Earthglide and RP experience

Ok folks. I have an encounter with small earth elementals coming up. As far as earth glide goes, i am envisioning them being beneath the stone floor, popping up and attacking. I am also wondering if they can be 'up', then earthglide to an opponent that has reach, pop back up and attack (thus not triggering the AoO. Can they also be in hand to hand and 'glide down into the floor, move to another opponent, pop up and attack with out provoking?

On another note, i am thinking about awarding xp for roleplaying. Any notes on this? Not everyone will get the xp bonus, and i could see people getting upset (thus i award this privately).

Earth glide seems to count as normal movement, so a small earth elemental should be able to drop into the ground with a 5 ft. step, and then make a 20 ft. move action that ends with it rising up adjacent to a foe within 15 ft. of the place it entered the ground and getting a standard attack (since it would have to use 5 ft. of it's 20 ft. movement to ascend 5 ft. and attack). None of that should provoke an attack of opportunity.

Rising up from the ground would not provoke an AoO, as the attacker can not attack the square the elemental is leaving (it is under ground). Sinking into the ground while threatened would provoke and AoO, because the elemental is leaving a square the attacker can attack (it is above ground).

@Set You can not take a 5' step and also move. Once you have taken a 5' step, that ends all voluntary movement for the round.

@Set You can not take a 5' step and also move. Once you have taken a 5' step, that ends all voluntary movement for the round.

My bad. I seem to have misunderstood how movement in combat has worked for years. I just found out that the withdraw action exists, after all. :)

Rising up from the ground would not provoke an AoO, as the attacker can not attack the square the elemental is leaving (it is under ground). Sinking into the ground while threatened would provoke and AoO, because the elemental is leaving a square the attacker can attack (it is above ground).

@Set You can not take a 5' step and also move. Once you have taken a 5' step, that ends all voluntary movement for the round.

This is rules lawyer-ey, but imagine a 5' cube which extends 2'6" above and below ground; you could possible take a full attack and sink back into the ground without using 5' of movement.

(Yes, I know how cheesy that is, just saying you could move above and below ground within 5 feet.)

I play earth glide like an incorporeal hiding in a wall. The elemental can attack creatures above him, just as any creature could attack a flying creature within reach, but it would have to "lean out" to attack during which time it would not have full cover from the ground.

They look like this.

Our group seems to be caught in the idea that if you move out of a threatened square using a withdraw, there is no AoO. I imagin this would apply to gliding away. Pop up one round, attack, next round glide down and withdraw - no AoO?

Yeah, that's what the withdraw action is for.

As a note earth glide only works on unworked stone so if caves and natural environments only

I'd say envision the scene from the side on a normal grid. So, you could glide under someone's reach, since you have full cover when you provoke to move closer. However, when they move out of a square they still provoke normally so, they can't glide down, then move to another opponent because they provoke for leaving the first square unless they 5-foot step.

One thing to keep in mind is that Withdraw is a full-round action. So you can't normally attack and do a withdraw in the same round (action points or time-altered exceptions exist).

On another note, i am thinking about awarding xp for roleplaying. Any notes on this? Not everyone will get the xp bonus, and i could see people getting upset (thus i award this privately).

Well I am working on awarding XP for roleplaying as if it was an encounter, but they talk themselves out of trouble and or accheave their goal without combat as a group. Or are you meaning more of playing in their set Char personalities?

In the first case put it in the pool of XP and split around full party. This will help with city encounters like talking to a city officer to see what they can acheave before they resort to murder or other mayham. As a Bonus they would likely get XP for the tring to solve it with talk/ roleplay and if that failed they could get the xp for beatting the foe as well.

In the second case talk top your players and explain what you want to do and why. They may be able to handle that player x was better at roleplaying in that adventure/ play day.

As a note earth glide only works on unworked stone so if caves and natural environments only

This does not appear to be the case for earth elementals:

Earth Glide (Ex) A burrowing earth elemental can pass through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water. If protected against fire damage, it can even glide through lava. Its burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple or other sign of its presence.

The Sorc and Oracle SU abilities for some bloodlines/mysteries have that restriction, however.