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One of my opponents or allies dropped to 0 hit points. May I willingly end my movement in the square where 'e fell?

Does the answer depend on animosity/alliance?

(If it matters, my motivation is to protect the body of the fallen comrade, or to preserve the body of/evidence on the opponent. We're all medium-sized.)

nitsua60
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2 Answers2

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Rules

From PHB p. 191

You can move through a nonhostile creature’s space.

Whether a creature is a friend or an enemy, you can’t willingly end your move in its space.

From PHB p. 290

Unconscious

An unconscious creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can’t move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings

From PHB p. 289

Incapacitated

An incapacitated creature can’t take actions or reactions.

Answer

As an unconscious creature can't take any actions, it clearly can't take hostile actions so qualifies as non-hostile. By the RAW you can move through the space irrespective if the creature is friend or foe.

As this is written, you cannot willingly end your move in an unconscious creature's space. Presumably you could end your move in a dead creature's space as it is no longer a "creature" by virtue of being an ex-creature (possibly even an ex-parrot).

Critique

This interpretation is bloody stupid. All sensible people should play that an incapacitated creature's space can be willingly ended in.

As an aside, how does standing in the creature's space protect it anyway? If I am attacking I can choose to attack you or your unconscious colleague.

Community
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Dale M
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    "Protect" in a broad sense. I can Ready an attack for opponents coming near, and can opportunity attack anyone trying to take away the body. Also, +1 because (a) I think you've got RAW right, and (b) This interpretation is bloody stupid. Especially when we consider that most opponents' minis are removed from the board the moment they hit 0hp rather than death-saved, and nobody' tracking the locations of those developing corpses.... – nitsua60 Sep 07 '15 at 02:38
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So I was telling my players they could stand over an unconscious character. But I ran into a problem.

"S" was unconscious and "U" was standing over "S". "I" heals "S". "S" & "U" are surrounded by enemies and walls blocking all adjacent squares. "S" & "U" are now in the same square, conscious, & now I don't have any other options other than to let them be in the same space. I had to make compromise by telling "S" they could not leave the prone position until "U" left the square.

I will not be allowing players to stand over unconscious characters anymore.

Maybe someone else can post a solution I'm not thinking about now.

doppelgreener
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Joshua L
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    Good point, this is definitely a situation you'd want to avoid. Thanks for sharing your experience with this problem as it puts things in perspective. –  Feb 14 '22 at 00:15
  • I think this works perfectly. The rules say you "can't willingly end your move" in another creature's space. You're not doing it willingly, you're doing it because there's nowhere else to go. I picture S and U back-to-back as the bad guys close in. Exactly the sort of sitch that "rulings not rules" is made for. – Jack Feb 14 '22 at 20:52