Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="atom crash" data-source="post: 3065437" data-attributes="member: 22162">True, he doesn't get a +2 bonus on attack if he makes a ranged attack, since it is not a melee attack, but does he get the other benefits of flanking? I.e. sneak attack and other abilities which might rely on flanking in order to occur. In order to receive a flanking bonus, you do not need to threaten your opponent. Your ally, standing on the opposite side of your opponent from you, must threaten as you make a melee attack in order for you to receive a flanking bonus. If your ally is providing you with a flanking bonus, can you be considered flanking if you do not take that flanking bonus, because for whatever reason you do not make a melee attack on your turn -- you drink a potion, choose the total defense option, aid another, make an unarmed attack, make a ranged attack, etc.To me, the argument hinges on the underlying assumption that there is a state of flanking -- which the rules apparently define according to a line test -- that is separate from the flanking bonus. Can you be considered flanking even if you do not take the flanking bonus you would ordinarily receive had you made a melee attack?This assumption allows four properly placed allies to flank two formians, ambush drakes or axiomatic creatures. Those creatures have a special quality that says that no such creature in the group "is considered flanked unless all of them are." This implies that it is possible for them all to be considered flanked at the same time, which isn't possible if you are only flanking when you receive the flanking bonus. Why? Because the way initiative works, each character gets an attack one at a time, so the formians can never be flanked all at the same time, only as each character gets an attack, thus one at a time. In that case, the formian's hive mind special quality should state "formians cannot be flanked."</blockquote>

Verification