D&D 5E Question about moving and attacking

[Hriston]

The reason no check is required for friendly spaces is that Bob the Fighter is keeping an eye out on everyone around him, you included, so when you enter his space he attempts to dance around you while you quickly move through it.

Now, what has been consistent in all of this is movement whether you are attempting to squeeze or running straight through, you are still moving. The key words fall into "breaking up your move" when you attack you are explicitly ENDING your movement in order to do something else (attack).

Now certainly if you are allowing a person to make some sort of check to occupy another's space, that's certainly an option, it's not by the RAW but it's an option. By the RAW, since you cannot squeeze through another's space and you cannot end your movement in another's space, you cannot STOP moving in their space to attack.

You don't need to stop moving or end your move to attack. In fact, quite the opposite is implied by the phrase "breaking up your move". Your move, i.e. the use of your speed, does not end when you attack. Rather, you may continue to use whatever part of your speed was unused before your attack was resolved. There is no need to imagine that this requires the character to come to a full stop, but even if it did, there is no prohibition that I can see on taking an action while in the space inhabited by an allied creature.

If you want to end your movement in the space of another, by RAW, you're going to have to potentially use a spell or play a halfling. Or of course, come up with a variant rule that allows your to do so.

Halflings are not allowed to willingly end their move in another's space any more than are other races. The benefit of Halfling Nimbleness is that it allows halflings to move through the spaces of enemies provided that they are one size larger. It doesn't allow halflings to end their turn there.

Personally, a feat like say "Back to Back Fighting" that would allow two players with the feat to occupy the same square while fighting, would be hella cool.

Agreed, but perhaps it wouldn't be necessary considering how easy it is for them to move through each others spaces, paying only the penalty for difficult terrain.

 

[Hriston]

That is not what is said. That is an implication you made. As such, it makes for a decent house rule.

Interesting. Perhaps I was a bit too terse. It seems to me, when I read the passages from the rules I quoted above, that a "move" is defined as moving "a distance up to your speed". Specifically, in the section entitled "Your Turn", the rules seem to say that a turn is made up of two things: your move, and your action. Your move is then the part of the turn in which you "move a distance up to your speed". It seems to follow that if you haven't used all of your speed, and you would like to use some more of it, then your move hasn't ended, no matter how many actions (taken as part of your "action") you've taken in the interim.

 

[Coredump]

I disagree. You can't have more than one "move" per turn. You can only break your one move up into smaller portions of a move, punctuated by actions.



There is nothing in the rules that says you can't take those actions from the space inhabited by another character once you have moved into it, only that you can't enter that space if you don't have enough speed left to leave it afterwards.

You are free to disagree... but the rules state "you can move 10 feet, take your action, and then move 20 feet."

So the *rules* state that you "move 10'" and then you "move 20'" So that is two separate 'moves'. You have created the idea of a 'partial move' or a 'portion of a move', but none of those concepts exist in the actual rules.

You make statements like "you can'thave more than one move a turn", but the rules never makes that statement, and in fact gives examples that state the opposite.

 

[Coredump]

You don't need to stop moving or end your move to attack. In fact, quite the opposite is implied by the phrase "breaking up your move". Your move, i.e. the use of your speed, does not end when you attack. Rather, you may continue to use whatever part of your speed was unused before your attack was resolved. There is no need to imagine that this requires the character to come to a full stop, but even if it did, there is no prohibition that I can see on taking an action while in the space inhabited by an allied creature.

Yes, you initially have one move of 30', then the rules allow you to break it up into 2 moves of 10' and 20'. But as the rules state, you "move 10'"
You are correct, there is no explicit restriction on attacking while sharing a space.... just the restriction that when you move 10', you can't end that move in an occupied space.

 

[Hriston]

You are free to disagree... but the rules state "you can move 10 feet, take your action, and then move 20 feet."

Correct. You can "break up" your move of 30' by taking as many actions as you are able during the course of your move.

So the *rules* state that you "move 10'" and then you "move 20'" So that is two separate 'moves'. You have created the idea of a 'partial move' or a 'portion of a move', but none of those concepts exist in the actual rules.

To the contrary, I would suggest that it is you who is inventing a rationale for your argument that rests on the concept that "breaking up your move" somehow results in your move being multiplied into a larger number of moves. Normally, when a thing is "broken up" it is divided into smaller parts, as I am suggesting is done to your move when you perform an action during your movement. The idea that each of those parts is somehow equivalent to your entire movement (move and movement are used interchangeably) is not present in the rules. I would suggest that you read them more carefully.

You make statements like "you can'thave more than one move a turn", but the rules never makes that statement, and in fact gives examples that state the opposite.

Please cite these examples you mention of a creature being able to move a distance up to its speed more than once during the movement portion of its turn, and not as an action or a bonus action.

Yes, you initially have one move of 30', then the rules allow you to break it up into 2 moves of 10' and 20'. But as the rules state, you "move 10'"

Yes, but the rules do not say that the 10' move is equivalent to "your move". That is an assumption you are making.

You are correct, there is no explicit restriction on attacking while sharing a space.... just the restriction that when you move 10', you can't end that move in an occupied space.

The restriction on moving into a space occupied by an ally only applies if you are unable or unwilling to continue your move into an adjoining space. I think the rules in this case, as in many others, require that we read them carefully. They say that on your turn, "you can move a distance up to your speed". That is what is meant by "your move" in the statement "breaking up your move". The first thing it says beneath "BREAKING UP YOUR MOVE" is "You can break up your movement on your turn", so "your move" is equivalent to "your movement on your turn". Thus, ending your move is ending your entire turn's movement, not a 10' segment of it that you have taken before you swing your sword.

Movement and action in a turn are simultaneous. This is not a board game in which figures are required to make discrete movements that come to a halt every time they wish to take an action. I believe the turn, in this rule set, should be constructed as a fluid whole, and that that would help in avoiding the type of misinterpretation you, and others, are engaged in. To each his own, however.