D&D 3E/3.5 Prone Rules [3.5]

[Rashak Mani]

Tripping has become over deadly ? With the prone rules the way they are it seems much more dangerous falling down...

From a less than flexible reading once your prone your almost bound to give the enemy an AOO. AOO if you stand up... AOO if you try to crawl 5 feet...

Is there any way to avoid that AOO once your prone ? We are using tumble to get up without AOO... is that possible BY THE RULES ?

Speaking of ONLY RULES there is nothing that says that going from prone to kneeling is a AOO for the enemy. From kneeling to standing... would be "stand up" and a AOO. It feels like a "literal rule" reading rather then good sense thou.

One player said crawling is very specific... and that other means of "movement" exist for prone characters. Or is crawl anything moving in prone position ?

How have you guys handled trying to get up ? Are the prone rules too heavy?

 

[Li Shenron]

Maybe a Diplomacy check "Pleaaaase, let me get up, no hurt me..."

Yes the rules are too heavy IMHO. They are probably more realistic now, but the playability had suffered from the change. I am lucky that my fellow players and DM don't like exploiting this kind of things, otherwise it might ge annoying.

 

[Darklone]

The feats in some books that let you get up as free action don't provoke AoOs... and some guys allow "tumbled crawling" or "tumbled kip-ups".

 

[Hypersmurf]

The feats in some books that let you get up as free action don't provoke AoOs...

Not necessarily. The feats were written for 3E, and as such, they don't say you don't provoke an AoO.

The text for free actions states that free actions "rarely" provoke AoOs. But, for example, Rapid-Reloading a light crossbow - a free action - does provoke an AoO.

So it depends on how your DM converts the feat/class feature for a free stand-up action to 3.5 as to whether it still provokes.

-Hyp.

 

[Fabio B.]

Just a question

I have read the various threads about tripping in 3.5, and I'd like to know where in the rules it is said that I have to crawl when prone. I know, it is really "picky", but when I first read the crawling rules, my interpretation was to use them in other situations:
- when crawling in a narrow tunnel
- when crawling under a bed to hide
- ecc.ecc.

leaving the problem of a person fallen prone in combat to rolling away, with the possibility of tumbling away, as it happens in the many movie that inspire us

thanks
Fabio

 

[nsruf]

I still allow a 5' step to be made lying down, so being prone is only that deadly if your opponent has reach or several enemies gang up on you.

 

[MarauderX]

I still allow a 5' step to be made lying down, so being prone is only that deadly if your opponent has reach or several enemies gang up on you.

Exactly. I'm glad there are AoOs for standing up now, as it makes the game 'more realistic', and if you want to move while prone, take a 5' step to be out of the threatened area if possible. You can use it to step away from them without an AoO, why not while prone?

 

[youspoonybard]

I allow my players to make a full-round action to "Stand on the Defensive".

 

[AeroDm]

I disregard the rule that standing provokes. I know it is more realistic, but I really don't like it. Trip is already a very powerful combat maneuver, and I'd hate to make it that much more so. I've seen some improved trip, spiked chain, combat reflexes tweeks that I didn't like at all.

The problem is that it isn't even a tweak, it is common sense. You can get mad at someone for exploiting a rule, but when it is that simple/obvious how can you object?

 

[The Souljourner]

I don't know... tripping at high levels is almost useless. I guess if you're fighting a lot of classed humanoids, it's good, but my experience with higher (8+) level campaigns is that there are a lot of monsters rather than people... and the higher level they get the bigger they get. Try tripping a huge dragon, or even worse, a huge black pudding. There are just so many enemies that just aren't affected by it.

Plus, it's not like the trip is automatic... it is still an opposed roll, and in my experience, if we're fighting levelled humanoids, they're almost always the same or higher level than us... so it's a tossup who wins. And if the trip fails, you've just wasted an attack that could have been doing damage instead.

-The Souljourner