During our last session, one of the players made a 5 foot step that I thought was illegal. I would like to know what you guys think.
This was the battle, PC moved from point 1 to point 2. The enemy of course is in the middle.
X1X
2EX
XXX
I ruled that he could not make this step, but at the time I wasn't sure why (you can't do it in 4th ed I believe). Later, on the drive home I figured he could not do it because he would be moving at least partially though the enemies occupied square. The only way to do this would be to make an acrobatics roll of 5+CMD.
I told him he could only move as such:
21X
3EX
XXX
Then he could get in position, but he would have to use two move action,provoking AOO unless and successful acrobatics check is made.
Am I wrong? Since you can't move in this way during a charge, I couldn't imagine being able to step this way.
Yup you were wrong. Unless the terrain is difficult you can five foot step into any adjacent square that isn't occupied. Remember that the enemy doesn't take up his entire square and neither do you, as such there is plenty of room to move pass without bumping in anyway. The five foot square you take up is the amount of room you need to fight freely in, not the volume of space you take up.
Yup you were wrong. Unless the terrain is difficult you can five foot step into any adjacent square that isn't occupied. Remember that the enemy doesn't take up his entire square and neither do you, as such there is plenty of room to move pass without bumping in anyway. The five foot square you take up is the amount of room you need to fight freely in, not the volume of space you take up.
+1
Note that you cannot step past a corner thusly.
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To summarize the earlier posts, you were wrong. The upside is you get to become a better DM because you had the wisdom to ask. This is a good thing. :)
You can 5-foot-step any move (diagonal or otherwise) that would count 5-feet of movement. You cannot 5-foot-step around a corner (hard corner), but can around a character, non-hard border, corner of pond, etc.
4e is irrelevant.
Thanks guys!!!
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Others did beat me to the punch, but I did poke around in my book a bit and think I found the answer for you. Bear in mind that you're the GM and you can do as you will.
You'll want to check your core rulebook under Chapter 8 > Movement. Position, and Distance > Measuring Distance (it's on page 192-193 for me.)
"Diagonals: When measuring distance, the first diagonal
counts as 1 square, the second counts as 2 squares, the third
counts as 1, the fourth as 2, and so on.
You can’t move diagonally past a corner (even by taking a
5-foot step). You can move diagonally past a creature, even
an opponent.
You can also move diagonally past other impassable
obstacles, such as pits."
Rules seem to say that you're player could have moved from 1 to 2 without any issue, which is good because I always do it when I play to get into flanking position and was worried I was misbehaving again.
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For the record, you can shift diagonally in 4E too. In fact, all diagonals count as 1 square of movement there (which I consider an unnecessary oversimplification).
You must be thinking of the Star Wars Saga rules, where apparently you can only move along cardinal directions because diagonals always count as 2 squares. That's even worse than what 4E does.
Seriously, what's so darn complicated about the 3.5 scheme of measuring distance? If you're playing D&D, you have to be pretty good at number juggling in the first place, what with all the stacking bonuses.