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I want to use this as my get out of jail card as a Druid. Standard action wildshape into earth elemental, 5 foot into the ground or stone then make my way to a safer place.
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I'm not sure they can.
When it comes to using a 5 foot step, the rules assume that you are using your land speed to do so. Flight has its own rules, as do burrowing and swimming, which usually aren't identical to land speed rules, and it's not defined whether a 5 foot step can be taken with other modes of movement besides the assumed land speed; I'm almost positive you can't do so with flight, simply because those rules wouldn't permit you to do so, since it has facing, rotations, non-linear angles, and so on, most of which isn't required for land speed movement, and several of those issues plague both burrowing and swimming as well.
In short, the rules don't cover non-land speed movement regarding the 5 foot step, which means it's possible that you wouldn't be able to take one in any other manner of transportation. (After all, it's a 5 foot step, not a 5 foot glide, dig, or paddle, as would be the case with flight, burrowing, or swimming, respectively.)
I'd just ask your GM how they would rule it, since that's really all you need to worry about with this character. Regardless of if the GM says Yeah or Nay, you'll have the answer you're looking for, since an official answer for something like this would take ages to come to fruition.
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Your mileage may vary by table, but yes, an earth elemental should be able five foot step with earth glide into the ground.
Well, take a look at this line:
You may not take a 5-foot step using a form of movement for which you do not have a listed speed.Doesn't that strongly imply that you may take a 5-foot step using a form of movement for which you do have a listed speed?
I don't think using the double negative is particularly applicable due that the rules for flight and swimming and burrowing are not so identical as to apply the same rules of land speed to them for all cases. While I understand the point being made, it essentially becomes an apples-to-oranges sort of thing. Flight checks and swim checks need to be made, you have to make additional relevant checks for facing and twisting (which makes no sense given how land speed generally works), moving at an angle, and so on.
I'm not saying that they can't or shouldn't be able to or anything like that, I'm just saying that a GM can very easily come to those conclusions based on what I've stated, and that I wouldn't be surprised if they did, simply because the rules are mostly silent on the matter.
Yes it can be done. The rules do not assume that you can only do it while walking. You can even do it while flying, but you still need to make the fly check for not moving far enough.
If the writers wanted you to not be able to do it with certain types of movement they could have called one or two out when they made the rule saying you couldn't take a 5 foot movement for a type of movement you didnt have.
Any GM can always make his own ruling at his table, but that is different from what the rule actually is, and no certain movement type has a rule that says it doesnt allow 5-foot steps.
edit: I understand that some things are not always written out when they should be, but there is normally some type of precedent for rules that are not written. There is nothing to hint at certain movement types not being allowed a f 5-foot step.
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This only works with S or M elementals. The bigger ones need to move more than 5' to be totally covered.
This only works with S or M elementals. The bigger ones need to move more than 5' to be totally covered.
Not quite the same, but this is immediately what I thought of.
As an aside does the large elemental partially sticking out the ground after the 5ft step gain any kind of cover or condition?
Melee rules:
Attack Roll Modifiers
On higher ground +1
This ought to apply since your opponent is 5 feet down.
When making a melee attack against an adjacent target, your target has cover if any line from any corner of your square to the target’s square goes through a wall (including a low wall).
Big Creatures and Cover ...when making a melee attack against such a creature, you can pick any of the squares it occupies to determine if it has cover against you.
If we're thinking 3-dimensionally, the half-buried large elemental consists of eight squares (or cubes), and at least one has no cover. So I don't think there's a penalty there.
A low obstacle (such as a wall no higher than half your height) provides cover, but only to creatures within 30 feet (6 squares) of it. The attacker can ignore the cover if he’s closer to the obstacle than his target.
I guess you're equally near to the cover if the floor is the cover, which would mean the attacker can't ignore it... But I don't think a floor can technically count as a wall.
For a Large Elemental, technically it should be possible Outslug Style + Outslug Weave + Outslug Sprint (+ the prerequisites for all these) to get you a 10 foot step. Takes an awful lot of feat investment to get there, though (6 total unless you dip Brawler to get rid of the need for Combat Expertise). Probably not worth it -- even as a Human, you would need to get to 9th level to get it all online (or 7th level with the Brawler dip), and you wouldn't be able to get any other feats. Although Wild Shape needs 10th level Druid to get you the Large Elemental form, and Lunge is useful in its own right, so maybe this idea isn't totally crazy . . . .
As an aside does the large elemental partially sticking out the ground after the 5ft step gain any kind of cover or condition?
Nope. Cover for large critters is determined by what square (cube) you are targeting, not the whole critter.
As an aside does the large elemental partially sticking out the ground after the 5ft step gain any kind of cover or condition?Nope. Cover for large critters is determined by what square (cube) you are targeting, not the whole critter.
That always struck me as kind of bizarre. The large creature takes a penalty to its AC, presumably because a larger creature is an easier target--and yet if half or more of that larger creature is submerged in the ground, it retains the penalty to AC but gains no benefit from its reduced available target area?
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(After all, it's a 5 foot step, not a 5 foot glide, dig, or paddle, as would be the case with flight, burrowing, or swimming, respectively.)
See, I've noticed a problem with this thinking immediately. Things without feet can't take a step. Which means a large portion of creatures can't safely move five feet away from something.
That always struck me as kind of bizarre. The large creature takes a penalty to its AC, presumably because a larger creature is an easier target--and yet if half or more of that larger creature is submerged in the ground, it retains the penalty to AC but gains no benefit from its reduced available target area?
Normally you can only hit the nearest 5 foot cube section of anything anyway, so your access to the rest of it is irrelevant.
Using its burrowing speed, maybe no. But it also has earth glide.
Regarding large elementals, I'm not sure that only moving 5' down is a problem. After all, drop prone is a free action (that does not provoke), and that would presumably take "you" under the floor...
By the rules, it wouldn't make a difference. Prone or not, your space doesn't change. So while technically the entirety of the prone elementals body may be underground, as far as the rules would be concerned he is still half exposed as the upper part of the elementals space is still above ground.
No, it doesn't make sense, but the rules sacrifice common sense for ease of play in many areas. This is just another such case.
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As an aside does the large elemental partially sticking out the ground after the 5ft step gain any kind of cover or condition?Nope. Cover for large critters is determined by what square (cube) you are targeting, not the whole critter.
Not always.
Attacks from Land: Characters swimming, floating, or treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep, have improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves) from opponents on land.
Aquatic rules establish a precedence for partially submerged creatures. This includes large creatures only partially submerged. For a Quadraped or swimming creature, the water would not have to be very deep.
Similar rules could be applied to creatures partially submerged in stone, save the penalties would not be negated by Freedom of Movement. The analogy between Earth Glide and swimming is built right into the rules for Earth Glide.
When the creature burrows, it can pass through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water
This came up years ago, with the step moving into the earth/soil, but requiring an actual move to enter stone/rock. Neither removed you from combat as your relative position has not changed per the rules. Actual rulings do not exist that I know of.
Yes.
Errrrm... there are no rules whatsoever that say the first thing about how high in the air any non-player-race creature occupies space. It may well be that the tarrasque is a very wide, 5' high carpet.
True, though cubic creatures was a rule in 3.5 so most people assume that's the intent.
FAQ request for anyone who wants an official ruling.
Attacks from Land: Characters swimming, floating, or treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep, have improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves) from opponents on land.
That's a very odd rule. I can dig a small pit, fill it with water, and stand in it for a +8 AC bonus against attacks? Are there no penalties for doing so? (Apart from the mobility loss, which isn't too bad for a character with ranged attacks...)
Attacks from Land: Characters swimming, floating, or treading water on the surface, or wading in water at least chest deep, have improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves) from opponents on land.That's a very odd rule. I can dig a small pit, fill it with water, and stand in it for a +8 AC bonus against attacks? Are there no penalties for doing so? (Apart from the mobility loss, which isn't too bad for a character with ranged attacks...)
Not that I could read unless you were actually attempting to attack someone also in that water. I think from water surface to land there isn't any water for it to travel through, so you can indeed use this to gain a lot of protection without penalty.