Can You Take an Opportunity Attack While Prone? (D&D 5e)
Your fighter gets knocked flat. On the goblin's turn it stands up out of the dirt right next to her and sprints for the wizard. Can she swing at it as it goes, even though she is lying on her back? Yes, she can. Here is exactly why, and the one thing that changes when she does.
The short answer
Yes. A creature can take an opportunity attack while prone. It costs your reaction, it is one melee attack, and it is rolled with disadvantage. Lying on the ground does not stop you from reacting to an enemy who leaves your reach. It only makes the swing less likely to land.
Why prone doesn't stop the opportunity attack
An opportunity attack has a short list of requirements, and the Prone condition gets in the way of none of them. Start with the rule itself, from the 2024 System Reference Document:
You can make an Opportunity Attack when a creature that you can see leaves your reach. To make the attack, take a Reaction to make one melee attack with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike against that creature. The attack occurs right before it leaves your reach.
D&D 2024, SRD 5.2, "Opportunity Attacks"
That gives you three things to check. Walk them against the Prone condition:
- It costs a reaction. Prone restricts your movement and your attack rolls. It says nothing about your reaction. The only condition that takes your reaction away is Incapacitated, and prone does not incapacitate you. Your reaction is yours to spend.
- It is an attack. Prone does not forbid attacking. It applies a penalty, which is a different thing. You can still make the single melee attack an opportunity attack asks for.
- It needs the target to leave your reach. Your reach is 5 feet whether you are standing or flat on your back, and more if you are holding a reach weapon. When the enemy steps out of it, the trigger is met.
Reaction available, attack allowed, reach intact. The opportunity attack happens.
The catch: you roll at disadvantage
Here is the Prone condition in full. It is short, and the second half is the part that matters here:
While you have the Prone condition, you experience the following effects.
Restricted Movement. Your only movement options are to crawl or to spend an amount of movement equal to half your Speed (round down) to right yourself and thereby end the condition. If your Speed is 0, you can't right yourself.
Attacks Affected. You have Disadvantage on attack rolls. An attack roll against you has Advantage if the attacker is within 5 feet of you. Otherwise, that attack roll has Disadvantage.
D&D 2024, SRD 5.2, Rules Glossary, "Prone [Condition]"
"You have Disadvantage on attack rolls" covers every attack roll you make, and an opportunity attack is an attack roll. So the swing from the ground is real, it just connects less often. A prone creature trades accuracy for the chance to punish a passing enemy at all.
GM ruling: when the disadvantage cancels out. Prone affects attacks two ways. Your own attacks have disadvantage, and attacks against you have advantage when the attacker is within 5 feet. So if a prone creature makes an opportunity attack against another prone creature within 5 feet, you have disadvantage (you are prone) and advantage (the target is prone and you are close). They cancel, and you roll straight. Advantage and disadvantage never stack in 5e: any amount of each cancels to a normal roll.
What prone does, and what it leaves alone
Most of the confusion around this question comes from treating "prone" as if it means "helpless." It does not. The condition reaches exactly two parts of your turn, and leaves everything else untouched:
| Capability | Restricted while prone? |
|---|---|
| Movement | Yes. You can only crawl, or spend half your Speed to stand |
| Your attack rolls | Yes. You have disadvantage on them |
| Your action | No |
| Your bonus action | No |
| Your reaction, including opportunity attacks | No |
A prone creature can still cast spells, take the Attack action, hold a concentration spell, and react. It is at a disadvantage in a fight, but it is not out of one.
Opportunity attacks are melee only
One limit applies whether you are prone or not. The 2024 rule asks for "one melee attack with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike." That rules out a ranged weapon. If your prone fighter is holding a longbow when the goblin runs past, she does not get a free bow shot. Her opportunity attack has to be a melee weapon she has in hand or an unarmed strike, and it is still made with disadvantage.
An opportunity attack is also a single attack. A creature with Multiattack cannot use it on an opportunity attack. One reaction, one melee attack.
Does crawling away provoke an opportunity attack?
Yes, and this is the flip side of the same question, because a prone creature is often the one trying to leave. Crawling is movement. A creature that crawls out of your reach provokes an opportunity attack just as if it had walked out. Crawling is just slow movement. It is not a quiet way past a waiting enemy.
The ways to leave a reach without provoking are the same as always: take the Disengage action, teleport, or get moved involuntarily by something like a shove or an explosion. A prone creature that wants to crawl to safety past an enemy still has to spend its action on Disengage to do it cleanly.
2024 vs 2014: what changed
The answer to this question is identical in both editions: a prone creature makes opportunity attacks, at disadvantage. The rules around it were tidied in 2024, not rewritten.
| 2014 (SRD 5.1) | 2024 (SRD 5.2) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who you can react to | "a hostile creature" that leaves your reach | "a creature" that leaves your reach (the word "hostile" is gone) |
| The attack | "one melee attack" | "one melee attack with a weapon or an Unarmed Strike" |
| Prone and your attacks | "disadvantage on attack rolls" | "Disadvantage on attack rolls" (unchanged in effect) |
The 2014 wording is worth seeing for the contrast. It read: "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. To make the opportunity attack, you use your reaction to make one melee attack against the provoking creature." Dropping "hostile" is the only change with any bite. In 2024 you can take an opportunity attack against an ally who is leaving your reach, which matters when a charmed friend is being walked away from you. The Prone condition itself is the same rule in both books, reformatted into the labeled "Restricted Movement" and "Attacks Affected" lines.
If you want the same edition-by-edition treatment for a rule that does interact with positioning, our breakdown of cover rules in D&D 5e walks through half, three-quarters, and total cover line by line.
Frequently asked questions
Can you take an opportunity attack while prone in D&D 5e?
Yes. A prone creature can use its reaction to make an opportunity attack when an enemy leaves its reach. The attack is rolled with disadvantage, because the Prone condition imposes disadvantage on all of your attack rolls.
Does an opportunity attack from a prone creature have disadvantage?
Yes. The Prone condition gives you disadvantage on every attack roll you make. An opportunity attack is an attack roll, so a prone creature makes it with disadvantage.
Can you make an opportunity attack with a ranged weapon?
No. An opportunity attack must be a melee attack. In the 2024 rules it is one melee attack made with a weapon or an unarmed strike. A ranged weapon attack can never be an opportunity attack, whether you are prone or standing.
Does crawling away provoke an opportunity attack?
Yes. Crawling is movement, so a creature that crawls out of your reach provokes an opportunity attack exactly as if it had walked. Only taking the Disengage action, teleporting, or being moved involuntarily avoids provoking.
Do you have to stand up before making an opportunity attack?
No. You make the opportunity attack from the ground using your reaction. Standing up is a separate thing you do on your own turn with your own movement, and it is never required in order to react.
Did opportunity attacks change in the 2024 rules?
The interaction with prone did not change: a prone creature still makes opportunity attacks at disadvantage. The 2024 wording drops the word "hostile" so you can react to any creature leaving your reach, and it specifies the attack is made with a weapon or an unarmed strike. The Prone condition behaves the same in both editions.
Settle it at the table, not after
"Can I do this from the ground?" is the kind of question that stalls a combat round while three people thumb through a rulebook. The answer is usually yes, with a tax, and the tax is usually disadvantage. The faster you can confirm it, the faster the goblin gets punched.
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Try Free SRD SearchRules text quoted from the System Reference Document 5.1 and System Reference Document 5.2, © Wizards of the Coast LLC, available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This article is unofficial fan content and is not endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.