Reach Weapons and vertical threat range

[Murrdox]

Here's a question.

Soon in my campaign I'm going to have a rather large encounter with several flying dragons. One of my players has a long spear.

He's tried the "Jump and attack in midair" before... and at the time I wasn't quite sure what to rule. Fortunately he didn't jump high enough, so it wasn't an issue. NOW I'd probably NOT allow an attack in "mid jump" for the very simple reason that one is not allowed to make an attack in the middle of a move action.

Now, I KNOW he's going to try and stab upwards at any dragons hovering overhead. The question here is... how much verticle space does he threaten?

On a horizontal grid, a medium size creature occupies a 5' square. However, when you turn that into a 3D grid... does a medium sized creature occupy a 5' cube, or a 5'x10' rectangle? This is important, because if the player in question has a 10' reach weapon, if it is the former, he threatens anything 15' high. If the later, he threatens anything 20' high.

Which should it be?

 

[Dr. NRG]

He effectively occupies a 5x5x5 cube if he's medium sized, and has normal faces. With a normal weapon (no reach), he threatens the 8 squares all around him in the horizontal plane. He also threatens the squares directly above each of those 8 squares, as I understand it.

With a reach weapon, (ignoring for the moment that with a longspear he doesn't threaten adjacent squares) he threatens 24 squares all around him, the original 8 squares plus those 16 surrounding them -- in the horizontal axis. He also threatens the squares directly above those 24 squares AND the 24 squares about that. Meaning that he can hit something ten feet away from the square he occupies in both horizontal and vertical space (i.e. the outside of his vertical reach is his height -- effectively 5 feet -- plus his weapon's reach, 10 feet, to total 15 feet). Now remove the squares within 5 feet of him in any axis from the threat area, and you know what he can hit with an attack.

Jumping and swinging simultaneously is like combining spring attack and flyby attack. I would suggest that it requires a dedicated feat to pull off, if you choose to allow it at all.

NRG

 

[Maitre Du Donjon]

little correction: with a normal weapon, you threaten 9 spaces above you. I think Dr. NRG forgot to include the space directly above yourself.

The manual of the plane deals (briefly, IIRC) with 3D combat, you might want to check it out.

As for Jumpin' Jack Flash there, like its been mentionned, attacking in mid-jump would be very difficult, but stabbing upward shouldn't be a problem. With his 10'-reach longspear, he can hit the 3rd 5'-cube from the floor, ie not the one he is standing in, not the one directly above him, but the one above that. Jumping will of course get him higher. You could rule that an upward jump counts as a charge.

Now for the Dragons. Dragons usually have "poor" flight ability, which means they can't stay in place while flying. Jumping Jack Flash will probably have to ready his action to jump when the Dragon passes overhead...

Maitre D

 

[Murrdox]

I don't think I'd allow an attack while jumping, simply because a jump is a move, and unless you have Spring attack, or a similar feat, you can't attack in the middle of a move action.

Dragons CAN hover if they have the Hover feat... which I don't understand why ANY dragon wouldn't take. That and Wingover dramatically improve their poor manuverability rating.

 

[Vaxalon]

The ability to begin a move, attack, and then move away again is a feat, "Spring Attack". Does he have it?

 

[Murrdox]

Nope. He doesn't have spring attack. So there's no way he's jumping and attacking a dragon.

I don't know if I'd even allow Spring Attack to let you do this. I'd be more tempted to create a Leap Attack feat instead.