Pushing and Shoving – Mighty Thunderbeard

There are times when hitting something with a sword just isn’t doing everything you want it to. Maybe an orc is trying to eat your healer. Maybe there’s a cliff nearby that seems a quicker way to end a fight than a sword. Maybe it just seems like knocking someone over is just an easier way to fight.

Whatever the reason, you want to shove things around.

I want to differentiate between pushing and shoving. Shoving is an interaction with a creature wherein you attempt to move that creature in a manner of your own choosing, against its will.

Pushing is the effect of a creature or object being moved.

I know this might seem trite, but I want to be clear that I am addressing the shove action, not pushing as a whole.

The Basics

Shoving involves interacting aggressively with a creature. Here’s the basic concept:

Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature, either to knock it prone or push it away from you. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
The target of your shove must be no more than one size larger than you, and it must be within your reach.
You make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you win the contest, you either knock the target prone or push it 5 feet away from you.
Players Handbook pg. 195

What this tells us:

Shoving is an action.
It counts as an attack and replaces one of your regular attacks.
You can only shove something up to one size larger than you.
It is a contested check, rather than a normal attack roll.
If successful you choose to either (a) knock the target down, or (b) push it 5 feet away from you.

This also means that:

You can shove as many time as you have attacks.
If you have enough movement, you can shove the same creature more than once.
Shoving a creature away does not provoke an opportunity attack.
Instead of beating an AC (where a tie goes to the attack), you need to beat the opposing roll (tie means nothing happens).

Tactical Thinking: Why Shove?

You might be thinking that shoving a creature is wasting a perfectly good chance to deal damage, and you might be right. However, there’s a number of times when shoving may be a good idea. Here’s a couple to get you started and you can think of others on your own.

Shoving a creature away from a vulnerable party member may allow them to escape without having to disengage.
Pushing an opponent off of a cliff, or into another hazard, might be a faster way to finish them off than attacking it.
Knocking a creature prone means it will spend half its movement getting up on its next turn, and melee attacks against it will have advantage while it is prone.
There may be ways to utilize shoving as part of a group combat tactic. I leave you to consider this.

Complicating it with Feats:

Charger

Here’s the description of the charger feat:

When you use your action to Dash, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack or to shove a creature.
If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before taking this bonus action, you either gain a +5 bonus to the attack’s damage roll (if you chose to make a melee attack and hit) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you chose to shove and you succeed).
Player’s Handbook pg. 165

Let’s parse this a bit:

If you use the dash action (not as a bonus action, rogues) you can either (a) make a melee weapon attack, or, (b) attempt to shove a creature.
Since the attack granted is a bonus action, it’s not available if you have already used a bonus action this turn.
Straight line means unimpeded in a single direction, whether that be a cardinal direction or a diagonal. Personally, as a DM, I would probably allow a slight curve, as long as there are no sharp changes in directions or obstacles to dodge.
If you hit with the weapon attack you deal +5 damage. If you succeed on your contested roll to shove, you can push the creature up to 10 feet away. This feat does not give you advantage on either attack roll.
You can choose to only push the creature less than 10 feet. 10 feet is the maximum distance.

Shield Master

Shield master is another feat that enables shoving as a bonus action. There’s a lot to the feat, but here’s the relevant part:

If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to try to shove a creature within 5 feet of you with your shield.
Player’s handbook pg. 170

This doesn’t change anything about shoving except to allow it as a bonus action IF you take the attack action. It doesn’t apply if you choose to use your action for anything else.

As before, you still only get one bonus action, so if you did something else as a bonus action, you can’t use this feature.

Other Ways to Push

The battlemaster has maneuvers that allow them to push or trip, but those maneuvers contain the specifics within them, so I’m not going to deal with them here. Likewise, several spells can push things around, but the details are in the descriptions.

Everything Together

Here’s everything you need to know about shoving summed up nicely.

Shoving is an action, unless (a) you have the shield master feat and take the attack action, or (b) you have the charger feat and take the dash action and move at least 10 feet in a straight line. In both (a) and (b) you can shove as a bonus action.
Shoving is a special melee attack that replaces one of your regular attacks, unless you use it as a bonus action (see previous point).
When you attempt to shove a creature you make a strength (Athletics) check contested by the creatures strength (Athletics) or dexterity (Acrobatics) check (DM’s choice, whichever is more suitable).
If the attempt succeeds, you may choose to (a) knock the creature prone, or (b) push the creature 5 feet away from you (up to 10 feet if you are using the charger feat and meet the conditions specified).
In the event of a tie, nothing happens. Consider the contest to be a stalemate with both creatures equally matched (see PHB 174 for more on contests).

I’ve tried to be thorough here without being exhausting. The goal is just to get all of the rules on a certain subject in one place so that everyone can see them and understand the benefits of certain actions and feats while seeing what it takes to make them work. I hope I’ve managed that here. I’ll try to keep doing these from time to time as long as I think they’re helpful.

On an unrelated note, email notifications are functional now. Sign up and check your email to confirm. Also the social links for Facebook and Twitter are now functional, so please feel free to like, share, and subscribe. There’s more on the way!

Become a Patron!