Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ElyasRavenwood 12-11-07, 09:24 PM	I have two unrelated questions. First question: We need to catch a party of gnolls who have some Elvin slaves. Through reading their trail, we think there are around 9 gnolls and 3 Elvin slaves. The elves legs are not bound. They have 7 days on us. The gnolls are hustling we think. After killing a patrol of gnolls, we are going to split up. Our 2 fast moving characters with a level of barbarian, whose movement is 40, are going to back track and collect our horses. We left our horses 20 miles behind us. They are going to hustle. Our two stealth characters and wizard characters are going to pursue the gnolls. Our movement is 30. We are gong to hustle. How long will it take the Barbarian characters to catch up with us once they backtrack retrieve our horses and ride them back to us? Riding our horses, how many days will it take for us to overtake the gnolls and their Elvin slaves if we hustle? We are in an old growth forest with no trails but the gnolls, and little or no underbrush. Any help would be appreciated. Time is of the essence. On an unrelated question. The barbarian fighter in our group during combat moved 20’ across the grid and attacked what we think was a gnoll cleric. His one hit with his giant two-handed sword did not drop it. He then stated that he wanted to take a five-foot step to keep next to the gnoll cleric to try and prevent him from spell casting. He said he would attack if the creature began casting. The DM said he could not do this. I’m another player at the table. I seconded the DMs ruling. The player countered that he could because he had not completed his movement, and after all a 5’ step was always free. The Dm sighed and said all right I kept my mouth shut, because I could not think of the exact reason why I thought he could not do this. This player then began asking if he had reach with his giant two-handed sword. That was another kettle of fish. The DM said no. The player sensing he had pushed his luck backed off. Back to the movement issue. I think that the player took his move action by moving 20’ across the battle mat. I think he then took his standard action by attacking the gnoll cleric. If a character takes a move action (even if he does not take his full movement) and then a standard action (a melee attack in this case) I think he is done for the round. I don’t think he gets a 5’ step after that, nor does he get what I think is a held action in addition. I don’t think he gets his 5’ step for a couple of reasons. Reason 1) he has already taken his move action by moving, and cannot then decide to move 5’ more. 2) The second reason is that unless he has spring attack, which he doesn’t, he cannot move before and after a Melee attack. So who is right? My charging friend or me? Any help would be appreciated Thanks.
Marcus Majarra 12-11-07, 10:25 PM	First Question In a trackless forest, creatures cover half the normal distance for the same time traveled. At 30-foot speeds, while hustling, a creature can cover 3 miles per hour in such terrain. At 40-foot speeds, it's 4 miles per hour. In order for the faster characters to reach the horses, they'll need a total of 5 hours, at which time the characters who went on ahead will be 35 miles from them. Now, the time for them to catch up while mounted depends on the mounts' speeds and encumbrance. The best case scenarios are with light horses and no encumbrance or light load, which would allow the mounts to cover 6 miles per hour, while hustling in a trackless forest. Since this will be twice the speed of the characters ahead, we can estimate that the time necessary for them to catch up is the time necessary to cover 70 miles. At 6 miles per hour, this is 11 hours and 40 minutes. Thus, the characters will be separated for a total of 16 hours and 40 minutes of travel. Unless everyone's making a forced march, there will be at least two full days before the others catch up. Furthermore, any horses forced to hustle for more than an hour with a rider will take lethal damage for it. Second Question The 5-foot-step can only be made when no other movement was made that round. Since the barbarian moved 20 feet before attacking, the 5-foot-step is out of the question. The kind of maneuver he wants to make requires the Spring Attack feat, which allows the attacker to move before and after the attack. As for the reach question, it doesn't depend on the size of the sword. Unless the weapon is a reach weapon, the barbarian could only threaten out to 5 feet.
weasel0 12-11-07, 11:57 PM	Also, it should be specified how he was going to keep the caster from ... casting. Was he merely stating his intentions for using his AoO or was he attempting to weasel out a 3rd action through readying? If it was only pointing out his intentions to use an AoO provoked by casting then that's fine. If not, sounds like he's really trying to just cheat. And quite bodly at that.
ElyasRavenwood 12-13-07, 07:18 PM	Marcus Majarra, Thank you for you help with the overland movement question. I can extrapolate from the rates you gave how long it will take for the party to catch up to the Gnoll patrol with the Elvin slaves. Weasilo Yes I think the player was trying to cheat. He is the resident power gamer cheese meister. He talks like he knows the rules, but he doesn’t. He will pounce on the slightest error the DM makes, but be much more elastic with himself. There we are. I know enough when the rules are being fudged, but I do not know them well enough to find page and page number to back myself up. I am also wrong on occasion and I admit it when I am. I am also willing to admit when I make a point, that I might be wrong. This other player simply goes ahead with what he is doing unless he is called on it. I don't like to call him on the rules nor do I want to watch him like a hawk. It is the DMs purview to call players when they are fudging things, but he can only do so much. This behavior irritates me but not enough to make a bid deal about it. Thanks for your help