D&D 5E Ending movement in occupied square?

[kigmatzomat]

Edited in an attempt for clarity.

I know by RAW it's not something characters do. But.... we have an Eversmoking Bottle, a cleric and are facing an army of undead in a cave*. So what happens when a panicked ghoul moves through undead allies' smoke filled (heavily obscured) squares to escape the cleric but runs out of movement in a tunnel packed with other undead allies before they find a free square?

Do one (or more) of the undead creatures get knocked prone? Do they wind up restrained? Immobilized? Incapacitated? Fusion happens and they explode?

Does it matter if the turned human ghoul's allies are kobold zombies? What if the turned ghoul is a halfling ghoul and the allies in the tunnel are hill giant zombies?

*We also have blindness & darkness spells as well as Dissonant Whispers and fear effects so this might come up repeatedly in a variety of different forms. Honestly, I'm amazed it hasn't happened yet.

 

[aco175]

An easy answer is that the smoke does not matter and that RAW says they cannot end up in the same space, so the ghoul needs to stop moving before that. Some of the OPs words are confusing so forgive me, but if the ghoul is turned by the cleric and fleeing through the PCs' spaces is should just stop when it runs into a PC's space. Ultimately it should be moving away from the cleric which could have it move past a PC of bump into one passing through the space. This should trigger an opportunity attack, which would end the turned part. I guess the ghoul would be pushed back to the last square where the opportunity attack happened, but that may be last edition talking.

Now if the ghoul wanted to end its turn in one of his allies spaces like the kobolds, I guess he can and the rules for squeezing take over. I think it is disadvantage on attacks and maybe DEX saves and attacks on you have advantage, but not sure.

The part about the ghoul being a halfling and the others are giant ghouls should not matter since they are not halfling and giant anymore- they are now undead and do not get the cool abilities of being halflings. The DM can allow it and it could be cool though.

"Real life", and tactical movement on a grid are very different.

 

[Oofta]

The ghoul could not enter a PCs space unless they are tiny because you can't enter an enemy's square unless they are two sizes larger. Although that does give me an idea my players will probably hate about action-figure size ghouls.

The way I would typically handle it is that the ghoul is just pushed back to the last legal square if they could have entered. It's like trying to push your way through a crowd - at a certain point you just don't make any progress.

In some situations I do have creatures "squeeze". From the PHB

While squeezing through a space, a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it's in the smaller space.​

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So in a panic, everyone is crowding together. If it's more than two creatures then they're all restrained. Note that I would never let an opponent use this as a strategy - you can't just have multiple enemies bull rush someone, that would require other actions such as grapple and shove attacks.

 

[Umbran]

I know by RAW it's not something characters do. But.... we have an Eversmoking Bottle, a cleric and are facing an army of undead in a cave*. So what happens when a panicked ghoul moves through allies' smoke filled (heavily obscured) squares to escape but runs out of movement in a tunnel packed with allies before they find a free square?

Then they don't actually move that far in the first place. They bump into allies in front of them and can't move past.

Note: If this is an issue of initiative (so, the allies would be moving too, but haven't come up on initiative) I might just have them all move as a bunch, and not have the bumping happen. Initiative is an abstract that sometimes creates weird action results.

 

[kigmatzomat]

the cleric and fleeing through the PCs' spaces is should just stop when it runs into a PC's space.

The ghoul is not fleeing through PC (enemy) spaces, it is fleeing through the ghoul's allies spaces. (Hence the bit about ghoul size vs zombie ally size)

And I chose those because they are different sized undead as there are rules about moving through other creature's spaces based on sizing.

 

[aco175]

The ghoul is not fleeing through PC (enemy) spaces, it is fleeing through the ghoul's allies spaces. (Hence the bit about ghoul size vs zombie ally size)

And I chose those because they are different sized undead as there are rules about moving through other creature's spaces based on sizing.

In that case, anyone can move through allies spaces but it counts as difficult terrain and it does not matter the size of creatures. One can move through enemy spaces if they are two sizes larger or smaller like what @Oofta said above. It still is difficult terrain regardless if allies or foes.

 

[Seramus]

Unrelated to OP's specific scenario, what do people rule when a flying creature stops flying over an enemy creature's square, or jumps at an enemy's square, or is thrown into an enemy's square?

 

[Reynard]

In that case, anyone can move through allies spaces but it counts as difficult terrain and it does not matter the size of creatures. One can move through enemy spaces if they are two sizes larger or smaller like what @Oofta said above. It still is difficult terrain regardless if allies or foes.

I was today years old, after playing 5E for 10 years, when I learned allied creatures' spaces were difficult terrain. Holy crap.

 

[aco175]

I was today years old, after playing 5E for 10 years, when I learned allied creatures' spaces were difficult terrain. Holy crap.

I was 2 weeks old when I learned it, I always thought you could just move through allies no problem.

 

[MockingBird]

I was today years old, after playing 5E for 10 years, when I learned allied creatures' spaces were difficult terrain. Holy crap.

I learned something new too