D&D Speed Calculator: Movement, Dash & Travel Rates
🏃 D&D Speed Calculator
Movement rates, dash distances & overland travel for 5e
⚡Quick Presets
📋Calculator Inputs
🏃 Movement Results
🧩Movement Quick Stats
30 ft
Human Base
25 ft
Dwarf Base
60 ft
Warhorse
6 sec
Per Round
3 mph
Normal Pace
24 mi
Normal/Day
5 ft
Per Grid Square
10 rds
1 Minute
📈Race Base Speeds (5e)
| Race | Walk Speed | Dash Distance | Grid Squares/Turn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human / Half-Elf / Tiefling | 30 ft | 60 ft | 6 squares |
| Dwarf / Halfling / Gnome | 25 ft | 50 ft | 5 squares |
| Wood Elf | 35 ft | 70 ft | 7 squares |
| Aarakocra (fly) | 50 ft fly | 100 ft fly | 10 squares |
| Centaur | 40 ft | 80 ft | 8 squares |
| Tabaxi (Feline Agility) | 30 ft (60 burst) | 120 ft burst | 12 squares burst |
🚶Overland Travel Paces
| Pace | Per Minute | Per Hour | Per Day (8 hrs) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fast | 400 ft | 4 miles | 30 miles |
| Normal | 300 ft | 3 miles | 24 miles |
| Slow | 200 ft | 2 miles | 18 miles |
Forced march: After 8 hours of travel, each additional hour requires a DC 10 + extra hours Constitution save or gain one level of exhaustion.
Difficult terrain: Movement through difficult terrain costs double. A character with 30 ft speed can only move 15 ft through difficult terrain per turn.
Every character and monster in DnD have speed, what is the distance in feet that they can walk during one round. This number assumes short bursts of energy during life-threatening situations If you have speed of 30 feet, that means that during your turn in fight, you can move until that distance, or double that if you use the action “Dash”. One round lasts around 6 seconds.
You will find the speed of your character at the top of the character sheet; it simply shows how far the character can move.
How Movement Works in DnD
On typical combat map, the surface is split in squares. Every square represents 5 feet, so character with speed of 30 feet can move through 6 squares. The speed depends mostly on the race and the armor that the character wears.
Dwarves, gnomes and halflings have speed of 20 feet, or only 15 feet when they wear medium armor. Every character uses movement as resource and spends 1 foot for every foot moevd.
Movement speed in DnD is almost silly when you think about that. Combat motion is slow walk, and even dash looks as light jog. The action of dash is something as moderate run.
Movement in fight, even using two actions for dash, is careful move with emphasis on safety and stability in dangerous environments. Actually, movement outside fight would be much more fast than threefold the normal speed during turn. Even if dash puts character to 80 or 100 feet for round, that is only around 8 to 10 mph, what is less than the average speed of people.
Riding horse in DnD have speed of 60 feet and dash speed of 120 feet. That speed works out as approximately 13.6 miles per hour, what is even less than that what real people can run.
Now comes the funny part. Monks receive higher movement speed at the 2nd level, starting with 10 additional feet, and that grows at higher levels. One popular fast build is Tabaxi Monk 18 and Fighter 2 with the skill Mobile feat, Haste, Longstrider and Boots of Speed.
Tabaxi catfolk can double his speed until the finish of his turn, and here start the most of the fast fun. Other build reaches basic speed of 70 feet without any effects, and 115 feet using Bladesinging, Raging and Longstrider with Celerity discipline focus. Aarakocra have basic flying speed of 50 feet, what surpasses ground builds.
For permanent speed, Monk with Longstrider and Mobile feat and basic speed of 35 to 50 operates well. For pure burst speed, Tabaxi is the best because of that guaranteed doubling skill.
For count exploration speed outside, multiply the speed by 50 to receive feet each minute, divide by 2 to receive miles each hour, and multiply by 5 to receive miles each day. Travel outsidefights uses entirely different rules.
