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When using a charge to attack, i know you have to move in a strait line across the battle map. When you get to the end of your charge and attack your opponent does your opponent have to be in the square that lies in the strait line of your charge, or can he be in the square that is 5' to the left or right of the line of your charge?
Thanks
You must move to the closest space from which you can attack the opponent.
As long as you follow that rule. If two (or more?) are tied, you choose.
Edit to add:
If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can't charge.
So if there's a tree in the way, you can't charge to the left or right of the tree.
Gruuuu beat me to it, but I would add that the first rule mentioned is the key. Figure out which square is closest that you could attack from (whether occupied or not), and then figure out if you can move there or not. If you can't move to that specific square then you can't charge.
You count squares to determine which square is the closest, if two or more spaces were the same ditance away, it is randomly determined which is closest.
Then you make the line from your space to where you are charging to
You must have a clear path toward the opponent, and nothing can hinder your movement (such as difficult terrain or obstacles). You must move to the closest space from which you can attack the opponent. If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can't charge. If any line from your starting space to the ending space passes through a square that blocks movement, slows movement, or contains a creature (even an ally), you can't charge.
Like 3.5, you never get to choose which space you charge to. You'll find this in the rules right after the diagonal movement rules.
paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/combat.html Movement, Position, And Distance... Measuring Distance...
Closest Creature: When it's important to determine the closest square or creature to a location, if two squares or creatures are equally close, randomly determine which one counts as closest by rolling a die.
Lame, that's a horrible rule.
it's not important to determine the closest square in this case as it's not an exclusivity thing.
It is an exclusivity thing since you can't charge if the one space you can charge to is occupied.
"If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can't charge"
so the charging attack has to be in a strait line, but the opponent you attack doesn't have to be in front of you, they could be 5' to the left or right.
Thanks
And it could be even farther if you have reach
Charging is in desperate need of house rules, that's all I'm going to say.
In case it's relevant, I believe ride-by-attack does effect this in some way. Since you need to draw a line that is straight, but passes the creature, I beleive that you can more or less draw any reasonable straight line that manages this. You aren't forced to overrun the target.