D&D 5E Can you temporarily pause your movement in a friendly creature's space?

[Kor]

Scenario: In a 5' wide hallway, we have my character, and then a friendly party member, and then an enemy creature. I would like to step forward through my friendly party member's space to attempt a grapple to push the foe backwards.

Rule to consider: Moving Around Other Creatures (page 191). In relation to my questions, these rules indicate that:

1. I can move "through" a nonhostile creature's space.
2. That space my friendly party member is in, is considered difficult terrain.
3. I can't willing end my move in a creature's space.

In my scenario, I plan to do 1 of 2 things depending on the outcome of my grapple result: (1) I am going to succeed and push the creature back 5', and step into its old spot; or (2) I fail the grapple check, and I will step back to where I started my movement, and draw an attack of opportunity.

Can this be done? The key question here is -- when has my movement "ended" as per the rule above? In my scenario above, I am interrupting my movement with a melee attack type, as per the Breaking Up Your Move (page 190) rule, but I am not ending my movement, as I plan to continue moving either forward or backwards after the melee attack (grapple attempt). Basically, my movement has temporarily ceased, or is on hold.

Alternatively, it could be viewed that any cessation of movement, means that movement has ended. In reflection I think the rule above was probably intended to be read this way, or perhaps should have indicated: "... your can't willing end any part of your move in its space." Here's why I think this... given the scenario I presented, lets say after foe #1, foe #2 is behind him, and foe #3 is behind him. If a temporary cessation of movement is not deemed "end of movement" then all 3 foes could attack with melee attacks against my poor party member in front of me, by stepping forward and back (although 1 of those foes will trigger an attack of opportunity from the party member if they have a reaction available).

Anyways, I just thought I'd check to see if anyone knows of any other rules that might help clarify this?

Thanks.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Item #3 indicates that by RAW, it can't be done - because 5e's movement isn't an independent action, merely a thing you can do at any point of your turn, "end your move" happens whenever you stop moving, for whatever reason. You can start to move again, if you still have speed left. So in the scenario, you couldn't get past your teammate and push the enemy.

But it doesn't really wreck stuff if you rule otherwise. It just makes positioning less important. NBD.

 

[bid]

Your movement ends with your turn: "until you are done moving."*

As long as you have 10' to enter your friend's space and another 10' to move your grappled target, it obeys RAW. Heck, with 30' movement you could pull it behind your friend (5' forward {10' move for difficult terrain}, 10' backward {20' move for pulling grappled target}).


*There was a thread some time ago about some spell/feature that helped avoid OA "until you stopped moving", the author was arguing it would carry across turns until he stopped for some reason. Finding that discussion might help.

 

[DeathMutant]

FWIW, I would allow you to attack/make a grapple attempt from a standing ally's square but you are Squeezing at the time (see PHB p.182) so would attack with disadvantage and any attack, like an AoO, against you would be made with advantage. If your ally was prone there would no penalty other than the extra square of movement required to enter the square in the first place. You could even end your turn in a prone allies square but they would have to crawl (x2 movement cost) to an unoccupied square to stand up.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

The answer is: Tell you DM what you intend to do. Let him/her figure out how.

Seriously. You, as a player, don't have to worry about such niggling things as "rules" and how they may or may not be applied in this or that situation. Y'see, how it works is like this: "Ok, DM, I yell at Grendok the Wizard to move aside as I run and tackle the bad guy in front of him!". Then, the DM takes that information and decides if it's at all possible, what rule is going to be used, or makes something up to handle it based on some other rule that is close. In your case, the rules you listed are a good starting point for the DM. He then thinks about it, and comes up with a solution: "Ok, Player, Grendok puts his back against the wall as you barrel your way down. Roll a to hit at Disadvantage. If you hit, you tackle the bad guy. If you miss, you land prone at the bad guys feet and he can use a bonus action against you". (or whatever he decides).

That's how the rules in an RPG are supposed to be used. Not as absolutes...but as guidelines for running a game of make believe. So, can you do that? Yup. Nothing stopping you from trying. Chance of success? Up to your DM, but using the guidelines around movement and whatnot are probably the best bet to adjudicate a solution.

In short, the rules you listed are saying: Here's some base rules for moving. Use them to help you handle situations in the game where a character or creature is primarily moving around as an action. They are not saying: This is the only movement you can do in the game. Period. If it's not covered here, you can't do it.


^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Shiroiken]

I would talk to your DM. I normally allow a temporary stop on an ally's location, but there is one thing that I never allow: attacking. The setup is designed that you can only be surrounded by so many monsters, and this prevents them from swarming around you and all of them attacking at once. Of course, it could still happen with a lot of movement and shifting about, but I tend not to do that because it goes against the spirit of the rule.

 

[Dausuul]

By the rules as written: No, I don't think you can do this. Since there is no longer any such thing as a move action, "end your move" has to mean the moment when you stop moving and either end your turn or start doing something else (e.g., making a grapple attempt).

How I would rule it: You can try this, but if you fail the grapple attempt, you fall prone in your ally's space.