Phased creature ends movement in a wall?

[Chris Knapp]

This came up in our last session. A creature with phasing attacked us and kept moving between 2 solid walls, ending its turn within the wall. The DM then allowed the creature to attack while within the wall, disallowing the party the ability to hit it back.

My take is that a solid wall is considered blocking terrain and effectively "fills" the square, which means the phasing creature cannot end its movement in said square. Am I missing something?

 

[mneme]

No, you're not. The creature might have a "flyby" style ability that lets them attack and then return to the wall -- but even then you can and should be able to ready an action and attack it while it exits to attack; that kind of nonsense is exactly what readied actions are for.

 

[korjik]

I like the patch Chris

 

[Chris Knapp]

We were denied ready actions since our only ranged guy was down and the rest of us were melee types. The creature was a specter or wraith of some kind and had an aura that it kept trying to catch us in. It was insubstantial too so our basic ranged attacks with javelins, et al. were totally lame. My bigger concern is whether the creature can end its turn in the wall.

I like the patch Chris

First to Fight! Victory!

 

[Mort_Q]

No, you're not. The creature might have a "flyby" style ability that lets them attack and then return to the wall -- but even then you can and should be able to ready an action and attack it while it exits to attack; that kind of nonsense is exactly what readied actions are for.

I concur. Not being able to do something is boring. Having to figure out what to do... that's OK.

My bigger concern is whether the creature can end its turn in the wall.

The rules say it has to end it's movement in an unoccupied space... solid objects are... occupied in my opinion. Though, an encounter designed around this kind of hit 'n run is fair game... if there's a way to negate it...

I don't get why the melee types couldn't ready actions!?

 

[Markn]

You can ready with melee attacks too!

Plus Phasing creatures HAVE to end their movement in an unoccupied space as per MM2:

phasing: While phasing, a creature ignores difficult terrain and can move through obstacles and other creatures, but it must end its movement in an unoccupied space.

I take that to mean, in a square without a wall since a wall occupies that space!

Edit: Ninja'd by Mort Q!

 

[Chris Knapp]

I don't get why the melee types couldn't ready actions!?

The DM kept the creature at least 2 squares away from us in order to use its aura exclusively. Technically, we could have all readied a charge I guess, but none of us thought of it. (We're not the smartest bunch of players. . .)

 

[Errantocracy]

I
The rules say it has to end it's movement in an unoccupied space... solid objects are... occupied in my opinion. Though, an encounter designed around this kind of hit 'n run is fair game... if there's a way to negate it...

This could be still be circumvented if there were a room on the other side of the room that the wraith could end its turn in.

Of course, this in turn could be handled by the PCs splitting up to occupy both rooms.

Which would've made the entire encounter much more interesting. Fail on the part of the DM.

 

[Markn]

The DM kept the creature at least 2 squares away from us in order to use its aura exclusively. Technically, we could have all readied a charge I guess, but none of us thought of it. (We're not the smartest bunch of players. . .)

Interesting. I can't recall very many (if any?) auras that work like that. Most auras work at the start of the creatures turn or the start of the players turn, but don't trigger during a turn. Plus, if the auras triggered at the start of the creature/players turn, then the wall would block line of effect.

 

[Camelot]

Your DM ruled utterly and completely wrong.

As it has been pointed out, a phasing creature MUST end its movement in an unoccupied space (PHB3 222). Walls are blocking terrain (PHB3 220), which means that the square is occupied, so phasing creatures CANNOT end their movement in a wall.

Also, I don't know for sure, but can phasing creatures attack through blocking terrain? If they are on the other side of the wall, they don't have line of sight or line of effect. I would think that being in the wall, even if it was allowed, would be the same thing.