Is There Any Definitive Documentation on Reach?

[Felon]

Don't worry Felon, your concers have also been addressed in the faq. The sage ruled that since coming in from the diagnonals, the guy had to have moved within 10 ft of you at some point, that you do get an AOO if I guy moves in on you from the corners.

Ah, here we go:

"If you're a Medium-size character armed with a reach
weapon, you do not threaten a foe 2 diagonals (15 feet away),
but if a foe moves up to attack you on the diagonal, you still get
an attack of opportunity against that foe before the foe gets
adjacent to you. (At some point the approaching foe had to be
10 feet away and threatened by you.) Note, however, that if the
foe moves adjacent to you with a 5-foot step, you do not get an
attack of opportunity, even if the foe takes that step along a
diagonal."

I'm not sure if that ameliorates my concerns about a character 5' away from you taking a 5' step and somehow winding up 15' away, and thus out of reach, but this certainly provides the official clarification that I was asking for.

Thanks, guys.

 

[dcollins]

I'm looking at the Official D&D FAQ on the official D&D site now. p24 concerns equipment, goods, and services. Can you clarify which FAQ you're talking about?

Just like I said in my original post.

See the Main FAQ, v. 10152002, p. 24, under (oddly) "Goods and Services".

 

[Dog Faced God]

Isn't there a rule about spell affects that only go through half of a square? If a spell affect occupies half (or more) of the square, then a character in that square is subject to the spell.

It seems to me that you could apply the same logic here. If the second square on a diagonal is 10 feet, then a character with 10' reach threatens half of it, and therefore any character who occupies that square.

 

[Gunslinger]

It makes sense that there shouldn't be clipped corners because you do not have any face. If you turn a bit, the clipped corner is now in front of you, and therefore threatened.

 

[dcollins]

It seems to me that you could apply the same logic here. If the second square on a diagonal is 10 feet, then a character with 10' reach threatens half of it, and therefore any character who occupies that square.

That's actually not a bad analysis. I wish the Sage had ruled that way instead of how he did. (The rule for which grid spaces a burst affects, by the way, is on DMG p. 69.)