Fighting retreat/full retreat

[johnnybleu]

Is your encounter movement your maximum? What if you're running?

I think what they mean here is that you're free to move less than your listed encounter movement. That's the maximum allowed for what is considered "normal" movement. If you move more than that, then it's no longer a standard move, and you can't attack.

At least, that's my opinion.

[3llense'g]

Dang, this is complicated! I officially give up. I now have 3 kids of movement:
1, move your encounter distance, and do nothing else that round
2, move half of your encounter distance and attack once (or however many times you can) that round
3, run 3 times your encounter distance in a round (once per encounter, because it's tiring)

[Goblinoid Games]

My apologies if the movement section seems ambigous in areas, I'll have to look at this and consider some rewording at a later date.

Say there's a brawl in a large room, and you're fighting a goblin in melee. You notice your fellow adventurer needs help with the 2 goblins he's fighting, so you decide to move over there... Can you simply use you full move to get over there, and make your attack? Or are you at this point considered to be retreating, and thus restricted to 1/2 your movement? Similarly, what if you're not fighting a goblin in melee and you just want to move? Do you get your full move, or only 1/2? Or does everyone simply use their normal movement until the party literally decides that they wish to retreat (i.e. flee the battle), at which point they must each decide whether to use a fighting retreat, or full retreat? That's the problem with these special movement types-- there's no clear and concise explanation of when and how they should be used. In fact, it's one of the most loosely defined and arbitrable rule in the book.

First of all, I think it's wrong to think of this in terms of "restricted" movement. Unless physically blocked you can move anywhere at any available speed. The issue is that depending on the circumstances you may or may not open yourself up to attack. In this situation above, if your friend is less than half your encounter movement away, you can do a fighting retreat to move to his area and it's up to your opponent if he continues fighting and follows you. In other words, you are moving more slowly, cautiously, still potentially engaged with your opponent but not focused so much on moving that you drop your guard (for the enemy's +2 ti hit). The key here is that once you are engaged in melee combat you cannot simply disengage without risk of letting your guard down. You opponent is not just a target waiting to be attacked, if you see what I mean. So in your example above if you need to move more than half encounter movement to reach your friend, it means in order to move that distance you have to focus on moving and drop your guard, giving your opponent a bonus to strike. In terms of how attacks work by round, if you have initiative and your act is to run, your opponent's is to attack with a bonus as you run away (your facing is irrelevant, this is not necessarily literally an "attack from behind"). If you lost initiative and your opponent attacks, then you run on your turn in the round, your opponent get's an additional attack with the bonus as you flee.

[johnnybleu]

Ah, beautiful! Some illumination from the Labyrinth Lord himself!

I now completely understand what you mean and intended to say with the "retreat" combat movements. I think all of this could be made crystal clear with a simple clause as in the Rules Cyclopedia which states simply that if you begin a combat round engaged in melee with an opponent, then your only movement options are a either a Fighting Retreat or a Full Retreat (depending, like you said, on whether you want to keep your guard up or just hoof it). All of my confusion stemmed from me not finding that particular line in the rules, and thus made choosing a Fighting Retreat rather than a standard move & attack dubious-- at least, mechanically speaking.

Thanks for clearing that up! Also, I have to say I love the inclusion of a "parting blow" on a fleeing opponent. It adds a whole new level of tactics to combat, which I found was missing from Classic D&D.