D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Flanking

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hi Folks,
I am having a bit of trouble with the new flanking rules. When in question it says to draw a line from the middle of your square thru to the middle of the ally's square. It says that if the line goes thru the opposite border or a corner, a flank bonus is gained. My question is, wouldn't this make most "opposite side" allies grant a flanking bonus? Does the line need to go thru both the near side border and the opposite border? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[LokiDR]

first, the ful description of flanking:

When making a melee attack, you get a +2 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by a character or creature friendly to you on the opponent’s opposite border or opposite corner.
When in doubt about whether two friendly characters flank an opponent in the middle, trace an imaginary line between the two friendly characters’ centers. If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent’s space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked.
Exception: If a flanker takes up more than 1 square, it gets the flanking bonus if any square it occupies counts for flanking.
Only a creature or character that threatens the defender can help an attacker get a flanking bonus.

All that really means is that you must have an ally on the opposite side of the enemy from you. This only become an issue on larger creatures or using reach weapons.

[COLOR=red]
abc  
  d
  X
  z
[/COLOR]

X is an enemy. D and Z are obviouly flanking it. C is flanking with Z if using a reach weapon. A isn't flanking with anyone. B is flanking with Z if you can draw a line between them and go through opposite sides of the square X is in. Simple, huh

[COLOR=red]
 abcd
 XX
 XX
 z
[/COLOR]

Here is a similar situation with X being a large creature. A flanks with Z, so do B and Z. C and Z flank only if you can draw a line through the two of them and go through opposite sides the monster. This is how you know D isn't getting a flanking bonus.

There you go. That probably didn't help, but I made some pretty pictures so I am happy.

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

I think these diagrams pretty much explain how Flanking works (by my reading). In order to gain a flanking bonus, the imaginary line, that starts in the middle of your square, and goes to the middle of your ally with whom you are trying to Flank, must cross both opposite borders, a corner (the tip of the border) being considered part of said border.

Here is the first example. When you flank from a corner, you only flank if your ally is on the opposing corner.

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

(my pictures are prettier)

When you flank from the far end of a side, Flanking is thus:

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

(even though they aren't pretty from being converted from bmp to jpg)

And when you are in the middle, you pretty much Flank like when you are on the edge of a border:

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

Now when flanking when you have reach:

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

I think there's a logical way of describing how to figure out if you flank someone or not.

a) When you are on a corner, you flank with an ally that is on the opposite corner.

(before I continue with b, c, etc. take a look at my last pic.

The FIRST "F" from the left isn't directly in line with a border (ie if you go directly in the direction of the ally you're trying to flank with (4 directions: Down, Up, Left, Right) you never hit an enemy border)

The SECOND "F" from the left (ie the middle "F") is directly in line with a border if you go down.

Remember, "Directly in line" means if you go Down/Up/Left/Right (and never diagonally), you hit an enemy border.

b) When your ally is Directly in Line (tm) with your opponent, if the sideways distance is HALF or LESS than the frontways distance (in my examples, the sideways distance is Left-Right and the frontways distance is Up-Down), you flank.

c) When your ally is NOT Directly in Line with your opponent, if the sideways distance is LESS than HALF the frontways distance, you flank.

I hope someone understands, and maybe, just maybe, someone could phrase it a little better than I could

TS