Found an earlier discussion on this which didn't seem conclusive so trying again to see if there's anything definitive.
Say character A was knocked unconscious, i.e. helpless. So character B moves into his square. Later, character A is healed and regains consciousness. So now two characters are sharing space. How should this be handled?
RAW, it says that "You can't end your movement in the same square as another creature unless it is helpless." So it seems to imply that whoever next moves (A or B), he have to move out of that square. However, if neither decides to move, then both could share the square for perpetuity?
As a GM there are two ways I would run this:
1) As soon as the helpless creatures regains consciousness (and is no longer helpless) the creature that moved into the square is moved into the last valid position it held (the square it last moved through before moving into the now illegal position). If that square is occupied, they are moved into the nearest legal square available to the current illegal position, if multiple squares are equidistant randomly determine which square the character is moved to.
2) The two characters occupy the same square until it is one of their turns. Regardless of who's turn it is, they must move from the square.
I normally go with #1, however as far as I know there is no official position. Regardless, they definitely shouldn't be allowed to share a square (while neither is helpless) at the end of either character's turn.
This is a gray area and isn't defined in the rules, primarily because it's paradoxical if they do. If you require that they must move, then they will be spending their entire round of actions being forced to move out of a space that was made illegal (and shouldn't have been legal in the first place).
If you don't require that they move, then as the OP stated, they can effectively share the same square until they decide to move out of it, and that's just as stupid as the former.
To be fair, though, you shouldn't have to move into an unconscious ally's square to heal them, whether through delivering a Cure spell, force-feeding a potion, and so on. So really, the above situation shouldn't even be present, because you can do all of that stuff while you are adjacent to a creature. To quote the force-feeding portion of the text:
A character can carefully administer a potion to an unconscious creature as a full-round action, trickling the liquid down the creature's throat. Likewise, it takes a full-round action to apply an oil to an unconscious creature.
Nothing in that text requires you to be in the same square as the creature, so I don't know where people are coming up with this "you must be in the same square to force-feed a potion" shenanigans. I mean, maybe the whole "carefully administer" thing could apply, but that's GM FIAT/houseruling, because that has no mechanical ramifications, but really, the only requirement is that you'd have to be adjacent to the creature.
In truth, the only time creatures can enter other creatures squares are when A. They have an ability that says they can, B. Are Tiny size or smaller, or C. The creature is actually dead, and isn't a creature at all, simply a corpse.
Umm, Darksol? You're the first person in this thread to mention being in the same square to feed a potion.
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It doesn't need to be a potion issue.
Party a is two abreast in 10 by 10 corridore. Fighter a and bard b are holding the line. Fighter a drops unconscious. Summoner c drops a summoned monster on his turn to hold the line. Summoned monster is in a legal spot, in fighter a's square. Cleric d goes, channelling energy and bringing fighter a above 0.
Now fighter a and summoned monster are in the same square. What happens?
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The technical answer is that their positions are perfectly legal until either fighter a or summoned monster have a turn in the initiative order, at which point the one acting must move out of the square they start in, and must end in a legal square. Sucks to be the fighter who wakes up and suddenly has to scramble out from underneath the celestial badger, but them's the breaks.
Umm, Darksol? You're the first person in this thread to mention being in the same square to feed a potion.
Yeah I considered it much more likely that the character in the square moved into position to attack whatever knocked the ally unconscious.
Umm, Darksol? You're the first person in this thread to mention being in the same square to feed a potion.
It's the first thing that's come to mind, because that seems to be the most common situation whenever there is talk of "two creatures in the same square." Call it a reflex, I suppose. There's also the matter of the OP mentioning healing the helpless creature, which certainly can push the conversation in the direction I stated. So really, it's not like my post is outlandish or off-topic.
Either way, the helpless condition making it so that any creature can occupy your square is a pretty stupid and nonsensible rule, and creates ridiculous situations as above. If the helpless condition didn't all-of-a-sudden make your square open, then this sort of crap wouldn't happen.
Thanks for the thoughts so far. I agree that it messes up the mechanics of the game to allow someone to step into the square of a possibly temporary helpless character, but tactically it is a smart thing to do - to step up to hold the line (if you're an ally) or step up to go after the squishy spellcasters behind (if you're an enemy).
@Claxon, #2 seems most RAW but it would really suck for that poor fighter on the ground. Not only does he have to use his move action to pick up the weapon he dropped when he went unconscious, provoking AOO, he now has to use his standard action to crawl 5 feet out of the way, provoking yet another AOO. And likely another one the next round when he attempts to stand up. Likely to go unconscious again. :)