thorian said:
...Kneeling / Sitting has a game effect on AC, but the action type is not defined anywhere. Is it free, MEA, or ?...
Recently, I was perusing the
Rules of the Game articles on WotCs website. Skip should be nominated for an award for this article series. It's absolutely brilliant - it's clear, concise and very detailed.
In one of his past articles on Movement, Skip clarifies the roles of kneeling, sitting and standing from prone, even getting up from a chair. He did so under the following section:
"
Stand Up from Prone: Use this action to get up when you're lying on the ground. This does not count as movement, but you're pretty darn close to defenseless when regaining your feet, so standing up provokes attacks of opportunity. Getting to your feet when seated on the ground is just as difficult as getting up from a prone position and also requires a move action that provokes attacks of opportunity. If you're kneeling on the ground, getting up takes some time, but it doesn't make you vulnerable, so you use a move action that doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. Getting up from a chair is a free action that doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity if the chair is fairly high; otherwise it's just like getting up from a prone position."
Based on the above, I would deduce that sitting or kneeling is a Move Action, presumably because you are doing so carefully to avoid injuring yourself. Reversing his logic, sitting would induce AoOs while kneeling would not.
As for falling prone, in the PH pg 144, falling prone IN YOUR SQUARE is a free action. Based on the RoG articles, I'd say there is another way you could rule on it for more realism.
Falling prone:
An action the can be executed during movement, costing 5 ft of movement (and thus can be executed as a 5 ft step).
I believe this is a better ruling for falling prone, since that act of moving doesn't require you to move your full speed. Dropping prone should cost 5 ft of movment and be executed as part of movement. It then fits in with all the other rules on Hampered Movement in Difficult Terrain, Obstacles, etc. As for other complications:
- Dropping prone in Difficult Terrain (see Hamprered Movement) would cost double the movement, in this case 10 ft of movement, to drop prone. No one wants to hit their head on a rocky plateau when they dive for cover!
- As such, dropping prone as a 5 ft step when your movement is Hampered would not be possible, as per the rules on Hampered Movement.
I encourage you to think about reading Skip's articles - they really do a wonderful job clarifying those "tough" rulings, and in the process make it easier to make those types of calls on the fly.
