Share Spells... and movement

[Thanee]

How do you apply the share spells (wizard & familiar or druid & animal companion) requirement to stay within 5 feet in order to keep the benefit?

1) Since they cannot move simultaneously, the benefit is lost as soon as one moves farther than 5 feet away in one turn.

2) They just move simultaneously.

3) The requirement is only checked after both have their turns completed for the round and not continuously.

4) Something else?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Infiniti2000]

It's (and I use) #1. However, the familiar can ride in the master's pocket or whatever, ensuring case #2. This requires the familiar be small enough, however.

I would definitely entertain houserules on this, though, 'cause I think familiars suck wind, particularly in comparison to druid's animal companions.

 

[Scharlata]

Hi!

2) They just move simultaneously. + 1) [...] the benefit is lost as soon as one moves farther than 5 feet away in one turn.

Normally, I just go with #2). Only if the mistress orders the familiar to do something that requires to check the distance during the action I insist on adhering to the rules.

Kind regards

 

[Lord Pendragon]

How do you apply the share spells (wizard & familiar or druid & animal companion) requirement to stay within 5 feet in order to keep the benefit?

1) Since they cannot move simultaneously, the benefit is lost as soon as one moves farther than 5 feet away in one turn.

This is how I rule it. To avoid losing the effect, the familiar either rides on the master (in a pocket, on the shoulder, etc,) or the druid rides on his companion. Otherwise, the effect is lost.

 

[UltimaGabe]

3) The requirement is only checked after both have their turns completed for the round and not continuously.

This is how I do it, and, in my opinion, that's the most reasonable way to rule it. After all, I know it's bad to introduce realism to D&D, but you have to at least assume that the characters aren't standing around waiting for their turns to act while everyone else takes theirs (if that were the case, rounds would be far more than 6 seconds long). Everything is supposedly somewhat simultaneous, and so as long as the caster & familiar begin and end their turns within 5 feet of each other, they shouldn't be penalized. After all, if you were a wizard, would you order your familiar to stand in one spot, then follow you once you stop moving?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Everything is supposedly somewhat simultaneous, and so as long as the caster & familiar begin and end their turns within 5 feet of each other, they shouldn't be penalized.

What do you do if someone drops a Flame Strike on the druid with a readied action, though?

The nature of D&D's turn-based, nobody-has-exactly-the-same-initiative combat system means that the caster should reasonably expect to be able to cast the spell after the druid has moved, but before his dire wolf has, so as to hit the druid but not the companion.

-Hyp.

 

[UltimaGabe]

What do you do if someone drops a Flame Strike on the druid with a readied action, though?

Well, if he's readying it to go off based on the Druid's movement, remember that Readied Actions go off BEFORE the action that triggered them.

But you do make a good point (assuming, of course, that he moves and THEN does something that triggers the Readied Action). However, that seems to me like an exception that would require some ad-hoc ruling (possibly requiring the Animal Companion/Familiar/mount/whatever to take damage as well if he ends his movement in the area of effect).

However, I don't think that refutes how reasonable my suggestion was, since I still believe that if a Druid and their Animal Companion both move the same distance and take the same action afterwards (like attack, or ready, or whatever) in the same 6-second period, I'd say it's reasonable to assume they stayed within 5-feet of each other. The battle system is abstract, but it still has to make sense. If the rules state that a round is 6 seconds, you can't exactly say that everyone takes their own 6-second round after everyone else, can you? How could a single round be 6 seconds in that case?