Opportunity Attacks in D&D 5e (Updated for the 2024 Rules)

Published on September 30, 2024

React swiftly and turn the tides of battle with Opportunity Attacks in D&D 5e, now updated for the rules found in the 2024 Player’s Handbook!

An adventurer takes an opportunity attack against a blue-plated monster and lops off its head

Sara Winters - Wizards of the Coast - Wanderer’s Strike

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Table of Contents

Opportunity Attack Updates in the 2024 Rules

The rules around Opportunity Attacks haven’t changed much in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, except for an interesting change of words that opens up a world of new possibilities. You can now take an Opportunity Attack against any creature that leaves your space, which means allies can trigger an Opportunity Attack.

What does this mean for your game? Read on to find out!

Understanding Opportunity Attacks

Opportunity Attacks, also known as “attacks of opportunity,” occur when a hostile creature moves out of your reach without Disengaging.

First, let’s see what the 2024 D&D Free Rules have to say about Opportunity Attacks:

Opportunity Attacks

You can make an Opportunity Attack when a creature that you can see leaves your reach using its action, its Bonus Action, its Reaction, or one of its speeds. To make the Opportunity Attack, take a Reaction to make one melee attack with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike against the provoking creature. The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach.
Rules Glossary – 2024 D&D Free Rules

Creature

In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, they replaced “hostile creature” with “creature,” meaning you can take Opportunity Attacks against your own allies.

Why would you ever want to do this? Well, here are two scenarios:

Shove: You can help your party members move an additional 5 feet by taking an Unarmed Strike and choosing the Shove option to push them.
Cast a Spell with War Caster: With War Caster, you can use your Reaction to cast a spell against a creature that provokes an Opportunity Attack. This means if your Wizard has War Caster and your Fighter leaves their reach, they can cast Haste on them as they run by. Or a Cleric could drop them a Cure Wounds.

Sight

The rules mentions that you have to be able to see the creature when it moves out of your reach. This means that heavily obscuring an area or turning Invisible are great options to avoid Opportunity Attacks.

Reach

Usually, a creature’s reach is 5 feet. By only provoking Opportunity Attacks when you move out of a creature’s reach, this actually puts creatures with a longer reach at a subtle disadvantage. If your reach is 10 feet, your enemies can move more freely within your reach, positioning themselves strategically without having to take Opportunity Attacks.

Reaction

You get one Reaction per turn, but you don’t have to use it on your turn. When something activates your Reaction, you can use it regardless of who’s turn is ongoing in the Initiative order. This means Opportunity Attacks can be used strategically to maximize “once a turn” abilities, like the Rogue’s Sneak Attack or the 2024 Paladin’s Smite. However, this does have a downside. Seeing as Opportunity Attacks only allow for one melee attack, any features that grant extra attacks cannot be activated.

This also poses a challenge to builds that have other important uses for their Reaction. One such example is casters with access to Counterspell or Silvery Barbs. Seeing as you can only make a melee attack or Unarmed Strike as part of an Opportunity Attack (unless you have the War Caster feat), it is likely a better idea for caster classes to let an enemy retreat without attacking them, so they can potentially counter something later in the initiative.

Disengage Action

In our Disengage 5e mechanic overview, we cover the details of the Disengage action and how it affects Opportunity Attacks.

Teleportation and Forceful Movement

One of the best ways to get out of an enemy’s reach without provoking an Opportunity Attack is by teleporting, like with the Misty Step spell or the eladrin’s Fey Step feature. When it comes to forceful movement, getting blasted out of your space usually won’t be in your favor, even when an Opportunity Attack is the other option. That said, the strategic use of some abilities, like the Thorn Whip spell, can be used to pull allies out of danger.

This clause also allows you to maximize Opportunity Attacks by forcing your opponents to move using their Reaction or movement. Examples of how to do this are the Dissonant Whispers, Command, or Fear spells.

One thing to note is that standing up from Prone does not provoke Opportunity Attacks, as confirmed by Jeremy Crawford.

A Rogue dishing out an Opportunity Attack with their dagger. — Not on My Watch – Jason A. Engle – Wizards of the Coast

Maximizing Your Opportunity Attacks

Netting extra attacks, especially when enemies are putting themselves in a vulnerable position, is a substantial benefit to most martial classes. To make the most of Opportunity Attacks in 5e, consider the following strategies:

Sentinel + Polearm Master: The best builds for making use of Opportunity Attacks have both Sentinel and Polearm Master. Polearm Master allows you to attack anyone coming into your 10-foot reach, and Sentinel reduces their Speed to 0 if you hit. This allows you to keep approaching enemies out of their melee range, so you take your attacks and back away on your turn without provoking an Opportunity Attack from them. Then, when they try to enter your reach again, rinse and repeat. Plus, if an enemy is already within your Reach and tries to Disengage, you can still take an Opportunity Attack against them thanks to Sentinel.
War Caster Feat: This feat allows you to cast spells in place of a traditional Opportunity Attack. When an enemy leaves your Reach, let loose with a Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade, Shocking Grasp, or more powerful touch spell, like Contagion. Also, as we’ve already mentioned, you can now take Opportunity Attacks against friendly creatures. This allows you to drop a powerful spell like Haste or heal your allies with Cure Wounds as a Reaction on your turn.
Add Extra Damage: Class features that add extra damage to your strikes, like the Rogue’s Sneak Attack, Barbarian’s Rage, or Paladin’s Divine Smite, are all good ways to increase the potency of your Opportunity Attacks. Rogues and Paladins are the best examples of this because their Sneak Attack and Paladin’s Smite usually net huge damage and can only be used once per turn. By creating opportunities to attack while it’s not their turn, rogues can increase their damage exponentially.

Avoiding Opportunity Attacks

Whether you don’t want to get your shiny armor scratched or are on the brink of death, getting hit with an Opportunity Attack feels bad.

In the 2024 Player’s Handbook, you’ll see a lot more class features that enable you to avoid Opportunity Attacks. This is probably to promote strategic repositioning in combat rather than standing around whacking each other until the other team dies.

Here are some ways to avoid giving enemies a free hit when you turn tail and run:

Use a Class Feature: Several class features have been introduced in the 2024 Player’s Handbook that help avoid Opportunity Attacks. The Fighter’s Tactical Shift allows them to move without provoking Opportunity Attacks. As does the College of Glamour Bard’s Mantle of Inspiration. Or, if you’re a Barbarian, you could smack your foe with a Staggering Blow.
Don’t Move: Easier said than done in most situations when you’re thinking about running. But, if you don’t leave your enemy’s reach, they won’t get an Opportunity Attack against you.
Disengage: Wasting your action sucks, but if you need to get out of an enemy’s reach to heal up, taking the Disengage action is usually the best way to do so.
Teleport: Again, easier said than done if you’re a martial who doesn’t have access to magic. Unfortunately for the non-magical adventurers in the world, magic is one of the best options for avoiding unwanted attacks.
Speedy Feat: Previously called “Mobile,” this feat now gives Disengage to any Opportunity Attacks made against you. This has changed from giving you a free Disengage against creatures you’ve made an attack against. While the update is worse in some situations, if you’re running through numerous foes, it can save your hide.
Reduce Sight: You need to be able to see a creature to take an Opportunity Attack against them. Turning invisible or using the fog cloud, darkness, or another area obscuring spell is a great way to accomplish this.

Don’t Miss Your Opportunity

By removing one word, the 2024 Player’s Handbook turned the Opportunity Attack on its head. Now, they’re not necessarily a bad thing and can be a cool synergy between support casters and maritals.

These new rules have also introduced more ways to avoid Opportunity Attacks, which may allow for a more free-flowing type of battle, rather than each respective party not wanting to move so they don’t take damage.

This is one of the more interesting changes in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, but check back for more updates and guides!

Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Adamantine best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.