Because moving diagonally covers more ground, you count that movement differently. The first square of diagonal movement you make in a turn counts as 5 feet, but the second counts as 10 feet, and your count thereafter alternates between the two. For example, as you move across 4 squares diagonally, you would count 5 feet, then 10, then 5, and then 10, for a total of 30 feet. You track your total diagonal movement across all your movement during your turn, but reset your count at the end of your turn.
With my Speed of 20 feet, I Stride 20 feet diagonally. That's 5 feet, then 10 feet, then 5 feet. The next time I move diagonally will require 10 feet of my movement. This means I can only Step into an orthogonally adjacent square, correct? Perhaps I would be able to Step twice in succession to enter a diagonally adjacent square?
Ah, SuperParkourio's question gives a purpose to the weird last statement in the Step action.
STEP [one-action]
MOVE
Requirements Your Speed is at least 10 feet.
You carefully move 5 feet. Unlike most types of movement, Stepping doesn’t trigger reactions, such as Reactive Strike, that can be triggered by move actions or upon leaving or entering a square.
You can’t Step into difficult terrain (page 423), and you can’t Step using a Speed other than your land Speed.
The statement "you can’t Step using a Speed other than your land Speed," ties the speed of Step to the speed of Stride. The speed of Step is not 5 feet; instead, it is your Land Speed, with the caveat that you can use it only to move into an adjacent square that is not difficult terrain. If you could Stride into non-difficult terrain 5 feet away, then you can Step into it.
...This means I can only Step into an orthogonally adjacent square, correct?
Normally, yes. Tiger Stance lets you take 10' steps, though, so it would let you take that diagonal step. There might be other similar options that I'm not aware of.
Perhaps I would be able to Step twice in succession to enter a diagonally adjacent square?
You can by making two successive orthogonal steps. Say, stepping west then north to end up in the northwest diagonal square. If you meant investing two actions to step directly diagonal, then no.
IMO if you have 10 ft steps you cannot move 2 diagonals with a single Step action but if you use 2 Step actions you can.
IMO if you have 10 ft steps you cannot move 2 diagonals with a single Step action but if you use 2 Step actions you can.
I don't see how that would work. You are standing in a square and want to travel 10' to get to a diagonal square. Under your theory, what happens when you try to take that first 5' step diagonally?
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I allow people to Step twice diagonally if they wish. We don't count Steps in with normal movement Stride calculations.
I just don't see how the standard method serves to improve the gameplay or fun for anyone. Just seems way more stringent than it needs to be.
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Because moving diagonally covers more ground, you count that movement differently. The first square of diagonal movement you make in a turn counts as 5 feet, but the second counts as 10 feet, and your count thereafter alternates between the two. For example, as you move across 4 squares diagonally, you would count 5 feet, then 10, then 5, and then 10, for a total of 30 feet. You track your total diagonal movement across all your movement during your turn, but reset your count at the end of your turn.With my Speed of 20 feet, I Stride 20 feet diagonally. That's 5 feet, then 10 feet, then 5 feet. The next time I move diagonally will require 10 feet of my movement.
I can follow the argument as far as letter of the rules text goes. But it seems too limiting to me.
It feels really strange to me that because of metagame mechanics - the square grid itself and the diagonal movement rules - that moving this diagonal only costs 5 feet of movement and you can make that step without provoking, but moving that identical diagonal costs 10 feet of movement and so you can't make that step. Provoke or spend two actions and take a slightly different path.
This is my attempt at reasoning that still meets the rules, but is more practical for gameplay balance and consistency.
The diagonals are inherently only 5 feet. Uniformly. Across the entire grid.
The diagonal movement rules say that the movement cost of moving a diagonal alternates between a cost of 5 feet and a cost of 10 feet. But that is the cost that the character pays for doing the movement, not the distance along any diagonal of the grid.
Using Step costs an entire action. And requires that your movement speed is at least 10 feet. It also doesn't matter what your movement speed is as long as it is 10 feet or more. It simply states that you move 5 feet without provoking reactions and consumes your entire movement distance for that action.
Notably, it doesn't mention the distance cost of the distance moved. You aren't able to step in difficult terrain - which does cost more movement speed. But it is the designation of difficult terrain which prevents Step - not its 10 foot distance cost.
So even if that particular diagonal costs 10 feet of movement to pay for the 5 foot distance moved, you should be able to spend one full action and spend the at least 10 feet of movement speed that you have available to move that 5 feet of distance without provoking reactions.
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The diagonal movement rules are already mentally draining enough with counting squares that it requires. We really don't need to add in more edge cases about which diagonals you are and are not able to Step through.
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Agreed, Finoan.
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Perhaps I would be able to Step twice in succession to enter a diagonally adjacent square?You can by making two successive orthogonal steps. Say, stepping west then north to end up in the northwest diagonal square. If you meant investing two actions to step directly diagonal, then no.
I considered the possibility of using two Steps to move 10 feet diagonally because of this passage in GM Core.
The different types of actions representing movement are split up to clarify how the rules work with a creature’s actions. However, you can end up in odd situations, such as when a creature wants to jump vertically to get something and needs to move just a bit to get in range, then Leap, then continue moving. This can end up feeling like they’re losing a lot of their movement to make this happen. At your discretion, you can allow the PCs to essentially combine these into one fluid movement as a 2-action activity: moving into range for a Leap, then Leaping, then using the rest of their Speed.
This typically works only for chaining types of movement together. Doing something like Interacting to open a door or making a Strike usually arrests movement long enough that doing so in the middle of movement isn’t practical.
The developers seem to be describing the extent to which the discrete nature of move actions can be violated without causing balance issues. A dragon Flying in range then using Breath Weapon then Flying away would be pretty devastating *cough* *cough* 5e *cough* *cough*. But seeing as a Leap mid-Stride might sometimes be allowed by the GM, I thought maybe combining 2 Steps to make it to an even diagonal square might be okay, too.
The movement rules say every other diagonal costs 10' of movement and tracks all movement during your turn. Step says you move 5'. Not that you move one square. Specifically 5'. If that diagonal would cost 10', Step doesn't give you enough movement to enter it
That's true.
I don't believe anyone here has necessarily disagreed on what the RAW explicitly states.
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I don't think diagonal movement from other move actions should count when players are using Step. If my players want to spend a whole action moving carefully on a short distance instead of moving their full speed, I don't care if they happened to move diagonally an odd number of times with previous actions. I just treat step as its own separate thing. However, I do agree if someone can step 10' in a single action, it shouldn't be two diagonals.
Lines suck yes. Their why I don't actually use hexes despite preferring them, they're more common for players to deal with.This kind of s!~* is why I prefer hexes.Lines, though? And I'm ok with right angle corners on hexes, but not everyone is, it seems.
Is there something wrong with line areas in hexes in particular? I find the line rules confusing even in squares.