Mobility on a Ladder

Skade

Explorer
Last episode I came into a small conflict with a player, and I would like to hear some reasonings on the issue.

Here is the situation. A rogue character is moving up a ladder, through a small opening. This provokes an attack of opportunity from the defender above. The rogue has the mobility feat, whose effects are only disabled if the character is flat footed, or otherwise loses his dex to AC. As a rogue the character is never flat footed due to uncanny dodge.

I allowed him to keep his mobility benefit, despite my dislike for the situation. I explained to him that I felt mobility required a full range of motion to be had, as the character dodged and weaved through the dangerous spots. On a ladder the range of motion is severly limited. I could have added, had I thought of it at the time, that a bound rogue is still essentially flat footed. When one cannot move, one cannot dodge, even uncannily. So, as a matter of not wanting to overly complicate the game, I allowed it, noting that in the future I would put more thought into this situation and probably ask about it here. Despite that, an hour later he begins to debate the issue again.

So, what do you think? Should mobility have been disallowed on the ladder, or are the current interpretation of mobility and uncanny dodge sufficient for the situation?
 

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A bound rogue is not flat-footed, but he does lose his Dex bonus to AC for being helpless.

You have to be careful about the use of the term "flat-footed" - it has a very specific definition. A rogue with Uncanny Dodge can be flat-footed... he just doesn't lose his Dex bonus because of it.

Now, from the description of the Climb skill:

"Since the character can't move to avoid a blow while climbing, enemies can attack the character as if the character were stunned: An attacker gets a +2 bonus, and the character loses any Dexterity bonus to Armor Class."

Thus, if the ladder had a Climb DC - even if it's 0 - the rogue can't use Mobility.

Note that a heavily armoured character could still conceivably fail a DC 0 Climb check, so it's not the same as "No DC".

-Hyp.
 

Excellent analysis, Hypersmurf. I agree. You could make the argument that climbing a ladder is about as difficult as climbing up a slope too steep to walk up, or a knotted rope with a wall to brace against.
 


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