Threatened Squares, Reach, and Empty Corners

[Ravingdork]

What is the current official stance on reach and threatened squares? What is the generally accepted stance?

I remember in v3.5, Medium and large creatures could attack diagonally with their reach. I'm wondering if that remains true in Pathfinder.

I know there's been a lot of discussion before on the matter. I just want to know what the current status of affairs is, both official and otherwise.

[Cheapy]

Diagonal squares count as 2 away.
.
.
.
.

XOOOX
OXXXO
OXBXO
OXXXO
XOOOX

You're B.
You threaten O.
You don't threaten X.

[Ravingdork]

So someone moving diagonally can move up to me with impunity. *snorts* That's going to be house ruled right out if that's the official stance.

I guess my follow up question is "does anyone actually ever play that way?" I've not seen it, not even in Society games.

[SlimGauge]

There was some nonsense about a "virtual" 10 foot away square that someone approaching on the diagonal had to pass through. It was in this non-existent square where a reach weapon wielder would get his AoO. I'm sure you can use the search feature to find the discussion.

That said, it's just much easier and cleaner to make reach an exception to the "second square on a diagonal counts double" rule.

[Cheapy]

Oh, no. Forgot to mention that. You still threaten out to 10'. So they can't get up to you with getting a whack of your big stick.

More info on the official stance, from Sean by way of Jason, can be found here.

Any arguments against it are going to be brought up in that linked thread as well :)

FWIW, I play it as the official rules.

[James Risner]

Ravingdork wrote:

official and otherwise.

Official in posts by SKR and others:

You don't threaten the diagonals that exceed your reach.
You can't move diagonal from a non-threatened diagonal to an adjacent diagonal without provoking despite "not leaving a threatened square".

Otherwise:

I personally hate this oddness and prefer the "cheesy" 3.5 stance of diagonals work.

[Lifat]

Yup. I would personally houserule reach aswell, for simplicitys sake.

[Atarlost]

Everyone reasonable uses the 3.5 reach rules.

Well, the really sensible people use for all purposes a distance metric that's actually suited to grids. I prefer Chebychev, but Manhattan can also work.

[Odraude]

Huh?

[MrCab]

Realitically, you must pass within the weapons range from further than 5 feet away to reach that corner square. You'll get AoOed and you'll like it.

That said, I would still allow for 5 foots across that diagonal as a quirk of the rules.