Situation:: At the top of a flight of stairs. Took a Full-attack action. Can I 5-foot down the stairs?
Situation:: At the top of a flight of stairs. Took a Full-attack action. Can I 5-foot down the stairs?
Stairs count as difficult terrain, so no 5 ft step.
Situation:: At the top of a flight of stairs. Took a Full-attack action. Can I 5-foot down the stairs?Stairs count as difficult terrain, so no 5 ft step.
"A character can move up or down stairs as part of their movement without penalty, but they cannot run on them. Increase the DC of any Acrobatics skill check made on stairs by 4. Some stairs are particularly steep and are treated as difficult terrain." Pathfinder Core Rulebook pg415
So you can 5-foot step as long as the steps are not too steep. This is up to the GM to decide what is steep and is not. I'd consider anything >45 degrees to be steep, therefore if the stairs go up five feet for every five feet forward then yes, it's difficult terrain and so you cannot take a 5-foot step. Otherwise you were right, and the step is legal.
As a sidenote I don't count descending stairs to be difficult terrain. Falling may be a problem though...
Happy Gaming!
GM call. If they are too steep, you are in difficult terrain. Also, if they are too narrow, you must squeeze. Keep in mind that too narrow by game standards is ~3ft, which is standard in many homes.
IRL, stairs are designed to be the exact opposite of difficult terrain...
-Kle.
Tell that to someone with asthma, bad knees, or a severe weight problem. I've seen plenty of people who treat stairs as difficult terrain. ;)
Honestly though, I'd disagree on another level too: stairs IRL are designed so that you don't need to make climb checks to change elevation. A steep slope or vertical wall isn't simply just difficult terrain. Therefore I'd say that stairs are designed to essentially decrease the difficulty of such an obstacle to the point where it can even be considered terrain.
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Most stairs you encounter in everyday life are not difficult terrain, however if you've ever ascended a Mayan pyramid (Chichen Itza and Tulum, Mexico) you will have seen stair that are difficult terrain! The stairs rise at 45 degrees, but the individual steps are actually steeper at 73 degrees!
So if you're delving some ancient ruin there very well could be some stairs you can't use a 5' step on. Swashbuckling in the evil duke's castle, pretty much normal movement.
--Vrock of Ages
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Stairs are generally difficult terrain in my campaigns. Then I choose on a case-by-case basis whether they shouldn't be. That might apply to the manor steps in front of a noble's home, for example. Or maybe a grand staircase inside a large manorhouse or palace.
But most stairs are generally built to: take a few resources as possible to build (so are pretty steep), be easily defendable (so are narrow, and cause a right-handed attacker to be at a disadvantage on spiral staircases by having their sword arm against towards the center), and so on.
It's nice to know there's actually a rule that says it's GM's call though. I prefer to play it by the book when possible. ;-)
Situation:: At the top of a flight of stairs. Took a Full-attack action. Can I 5-foot down the stairs?
you can 5' foot down stairs if the the ceiling is only 3-4'. other than that the stairs would be longer than a 5' decent....
Generally, stairs shouldn't count as difficult terrain unless they are particularly steep or unstable. It's just like the classic rapier duel on the staircase, where one of the combatants has to walk backwards as the other advances.
Now, take the stone stairway from Return of the King... 5-foot step that, and you'll be taking a pretty nasty spill.
Can't you take a 5 foot step into difficult terrain without penalty though? that would make this whole argument moot, as you can 5 foot on to the stairs, just not off them, or further down them.