Threatened areas for big creatures

[IkeDoe]

Hello.
I have that problem with creatures that reach 3,4,5 etc.. squares around, i don't know if it is supposed to be an squared area or a circular one (like spells).
I know that 2 squares is an excepction to how distances are measured, because the area is square, but I haven't seen any guideline for areas of bigger sizes.

I.e. reach 3

Spoiler:

XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXX_XXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX

or

_XXXXX_
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXX_XXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
_XXXXX_

Thanks in advance.

[Kaiyanwang]

AFAIK, is the former inside the spoiler.

[Tim Statler]

Since reach and threatened area are measured in feet, (ie: 5ft reach, 10 ft reach Etc.) the second case is true.

10 ft reach:

_XXX_
XXXXX
XXOXX
XXXXX
_XXX_

15ft. Reach

_XXXXX_
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXOXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
_XXXXX_

[The Black Bard]

Ive seen this interpreted in so many different ways, as the previous posters have already displayed, that I think we need an official statement on it.

Personally, I'm of the "Option A" crowd. But thats because its A: simpler, and B: prevents wierd glitches when you scale up or down, like a small creature being unable to threaten diagonally (an argument I had to listen to once).

Distance glitches will occur in Grid Based combat. Nature of the beast.

[IkeDoe]

Well, I know that 10' reach is intended to cover a square area because it was clarified in the 3.5 FAQ, however that didn't say how it worked for bigger distances.

XXXXX
XXXXX
XXOXX
XXXXX
XXXXX

[The Wraith]

The Space/Reach templates for Large and larger creatures were in the last pages of the 3.5 DMG; there were a lot of area templates for all these unusual situations (including Area Spells templates).

Basically:

Spoiler:

Large (tall) - Reach 10 ft.:

XXXXXX
XXXXXX
XXOOXX
XXOOXX
XXXXXX
XXXXXX

Huge (long) - Reach 10 ft.:

XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXOOOXX
XXOOOXX
XXOOOXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX

Huge (tall) - Reach 15 ft.:

__XXXXX__
_XXXXXXX_
XXXXXXXXX
XXXOOOXXX
XXXOOOXXX
XXXOOOXXX
XXXXXXXXX
_XXXXXXX_
__XXXXX__

and so on... the pages also held Medium, Large (long), Gargantuan (long), Gargantuan (tall), Colossal (long) and Colossal (tall) templates. Also, those templates included areas for reach weapons on them (for example, a Large Tall creature with a Longspear).
Basically, only the Reach 10 ft. had the additional 'corner squares', in order to avoid a creature to simply take a 5ft. step from outside the far corner and reach the creature without any harm. All other threatened areas followed the basic '1-2-1 squares' rule for diagonal movement. In fact, Large (tall) creatures with a reach weapon had a circle-shaped area, not a square-shaped one.

Of course, that was 3.5, but still...