3.75: Advanced Flanking Rules

[Celebrim]

FLANKING (Advanced Variant)

When making a melee attack, you may be eligible for a flanking bonus on your attack roll if your target is also threatened by one more more allies. The size of this bonus depends on the degree to which your opponent is surrounded.

You recieve a +2 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by an ally on the opponent’s opposite border or opposite corner from your position.

You recieve a +3 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by an ally on each of the opponents borders adjacent to the the corner opposite your position, or if your opponent is threatened by an ally on each of the opponent's corners adajacent to the border opposite your position. In this position, the opponent is said to be 'encircled'.

You recieve a +4 flanking bonus if your occupy a corner, and an ally threatens your target from each of the other corners, or if you occupy a border and an ally threatens your target from each of the other borders. In this position, the opponent is said to be 'surrounded'.

If you are adjacent to two allies who both qualify for a flanking bonus, you also qualify for the same flanking bonus if you threaten the target. If the flanking bonuses of the two adjacent allies are different, you may take the higher one.

If you are eligible for more than one flanking bonus, you may take the highest bonus you are eligible for. Flanking bonuses do not stack.

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.

Creatures with a reach of 0 feet can’t flank an opponent.

 

[Celebrim]

Commentary on the above rules.

The proposed rule change is intended to cover some holes in the existing flanking rules for those DMs or players that feel the game doesn't need to be taken in the 'rules light'/'streamlined' version that 4e seems to be taking it.

In particular, it is intended to deal with situations like the following:

XAX
XDA
AXX

where 'A' is an attacker, 'D' is the defender, and 'X' is an empty square. Under the RAW, no attacker qualifies for any sort of flanking bonus, even though objectively the defender is in much worse shape being 'encircled' like that than he would be if he were simply flanked.

Also, although the effect is minor, it slightly increases the threat low CR creatures represent to single characters, hopefully slightly increases the range over which low CR creatures can realistically threaten PC's in a more 1st edition like style. (The penalties to being surrounded in 1st edition where slightly more harsh than in 3rd edition, and included such things as loss of shield and dexterity bonus to AC.)

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Creatures with a reach of 0 feet can’t flank an opponent.

I've never understood this rule. Even if a creature is small and has to bite your feet or crawl up you in order to bite, it is still a distraction and you still have to pay attention to it to defend yourself.

 

[Celebrim]

I've never understood this rule. Even if a creature is small and has to bite your feet or crawl up you in order to bite, it is still a distraction and you still have to pay attention to it to defend yourself.

This may all be true, but it doesn't necessarily mean that flanking is the best way to deal with this.

However, thanks for the criticism. I probably wouldn't have questioned that rule until you brought it up. I'll give it some thought and see what I can come up with.

 

[Inez Hull]

I play that once an opponent is flanked, additional attackers also gain a flanking bonus, regardless of their position. It seems crazy that extra attackers don't benefit from the defender being flanked unless they also happen to be flanking. Another option is to increase the flanking bonus for each pair of flanking attackers.

 

[Celebrim]

I play that once an opponent is flanked, additional attackers also gain a flanking bonus, regardless of their position. It seems crazy that extra attackers don't benefit from the defender being flanked unless they also happen to be flanking.

It's a good thought, but I can kinda see what the original designers where thinking.

In this situation:

XAX
A<X
XAX

The defender '<' has chosen to face one attacker (abstractly), allowing the two flanking attackers to have an advantage.

But it's still a good thought because it's simple and works well in every situation I can think of but that one, and even in that one arguably it works. Any loss of detail might be worth the condensation of the rules, especially when we start talking about arbitrating flanking large creatures and 'adjacency' starts having a more problimatic meaning.

A third alternative is that I reduce the strictness of the above rules suggestion to only needing to be adjacent to a single attacker that has gained a flanking bonus.

Another option is to increase the flanking bonus for each pair of flanking attackers.

This works ok if we cap the maximum bonus at some level. I think I prefer the detail of the above system though.