Does Bladed Dash allow me to go through enemy squares?

[Tashanna]

Hello,

I've run into an argument with a GM in a PFS game about this spell recently.
We were in a 5ft large corridor and a large creature was blocking the door, the GM didn't allow me to use bladed dash to go to the other side of the creature.

Bladed dash mentions that you can "immediately move up to 30 feet in a straight line any direction".
What's more, it mentions in the end of the text that you must end your movement in an unoccupied space, this sentence seems to stem from the fact that you can go through occupied squares.
Last but not least, the mythic version of the spells says it functions like the regular version except you can hit every enemy you pass.

So i've got three questions, the main one being the first :
1)Does this spell allow you to go through enemy squares?
2) Do you need to have line of sight to your destination, or only line of effect?
3) Can you use this 30ft of movement to go, let's say "upwards" or to reach an enemy that would be on a bridge above you?

Thank you in advance for your help

PS : If for any reason there doesn't seem to be a clear answer to this, don't hesitate to press the FAQ button

[kinevon]

1) No. It doesn't provoke, but it doesn't say you can pass through enemy squares. Even the Mythic version refers to enemies you pass, not enemies whose square you go through. So, no way past that big monster, unless you can make a CMD+5 Acrobatics check against it... Or it is so big you could maneuver past it due to size differences to begin with.

2) Usually, if something is blocking your line of sight, it is also blocking line of effect. If you cannot fit through an obstacle on your route with normal movement, you probably can't get line of effect past it, either.

3) Sure, but bear in mind that there will be consequences, as you are likely to wind up standing in mid-air at the end, so dash, attack, fall. I guess that is one way to avoid a full attack...

Note on 3: If they have a readied action, they can still trigger it on you if meet the trigger conditions. Also note that falling, if farther than 5', will provoke as you leave the threatened square...

[Bob Bob Bob]

So it's helpful to post the full text.

Bladed Dash wrote:

School: transmutation
Range: personal
Target: you
Duration: instantaneous

When you cast this spell, you immediately move up to 30 feet in a straight line any direction, momentarily leaving a multi-hued cascade of images behind you. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You may make a single melee attack at your highest base attack bonus against any one creature you are adjacent to at any point along this 30 feet. You gain a circumstance bonus on your attack roll equal to your Intelligence or Charisma modifier, whichever is higher. You must end the bonus movement granted by this spell in an unoccupied square. If no such space is available along the trajectory, the spell fails. Despite the name, the spell works with any melee weapon.

I think that's all the relevant bits.

The important parts for me are that it's transmutation, not conjuration (teleportation). So when it says move and tells you it doesn't provoke, that implies that it's the normal kind of movement. This means no moving up unless you have something like air walk or a fly speed. If it granted you the ability to rocket yourself into the air it would probably mention it.

It does require line of sight and line of effect, but since it's a personal spell it requires you to be able to see and reach yourself. The line you choose to move on is the result of the spell (up to 30 feet movement in a line) not any kind of targeting for the spell.

As for moving through an enemy's square, that one's complicated. The spell strongly implies that you can move through opponents, but only because the spell only fails if there's absolutely no unoccupied squares along the line you choose. So if there's an open square you should be able to move there, even if the rest of them have creatures in them. Where this gets messy is that if you're no longer rolling acrobatics to move through an opponent's square then you fall under the tiny creature rule that "They must enter an opponent's square to attack in melee. This provokes an attack of opportunity from the opponent." So it looks like you can move through opponent's squares but you provoke an AoO for entering their square.

[whew]

Squares can be occupied by allies, not just enemies. So the mere mention of occupied squares does not prove that the spell is meant to go through enemy squares.

[Raltus]

School: transmutation
Range: personal
Target: you
Duration: instantaneous

When you cast this spell, you immediately move up to 30 feet in a straight line any direction, momentarily leaving a multi-hued cascade of images behind you. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You may make a single melee attack at your highest base attack bonus against any one creature you are adjacent to at any point along this 30 feet. You gain a circumstance bonus on your attack roll equal to your Intelligence or Charisma modifier, whichever is higher. You must end the bonus movement granted by this spell in an unoccupied square. If no such space is available along the trajectory, the spell fails. Despite the name, the spell works with any melee weapon.

To me the bold and italic points make it, if the enemy is with in the 5' attack range your straight like movement you can attack them, if not you cannot and you get to move 30'. So you cannot move through an enemy but you can attack someone to the side as you move 30'.

[noretoc]

This is def a DM situation, but I have to agree with the folks who say no to moving through enemy square. The fact that you can move past occupied squares and just not end in one is (as said above) normal for squares occupied by allies, or other things. If it was a teleport effect I would think different, but it seems like more of a movement thing.

[Tashanna]

The fact that the two first answers are completely antithetical shows me that this question is hard to answer.

I think RAI is clearly that you can go through opponent squares, because if you cant, what is the point of the spell, especially the mythic counterpart? To me it's clearly designed for you to go through a wave of enemies and to slice them apart.

Second of all, to all the people that use the spell school of magic to say that it's not a teleportation spell, and thus that you can't move through enemies, i have to strongly disagree with you. The sentence "it's magic" comes to mind and I don't think an enemy would be able to prevent you from going through his square when you move very fast and leave images behind you.

Now about RAW, because that's all that's important especially for me who plays PFS, I don't believe normal rules apply to the movement granted by a spell.
What your character is doing is casting a spell and he is then moved immediately , emphasis mine, 30ft in any direction. Your character is never using a move action to do this, he is merely using the spell as means of transportation. As he's not using a move action, would he be able to make an Acrobatics Check to pass through his foe? If not what happens? The spell fails? He's moved to the nearest free space? All those questions, that have no clear answers, seem to point me to the fact that going through an enemy wouldn't be a difficulty.

I don't think it would be a problem if a foe were in the character's path because he never actually has to cross this space he's just moved immediately from point a to point b. I know that this could be defined as teleportation but the big difference is that the character leaves in his path lots of images that confuse his foe, so it's not direct teleportation, the character still has to leave a remnant of himself when moving.

@whew : Why would it be necessary to include a special rule only for squares occupied by allies? It is clear that you can go through allies square but not finish your movement in it. If enemies were included in this though, some exceptions come to mind like unseen foes or moving through a creature that's blocking your view so that you can't see what's behind her.

[RumpinRufus]

Moving Through a Square wrote:

Opponent: You can't move through a square occupied by an opponent unless the opponent is helpless.

You cannot move through the square of a non-helpless enemy. Nothing in this spell overrules that.

As far as the mythic version, the benefit is clearly that if there is a line of opponents, you may hit them all. For example, if "_" is an empty square, "S" if your starting square, "F" is your final square, and "E" is an enemy, you could hit 10 enemies at least using the mythic version.

_F_
E_E
E_E
E_E
E_E
E_E
_S_

The spell works perfectly fine without moving through enemy squares, and it's clearly not allowed by RAW to move through enemy squares (unless you make an Acrobatics check, which would be allowed. If you fail the Acrobatics check, you stop moving in front of that enemy and you provoke, as listed in the Acrobatics rules.)

[Kazaan]

So you follow standard rules; you make an acrobatics check to see if you are able to Bladed Dash through the enemy-occupied square. If you succeed, you end up on the other side of him. If you fail, you end up on the closer side. No muss, no fuss. Acrobatics checks are made as part of movement and this is movement so there you go.

[Kenji Elindir]

Tashanna wrote:

...what is the point of the spell...

The point of the spell is to be pounce for the Magus class. When you use spell combat, you can cast the spell first, move the 30 ft and take the attack, then take the rest of your attacks.

[Bardez]

From my own PFS experience, ask a GM about the spell before you prep it. It's mildly cheesy (get a move and full attack) so ask before you prep it. If you have a regular GM rotation, remember what certain GMs think of the spell.

As a Magus character, I of course have this spell. But I have to remember who will label it as cheese and who will not.

[Dave Justus]

It isn't teleport. But it is transmutation, and the flavor text of 'leaving behind multi-hued cascade of images' seems to imply to me that it is a temporal effect. (Time Stop is also transmutation.)

So basically, for a brief moment, during which you can only move and make a single attack, you are outside of time. You have to move straight (like a charge) and you don't gain any special movement abilities.

The 'You must end the bonus movement granted by this spell in an unoccupied square' clause, while not hard proof, does imply to me that you should be able to pass through another persons square. If we conclude that it is a temporal effect, albeit limited, then the notion that the opponents are effectively equal to paralyzed or helpless opponents for the purpose of movement make sense.

However, the spell is unclear as has been noted before.

[Owen K. C. Stephens]

I had nothing to do with the design of this, and I'm not giving any official answer, but here is my opinion of the RAW.

The spell says you immediately move in a straight line up to 30 feet, and this movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You can't end in an occupied space. And that's basically all the know about movement.

Movement, Distance, and Position is its own category in the Combat chapter. This spell gives you movement, so we should look there for the rules on movement.

Here we learn (under Moving Through a Square) that you can't move through an opponent's square unless he is helpless, and can't end movement in an occupied square unless the occupant is helpless (friend or foe). We know from the spell description that we can't end in an occupied square, so apparently for the spell that is true even if the foe is helpless. But since the spell does not say it's an exception to the rule on moving through an opponent's space, RAW it does not grant that power.

The AoO rules would normally apply, except the spell tells us they don't.

On the question of Acrobatics allowing you to move through an opponent's space with this spell, looking at the Acrobatics skill rules they seem to allow it. Those rules specify you can move through an opponent's space with an Acrobatics check (DC 5 + opponent's CMD). Interestingly you are at half speed doing this unless you increase the DC by +10, and I would assume that applies for the spell as well. If you are slowed by medium or heavy armor or a medium or heavy load you can't make such an Acrobatics check at all unless you have an ability that allows you to go full speed. There's no suggestion this spell's movement is affected by armor, so I assume this would be allowed.

As far as it requiring an action, the Action: entry of Acrobatics says it is taken as part of another action or a reaction, so I'd say if you cast a spell that gives you 30 feet of movement, any Acrobatics check you make would be part of the action (spellcasting) that included the movement.

I also wouldn't assume this spell allowed you to fly unless you were flying already, or that it would let you teleport though a solid wall.

[Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal]

Kenji Elindir wrote:

Tashanna wrote:

...what is the point of the spell...

The point of the spell is to be pounce for the Magus class. When you use spell combat, you can cast the spell first, move the 30 ft and take the attack, then take the rest of your attacks.

The spell also allows the Magus to essentially make a double move, followed by an attack (with a to-hit bonus), making it effectively 'haste-lite', which is pretty useful for a second level spell.

[Rhatahema]

Agreed that this spell does not give you the ability to pass through enemy squares.

As far as the movement goes, that is trickier. I think the intent is that you can move in a straight line up to 30ft utilizing any modes of movement you have available to you (land, fly, burrow, swim, climb). You could argue the spell warps time or hurls you through space via telekinesis, but that's a stretch for a spell that makes no mention of either.

I think the author made a mistake by not wording this as something like "this spell grants you the ability to move up to your speed, as if you had taken a move action, except..." If this is some movement outside of normal movement modes, what happens when you cast this spell while grappled or prone? Does your movement ignore anything that would normally impede movement (high winds, difficult terrain, entanglement)? I think that's outside the scope of the spell.