Blatant abuse of the five foot step?

[Diirk]

Sure, why not? The downside is that you land prone at the feet of the guys you just stuck daggers into. They're probably not dead, and may just punish you with AoOs when you attempt to stand.

Infact if they're small sized or larger, and assuming he's more or less directly above them, they could hit him with AoOs as he fell, because he's passing through their threatened areas during his falling movement (if you think about it 3 dimensionally).

 

[dcollins]

Put it this way... if someone threw three daggers, then used their five-foot step to move behind a statue for cover, not realising that there was a pit trap behind the statue... would you allow them to not trigger the pit trap? Or would they fall and take damage?

Of course, that is basically the example that the DMG uses to assert that "Sometimes it's important to impose ad hoc simultaneity" ("Combat: Keeping Things Moving: Simultaneity", 3.0 DMG p. 62). One of the 3 options given there is in fact "Don't tell Tordek about the trap until the end of the round".

I agree with the original poster that treating this as a "5 ft. adjustment" doesn't seem accurate. Also, there's really not enough time to pull off a full attack action mid-fall because it takes only a fraction of the duration of the round (unlike an full-round gallop of a horse). Having thought about it, as DM, my gut says to require a move action if the intent is to descend a few stories. It's highly subjective, but seems like some support in the DMG for this.

You could also say "You can't 5 ft. step into the air, because that's not a valid space for movement." Just like you can't 5 ft. step up 5 ft. into the air.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Of course, that is basically the example that the DMG uses to assert that "Sometimes it's important to impose ad hoc simultaneity" ("Combat: Keeping Things Moving: Simultaneity", 3.0 DMG p. 62). One of the 3 options given there is in fact "Don't tell Tordek about the trap until the end of the round".

But at the end of the round... Tordek falls, right?

-Hyp.

 

[dcollins]

Agreed.

 

[Gidien]

Just to be troublesome, don't forget that if you allow him the 5' step off the ledge he would be wise to step 5' along a daigonal forward and down, lessening the drop by 5'....

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Just to be troublesome, don't forget that if you allow him the 5' step off the ledge he would be wise to step 5' along a daigonal forward and down, lessening the drop by 5'....

Unless he's under a fly effect, there is no "forward and down," IMO.

Other than that, at a -8 penalty, I don't have a problem with the maneuver. He gains a full attack and the ground floor, and loses out on being prone and having to spend a move action to stand up the following round.

Oh, and as Diirk pointed out, if he falls directly beside a foe that is Small or larger, that foe gets an AoO on him for moving through his 3-dimensional threatened area.

 

[TheGogmagog]

Just to be troublesome, don't forget that if you allow him the 5' step off the ledge he would be wise to step 5' along a daigonal forward and down, lessening the drop by 5'....

I should check this if I had my books with me, but I don't think you can move diagonally around corners. A 5' door requires you to move into the one square in front of the door to the one square on the other side of the door. My DM told me he just found that out and I took his word for it.

If he's throwing daggers why doesn't he throw them from the safety of the ledge and then take a 5' step if he wants to be prone amongst the foes?

 

[reveal]

After debating for abit, we came to the same conclusion that he should actually throw the daggers FIRST
What we're curious about now, is can you use the five foot step to intentionally fall down 10 or more feet, thusly taking more than five feet in movement, or should that be considered a move action?

Falling is a free action. So, he takes a 5' step to go over the edge and then faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllssssssssss. Heck, he could fall 240' and that wouldn't count as his move. Of course, he would take a lot of damage when he hit the ground.

In this case, I would let him do it. He takes a 5' step and fires while falling with a penalty, probably -4 or -8. It would look really cool.

 

[Abstraction]

I would actually encourage my players to be this creative and cinematic

 

[reveal]

I should check this if I had my books with me, but I don't think you can move diagonally around corners.

You can't. Let's say the corner was to your right. You'd have to move 5' forward and then 5' to the right just to get around the corner, so 10' in all.