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Using the Rogue Scout's Skirmisher feature, which states:

You can move up to half your speed as a reaction when an enemy ends its turn within 5 feet of you.

Additionally:

Being Prone, PHB pg 190/191

Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to stand up.

And on a relevant topic, Does standing up from prone trigger the damage from Booming Blade?. General Consensus: No.

Can I spend this movement to stand up from being prone?

The concern here is that, while standing up from being Prone costs movement, is the movement still valid, considering that standing up from Prone is not considered "movement" for the sake of other effects that rely on actual movement/distance (like Booming Blade)?

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3 Answers 3

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Arguably, the rogue may stand up

The character is not literally "granted a resource" that is called movement but that is in fact the way the rules of movement talk about how it is used:

However you're moving, you deduct the distance of each part of your move from your speed until it is used up or until you are done moving.

In practice, movement is a resource that may be "deducted from" or "spent" (see Being Prone) and which can have "cost" penalties (per Difficult Terrain and crawling in Being Prone). Additionally, the Normal and Skirmisher movements are granted/refreshed using the same terminology:

Normal movement rule: On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed.

Skirmisher movement rule: You can move up to half your speed as a reaction

So if the two types of movement are obtained/granted using the same "you can move" phrasing and movement is talked about as a resource that can be spent independently of whatever physical space may be traversed (e.g. over difficult terrain), it stands to reason that the movement associated with the Skirmisher feat may be spent to stand up from being prone the same way a character can with normal movement.

In the related question about Booming Blade, the selected answer makes this same point. It is possible to use the movement resource for something other than directly moving. To wit: one "spends" 10 movement to move 5 physical feet through difficult terrain. It is because of this ability to use movement (the implied resource) without moving that Booming Blade does not trigger in response to standing up.

In short, if you subscribe to this interpretation, where the phrase "you can move" is functionally identical to "you are granted movement," and that there is a movement resource that is independent of a physical translation across the battlefield, then standing up is permitted in this situation.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ It is "you are granted movement and may spend it, any leftover is discarded" no? \$\endgroup\$
    – Yakk
    Apr 25, 2019 at 15:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ @yak You could look at it that way. I was focusing more on how the movement is gained/granted since that is more explicitly referenced (and the phrasing is common between Normal movement and Skirmisher movement). But you are right that, if the movement is not used, it is effectively lost. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rykara
    Apr 25, 2019 at 16:44
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Yes

As you mentioned, to stand up:

[you spend] an amount of movement equal to half your speed.

The rules for prone movement (including standing up) are listed under Movement and Position in the Player's Handbook, right between moving through Difficult Terrain and Moving Around Other Creatures. In my interpretation, I see no reason to disqualify standing up from being a type of movement.

For the Rogue's Skirmisher feature, since you can move up to half your speed, you can simply spend the whole of that movement allocation to stand up.

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No

The Skirmisher feature says:

You can move up to half your speed as a reaction ...

Standing up is not moving per the rules' definition, you just have to spend movement to do it.

Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed.

Since standing up is not moving, then you cannot use the Skirmisher ability to do so.

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    \$\begingroup\$ You may want to add that crawling is a movement option available to prone characters \$\endgroup\$ Apr 24, 2019 at 18:49
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Rubiksmoose if I understand your interpretation of the rules correctly, standing up is not moving. So when you do it regularly on your turn, what is it then? The phb 189 states as part of your turn you can do an action and move. Bonus actions are under bonus actions. And then there are other activities that "require neither your action nor your move". Also there are reactions. Your interpretation of standing up is none of these. \$\endgroup\$
    – findusl
    Apr 24, 2019 at 19:23
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    \$\begingroup\$ Is there an ability that uses an action, but is not an action? Or an ability that uses a bonus action, but is not a bonus action? How about for interactions or reactions? If yes, this would help support your argument that standing up uses movement but is not a movement. At the moment, I can't think of any examples, so your take feels a bit anomalous. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 24, 2019 at 19:29
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    \$\begingroup\$ The argument, in short (to my understanding): "movement" is a thing you can do on your turn, based on your speed. Other features may use your reaction (or not) to let you move a certain distance, which may be fixed or dependent on your speed somehow, outside your turn, but you don't have a "pool" of movement to spend outside your turn. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Apr 24, 2019 at 20:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Zourin I appreciate your view on the matter but please save comments only for recommending changes and not just arguing. If you want to make your own point, your are welcome to write your own answer. \$\endgroup\$ Apr 24, 2019 at 20:24

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