has better picks.

Casters can kite with Fly + Cantrips when they're up against enemies without ranged attacks or without enough range on their ranged attacks to hit them.

Fly on a Longbow martial character (or even on the caster himself, for Elves) can be even more effective, due to the extended range.

Greater Invis Rogues (Arcane Trickster or a buff from an allied caster) can kite more aggressively by taking Cunning Action Hide as bonus actions.

Greater Invis anybody with enough movement can also kite by moving away without drawing OA (assuming the opponent can't see invisible creatures).
A kite Bard would probably be better of picking the College of Satire. Tumbling Fool gives Dash+Disengage as a bonus action at level 3.

[Grek]

Rogue on a horse with a bow.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

2 levels of rogue, that's it. Shoot, move, and dash.

That's okay.... Provided you don't fight monsters with more then 30 feet of move who remember they can also dash.

[Khutef]

Not optimal, but working.
A non-rogue melee character with Charger and Mobility feats. Dash towards enemy, attack for free and move away without AOO. With a movement speed of 40ft. you can outrun many creatures.

[ChampionWiggles]

Monk x + Rogue 2 (For Cunning Action) + Mobile Feat.

Rogue dip might seem redundant with Mobile feat, but being able to Dash as bonus will give ridiculous movement. Assuming you have normal race of 30' move, then by Lvl 6 (which is minimum lvl for this build) you'll have 50' movement. Cunning Dash at beginning of turn for 100' movement, run in, attack up to 4 times (so 4 targets max), then get out without prompting AoO. End game movement will be 70' base, so 140' Dash.

~"Blue streak...speeds by..."~

[XmonkTad]

Ray of frost shot from horseback can work. Combine it with a quickened repelling blast and you might not even have to move much to kite.

[DivisibleByZero]

You want to kite in DnD? Download Dungeons and Dragons Online or Neverwinter.
Don't do it at the table.
It forces the DM to make every encounter happen in closed quarters because one character decided to use the most annoying and ridiculous "tactic" they could think of.

This isn't an MMO. Some MMO tactics don't translate well to the tabletop. Kiting is one of those.

[KorvinStarmast]

You want to kite in DnD? Download Dungeons and Dragons Online or Neverwinter.
This isn't an MMO. Some MMO tactics don't translate well to the tabletop. Kiting is one of those. Which is why the Goblins are able to kite. Check MM.
Nimble Escape. The goblin can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.

[DivisibleByZero]

Which is why the Goblins are able to kite. Check MM.

I know that some mobs and some classes (rogue/monk) have an ability to kite to some degree.
There is a big difference between using an action (or bonus action) to increase your movement or disengage, and to the concept of creating an character entirely based around the idea of kiting.
One can be strategically useful. The other is annoying, bogs down play, and makes the game harder on the rest of the party and the DM.
Using certain abilities under certain circumstances? Totally cool.
Building your entire character around it? Rocks fall.

[BW022]

You don't. It isn't really a viable tactic in 5e. If you build a character around the concept, you are likely to be disappointed.

Reasons why it doesn't work...

1. Dungeons. Most adventuring is in dungeons, cities, buildings, tombs, etc. a 60'x60' room is pretty much the best case. Most often you are in 5' wide hallways, 20' wide rooms, doors, towers, etc. Even outdoors - terrain, darkness, weather, etc. can all mean you have to be within closing distance. I'd say in 95% of encounters... kiting isn't realistic.

2. Other Players. It is pointless kiting if you have other party members. The monsters will just ignore you and dog pile on whoever is up front. No need to kite. Even if all the party members could kite... the initiative system and typical starting distance is going to likely mean that one player is going to get surrounded anyway.

3. Monster Movement/Ranged Attacks. Even in situations where kiting might be possible -- say an open field -- many opponents have high movement rates and/or ranged attacks. If you kite a hill giant, he'll throw rocks at you. If you kite a dire wolf, it will double-move up to you.

4. Kiting Slows the Game. Even if you have something which could be kited and in a position were you could kite... the combats will take forever. Taking a hill giant down (ignoring it could throw rocks) with two attacks longbow attacks every other round (spending odd rounds double moving to keep distance) could take hours of table time.

5. Easier Ways. There are typically far easier ways that kiting. Rather than investing in everything needs for all the movement, actions, etc. it is easier to get say spider climb, fly, levitate, etc., or summon something to block, or cast something to slow opponents down (entangle, web, etc.)

Given these... I'd say not to waste a huge amount of effort on this. If you have a ranged character and want to use movement to keep them generally out of melee -- assuming there are other party members -- then there are some options.

Halflings and gnomes on mounts are good. Paladin or lore bard gaining find steed and then taking mounted combatant is a good start. Small size means a dog or something as a mount which can be taken in dungeons. The movement is typically enough to keep you out of melee. Adding some type of entangle or related spell is typically good enough for solos. A ranged wood-elf rogue isn't bad with disengage or dash as a bonus action. Warlock with spider climb, levitate, or fly is pretty hard to pin down baring missile weapons.

[retaliation08]

Gust of Wind with Ray of Frost seems excellent for kiting at range.

[CaptainSarathai]

VHuman RogueLock w/ Spell Sniper
At Lock2 when you get Invocations, take Repelling Blast and Eldritch Spear. This puts your at 300' and each hit knocks the enemy 10' backwards.
Spell Sniper then doubles this range again out to 600 and you ignore Cover.

Rogue gives you Bonus Action Dash, but you don't technically need it. Instead, go to 4 levels of Sorcerer.
At 3rd, you get Metamagic. That gives you Extended spell. Now you can use Sorcery Points to lob your Eldritch Blasts out to 1200ft. You also get Quickened Spell, which lets you cast the spell as a Bonus Action.
Quickened Eldritch Blast alone is some of the best damage in the game, but hey, why not shoot them from a quarter-mile away?
At 4th level you gain another Feat. At this point, you take CrossBow Expert. Now, even a point-blank shot from your Eldritch Blast will not carry Disadvantage. So rather than running from your enemy, you push them 40' away and then Move away.

Further silliness ensues with ShadowSorc and Devil's Sight + Darkness on a Chain or TomeLock. Put the Darkness on your Familiar, and now you can Shadowstep all over the inside of your Darkness sphere, all the while imposing Disadvantage on most enemies, getting Advantage for yourself, and blasting people all over the map.

Eventual progress would also include getting Mobile, which is +10' to your move, and if you make even a single Melee attack, you can move away without provoking (hit OR miss).