Standing up in an occupied square

Venthrac

First Post
I have combed the rulebook and I don't see the answer to this fringe case, but what's supposed to happen when a character is prone in a square that's occupied by an enemy, and that character wants to stand up?

This happened to my character when he was rendered helpless by paralysis and then suffered a coup-de-grace. A moment later, our Cleric healed my PC and he woke back up, but in the interim, a mummy had ended its movement in my PC's square. All the adjacent squares were occupied as well.

Where's the ruling for this scenario in the rulebook?
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Fooly_Cooly

First Post
Hmm. Well you would definitely suffer an AoO for standing in a threatened square. As for after that you would both be taking a penalty to AC. But what you CAN do instead of just get up is perform an acrobatics check to roll backwards out of the square from your prone position so that you don't start in the same square and you wont provoke the AoO.
 

DogBackward

First Post
You cannot occupy the same square as another creature (unless there's enough of a size difference, which I doubt there was in this case). Technically, this includes if you're prone. If you were able to act while prone, then the mummy would not have been able to enter your space at all. Obviously, since you were dead (and thus counted as an object, not a creature), that issue wasn't relevant. But, for future reference, being prone isn't enough to allow an enemy into your space.

Personally, as a DM, I would rule that if there is an adjacent empty space, you can take a 5ft. step during your move action to stand up (though standing would still provoke). Barring this, there are two options you have, via RAW:

Crawl up to 5ft while prone, then stand up. It seems you couldn't have done this, since there were no empty spaces to crawl to. If an adjacent square was occupied by an ally, then you could double-move to crawl 10ft. You combine movement totals with a double move, which is important since you can't end your move occupying the same space as another creature, even an ally. This is, of course, assuming that there is an empty space within 10ft...

Second, you could attempt to bull rush the mummy out of your square. This would be inadvisable, since you'd suffer some hefty penalties (-4 to the attack, plus you'd suffer an attack of opportunity anyway). With no adjacent squares empty, you'd have to make two successful bull rush checks, against the mummy and then against whoever's space you pushed the mummy into. I believe that the second check would take a -5 penalty as well.

So, in the end, your best bet is to crawl away and hope for some luck.
Barring a DM ruling that makes things easier on you, of course.

Oh, and for the record: since you can't occupy the same space as another creature, I'd rule (again, me personally, since there are no hard rules on this) that the mummy would have to take it's next opportunity to move out of your space. If it was unable to (like the situation you described) then I'd give it penalties as if it were squeezing, since it's got an active being taking up most of its space and trying to get it the hell away. Of course, you'd take those squeezing penalties as well, since the same applies to you... [Edit: on second thought, I'd more likely just have it automatically move into the first empty space that opened up, without using actions or causing opportunity attacks. Since it's really a sort of nebulous, "you're being defensive even in-between turns" action on your part that's making him move.]

On a side-note... these sorts of discussions are the main reason I've been drifting more and more toward systems that focus on cinematic combat rather than tactical combat...
 
Last edited:

Venthrac

First Post
We ended up turning to D&D4E for an answer. That game addresses this situation very clearly in its rules. Take note, Pathfinder :)
 

Squire James

First Post
Of course, you can always fight prone and take the penalties until the situation improves. This would be... suboptimal if you're a spellcaster though!
 


DogBackward

First Post
If you end up with someone in your space while you're prone, you get to shift 1 square (basically their version of a 5ft. step) as a free action as part of the action made to stand up, though it provokes an Opportunity Attack. Oddly enough, in 4e, you only provoke an OpAttack from standing up if you do so with someone in your square, and you only provoke from that person.
 

Abciximab

Explorer
As a DM I would put this under the following rule...

From prd:
Accidentally Ending Movement in an Illegal Space: Sometimes a character ends its movement while moving through a space where it's not allowed to stop. When that happens, put your miniature in the last legal position you occupied, or the closest legal position, if there's a legal position that's closer.

I would place the creature that stands in the closest legal space (provoking for standing if applicable).
 

Remove ads

Top