Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 jibba_jon May 25, 2015 12:26:49	My group is having some difficulty discerning the proper use of the Fighter's "Evasive Footwork" Battle Master Martial Archetype ability.   It reads:   Evasive Footwork. When you move, you can expend one superiority die, rolling the die and adding the number rolled to your AC until you stop moving.   Our group is split into a few school's of thought:   1) It lasts for your turn and only your turn. It is merely a way to mitigate Opportunity Strikes as you move towards/away from enemies. Once your turn ends you stop "moving". The biggest problem we see with this is that, compared to the other "Maneuvers" in the Battle Master Martial Archetype, this one is severely under-powered and just doesn't fit in with the rest.   2) It lasts until your next turn (this is the "happy-medium" approach). Even though you are not "moving" (in the game's literal sense) it is unrealistic to believe that your character is simply standing still during a fight, allowing enemies to hit them. And that characters are in constant motion unless they purposefully come to a full stop. It is also unrealistic to believe that the Fighter is performing Evasive Footwork for 12 hours straight until they take a short/long rest.   3) It lasts until the end of the ecounter. Again, in battle characters are in constant motion, even if they are not "moving" to adjacent squares. The ability would then last until something "disrupts" your movement (such as getting hit, being grappled, knocked prone, etc). Of course this makes the ability over-powered.   We all believe on one core aspect: You cannot stack this ability multiple times.   Lastly, we feel like the ability should be in line with the others under the Battle Master Martial Archetype. The Fighter only gets 4 Superiority Dice and 3 Maneuvers to choose from (to start), so it's kind of a big deal to be using them. Hence the middle-approach.   Needless to say, we could really use an official ruling on this. Thanks!
#2 jaelis May 25, 2015 12:58:01	My reading is that it lasts until the end of your turn, or until during your turn you do something other than move, like make another attack or open a door.
#3 Bumpo May 25, 2015 14:12:22	Definitely not past the end of the turn. The rules can be read such that you only get one move during your turn, but that you can split that move up. So Evasive Footwork could be read to last until you stop moving for the turn or for that part of your move. I run it that it lasts until you stop moving for the turn.
#4 Wuzzard May 25, 2015 14:41:20	Interesting question.  Do you stop moving at the end of your turn or just use up all your movement for your turn?  Clearly, during a chase or escape you would likely keep moving across turns, you don't just stop moving at the end of your turn.  In a battle, you might just move toward an opponent and then commence attacks.  But do you really stop moving?  Aren't you supposed to be logically dodging and feinting during the fight, regardless of actually changing position on some combat grid?   It seems a valid interpretation that the ability keeps going until you've actually stopped moving, regardless of how many turns that is, with some reasonable maximum limit (like encounter boundary or specific time that I guess would be up to DM.)   It is clear to me, if you don't use any movement during your turn then you have certainly stopped moving.  Other actions or situations may imply that you've stopped moving, like lifting a portculis, being knocked prone, etc.
#5 ArialBlack May 25, 2015 16:28:44	I believe the RAI is that it adds to your AC versus Opportunity Attacks provoked by your movement during your own turn.   This is comparable to Precision Attack, which adds to your attack roll. Evasive Footwork adds to your AC instead of your attack roll, and affects the attacks people make against you because your movement provoked those attacks.
#6 lawrencehoy May 25, 2015 21:18:58	I'm interpreting the use of th term "movement" as linear feet of movement, up to a creature's Speed; while a body in motion in the same 5' space is not "moving".   I would allow the maneuver to span turns; as long as the creature has moved its full Speed on its turn, in linear feet (or in 5' spaces/squares), and hasn't ended its turn doing something that it would have to stop linear movement to do.