OA's while phasing...

[Samir]

Actually, the fact that conjurations have to explicitly be told they don't occupy a square infers that otherwise, they would.

By this logic, everything (including zones) occupies a square, unless it specifically says otherwise. Obviously, that's ridiculous, so this line of logic doesn't work.

Let's extend the logic tho.

Phasing allows you to pass through obstacles and other creatures.

Obstacles are considered elements of an encounter in the same vien as traps and hazards--see p 27 of the DMG. Walls are not on the same order as traps and hazards, and therefore are not obstacles unless they can be overcome through some sort of skill test.

Therefore, phasing does not allow you to pass through them, and whether they occupy a square is irrelevant; a phasing creature cannot enter them and therefore cannot end their movement in them.

Walls are obstacles, per PHB 284, thus a creature with phasing can enter them.

OBSTACLES
Like difficult terrain, obstacles can hamper
movement.
✦ Obstacles Filling Squares: An obstacle such as a
large tree, a pillar, or a floor-to-ceiling wall blocks
a square entirely by completely filling it. You can’t
enter a square that is filled by an obstacle.
Corners:When an obstacle fills a square, you can’t
move diagonally across the corner of that square
(page 283).

See? That doesn't make sense. A 'the rules only say precisely what they say' argument doesn't really work here. A more reasonable argument is that, yes, a physical element of blocking terrain that does occupy the square its in.

Walls being what they are tho, there's nothing in the rules that say walls do or do not occupy the square. That leaves it for the DM to decide 'Yes this wall does occupy this square.' Some walls might be of the sort phasing can end in, some walls might not be. This is entirely the realm of DM discretion.

On the contrary, only elements that the text specifically says occupy squares can occupy squares--hence, creatures and conjurations that specifically say they do. Nowhere does it say that walls occupy squares--thus, they do not. To quote KarinsDad from the above linked thread:

If there wasn't an entire section on "Occupied Squares" and other rules that referred to occupied or unoccupied such as "Pick up an object in your space or in an unoccupied square within reach", where the only rational meaning is that a creature is in the square, then I would agree with you.

As is, the main references to occupied square or unoccupied square refer to squares with creatures in them or not.

If you can find ones that explicitly refer to objects, then your POV has some RAW merit.

 

[IanB]

Why? If you can move through walls (and presumably stay on the same level), why not floors? What makes a floor of stone more special than a wall of stone?

I believe that for phasing to work at all, you must be able to choose what you can and can't move through. Otherwise, non-flyers would instantly fall into the center of the earth as soon as they started phasing. If you allow that a phasing creature can sink into the ground at all (and I can't see why you wouldn't), then it's just a matter of choosing a stair-shaped portion of ground to be solid for you, and walking up it.

Phasing pretty explicitly doesn't give you any extra movement capabilities other than the ability to move through obstacles, which means you're still stuck moving on the regular old 2D grid. A burrow speed or a flight speed would be needed for you to do anything involving moving on the Z axis, absent stairs or a ramp or something.

No, it isn't really logical at all. I don't particularly care for the idea of separating incorporeal and phasing into two different abilities in the first place, let alone separating them from flight, precisely because it creates this weird rules situation where a wall and the floor seem to function differently.

 

[DracoSuave]

If you want to get super pedantic, obstacles (as described in the DMG in skill challenges and such) include things like a king who won't allow his guards to open the large gate you need to get to the Temple of Ultimate Power... or your lack of food as you cross the Desert of Despair.

Does that mean you can use phasing to walk through those things? Can you use phasing to walk through the Kobold Tribe of Kla'tchaka's lack of desire to stop warring against the Gnomish Wizarders of Wizarding and other Magery?

More rediculously, does the wiseman's riddle that you must solve to discern the Words of Power that activate the Blade of Twelve Ages carry with it tangible form that renders it into blocking terrain?

Obstacles is a -contextual- term, not an explicit game term.

You can't take the term too literally in that regard, nor is occupied a similiarly 'precise' term. It means what it means. Is there something there that prevents you from normally being there? Yes? That's what occupied means.

 

[Teemu]

So what happens when a phasing creature stops moving 40 ft. into a mountain?

 

[Mort_Q]

So what happens when a phasing creature stops moving 40 ft. into a mountain?

It can't stop, so the player, DM, or whomever screwed up returns the creature its starting square and tries something within the rules.

 

[Teemu]

What happens when a boulder filling a burst 2 drops on top of a phasing creature who is slowed, and it survives it and is at the very center of the rock?

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Well, most boulder effects that can harm PCs either have the effect of "place the PC adjascent to the boulder" or "immoblized (save ends)" - so the effects on the wraith should be the same.

And if it doesn't have the same effect, how would it effect a PC that it fell on but didn't kill? As well, there is nothing in the rules that says the wraith ends up inside the bolder after it falls - after all, phasing only effects movement, and having a boulder try to share your space with you certainly isn't movement by you anymore than is having another monster/PC try to share your space.

And, if it is by DM fiat that the wraith ends up inside the boulder (and after all, why not - it certainly is cooler and makes more sense from a storytelling perspective than having it pinned under the thing), then the DM can by fiat determine what happens (likely nothing) if it remains in the boulder.

 

[Mort_Q]

What happens when a boulder filling a burst 2 drops on top of a phasing creature who is slowed, and it survives it and is at the very center of the rock?

If it's the PCs that dropped the boulder, they get XP.

If it's the DM that dropped the boulder on a PC, s/he gets a boot to the head.

 

[Teemu]

I was actually curious enough to ask Cust Service, and they replied that there is no official answer yet and that the DM can decide what happens.

 

[Samir]

"While phasing ... and can move through obstacles and other creatures, but it must end its movement in an unoccupied space."

The way that it is written, you can pretty clearly tell that the intent was to say, "Hey, you can pass through walls and creatures, but you can't end movement in them."

This is your guess at RAI. My guess is that "occupied" means what it does in real life--an occupied phone booth has somebody in it. An occupied toilet stall has somebody in it. Not something, somebody. This agrees with the use of "occupied squares" as an explicit game term defined by a section in the rules. Occupied in game terms requires that the space be filled by a creature (or a conjuration that explicitly says it occupies a space).

If you try, you can find ways to read it another way. You can even argue from a technical perspective that you're more righterest in your argument that it should be read another way, but it really seems that if the technically righterest way to read it is another way, it was just sloppy writing.

Not at all. It just means the developers wrote down exactly what they meant. From my point of view, you are reading it another way, since your interpretation is reading something outside of what was actually written.

Besides: PCs really don't want creatures to be able to end movement in walls. A creature with reach, phasing, and an attack that allowed movement as part of the standard action attack would be an autoparty kill if smartly played. Move out and attack and then hide back in the wall where you're invincible. Wait for party to end readied actions waiting to get you (they have to rest sometime) and repeat. You might also need tremorsense or some other way to know what the party is doing, but it would be nigh impossible to stop.

If you are putting a party up against a phasing, reach, tremorsense, move-and-attack-at-will-power monster (that you created) in a room in which they are trapped and can't leave, then you have obviously planned for the party to be TPK'd, and you could have accomplished it much more easily by putting them up against a high-flying monster with long ranged attacks or a monster with +15 AC, for example.