I got your back....no wait....

[The Kender]

Its not quite as cool, but since most people have 4 people in their party, you could do it like this
xxxx
xACx
xBDx
xxxx

A, B, C, D are the Pc's
x's are any enemies.

This makes it totally impossible to flank them!

If the X's had reach, then what would happen?

 

[CCamfield]

Actually the 2x2 square still makes it possible to be flanked, like so: (the asterisks below)

X*XX
XABX
XCD*
XXXX

I kind of like Henry's idea...

 

[bensei]

But as soon as you fight against at least one caster, staying together as above is seldom a good idea, since there are way to many area damage effects.

 

[Jeph]

Nice trick for the GM though. Use swarms of mooks to force the PCs together, then . . . well, a Hastened caster with Quicken Spell can drop 3 empowered fireballs.

 

[Corlon]

Nice trick for the GM though. Use swarms of mooks to force the PCs together, then . . . well, a Hastened caster with Quicken Spell can drop 3 empowered fireballs.

You can't have a empowered quickened fireball can you??
3 for fireball, 5 for quicken, and 2 for empower... unless of course you were epic, but...

THis would work well in a 5ft. wide corridor, can't flank or get past em

 

[Felon]

You can't have a empowered quickened fireball can you??
3 for fireball, 5 for quicken, and 2 for empower... unless of course you were epic, but...

4 for Quickened. It'd be 9th level.

 

[Berk]

Why would you ever wanna fight back to back anyway? There is never a benefit from it. What you see in movies are 2 idiots being attacked by even more complete idiots cuz for some strange reason they only attack head on.

 

[green slime]

Why would you ever wanna fight back to back anyway? There is never a benefit from it. What you see in movies are 2 idiots being attacked by even more complete idiots cuz for some strange reason they only attack head on.

I'll have you know they are not idiots; They just 5 foot step up to the hero to do a full attack, unaware that the hero has readied an action to counter that...

 

[Christian]

Why would you ever wanna fight back to back anyway? There is never a benefit from it. What you see in movies are 2 idiots being attacked by even more complete idiots cuz for some strange reason they only attack head on.

No kidding. Any serious martial arts instructor will tell you that the strategy to follow when heavily outnumbered is to keep moving, try not to give the opponents an opportunity to coordinate their attacks. You'll never see a dozen opponents come at you one at a time, waiting for the previous guy to get manhandled before the next one goes in to see if he can handle you one-on-one. This is no less true when the odds are twelve-to-two as when they're six-to-one ...

 

[drnuncheon]

GR's Hammer & Helm has the "back to Back" feat, representing training in cooperative fighting - if you are standing adjacent to someone else who also has the feat, neither of you can be flanked.

J