Fire Snake - are diagonals considered 'adjacent' ?

[cattoy]

Simple question about Fire Snake - do the squares need to share edges or can they just share a common corner?

[Lost In Limbo]

Adjacent squares are any within 5 feet of the starting square.
As a general rule of thumb, if you can 5-foot step into it, it's adjacent. (assuming no difficult terrain or other movement reduction shenanigans are in place).

So, yes diagonals are adjacent is my answer.

[CampinCarl9127]

Lost in Limbo is correct.

Diagonal squares are considered adjacent. Every odd-numbered time you move diagonally (1st time, 3rd time, 5th time, etc.) in one round, it counts as 5 feet of movement. Every even-numbered time you move diagonally (2nd time, 4th time, etc.) during the same round it counts as 10 feet of movement.

[cattoy]

Follow on question - since every even numbered diagonal move takes 10 feet, if the snake's path includes two diagonally adjacent squares, does the second square count as one or two squares?

[Qaianna]

cattoy wrote:

Follow on question - since every even numbered diagonal move takes 10 feet, if the snake's path includes two diagonally adjacent squares, does the second square count as one or two squares?

I'd count it as two squares. Most effects do. So if you're snaking a line southeast on a grid, you'd go 1, 3, 4, 6, et cetera. It's capped at that anyway as 'The fire snake may not extend beyond its maximum range.' -- so you could get 8 diagonal squares. Enough to torch across a chessboard, at least. And this would somewhat allow shenanigans with juking the line to the side of that diagonal.

Edit: Crap, misread spell. Of course it'd let you coil inside that 60' if you're high enough level. I'd still count the diagonals as normal for movement though.

[Gisher]

cattoy wrote:

Follow on question - since every even numbered diagonal move takes 10 feet, if the snake's path includes two diagonally adjacent squares, does the second square count as one or two squares?

That sounds right.

The Pythagorean Theorem tells us that if you move diagonally across two 5' squares, you have moved approximately 14.14 ft. Pathfinder approximates this by having each pair of diagonal moves add up to 15 ft: a move that counts as 5 ft followed by a move that counts as 10 ft. Trying to count them each as about 7 ft would require a whole new set of movement rules.

[the first Magrim]

So on the 12th square should really be 5ft to compensate for the difference.

[Azothath]

For (weapon) reach the diagonals are considered in reach (this topic flip-flopped in FAQ'd RAW) so they get the advantageous "1,2,1,2,..." counting. In play as it is the first square in movement GMs stick to 5ft, so again, "1,2,1,2,..." as it makes things more consistent. Again in play many GMs count "1,2,1,2,..." for spell ranges also. Just a trivial difference overall as at lower level it may force a 5ft step before casting for close range spells if you count "2,1,2,1,...". So in practice the adjacent square is "1" diagonal or not, the second is "2"(10ft) if diagonal.
Thus for a 30deg angle going East. E 1{=5}, NE(up & over) 1{=5, first angle}, E 1{=5}, NE 1{=10}, E 1{=5}...
To make it easy just use a tape measure/ruler. Nobody's gonna argue that.