Standing up - AoO in D&D?

[Zhure]

They say nothing of the sort. They say that standing up is an MEA. They are silent on the matter of moving without standing up.

Many of the conditions specifically say you can't move, or have reduced movement. Prone does not.

-Hyp.

So a prone human barbarian with the Run feat and with boots of Striding and Springing can run while prone at 400 feet?

 

[Artoomis]

I thought "prone" just meant "lying on the ground". If it meant "belly to the ground", I'd impose a lot more than a -4 melee attack penalty - especially if using a two-handed weapon!

Okay, but crawling on all fours does not equal prone movement to me. I see crawling and moving while prone as two different things.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So a prone human barbarian with the Run feat and with boots of Striding and Springing can run while prone at 400 feet?

That's up to the DM.

The rules are as silent on the matter as they are on whether you can move at all.

You may think it's silly to "Run" while prone.

I think it's silly to be immobile while prone.

As a DM, I would assign a penalty - one quarter or one half movement - and then allow a prone human barbarian with the Run feat and BoS&S to "take the Run action" while prone to move five times his modified speed. 100 feet, if I were applying one-quarter movement.

A penalty is not stated in the rules - that's a house rule.

But immobility is not stated in the rules either.

-Hyp.

 

[the Jester]

I've always ruled that a prone character can move at half-speed, and that standing up is a MEA that interrupts that move- so you can crawl away 15' then stand, but then your move is done (barring haste or whathaveyou).

 

[0-hr]

Hypersmurf, I'm very much convinced that you have the right of this. The rules do not say you can move while prone. They do not say that you cannot move either. So what do we do? Well, I'll lie on the floor and see if I can move...


<long pause>


Yep, I was able to roll, crawl, and move about on the ground in various ways (with only minor carpet burn). So I have to assume that most characters can actually move while prone. And since the rules are silent on the matter, it is up the DM to decide the details (half speed sounds good enough to me).

 

[Quasqueton]

I know this info isn't core, but here is something to add to the discussion:

Wither Limb in the BoVD says:
"Withered legs force a character to fall prone and make it impossible for her to move more than 5 feet per round."

This seems to suggest that with non-withered legs you could move more than 5 feet per round.

Quasqueton

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hypersmurf, I'm very much convinced that you have the right of this.

And Ranes agrees with me too.

Soon we shall be invincible!

-Hyp.

 

[Zhure]

As I've said before, not being able to move is only implied in the rules. Any allowed movement is a house rule.

 

[Hypersmurf]

As I've said before, not being able to move is only implied in the rules. Any allowed movement is a house rule.

The second statement in no way follows from the first... and the first is in itself (obviously) debatable.

-Hyp.

 

[Zhure]

It's as valid as letting characters run while prone. Or hustle. A prone charging character would be silly. But we're far into house rule land.

As far as any rules-based quote has shown, one cannot move while prone, the only move option mentioned EVER is to stand up. The rules are written from the assumption that one has to stand up to move.

The only exception is in the DMG about non-combat movement and allowing characters to move as they could in real life rather than being concerned with square-based movement. From that, one can extrapolate that a crawl makes sense, since a real-life prone person can crawl. Unfortunately, save for carrion crawlers and the like, there's no mention of "crawl" in the rules text.