The Chase

[zyzzyr]

Hi all,

I've had the following problem and I haven't come up with a reasonable way to solve it. I'll give my proposed solution at the end.

Enemy A is standing 100 feet from Player B. Enemy A runs away, at X2, 30' = 60'. Player B chases him, at 40', X2 = 80'. At the end of round 1, the distance separating them is 80'. This distance continues to decrease each round (60,40,20,0). The strange part is once you are able to "catch" the player/ Each of you takes a double move, and end up in adjacent squares.

Now player B, moving after Enemy A, wants to be able to take an action at the end of the round, but since he took a double move, he can't. The next round A moves another 60' and if B moves 60' again he is in the same situation that he was just in. However, he can't take a single move then attack since 40' is his limit and that puts him 20' away. So he has to take a double move to get by the enemy (which might or might not provoke an attack of opportunity for the enemy!), and then mow him down as he comes by, or something similar.

Of course, this makes no sense. I have looked this up in the PHB and DMG and didn't find anything satisfying - but this might be because I missed something. I see where it says about players with the same movement - use an opposed dex check, and if it goes long, an opposed con check. That doesn't satisfy what I need.

My thought was to run it as follows:

Depending on how long (initiative wise) the enemy takes off before the player chases, I calculate the difference in movement (in this case, 20' on a double move). If the enemy was 100' away, and A and B leave at about the same time, it will take B 5 rounds to catch A. This is the same number of rounds as the above situation. I then allow an attack from A on B, even though this means he gets an attack on a double move. I'm not too happy with this.

My second thought is to give half the difference (10'), and then have it takes 10 rounds to be able to catch A and get an attack in.

Any idea on how to do this?

Thanks a lot,

zyzzyr

 

[Dr. Zoom]

Have you considered the Charge action?

Move up to double your speed and make one attack. Sounds like your solution.

 

[Gromm]

Like Zoom said.
Thats what charge is for.

But more realistically what if they were both actually Running (x4 move). Neither character could really charge the other, but fortunately AoO handle this (if Enemy A Runs he provokes an AoO, if he double moves Player B charges him). Oh and don't chase guys with reach. You don't ever really come out ahead in the attacks department (unless you've got it too).

Also don't forget if you're really fast you can just run in front of the guy and block his path, forcing him to divert or risk an AoO. Repeat until he realizes hes never getting away.

 

[Piratecat]

Spend $5 and buy "Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns" (the link is on the main news page.) Not only does it support this site, not only will you tell all your friends to buy it because it's freakin' cool and fairly huge (74 pages), it has a superb system for adjuducating chase scenes!

No joke: this is possibly the best gaming supplement I've bought this year in terms of useful content.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=164&

 

[Rel]

Maybe I'm missing something, but if B moves next to A (and presumably is threatening A) and A makes a double move then he has moved out of a threatened area and done more than a standard move, ergo B gets an attack of opportunity on A.

Is this incorrect? If so, I've screwed up every chase scene that has happened in my campaign.

 

[IceBear]

You can double move out of someone's threat zone and that won't cause an AoO (assuming 5ft reach). If you run (4X move) then you will draw an AoO as running itself draws an AoO. Basically, if all that you do is move the square you start in isn't considered threatened for purposes of AoO. The ACT of running draws an AoO.

IceBear

 

[zyzzyr]

Followup

Thanks for the feedback

The charge action works only in limited situations - that is, in a straight line. If the fleeing person is moving a x2, he is probably running through curves and bends, which would prevent any charge action (for example, through the woods he can duck behind a tree or what have you, and provided that a tree stays between him and the player, the player can never charge).

If the guy who is running away has a straight line, he's running X4, which then puts 120 ft between him and the player - in which case the player can't charge. Gromm mentions that player would get an AoO on the enemy since the enemy is running. However, I had thought that if you were running, you could not attack with an AoO, since your own dexterity bonus was denied - I could be wrong here.

As to getting an attack of opportunity, I didn't think one was granted if the enemy only moves. I had thought it was only given if the enemy runs, or moves and does something (like move 30' and drink a potion, but not move 60').

The running in front of a guy to block his path leads to an endless chase in my situations. For example, if this occurred in a forest, the enemy would just veer off in another direction, never allowing you to catch him.

I've tried several things, and am pretty much tapped out - unless of course the above is wrong.

zyzyr

 

[IceBear]

I think the rule that you don't get an AoO when denied your Dex bonus isn't actually stated anywhere, but people inferred it from the Combat Reflexes feat.

Also, I think Spycraft has some expanded chase rules, and as was pointed out "Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns" has good rules too.

IceBear

 

[Greythax]

I may be on crack here, but a double move only negates the attack of oppertunity from the square you orriginally leave. If you then leave another threatened square by the same character, you would then provoke an AoO. In this situation, character B would have to overtake and "block" A. The only way for A to avoid the AoO would be to double back (assuming 5' reach) and then circle outside his threatened area. Sounds pretty realistict to me. The d&d web site has an insert that shows this (kind of) if I remember correctly, but I don't have a link.

Greythax

 

[IceBear]

Which is what I said - "If all you do is move, then the square you start out in is not considered threatened for purposes of AoO".

Thus, if you were standing directly in front of an ogre and you tried to double move away, you wouldn't suffer an AoO for moving from the first square, but you would for the second.

IceBear