Picking up a body and other questions

[Elder-Basilisk]

The situation:

The party has been split by a web spell. Thee members, the gladiator/fighter/rogue, the wizard/rogue, and the fighter/ranger/wizard are inside the barn. The main human villain (ftr 3/rogue 3 with expert tactician feat) is in the entrance to the barn currently in the area of (but not entangled by) the web spell. In the five foot square adjacent to him, lies the unconcious and bleeding body of the gladiator.

The other combatants are outside the barn and the web's area of effect.

The human villain threatens the to kill the gladiator if the remaining PCs do not drop their weapons, wands, and spell components and surrender. He readies an action to attack the unconcious gladiator if they don't (when he does so, he'll take the expert tactician action on the gladiator who is denied her dex bonus by virtue of being unconcious).

Question 1--What is the best trigger for the villain's actions? I used "If either of them initiate hostile or spellcasting actions or attempt to move the body, I attack the gladiator." Is there a better trigger for a hostage taker?

Question 2--when the party does back up to the wall, the villain attempts to move out of the web and fails. The fighter/ranger/wizard moves forward and attempts to pick up the body in order to keep the villain from attacking the gladiator. Do the rules cover this? I ruled that it would be a standard action to pick up the gladiator's body (provoking an AoO on the person picking up the body but not on the body) and allowed the fighter/ranger/wizard to move the body into her square. Is that consistent with the rules?

Question 3--the next round, the villain rolled a 23 on his strength check to leave the web. Since he was at the edge of the web, how much movement should he have gotten? According to the rules, he would move 10 feet through the web with that strength check but leaving the web's area of effect, according to my understanding of the rules, he could only move five feet (out of the area of effect). Is this an accurate understanding of the letter of the rules? (I house ruled that if his strength check would allow more movement, he's entitled to it, even if he is not moving through the web--otherwise it's rather silly. Still, I'd like to know the real rules).

Question 4--The villain is now next to the body of the gladiator (being held by the fighter/ranger/rogue). Is he entitled to an expert tactician attack on the gladiator as she is helpless/unconcious and therefore denied her dex bonus?

Question 5--The villain attacks the gladiator while she is being held? Is it appropriate to treat her as a "large carried object"? If I am correct, this would entitle her to the fighter/ranger/rogue's dex bonus, a -1 size penalty, and her deflection and armor bonusses. Would the fighter/ranger/wizard's shield spell also protect the gladiator?

 

[Dog Faced God]

The situation:

The party has been split by a web spell. Thee members, the gladiator/fighter/rogue, the wizard/rogue, and the fighter/ranger/wizard are inside the barn. The main human villain (ftr 3/rogue 3 with expert tactician feat) is in the entrance to the barn currently in the area of (but not entangled by) the web spell. In the five foot square adjacent to him, lies the unconcious and bleeding body of the gladiator.

The other combatants are outside the barn and the web's area of effect.

The human villain threatens the to kill the gladiator if the remaining PCs do not drop their weapons, wands, and spell components and surrender. He readies an action to attack the unconcious gladiator if they don't (when he does so, he'll take the expert tactician action on the gladiator who is denied her dex bonus by virtue of being unconcious).

Question 1--What is the best trigger for the villain's actions? I used "If either of them initiate hostile or spellcasting actions or attempt to move the body, I attack the gladiator." Is there a better trigger for a hostage taker?

Seems like a pretty cool trigger to me. Maybe "if they do anything besides drop their weapons" would be better. I think the intent and goal here is fairly clear. If the PC's don't surrender, the gladiator gets it.

Question 2--when the party does back up to the wall, the villain attempts to move out of the web and fails. The fighter/ranger/wizard moves forward and attempts to pick up the body in order to keep the villain from attacking the gladiator. Do the rules cover this? I ruled that it would be a standard action to pick up the gladiator's body (provoking an AoO on the person picking up the body but not on the body) and allowed the fighter/ranger/wizard to move the body into her square. Is that consistent with the rules?

Picking up an item is a move-equivalent action that provokes an opportunity (PHB page 128). I would have (and have in the past) ruled the same way you did. The strength of the PC doing the lifting, and the weight of the character lifted has something to do with this as well (PHB page 142).

Question 3--the next round, the villain rolled a 23 on his strength check to leave the web. Since he was at the edge of the web, how much movement should he have gotten? According to the rules, he would move 10 feet through the web with that strength check but leaving the web's area of effect, according to my understanding of the rules, he could only move five feet (out of the area of effect). Is this an accurate understanding of the letter of the rules? (I house ruled that if his strength check would allow more movement, he's entitled to it, even if he is not moving through the web--otherwise it's rather silly. Still, I'd like to know the real rules).

There is no hard an fast rule for this. Your rule seems reasonable to me.

Question 4--The villain is now next to the body of the gladiator (being held by the fighter/ranger/rogue). Is he entitled to an expert tactician attack on the gladiator as she is helpless/unconcious and therefore denied her dex bonus?

Yes.

Question 5--The villain attacks the gladiator while she is being held? Is it appropriate to treat her as a "large carried object"?

I wouldn't, but it sounds like you did. I would treat her as a character. Large objects are roughly the size and, more importantly, weight of any weapon you would find in the Large category for weapons on page 98-99 of the PHB. A character is much larger.

If I am correct, this would entitle her to the fighter/ranger/rogue's dex bonus, a -1 size penalty, and her deflection and armor bonusses. Would the fighter/ranger/wizard's shield spell also protect the gladiator?

By the strict wording of the shield spell, no. I would rule that the spellcaster could, on his turn, change the defensive direction of the shield to protect himself or the gladiator, but not both of them.