A couple of questions came up at our PFS game last night. This is the first of them.
One of the characters was an arcanist with dimensional slide. If the arcanist begins next to an enemy and uses the first five feet of her move action to activate dimensional slide and to move a point 100 feet from said enemy, is she subject to an attack of opportunity from the enemy she started adjacent to?
The rules say that movement by dimensional slide does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but it also says that dimensional slide can be used for a move or withdraw action. Giving this choice suggests that using to dimensional slide to move away from an enemy as part of a move action might provoke an attack of opportunity, otherwise why would withdraw be given as an option.
Also our GM felt that the arcanist first had to move 5 ft before activating dimensional slide and this initial 5 feet of movement would trigger an attack of opportunity. The rest of us didn't see that in the rules but it was a GM ruling so we accepted it and moved on. Was our GM correct in this case?
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The arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to create a dimensional crack that she can step through to reach another location. This ability is used as part of a move action or withdraw action, allowing her to move up to 10 feet per arcanist level to any location she can see. This counts as 5 feet of movement. She can only use this ability once per round. She does not provoke attacks of opportunity when moving in this way, but any other movement she attempts as part of her move action provokes as normal.
Seems to me that "moving in this way" has to include everything required to use the exploit. The second part of the bolded sentence is there because if the Dimensional Slide counts as five feet of your movement for the round, you might move X feet before you slide, or would still have Y feet left after the slide and could keep going - that movement would trigger AoO.
As the arcanist in question, the move cannot be done with a 5ft step. However, no where in the description states you cant use it as the first five feet of your move. So if you never leave the square you are in to go to another adjacent square, but simply teleport, they *should* in my understand have no way to strike you. As for "other movement provokes as normal" of course it would, once i come out of teleport, if i want to move 20 more feet through threatened squares i would pay the price accordingly.
As the other link included this is not overpowered then the wizards shift ability, which doesn't provoke either. As for the moving 5 feet before initiating the slide, I have NO idea where that came from. Nothing in the language leads to even a broad conclusion to that.
Basically in a corner, with an enemy between me and about 60 more feet until my allies, who were surrounded. I wanted to help them, while simultaenously not getting wrecked by a melee fighter type, so used a move action, with the intent to teleport 100' feet away and up into the air to escape my tenuous situation, by using the first five feet. We were low on time however, so i submitted myself to the attack and moved on. It would be good to have some sort of precedence for future instances though.
I have been using dimensional slide this way for everyone of my 29 experience points so far... and this was the first time it was ever considered an issue.
I can't see why the text would even be there, if it weren't to protect you from this kind of situation.
This maneuver works best if the party has a bard on hand to play "Dimensional Boogie".
Whether it's move or withdraw, if you slide as the first part of your movement, you don't provoke for the slide. If it's withdraw, you can move normally without provoking on the first step, then slide without provoking, then move normally.
I can see why one would question, and I agree that it wouldn't provoke, but I'm not certain it's clear enough to "force" a GM to change.
Now maybe they'll change because they are in the minority view, but I don't think they have to change.
Nothing will "force" a GM to change. Nothing in the text requires movement before sliding, but if the GM wants to rule that way then Rule Zero applies.
Nothing will "force" a GM to change. Nothing in the text requires movement before sliding, but if the GM wants to rule that way then Rule Zero applies.
A PFS dev post, clear rules, or FAQ can force a GM to change for PFS, which is the setting for this question.
The rules are crystal clear. The GM-at-table making stuff up isn't a rules problem.
It doesn't provoke AoO. It's not combined with a 5' step, but rather part of a movement, which as stated in the book, does not provoke.
That's what makes it useful.
Thanks for all the folks who responded to my question. Just to provide a little context, this occurred near the end of #1-34:Encounter at the Drowning Stones, and it was 11 pm, an hour after we try to normally finish PFS scenarios. I think it's easy for anyone, player or GM, to make a mistake in a situation like that, and it didn't effect the outcome of the scenario. Nonetheless, it's nice to make sure that our understanding of this ability is now crystal clear.
Absolutely! When you're running at the table, you gotta make a call and keep going. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong, and that's okay.
Yea thats why i was like, screw it hit me then, I was at perfect health no single AOO was gonna drop me, and i was going to end the teleport 30 feet in the air, and they didnt have ranged, so screw em.