Move and then charge, or *only* charge in a round?

[Gryph]

Every square has to take you closer to the target.

but as long as you meet this requirement, you do not have to move in a straight (or straightish) line.

 

[Hussar]

That is correct. So long as every square of movement takes you closer to the charge target, you do not have to charge in a straight line. Easiest example of this I can think of is charging around a corner.

 

[Balesir]

but as long as you meet this requirement, you do not have to move in a straight (or straightish) line.

That depends what you mean by "straightish"; the "every square nearer" rule means that, if you draw a rectangle with sides diagonal to the grid and with the charger and target at opposite corners (in the limiting case, with the two on the same diagonal line on the grid, this can be a line - i.e. only one possible route), the charge route may not go outside this rectangle. The widest "leeway" is when both target and charger are on the same orthogonal line - then the route can go out to the corners of a square, diagonally, and back again to the opposite corner.

 

[Gryph]

That depends what you mean by "straightish"; the "every square nearer" rule means that, if you draw a rectangle with sides diagonal to the grid and with the charger and target at opposite corners (in the limiting case, with the two on the same diagonal line on the grid, this can be a line - i.e. only one possible route), the charge route may not go outside this rectangle. The widest "leeway" is when both target and charger are on the same orthogonal line - then the route can go out to the corners of a square, diagonally, and back again to the opposite corner.

In practice it is possible, when charger and target are in a straight line for the charger to instead take a path that forms 2 sides of the triangle by choosing to always move diagonally closer. That's what I meant by straitish, it can be pretty dogleggy sometimes.

 

[OnlineDM]

That is correct. So long as every square of movement takes you closer to the charge target, you do not have to charge in a straight line. Easiest example of this I can think of is charging around a corner.

If it's a hard corner, you can't legally charge around it because at least one square of movement will be equidistant from the previous square.

...M.....
XXXXX....
XXXXX.H..
XXXXX....

In the example above, the Hero (H) wants to charge the Monster (M) around the corner (walls represented by X, open floor represented by dots). Hero is currently 3 squares away from Monster. The best he can do with a charge is:

...M32...
XXXXX1...
XXXXX.H..
XXXXX....

In this example, step 1 takes Hero from being 3 squares away from Monster to 2 squares away (legal). However, step 2 still results in Hero being 2 squares away (illegal - Hero didn't get closer to the target with this step). Step 3 would be fine (closing from 2 squares to 1 square), but you can't legally charge from step 1 to step 2 because it doesn't bring you closer (in D&D 4e measurement).

If it's a soft corner, you can go directly from step 1 to step 3, which is fine.

 

[Dross]

If it's a hard corner, you can't legally charge around it because at least one square of movement will be equidistant from the previous square.

.....

...M32...
XXXXX1...
XXXXX.H..
XXXXX....

In this example, step 1 takes Hero from being 3 squares away from Monster to 2 squares away (legal). However, step 2 still results in Hero being 2 squares away (illegal - Hero didn't get closer to the target with this step). Step 3 would be fine (closing from 2 squares to 1 square), but you can't legally charge from step 1 to step 2 because it doesn't bring you closer (in D&D 4e measurement).

If it's a soft corner, you can go directly from step 1 to step 3, which is fine.

I see what you are saying here, but I have a question.

I can only remember the books saying "square", but do you count squares or count squares that you can legally move through?

So in your example, since you cannot move through a wall, going from 1 to 2 would be a square closer, even though it is not "as the crow flies" a closer square.

 

[Hussar]

I think by a strict reading of the rules, OnlineDM would be right.

I think my group has not played it that way and, so long as the character can somehow know that the bad guy is there, I don't see it as a huge stretch of the rules.

 

[OnlineDM]

I personally wouldn't have a problem if someone wanted to house rule things to allow charges around a corner. You could say, well, the shortest path to the bad guy that I could actually WALK is three steps, so as long as my path is no longer than three steps we'll count it as a legal charge.

But the rules for charging are actually explicit that, by RAW, this isn't the way it works:

Determine the distance between the creature and the target, even counting through squares of blocking terrain...

Again, though, if a group wanted to house rule this differently, that's fine.

 

[DEFCON 1]

And to add to OnlineDM's example... this is the advantage of 4E's change to make Charge into Standard action... because you could use your Move action to get out from behind the corner and then use your Standard to Charge in. So you'd still be able to accomplish what you wanted, you'd just have to spend the extra action to do it.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

This is one of those rare cases when the technical implementation of the rule does a pretty darn good job of reflecting the spirit of the rule.

I read the spirit of the rule as being that you can move around a bit to get into the right spot (move action), but once you start the charge you are accelerating. This implies a smooth, relatively shallow "curve" (in the mathematical sense) which includes a literally straight line.

Think about a dogleg corridor, that goes like this:

X.........
XXXXXX
.........X

If the corridor is wide enough, it is easy enough to visualize a character running a shallow curve, making the first turn while accelerating. And with some preliminary movement, even a tight corridor can be navigated. But there just isn't any way that a character is going to make that second turn and still be accelerating after the run down the longer part of the corridor.

In any case, when I visualize what the character is doing that way, I rarely run into a situation where my snap judgement is not born out by the strict reading of the rules.