New FAQ up!

[Deset Gled]

Protection from evil says:
"the spell prevents bodily contact by summoned creatures" and
"The protection against contact by summoned creatures ends if the warded creature makes an attack against or tries to force the barrier against the blocked creature"

It also says the spell "creates a magical barrier around the subject at a distance of 1 foot".

I think the FAQ ruling is a reasonable one, but it would also be reasonable to apply a hefty Circumstance penalty to the tumble check. Trying to get by someone in a 5' square without getting within 1' of them seems like it should be more difficult than just pushing through.

 

[eamon]

It also says the spell "creates a magical barrier around the subject at a distance of 1 foot".

I think the FAQ ruling is a reasonable one, but it would also be reasonable to apply a hefty Circumstance penalty to the tumble check. Trying to get by someone in a 5' square without getting within 1' of them seems like it should be more difficult than just pushing through.

That sounds reasonable, though the amount of the bonus depends on other circumstances - for instance, nobody's saying you need to tumble while exactly within a 5ft square, unless there literally is a door or some other physical obstacle preventing you from using a little extra space - so in cases of open space, it might only be a little more challenging.

 

[Deset Gled]

for instance, nobody's saying you need to tumble while exactly within a 5ft square, unless there literally is a door or some other physical obstacle preventing you from using a little extra space

If a player tried to argue with me that they weren't stayin withing the 5' square they were tumbling through, I would be very happen to let them forgo the tumble check and just charge the extra 5' of movement.

Unless, of course, there is another enemy in the next square. In that case, might have just argued their way into two tumble checks instead of one.

 

[mvincent]

For discussion purposes:
Lets say (worst case scenario) that a guy in 1' thick armor is standing perfectly in the middle of a 5' wide hallway, arms spread wide.

Now, could I get past him if I were an Olympic level gymnast that was practiced at getting by combatants (i.e. DC25)?

As for the tumbler wearing the 1' armor... well, it just doesn't seem like the protected individual is forcing the field onto the person blocking the hall (i.e. the protected individual's intent is actually to avoid the blocker). Theoretically, the protective field might even help someone get past a summoned creature blocking a hallway (example: fake right, then slip left, and the creature now cannot close towards you to close the gap). I don't think the field is a bubble that you can accidentally pop by making a wrong step.

 

[eamon]

I don't think the field is a bubble that you can accidentally pop by making a wrong step.

That's my mental model as well.

@Desert Gled: Yeah, if there's another monster in a neighboring square, he would need two tumble checks. However, that's pretty normal; I'm just trying to point out here that the battle grid is a conceptual thing. It might be a 5ft square, but clearly many creatures are more than 5ft tall, so it's not a precise cube, and your movement is only within the precise boundaries of that square in the abstraction of the battle.

I think of the battle grid more like a digital camera's pixels: it's a limited resolution representation of "reality". A person in in a square when he's "mostly" within that square - the limited resolution doesn't force the "real" objects to behave differently, it's just your perception (i.e. the representation of the battle grid) which is skewed. So, for me, I think the abstract tumble rules sufficiently model my imagination (if anything, the battle grid is more at fault), and I don't need to fiddle heavily with the rules. An optional circumstance modifier suffices for me.