5' Step; Movement and Reach

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hi Folks,
I was just wondering how you all handle the 5' step in melee as it relates to a diagonal on the battlegrid. Technically, a diagonal is more than 5'. Do you allow it or not?

A follow up to that would be how do you treat that diagonal when moving? Is it treated as 5' or not. I typically allow 1 diagonal square as 5' and thereafter treat it as 2 diagonals squares = 3 horizontal or vertical squares.

A final question is Reach. If a creature or weapon allows for 10' or 15' reach, do you allow it to go 2 (or 3) squares diagonal? Do you only allow one square diagonal? How do you treat it? I'm just curious. Thanks.

 

[Spatzimaus]

The PHB explains it, although there's been a few arguments on this board before. The first diagonal step is 5'. The second is a 10' step, so the second diagonal square is 15' away. Third step is 5', so third square is 20' away. Fourth step is 10' so fourth square is 30' away. Alternate 5' and 10' steps as appropriate. This also means the L-shaped step a chess knight takes is a 10' move (5' plus a 5' diagonal).

So, you can take a diagonal 5' step. A reach weapon wouldn't reach the diagonal square two squares away (since it's 15' away), but it's been clarified (I think in the FAQ) that someone trying to move from that 15' diagonal square to the 5' square still has to be 10' away from you SOMETIME, so you'd still get to take the movement AoO if you had a Glaive.

It's a commonly house-ruled situation, though. Whatever works for you.

 

[SylverFlame]

It depends. If I'm using a square grid then I just say that they are all five feet (even though the PH says otherwise). It just makes the whole thing easier, and the majority of people do not truly fill a five-foot square so the realism problem isn't there.

My preferred method with minitures is to get a ruler. Then, the spce moved is universal. One inch is five feet, whether forward, back, up or down. More realistic. Besides, if you take string and mark it at the five foot increments you can tell whether your char gets around the mulitple corners in one turn or two. You just bend the string. Works great and isn't a mess.