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According to RAW are you able to do this?

5-Foot Step states that it can be performed in a round only when you don't perform any other kind of movement, but what about actions that count as move actions?

Like drawing a weapon, retrieving a stored item, or using a skill?

For example, if you are next to an enemy with your weapon out, could you;

  1. Attack
  2. Take a 5 foot step back
  3. Retrieve an item from your bag

All in one turn?

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2 Answers 2

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Yes.

The exact line about 5-foot steps is:

You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement.

Which is further clarified:

you can't take a 5-foot step in the same round that you move any distance.

There's no restriction on taking move actions; only on moving from one place to another. Yeah, it's kind of weird that a "move action" doesn't necessarily involve movement, but the actual definition is

A move action allows you to move up to your speed or perform an action that takes a similar amount of time.

And a final clarification in the rules:

If you move no actual distance in a round (commonly because you have swapped your move action for one or more equivalent actions), you can take one 5-foot step

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Yes, You Can

On its turn a typical creature can take a standard action (e.g. a standard attack) and a 5-ft. step and an action that counts as a move action (i.e. a move-equivalent action; e.g. retrieve an item)--or, if the creature wants to, it can instead take that identical set of actions in a different combination.

The restriction on taking a 5-ft. step is that the creature can't have taken any other actual movement.


"What's Movement, Exactly?"
The section Move reads

The simplest move action is moving your speed. If you take this kind of move action during your turn, you can't also take a 5-foot step.

Many nonstandard modes of movement are covered under this category, including climbing (up to one-quarter of your speed) and swimming (up to one-quarter of your speed).

The section Tactical Movement reads

Your speed is determined by your race and your armor (see Table: Tactical Speed). Your speed while unarmored is your base land speed.

The Move and Tactical Movement sections' silence on abilities that take the creature from its location to another via a means other than its Speed strongly implies that the game considers movement something a creature does with its Speed instead of, for example, a function of the creature's final location on the map.

The section Take 5-Foot Step reads

You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement. [...] You can't take more than one 5-foot step in a round, and you can't take a 5-foot step in the same round that you move any distance.

While the DM can rule that a creature is incapable of taking a 5-ft. step before or after using an effect that transports the creature from his space to another via a means other than his Speed (e.g. the spell dimension door), such a ruling has the section Take a 5-Foot Step overriding the other sections describing movement.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Are you sure the "due to his Speed" qualifier is accurate? I thought any movement at all prevented use of 5-ft. steps? If nothing else, having already used a 5-ft. step prevents more of them. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    May 29, 2014 at 15:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KRyan Can you give an example of actual movement that doesn't use a movement mode's Speed that's still movement? I'm happy to amend or edit the answer if there are qualifiers. \$\endgroup\$ May 29, 2014 at 15:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan Dimension Door? \$\endgroup\$
    – starwed
    May 29, 2014 at 15:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan Sudden leap is the one to come to mind immediately. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    May 29, 2014 at 15:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan It bypasses any of the usual movement rules, so far as I can tell: you make a check, and move the distance that a jump of that check would move, period. Your move speed is irrelevant to it. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    May 29, 2014 at 16:34

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