|
So, I was running a game the other night and a cowardly NPC wizard lackey really wasn't feeling up to the fight so she cast invisibility and was going to attempt to move through a flat-footed players square and go into the previous room. One of my players decided to kick his feet (a.k.a. cry foul) and protested quite loudly. My thinking is that a flat-footed creature can't fully defend itself let alone the entire 5 foot square they occupy. I guess the players thinking is that you are constantly imitating Davinci's vitruvian man at all times and a person cannot make their way through an occupied square.
In the end I didn’t really want to argue with him so I just hid under a table and cast spells hoping to make an opening to leave.
Now I ask you fine people, would you have allowed the movement?
Acrobatics check vs flat footed cmd?
Yes, I would have. But it would also have allowed a circumstance bonus to perception checks to spot the invisible lackey.
I would assume if you are denied your dex bonus to AC, then dex also is lost to cmd
|
If the character cannot perceive the invisible wizard, the wizard's movement does not provoke.
The Perception DC to detect the unmoving Wizard is 20. If the wizard is moving at half speed, DC15, and at full speed, DC 10. The Wizard could choose to use Stealth for an additional bonus as well.
I would give a +2 bonus to Perception to the character whose square the Wizard is moving through. I think this is reasonable since it should be easier for the character to detect someone moving through his square as opposed to an adjacent one.
If the character does not succeed at the Perception check, the wizard skates by without notice. If the character makes the Perception check, he can attempt an AAO with a 50% miss chance. If the AAO hits, besides doing damage, the Wizard's movement is stopped.
If the Wizard were to use Acrobatics, the character would be considered to be flat-footed and could not apply his dexterity to his CMD. I would also say that using Acrobatics would also make the Wizard easier to detect...maybe a -5 to the Perception DC.
It doesn't matter if you can perceive the wizard. Even if you manage to pinpoint his square, he has Total Concealment; you cannot perform Attacks of Opportunity on creatures with Total Concealment.
An invisible character follows the normal rules for moving through an enemy space. You can move through the square of a creature that is helpless; you can move through the square of a creature that is three size categories larger/smaller than you.
If you wish, you may use Acrobatics to Tumble through an opponent's square. Your opponent's CMD is calculated as without Dexterity for this tumble; he gains a bonus of +5 because you are moving through its space. If you fail the check, you stop in front of the enemy's square and lose your Move action (due to errata); he would normally be able to perform an Attack of Opportunity on you, but you benefit from Total Concealment and will not receive one, which also prevents you from risking becoming Prone as a consequence of failure.
If you wish to move at full speed, you may opt to increase the DC by 10. Alternatively, you may make an Overrun against your opponent, or a Bull Rush; both of these attacks are made against the opponent's CMD without Dexterity or Dodge bonuses, and because you initiate them while invisible, the opponent may not make attacks of opportunity on you even if you do not have the Improved [Maneuver] feats. Once you have made this attack, you are no longer invisible unless benefiting from an effect such as Improved Invisibility.
In short: You gain big advantages to moving through an opponent's space, but you can't do it completely unhindered. The RAW allows it to be a tactical decision, which in my opinion means it's designed well.
AoO's aren't an issue at all if the PC is Flat-Footed - unless they have Combat Reflexes or whatever.
There are bonuses to attacks if you are Invisible, those would apply to any Over-Run check.
Over-Run may count as an attack which would break Invisibility, so Tumble may be a better bet...
Even if the NPC fails one Tumble check, there's no reason they can't try again, one Move Action is ended, but they can spend another one to try again.
Tumble DCs change depending on your movement speed, but I don't see why one can't decide to move 'half speed' JUST for the enemy's square you are moving thru, basically just losing 5' of movment (unless the PC is Large, etc). There is also variant modifiers to Stealth/Perception depending on how fast you move, it would similarly make sense to perhaps move full speed when approaching the PC and then move at half-speed afterwards (so they don't know exactly where you went), although if they have the move speed to move half-speed the entire time and still get where they want, that is ideal (but it may not allow them the luxury of 2 move actions to potentially spend on Tumbling thru the PC's square if the 1st fails).
I would give situational bonuses to the Invisible character when doing this, especially since the PC is Flat-Footed and hasn't seen them.
Even if the PC passes a Perception check at one point (e.g. right when the Invisible NPC is passing by), the result of their check could easily mean that they 'lose' the NPC at a certain distance away.
