Halfling Nimbleness question

[NBooms06]

Hello Playground,

Just got my hands on the PHB and the Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure, going to run it tonight. Trying to get at least a rudimentary grip on the new mechanics, and one kind of stuck out to me.

In the PHB, Halfling Nimbleness states that "You move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours." Does this mean that Halflings can move through larger creature's spaces as if they were not difficult terrain?

Also, I may be stuck thinking in 3.5 terms, but since AoO's are only provoked when you leave a target's reach now, a Halfling would still provoke if he moved through a creature's space and then subsequently left his reach, but if he just dashed under it's legs and behind the target, still within reach, he would not provoke?

Thanks in advance!

[Grynning]

You have it right. The halfling can move through a medium or large creature and end up behind it without taking an AoO. However, since flanking does not exist in this edition, it's not as powerful as it would have been in 3.5. Positioning is generally not as important as 3.5 and 4th because grid-based combat is not assumed by default.

[hymer]

In the PHB, Halfling Nimbleness states that "You move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours." Does this mean that Halflings can move through larger creature's spaces as if they were not difficult terrain?

I see no reason to think it would not still be difficult terrain. Halfling Nimbleness allows a halfling to pass through a medium-sized enemy (as long as he is small - if his size were to change, so would what he can pass through), where other small creatures could not - they'd need large or larger (which the nimble halfling of course can also do). Anyone can pass through an enemy's space if that enemy is two sizes larger or smaller.

Other than that, sounds about right. :smallsmile:

[NBooms06]

Thanks. Yeah, flanking not existing anymore makes it kind of a moot point, unless there was a useful object behind the entity I suppose. On that note, I intend to try running the game in Theater of the Mind style. We've run with a grid before and I feel it just bogs down the session. Need to find more discussion on how to keep that running without losing my mind.

We'll see how that goes!

[NBooms06]

I see no reason to think it would not still be difficult terrain. Halfling Nimbleness allows a halfling to pass through a medium-sized enemy (as long as he is small - if his size were to change, so would that he can pass through), where other small creatures could not - they'd need large or larger (which the nimble halfling of course can also do). Anyone can pass through an enemy's space if that enemy is two sizes larger or smaller.

That interpretation makes sense too, although it certainly makes the ability even weaker than before.