Breaking down the wall: adding conditions to bypass enemies.

[Kzach]

Ever since I first read the rule regarding enemies essentially being 5'x5'x5' solid cubes of impassable concrete, it's annoyed me, but lately it's become an issue in a game I'm a player in and so it motivated me to post this set of house rules.

Essentially this just expands the ways in which you can move through an enemy's square. You still provoke opportunity attacks by doing so as per the normal rules of moving out of a threatened square.

Just add prone, dazed, immobilised, stunned and restrained to the conditions that allow you to move through an enemy's square and that's it.

Now standard monsters don't become, albeit thin, brick walls.

 

[Will Doyle]

I'd buy that with stunned and restrained but I think the rest may be too powerful. Some builds can pretty much knock prone or immobilise on an at-will, so - even with the opportunity attack - I'd be worried that I couldn't so easily protect my squidgy controllers and leaders. But it's worth trying out.

Weirdly, I'm thinking about making monsters *even more* difficult to get around by imposing a house rule that prevents diagonal movement between diagonally spaced, adjacent enemies. That quirk of the battlegrid doesn't make much sense to me, as it is.

 

[Dragon Sin-Camealot]

Someone who can help you is Eladrin Teleport.

Otherwise you might view DnD as not a bypassing game. What you really want is more maneuverability.

But I have played encounters where the room is simply too small for battle. It's not your fault as a player but a design flaw with the creators.

I'm fortunate that 80% of the people I've played with so far know how to develop quickly and flexibly.

 

[Mrbongos]

One potential idea, as well, for moving past enemies in 4E is to have an athletics or acrobatics check as part of the movement.

Athletics vs Fortitude to, effectively, do the ol' juke and dive to get around the enemy like a football quarterback.

Acrobatics vs Reflex would be for the more fancy moves, twisting around, flipping over the guy, tumbling between legs, or something else as wacky.

In either regard, if the character beats the defense they get past. If they don't, there's an attack of opportunity wherein if they were hit trying to move, they didn't move. So for your rangers and rogues who bought feats to boost their defenses vs opportunity attacks, it gives them a little more bang for their buck, and for everyone else it just gives a chance to re-position. Just remember to let your players know that the monsters can do that too.

 

[Saeviomagy]

O
Athletics vs Fortitude to, effectively, do the ol' juke and dive to get around the enemy like a football quarterback.

Acrobatics vs Reflex would be for the more fancy moves, twisting around, flipping over the guy, tumbling between legs, or something else as wacky.

I wouldn't expect athletics to be the skill for this at all. Well, not unless you let people jump and climb with acrobatics (man, those two skills are badly named).

Note that acrobatics already has moving through opponents squares in the list of things that it can be used for. It just doesn't say how that actually works.

I'd say acrobatics vs reflex + 5.

 

[Mrbongos]

Well, athletics often goes in line with feats of strength beyond a bare bones strength check - hence why I figured it, and yeah I could see adding a +5 to reflex save to make it more difficult

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Stunt Option:
Pass through square occupied by enemy as part of a move action.
Requires an appropriate skill check against the enemies Reflex, Fortitude or Will defense (depending on skill)
Skills: (Athetics vs Fort, Acrobatics vs Ref, Bluff vs Will, other skills at DM's discretion)
Failure: You do not move through the enemies square and your movement stops. You grant combat advantage until the end of your next turn.
Success: You can move through the enemies square(s), each square counts as difficult terrain.


Remark: You may decide to make the check at a -5 penalty (I find this less weird then saying defense +5.)

 

[Kzach]

Stunt Option:
Pass through square occupied by enemy as part of a move action.
Requires an appropriate skill check against the enemies Reflex, Fortitude or Will defense (depending on skill)
Skills: (Athetics vs Fort, Acrobatics vs Ref, Bluff vs Will, other skills at DM's discretion)
Failure: You do not move through the enemies square and your movement stops. You grant combat advantage until the end of your next turn.
Success: You can move through the enemies square(s), each square counts as difficult terrain.

I wouldn't mind something like this. At least it provides an OPTION. My biggest gripe with the ruling is that a two-foot wide person becomes an effectively impassable brick wall in a 5'x5'x5' space. If you've ever worked crowd control or security, you know just how hard it is to stop even one scrawny little person when you've got two or three beefy dudes bearing down on them. Saying that one creature is utterly impassable is just beyond ridiculous.