How to narrate the immobilized condition

[The_Fan]

I think there's an important difference between "Immobilized" and "restrained"

Restrained is like a worse immobilized. Tha DOES make you easier to hit (combat advantage), while Immobilized means you can't move from your current 5-ft square. 5 feet is a lot of space, so it may help if you imagine something that would just keep you from moving outside of that.

Legs going numb from a ghoul's attack is a good example. You can still shuffle around within that square, you just can't make any appreciable progress other than that. For the ice, I'd say just one foot gets caught, or perhaps your cloak, or something similar. You can keep fighting, just have to keep that foot planted.

 

[LostSoul]

(And don't forget, after your legs are in a block of ice, someone can push you 20 feet and your legs will STILL be in the block of ice. Also, if you're prone, you can stand -- but your legs are still in that ice.)

If your legs are stuck in a block of ice, you can't be pushed? Why is that?

 

[Lizard]

If your legs are stuck in a block of ice, you can't be pushed? Why is that?

It's the standing afterwards -- and suffering no penalties to combat -- that I find weird.

(Would saying that being Immobilized grants CA be unbalancing?)

(I should also add that many forced movement powers seem to rely on the target moving under their own power -- positioning strike, for instance. Our halfling rogue (Cha 18) can fling an immobilized ogre 20 feet... the problem is that if you start splitting forced movement between 'I move you by force' and 'I trick you into moving where I want', you lose a lot of elegance and probably create even MORE arguments.)

(But, hey, in a 3e game last night, an unconscious character managed to make his Reflex save...)

 

[Gruns]

I guess as the worst roleplay-ey DM around, I usually just say "Take 8 damage and you're Immobilized. Save Ends."

Later!
Gruns