Chasing down a corridor

[Fundin Strongarm]

I had a situation in my game from a couple weeks ago and wondered if we played it correctly. I had a couple Gnolls with speed 20 running away from the party, the fastest of whom had speed 30. Assuming a 10 foot wide corrdor and the gnolls side by side, is there any way the party could actually catch the Gnolls and get an attack on them? If the hallway is straight, the Gnolls can move 80 feet in a round. The party can only charge 60 feet.
Also, if there were only one Gnoll, I can see one of the party being able to run past the Gnoll. However, this would provoke an AoO, both as the party member passed the Gnoll and again if the Gnoll decided to run past the party member.
You could even have a situation where something with speed 20 running at 5 times their speed keeping out of attack range of a pursuing Monk with speed 40. Just seems strange that someone twice as fast as someone else can quite seem to catch him.
What, if anything, am I overlooking? Thanks in advance.
BTW, I'm playing D&D3.0 if that matters. (If it does matter, what's different in 3.5?)

 

[Christian]

Easy. Running provokes attacks of opportunity when leaving threatened squares. The 3.0 PH states that "If all you do is move (not run) during your turn, the space that you start out in is not considered threatened." (pg. 122) (3.5 replaces this with the slightly less cumbersome 'withdraw' action, with the same effect for purposes of this situation.) So, presuming the gnolls start out at 10' range, they run 80' on their turn to 90' range, then the PCs run 85' on their turn to close to 5'. Now the gnolls can either (a) move only 40' on their next turn, leaving them within charging distance, or (b) run another 80', provoking attacks of opportunity from the fleet PCs.

 

[D+1]

I had a situation in my game from a couple weeks ago and wondered if we played it correctly. I had a couple Gnolls with speed 20 running away from the party, the fastest of whom had speed 30. Assuming a 10 foot wide corrdor and the gnolls side by side, is there any way the party could actually catch the Gnolls and get an attack on them?

Yes. Wait until they STOP running, which they can only do for a number of rounds equal to their CON score (DC 10+1 per previous check) before needing to start making Con checks which they will fail in probably only a few rounds more. Once forced to stop running by failing a check the party (certainly those moving 30) will have no problem catching up by running and/or using double-move actions (that is, take your move action, and then use your standard action to move again rather than attack). Those party members with slower movement still have a good shot at keeping up with the gnolls simply by having a higher CON, and thus being able to pursue longer by also running longer than the gnolls can evade by running.

You could even have a situation where something with speed 20 running at 5 times their speed keeping out of attack range of a pursuing Monk with speed 40.

Not forever you won't. And the 5x speed is with the Run feat. 4x is normal run speed. Remember too that "Run" is a full-round action. The pursuers could move and still use missile weapons, or take other actions that could slow them down. Other options include use of caltrops, tanglefoot bags, or spells simply to slow down the escapees.

The point is that faster IS faster. If you want to avoid getting attacked you MUST outdistance your pursuers until your pursuer gives up or you find some method other than speed alone to avoid being attacked. Con will give you a slight edge for a few rounds but doesn't last forever. If a pursuer is faster than the pursuEE they WILL catch up and be able to attack.

 

[Christian]

Eh, I like my answer better.

 

[Thanee]

BTW, I'm playing D&D3.0 if that matters. (If it does matter, what's different in 3.5?)

The only real difference to what Christian said is, that there is a specific type of action now to cover the situation, when you want to disengange from combat and move away.

Running in either case provokes an AoO, that way the pursuers can get the gnolls, while staying within the confines of combat rounds.

Bye
Thanee