Movement action, flaming sphere and 5 foot step

[Fanaval]

Hi. The movement of a flaming sphere requires a move action. But can this movement be' defined as a real movement? So is possible to do the 5 foot step when moving the flaming sphere? (remembering that is forbidden to do a movement and a 5 foot step) The point of this question is that i do not move my character but only the sphere.
Thanks

[Gandal]

If i correctly recall, directing the sphere is the equivalent of a move action for the caster, but he doesn't actually moves,he stays still and points the sphere.
The sphere is the only thing moving,but i think you can always make a 5 ft step before or after a move action,even if you don't actually move.

[BigNorseWolf]

You are only forbidden from taking a 5 foot step if you actually MOVE, that is you start in one square and move to another. Move equivalent actions don't prevent you from taking your 5 foot step. So you can

Draw a weapon (move equivilant) 5 foot step, make an attack

Move your flaming sphere, draw a weapon, 5 foot step

or even

Move flaming sphere 1, 5 foot step, move flaming sphere 2.

You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement. Taking this 5-foot step never provokes an attack of opportunity. You can't take more than one 5-foot step in a round, and you can't take a 5-foot step in the same round that you move any distance.

[Irranshalee]

Here is the information BigNorseWolf did not quote from the PRD:

Move Action: A move action allows you to move up to your speed or perform an action that takes a similar amount of time. See Table: Actions in Combat for other move actions.

You can take a move action in place of a standard action. If you move no actual distance in a round (commonly because you have swapped your move action for one or more equivalent actions), you can take one 5-foot step either before, during, or after the action.

As he said, moving a sphere is a move action not your movement, hence you can take a 5 foot step. In your case, I assume you want to move the sphere, 5 foot step, and cast another spell, which you can do.

Thanks for the post. I did not know you could do this until today :)

[Fanaval]

Thank you very much! Thread solved!

[Jeff Wilder]

BigNorseWolf wrote:

or even

Move flaming sphere 1, 5 foot step, move flaming sphere 2.

I think by "flaming spheere 1" and "flaming sphere 2" you actually mean separate flaming spheres. If so, this is correct.

If not, though, just to be clear: even though moving a flaming sphere is a move action, you can't move a flaming sphere twice in a round "if it enters a space with a creature," because it stops moving "for the round" at that point.

(Theoretically you could move the same flaming sphere up to 30 feet (total), using two move actions in a round, but I'm not sure why you'd want to.)

I know this thread is a few months old, but we had an argument about flaming sphere at my table last night, so I just saw the thread while doing research.