5' Step in Difficult Terrain

[Savage Wombat]

The point of the ability, I'd say, is to keep people from going AROUND the knight to get to the other party members - not to hinder people attacking him directly.

That said, combining the power with reach would still rock.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

One way to do it would be with the Press the Advantage stance (White Raven). It's a level 5 stance, so if you have no adept levels, it wouldn't be available till level 18, but it's something! The first level Setting Sun stance (step of the wind?) lets you basically ignore difficult terrain, so that could be an option, I think. Both of these are from Tome of Battle, if you didn't know.

 

[blargney the second]

Inhuman Reach from Lords of Madness is one way to go.
-blarg

 

[MarkB]

ironically, the best weapons for a Knight to use seem to be the Spiked Chain and the Dwom, as both thrteaten both 5' and 10' away. I'm not sure of any other weapons that do, but obviously, any of them would be good as well. Of course, all of those kinds of weapons are Exotic, requiring the EWP.

There might also be a feat that lets one use a reach weapon in adjacent squares as well. Again, it requires burning a feat to make the ability actually, you know, useful.

Another alternative is to play a race with a secondary natural attack that can be used when both hands are occupied, such as a Gore or Tail Swipe, combined with a two-handed Reach weapon.

I had a kobold Dragon Shaman built around the concept of providing second-rank backup and flanking to his allies, who took the Dragon Tail feat to gain a tail swipe, and wielded a longspear. Very effective at keeping the enemy wary of AoOs.

 

[blargney the second]

If you're looking for a secondary natural weapon, you can buy the Horned Helm in MIC for 8000gp.

 

[Elemmakil]

Armor spikes should also let you threaten at 5' and 10.'

 

[Infiniti2000]

If you are adjacent to him at the start of your turn, all the squares adjacent to the Knight are considered difficult, but none of the squares further away from that are. So the archer adjacent to the Knight could 5' step back and make a full attack - the square he's moving into is not considered difficult terrain, so his 5' step is not restricted.

Could you explain this further as to why you think it's only "into" and not "through" despite what most of the rules references say? I could see only one reference for "into" and the actual quote from the 5ft-step portion uses "through".

 

[irdeggman]

Could you explain this further as to why you think it's only "into" and not "through" despite what most of the rules references say? I could see only one reference for "into" and the actual quote from the 5ft-step portion uses "through".

Would you count the square you are in as 5ft of you speed when moving?

Say you move 30 ft - does that mean you count the square you are in as 5 ft of it or does the first square you move into count as 5ft? Would the difficult terrain modifier apply to the square you are in (as in it would cost you 2 squares of movement to get out of it)? What square would you end up in?

PHB pg 147 pretty clearly demonstrates that the first movement points are from the square you are moving into (see the diagonal movement picture).

 

[Stalker0]

Yep, reach weapons are the way to go for a knight. Just slap on a buckler and use that shield block when you can, but one-handed weapons are for suckers

 

[Infiniti2000]

Would you count the square you are in as 5ft of you speed when moving?

I prefer to think of it as moving from one square to another. The distance you move is 5ft, but you are moving through both squares. Do you play it as a sort of teleport out of your square? If you are in a tar pit, you allow someone to 5ft-step out of it? If someone is levitating (not flying, no fly speed), do you allow them to 5ft-step sideways onto a ledge? Can someone without a swim speed 5ft-step out of water (say someone with a perfect fly speed but fully submerged just below the surface)?

Say you move 30 ft - does that mean you count the square you are in as 5 ft of it or does the first square you move into count as 5ft? Would the difficult terrain modifier apply to the square you are in (as in it would cost you 2 squares of movement to get out of it)? What square would you end up in?

PHB pg 147 pretty clearly demonstrates that the first movement points are from the square you are moving into (see the diagonal movement picture).

It's also very clear from the rules that a large creature is affected by the worst terrain his Space touches. It's also clear that the rules say "through".