There is no facing in Pathfinder, so you are facing all directions at once. No need to rotate.
There is no facing one way or the other.
You can attack either enemy flanking you without incurring an AoO.
There is no facing in Pathfinder.
Edit: double ninja'd!
jinx
you all owe me a coke
Specific facing is immaterial in PF, so no. You get neither benefit nor penalty from declaring you're facing the barbarian or the rogue and shifting is all a matter of flavor, not rules.
Movement in regards to attacks of opportunity is always defined as moving from one square to another.
It is not movement within a square, otherwise just attacking or hell even breathing would trigger AOOs.
-j
Movement in regards to attacks of opportunity is always defined as moving from one square to another.
It is not movement within a square, otherwise just attacking or hell even breathing would trigger AOOs.
-j
Well, sort of. Standing up from prone, for example, is a move action, is contained within a single square, and does provoke an attack of opportunity. So there are forms of actions that stay within the same space and can provoke AoO - but changing facing really isn't a specific thing in PF.
Yeah, sorry, there are some move equivalent actions that trigger, but every one specifies if it does trigger.
Actual movement is one square to another, though.
-j
Then how the heck does flanking work?
By virtue of the MST3K Mantra and Bellisario's Maxim.
Flanking occurs when two enemies are on opposite sides of the defending character.
E = Enemy
D = Defender
X = Empty square
XXX
EDE
XXX
XEX
XDX
XEX
EXX
XDX
XXE
XXE
XDX
EXX
These are all examples of flanking. It gets a little more complex for large creatures, but that's the basics.
|
Then how the heck does flanking work?
Can you draw a line directly between the center of the two enemies, and does that line cut through the center of your character? That's how flanking works.
It's not "I'm behind this guy and he's not facing me so I am flanking him", it's "Me and my buddy got this guy surrounded, we're both flanking him."
Then how the heck does flanking work?
Well, the rules state this:
When making a melee attack, you get a +2 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by another enemy character or creature on its opposite border or opposite corner.
When in doubt about whether two characters flank an opponent in the middle, trace an imaginary line between the two attackers' centers. If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent's space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked.
The rules are simply an abstract mechanics standpoint, they don't offer a sense of realism; because of this, it trumps any sort of flavor text.
That being said, the concept of flanking relies on you making an opponent fight on two different fronts, while his vision and such can only focus on one at a given time, (or they can try to fight both simultaneously, but it drains resources and such,) providing gaps in their defenses from the other.
With that intent in mind, making the claim that "there is no facing in Pathfinder" throws into question whether the description of abilities such as All-Around Vision really make sense or would actually do what it says it does. Here's what the passage says:
The creature sees in all directions at once. It cannot be flanked.
An ability like Improved Uncanny Dodge would have better flavor applications, since the ability to negate flanking in this case is not based off of vision, but of character experience (usually in a certain class, but sometimes inherent), versus this, which says that you can see (and thusly in essence, can "face") all directions simultaneously, the flavorful reason as to why it's unable to be flanked. i.e. If you're making the claim that there is no "facing," then by rights every single creature should have this ability, and therefore should never be flankable.
All I'll say is that this is something that can and should be addressed in the Pathfinder Unleashed book.
Not exactly, seranov !
Flanking occurs when you can draw a line between the center of the two flanking characters squares, and that line cut through two opposite sides of the square of the flankee.
Or opposite corners.
Yes, when a player spins on an office chair, you may execute an attack of opportunity on them.
As others have said, characters have no facing.
Just to clarify one point, strictly speaking it's "does the line pass through opposite sides or opposite corners?", which allows broader options for flanking large creatures:
Same format as before, but the D's are a single large creature:
.
.
XEXX
XDDX
XDDX
XXEX
XEXX
XDDX
XDDX
XEXX
Both of these are flanking, too.
That clears that up perfectly. We've been using the facing directions of the mini's to determine flanking. We would also only give the flanking bonus to anyone behind, instead of the whole group of flankers.This encourages teamwork. Thank you.
Yes, It does, quite nicely too. The whole idea is that by splitting the target's attention so much, his defense is undermined against both attackers. So both get the bonus to hit.