Enchanted Realms Rulebook

Movement Revisited

A quick reminder of what we know about movement

Rather than altering one’s initiative by delaying because the character took time to dismount from his or her horse, this is managed by making those types of actions part of the movement cost. Because of this, there are several conditions where is penalized. Below is a list of many conditions:

There is a bit of semantics involved to properly calculate some scenarios. Note that some of the penalties are percentages of the species movement. Thus, dismounting a horse for a human costs 25 feet of movement, but for a dwarf it costs 20 feet. This may initially sound unbalanced; however, remember that after dismounting, the human has 25 feet of movement remaining, while the dwarf only has 20 feet to use.

This is also important when a magical effect or a restriction is involved. For example, if that mounted dwarf had a quick step axiom previously cast upon him, then the penalty to dismount is still only 20 feet, i.e., half his species movement; this would leave him with a remaining remaining 30 feet to use for other movement on his turn. However, if that same dwarf later is placed in shackles while still under the magical effect, he would then be under the bound restriction, which restricts his “total” movement by 50%. Since his augmented movement rate has not become 50 feet, this means while bound, the dwarf’s only has 25 feet of movement to use each round. This is very important when other conditions are applied. Furthering this example, let’s assume the shackled but quick-stepped dwarf is now touched by a ghoul, having his “total” movement reduced by another 25 feet -- suddenly, the dwarf is effectively paralyzed, as his movement is now zero.

That example did not even consider encumbrance, which will be detailed later. However, let’s use that human for this example. It's species rate is 50 feet. However, the armor and equipment used is so heavy that it lowers his “total” movement for the round down to only 40 feet. Let's place him in shackles, which would reduce his movement to 20 feet. Now if that ghoul touches him, his movement becomes negative, and he too is paralyzed.

Probably, a few opportunist-style players will have already prepared rephrasing this scenario: Wait, he has 50 feet of movement normally. The ghoul touch subtracts 25, leaving him with 25 feet of movement. He is also shackled, so that’s half of his movement -- shouldn’t he have 12 feet remaining? Okay, smarty; here are the rules to the party. We use PEMDAS here. In other words, always apply the percentage or fraction first, then add or subtract the static values.

Movement is also important for establishing position and controlling that space. The size category of a being determines how large of an area that falls under that being’s control. However, for these examples a human will be used, who occupies and controls one hex (or five feet).

Why this is important is answered by asking what does occupying and controlling that hex do? The short answer means this space is protected by the occupant and items in that area cannot be touched or manipulated without the space-owner’s permission. That said, there are conditions where permission is implied, and there are other cases where a competition can supersede that permission.

Implied permission happens most of the time or people would not be able to walk down a busy street. Therefore, the general rule is permission is only assumed to be denied to hostile creatures. Allies and other non-hostiles can walk through someone’s space; however, it does count as difficult terrain, but they may pass through it. Hostile creatures, however, can only access the space controlled by that person’s permission or by forcing a competition. Of course, those nimble nhoblits are at advantage for entering someone’s space. The details of how to resolve that competition will be explained in more detail shortly in the Competitions subsection.