Immediate Actions *can't* be used when flat-footed?

[Bagpuss]

He didn't jump, though.

-Hyp.

You've not seen enough road runner cartoons, characters don't fall until they realise gravity works. If you are flat-footed, you aren't ready to fall, so you don't, by the time you realise you should fall, you can also cast feather fall as an immediate action so everyone is happy.

 

[Ahrimon]

Enter the ambiguous text:

Flat-Footed: A character who has not yet acted during a combat is flat-footed, not yet reacting normally to the situation. A flat-footed character loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) and cannot make attacks of opportunity.

To be picky, I could also say that since my Nth lvl character acted in a combat way back during 1st level, then I'm never considered flat footed again. Only 1st level characters need ever worry about being flat footed.

Not in the spirit of the rules, but a valid interpretation of the quoted text.

 

[borc killer]

In our game we handle it exactly as Irdeggman described, and have for years now. We work very hard to handle all character movement on their turn, some things you can’t obviously but for the vast majority of the time it works out well to just wait till their turn to have them fall.

 

[jasin]

Take an immediate action Teleport -

You make that sound simpler than I expect it would be.

 

[mikebr99]

You make that sound simpler than I expect it would be.

It's a 1st level alternate class feature in phbII

Mike

 

[Nifft]

It's a 1st level alternate class feature in phbII

Only for Conjurers (...who need to be banned).

Erp, -- N

 

[Nifft]

To be picky, I could also say that since my Nth lvl character acted in a combat way back during 1st level, then I'm never considered flat footed again. Only 1st level characters need ever worry about being flat footed.

Not in the spirit of the rules, but a valid interpretation of the quoted text.

IMHO: that's exactly as "in-the-spirit" as the interpretation that says you are flatfooted unless you are in combat.

-- N

 

[blargney the second]

I'd treat an undetected trap going off exactly like a sniper who was not Spotted by any members of the party: the trap gets to act in the surprise round and they do not. The rest determines itself in a fairly straightforward manner.

 

[Nail]

I'd treat an undetected trap going off exactly like a sniper who was not Spotted by any members of the party: the trap gets to act in the surprise round and they do not. The rest determines itself in a fairly straightforward manner.

...or not, as the case may be.

#1) If I ruled as you've outlined (surprises are handled as surprise rounds), then Blade would not be able to use his Immediate Action manuever outside of combat. That is: "Practically every time he's making a Will save out of combat, he's surprised. Since during the suprirse round he'd be flat-footed, he could not use this manuever to boost his Will save out of combat. That would suck."

#2) Conversely, if we do NOT give out-of-combat traps a surprise round, then the system develops a strange "hiccup". Blade is only prohibited from using the manuever at the beginning of combat before he's been able to act normally. As pointed out above, this leads to some really strange results (E.G. featherfall and falling into a pit).

#3) And if we decide that - screw it! - immediate actions CAN be used when flat-footed, then we open up an even larger can of worms (E.G. performing an immediate action while flat-footed would remove the flat-footed condition).

Admit it. The system is just broken here, and there's NO quick patch. :\

 

[Nellisir]

I think the original character is out-of-luck. Sorry, but sometimes you gotta just take one for the team.

I think the wizard is OK, though it wouldn't bother me too much if he was out-of-luck too.