D&D 5E 12th Level monk with a speed of 50' had to use half her movement to stand up from prone!

[cooperjer]

I created a house rule that getting up from prone is 15-ft of movement. In my opinion, and the players opinions, monks move fast and are light on their feet. Therefore, if they are knocked prone then it's easier for them to stand up than is it for one that is not light on their feet.

How did this affect my game? Very little has changed. The number of times a PC has been knocked prone can be counted on one hand after about 120 hours of game play. I reviewed the effect on dwarves and I felt that yes, dwarves are at more of a hindrance when getting up than a non-dwarf. The same would apply to all small creatures.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[WarpedAcorn]

As a DM, i felt bad for my wife who plays a 12th level monk with a speed of 50'.

She was prone. To stand up from prone requires half your movement?

Does this seem legit?

I want to help her with this, but dont want to screw with the rules too much. So i come to you...

It does seem legit. Consider this, a round is 6 seconds for everyone. Being knocked prone requires time for you to stand up. Losing 1/2 your movement accounts for that time lost standing up. However, since she is a fast monk, she can get knocked down and still catch up to a normal person who didn't have to spend the time to stand up.

Although the Kung Fu movies show that getting knocked down doesn't slow one down, that doesn't mean every Monk has trained to fight this way, and since a feat exists to help stand up from being knocked down without such a big cost, I don't see this as something that needs fixing.

If the situation was dramatic enough to call for it, you could call for an acrobatics check or have standing up be a part of an attack.

 

[pming]

Hiya!
[MENTION=6819400]WarpedAcorn[/MENTION] almost nailed it. It's not about movement, it's about TIME. It's easier to write "Takes up have the characters Movement" than it is to write "Takes up half of the characters rounds worth of time". Standing up from being face first on the ground takes the same amount of time for a farmer as it does for a Fighter in full suit armor with shield, as it does for a 20th level Monk in a loin cloth. Movement has nothing to do with it. But, as I said, easier to just use a mechanic in-game that everyone as, regardless of race/class, and let the DM and Players narrate it....than it is to write a whole new sub-rule detailing the minutia of mass vs momentum that takes into account surface attributes, character stats, equipment carries, weight carried, injuries sustained, class abilities, racial structure, etc.

Yeah, stick with "It takes up half your Movement rate". I mean, if you can accept "You are tossed, unconscious, over the cliff and you fall 70'. You take...wow, 47 points of damage" ... ... "Ouch. I only have 29hp left" ...then I see no reason why you can't say "You fall prone. Use half your movement rate to get up".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Shiroiken]

Think of it this way: standing up takes 3 seconds. Your speed represents your movement over 6 seconds, so you "lose" more, as your speed per second is higher.

Another way to think of it: you still have 25' of movement, while the rest of your party has only 10-15.

Edit: should have read all the posts first! Warped Acorn beat me to the punch by a mile

 

[Krachek]

You can also consider

Wearing of Heavy armor
Number of leg over 3
Number of arm
The possibility to use a lizard tongue to catch the ceiling to help standing up
The use of wings, tentacle or other tool to help.

 

[Lanliss]

I am somewhat biased, since I love monks, but I agree that this is odd. I would agree with Posineg, just use half of her racial movement. It will hardly break the game for her to get up from prone faster, and fits the class perfectly.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

Edit: should have read all the posts first! Warped Acorn beat me to the punch by a mile

Nah, only by 15ft. =D

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Lanliss]

I disagree, since if it fits the class perfectly, then it would have been in the RAW. We know that the designers knew how to address the prone penalty, since they did so with the Athlete feat. And we know that they knew how to address Monk class and theme by 1) giving them added movement over time, 2) giving them movement over liquid and vertical surfaces, and 3) giving them collateral abilities (such as save for no dex damage, failed save for half).

Personally, I wouldn't change the RAW-

1. The Monk will still have a movement advantage over every other character. when they are getting up from a prone position. Half of a bigger number is still a bigger number. This preserves the "feel" of the Monk without changing the rules.

2. Changing the rules devalues the athlete feat, which is already ... extremely weak.

3. If your Monk is constantly worried about being prone enough for a rule change, then I would suggest both that your Monk should take the athlete feat, and that you are Monking wrong.​

That said, if you are going to change it, you should probably make it an actual Monk ability, and gatekeep it by level.

1) As a house rule, I don't see why it is a problem to change the rules. Just about any Kung fu film will show the martial arts master spring up from prone in less than a second, so I don't see why it would be unreasonable in the game.

2) So? I have little interest in feats to begin with, and honestly care even less about devaluing one that my players were not going to use anyway.

3) If falling prone is really so rare, why is it a problem for those rare times to be over faster?

All of that being said, I do agree with you on the level thing, and was already trying to figure out what level I would put it at. 3 seems reasonable, since that is technically the first point where you can call yourself a true Practitioner of Martial Arts, and adding such a small thing on the same level as your Way is not too much, IMO.