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I think that crouching is deemed to be the same thing as prone.
Don't know where I read it but I seem to remember that prone does not necessarily mean lying on the ground - it could mean being on one knee or squating.
Therefore with crouching = prone you would get the same penalties.
Nope, there aren't any. Prone says "you are lying on the ground." I had a houserule regarding crouching (kneeling) in 3.5, which was basically half the penalty of prone, but didn't provoke when moving from prone to kneeling and kneeling to standing. In 4E, you could do a similar thing I suppose.
Nope, there aren't any. Prone says "you are lying on the ground." I had a houserule regarding crouching (kneeling) in 3.5, which was basically half the penalty of prone, but didn't provoke when moving from prone to kneeling and kneeling to standing. In 4E, you could do a similar thing I suppose.
So something like:
Crouch
- You grant combat advantage to enemies making melee attacks.
- You gain +1 Bonus to all defenses against ranged attacks.
- You take a -1 penalty to melee attack rolls.
- You move at one-half your speed.
- You can drop to crouch or stand from a crouch as a minor action.
__________________ Life is the game that must be played. ~Edwin Arlington Robinson
Crouch
- You grant combat advantage to enemies making melee attacks.
- You gain +1 Bonus to all defenses against ranged attacks.
- You take a -1 penalty to melee attack rolls.
- You move at one-half your speed.
- You can drop to crouch or stand from a crouch as a minor action.
The above works for me as a house rule, thanks.
Shame there's nothing in the rules about it though. Crouching behind a desk or table for instance would go from cover to superior cover IMO.
I don't really see a need to specifically distinguish it from being prone. In either case a low obstruction will become superior cover. If a situation allows you to move while crouched down, you move at half speed which is exactly what happens when you crawl. I think the rules are just simpler and yet pretty much accomplish the same thing without needing to add minute distinctions. The DM can always rule any significant variations.
And really, with the proposed rules cited above why would I not just go prone vs crouching? I don't see a real advantage to it for the character.
There are no rules for it. You could visualize a character as crouching when hiding, using a low barrier for cover, while fighting an exclusively ranged battle, or whatever. It needn't have any significant mechanical effect, but it might help you decide if you want a given terrain feature to grant cover or concealment or not. (Note, not allow characters to 'crouch' to change the cover or concealment they gain, but just to assume that's what characters getting cover or concealment are doing).
If a character wants to get /better/ cover or concealment than you've assigned to a terrain feature by crouching behind it, I'd recomend you use the Prone condition to model it. That makes it a meaningful decision, and puts it in the action economy.
There are no rules for it. You could visualize a character as crouching when hiding, using a low barrier for cover, while fighting an exclusively ranged battle, or whatever. It needn't have any significant mechanical effect, but it might help you decide if you want a given terrain feature to grant cover or concealment or not. (Note, not allow characters to 'crouch' to change the cover or concealment they gain, but just to assume that's what characters getting cover or concealment are doing).
If a character wants to get /better/ cover or concealment than you've assigned to a terrain feature by crouching behind it, I'd recomend you use the Prone condition to model it. That makes it a meaningful decision, and puts it in the action economy.
Right. One of the things the 4e design does also is simply not get bogged down in minutia. It is assumed the PCs do their job however it needs to be done. Beyond that there was a conscious decision not to invoke trivial conditions that do less than a +/-2 modifier because players really don't much notice a 1 point shift in the dice. You can certainly add in endless rules for small things like this, but the general opinion is it just bogs the game down. In fact 4e tracks a lot more in this respect already than old D&D did where anything except being dead wasn't really in the rules at all.
I believe the rules allow for the DM to declare that someone is making use of improved cover at a whim. There's plenty of situations where I would allow people improved cover without needing to explicitly lay down.
I'd say that any form of "changing how my cover works" would occur as part of a move action (that is: it's free if you move, and it takes a move action if you wish to remain stationary). I'd also say it wears off when you take another action.
This loose interpretation will lead to more opportunities for stealth in combat, and more options for dealing with ranged attackers.
Crouching would naturally fall in as part of this.
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