Except that either you are using the grid rules or you aren't. If you are, then it is clear that the 5' of feet that you went to enter the area of the effect counts as 5' traveled into the effect.
No it is not. If you travelled 5ft into that 5ft wide square you're not in that square anymore. Because it is 5ft. Some portion of that 5ft movement happened in your starting square, some portion of that movement happened in your destination square. How much was in either? Abstract. But an amount was in the starting square and an amount was in the destination square. That much is clear.
And since an amount was in the starting square then whatever remaining amount of that 5ft movement is less than 5 ft. That is also clear.
And on that note, if you're saying "I'm only 2.5' into the square," what prevents the DM from saying, "Good, the effect starts 2.5' into your square too, you take 8 damage for being that kind of player."
Discussing the rules on the rules and mechanics forum vs arguing with your DM midgame are two very different activities. Do you often argue with your DM? And, is your relationship with them genuinely this adversarial?
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I have noticed that there is a reply to this that I cannot read. That's fine, because it likely doesn't add any rules information or contribute meaningfully to rules understanding. Remember the relevant grid rules when discussing this and please refrain from excluding inconvenient parts of those rules.
Speed. Rather than moving foot by foot, move square by square on the grid. This means you use your speed in 5-foot segments. This is particularly easy if you translate your speed into squares by dividing the speed by 5. For example, a speed of 30 feet translates into a speed of 6 squares.
If you use a grid often, consider writing your speed in squares on your character sheet.
Entering a Square. To enter a square, you must have at least 1 square of movement left, even if the square is diagonally adjacent to the square you’re in. (The rule for diagonal movement sacrifices realism for the sake of smooth play. The Dungeon Master’s Guide provides guidance on using a more realistic approach.)
If a square costs extra movement, as a square of difficult terrain does, you must have enough movement left to pay for entering it. For example, you must have at least 2 squares of movement left to enter a square of difficult terrain.
The ground in a 20-foot radius centered on a point within range twists and sprouts hard spikes and thorns. The area becomes difficult terrain for the duration. When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.
So, after all that, either you moved in a 5' segment from a space out of the effect into it or you didn't. Or we're not using grid rules.
For those arguing about moving into squares and all that BS, the rules make it pretty clear:
If you are using grid play, moving into a square costs 5' is considered 5' feet of travel. moving from square to square equals 5' of travel for the square you move into, period.
If you are not using grid play, moving is moving/travelling, any distance.
Nothing about spike growth says that the distance traveled resets when your turn (or the round) ends. if you aren't using grid play, and travel a non-5' interval on a turn, the damage occurs when you pass each 5' interval, based on cumulative distance traveled in the area. traveling 4' would not trigger that turn, but even 1 foot of travel the subsequent turns would, because cumulative travel was then 5'.
If you are teleporting, you are traveling (and moving, but you aren't using movement, just so my position is clear), but not in the area, so distance traveled via this method is moot to damage calculation.
If there's a "middle of the box", then there must be parts of the box that aren't the middle, otherwise the distinction is meaningless.
This is true, but that space is, for want of a better term, 'elbow room.' The existence of that additional space is how you have room to swing weapons, check your pack, etc. If the rest of the box did not exist, well try standing against a wall and swinging any weapon properly. Better yet, find a friend and try standing within two feet of someone else with a stick and realize quickly how hard it is to get any real momentum if you wanted to strike them with it. Even if stabbing, you would likely have to choke up on the stick.
You're still unable to grasp that the "box" is an abstraction, a convenience. It doesn't really exist. Your campaign world does not have a grid of 5x5 squares seared into the landscape.
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
For those arguing about moving into squares and all that BS, the rules make it pretty clear:
If you are using grid play, moving into a square costs 5' is considered 5' feet of travel. moving from square to square equals 5' of travel for the square you move into, period.
Got a rule quote that says this? Would be great if you did, and would decisively prove you correct. Otherwise, basic reason says otherwise. That the movement is across some split between both squares.
The visual representation of what you describe is someone deciding to move into one square away. They take their move and immediately glitch to the edge of the adjacent square and start to walk forward a few ft and glitch back to the start of the square and then finish the 5ft of movement within that square. It's super silly.
Nothing about spike growth says that the distance traveled resets when your turn (or the round) ends. if you aren't using grid play, and travel a non-5' interval on a turn, the damage occurs when you pass each 5' interval, based on cumulative distance traveled in the area. traveling 4' would not trigger that turn, but even 1 foot of travel the subsequent turns would, because cumulative travel was then 5'.
True. But, that's not when it ends. It ends after you finish moving. It has nothing specifically to do with rounds or turns or whatever. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of effect triggers. Since it triggers when you move, for each time you move. It doesn't store up travelled distance from prior to then. If you move 4' on your move, then, you trigger the damage immediately, and that damage is 0. But then it is over. Until you trigger it again.
The trigger is: When a creature moves into or within the area.
So it triggers when you move. Every time you move. A new move would be a new trigger and it would be calculated then for that triggering event. Not some longstanding collection over time or whatever you just posted. In D&D, effects trigger when they say they do.
If you are teleporting, you are traveling (and moving, but you aren't using movement, just so my position is clear), but not in the area, so distance traveled via this method is moot to damage calculation.
I'm curious. If you're saying that teleporting 30ft from one spot in the area to another spot in the spell area isn't travelling in the area. Then, where is it? Where did they travel those 30ft?
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I... don't know exactly the point of that statement except that I guess you're saying you don't use the grid optional rules. That's fine because, as iconarising kindly pointed out, since spike growth doesn't require that the movement be on one turn, you can spend 5 turns moving 4' a turn across it and still take 8d4 of damage for moving the 20' across it.
I... don't know exactly the point of that statement except that I guess you're saying you don't use the grid optional rules. That's fine because, as iconarising kindly pointed out, since spike growth doesn't require that the movement be on one turn, you can spend 5 turns moving 4' a turn across it and still take 8d4 of damage for moving the 20' across it.
This is 100% false. The spell effect has a specific trigger that causes damage. "when you move" It triggers each and every time "you move" into or within the area. Each time it triggers it does damage based on the listed formula. 2d4 per 5 ft travelled.
If you move 7'. You'd take 2d4 damage. Because you travelled at least 5ft when you moved. If next turn you moved 8ft, you'd take 2d4 damage. Because you travelled at least 5ft when you moved.
This is how triggered effects work in 5e D&D.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
If the grid does not exist then one could really move just 4' per round and keep track of that. The spell description specifies damage based on distance moved. It does not specify damage based on grid squares moved, hexes moved, or any other measure other than feet.
I believe in you, Kotath. I really think you can get this, so I'm going to try one more time.
Let's say you decide to play on a grid but set the scale at one foot per square instead of five feet per square, because it's your game and you can make those kind of decrees. Now, when someone casts spike growth, it's covering a 20x20 area of squares and not 4x4. If you move five squares into that area, you take 2d4 damage, right?
So what's the difference between moving across five 1x1 squares and one 5x5 square?
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
If the grid does not exist then one could really move just 4' per round and keep track of that. The spell description specifies damage based on distance moved. It does not specify damage based on grid squares moved, hexes moved, or any other measure other than feet.
I believe in you, Kotath. I really think you can get this, so I'm going to try one more time.
Let's say you decide to play on a grid but set the scale at one foot per square instead of five feet per square, because it's your game and you can make those kind of decrees. Now, when someone casts spike growth, it's covering a 20x20 area of squares and not 4x4. If you move five squares into that area, you take 2d4 damage, right?
So what's the difference between moving across five 1x1 squares and one 5x5 square?
No. You'd need to move 6 squares into that area.
Some amount of that first ft of movement was in your starting square outside the area. So you'd need another square in to make up for that.
Edit: Guys. This is fact. Just get a graph paper or something. Draw your spell area. pick ANY point to start a straight line from an adjacent square outside the area and measure exactly the width of 5 squares deep into the spell effect with a ruler. Then measure exactly how much of that line is inside the spell area. Every. Single. Time. It will be less than 5 squares. Ie less than 5ft. Every Time. Without fail. If your line if 5 long, and starts OUTSIDE the spell effect (ie in the outside square) it MUST be less than 5ft INSIDE. That's just basic reasoning.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I have noticed that there is a reply to this that I cannot read. That's fine, because it likely doesn't add any rules information or contribute meaningfully to rules understanding. Remember the relevant grid rules when discussing this and please refrain from excluding inconvenient parts of those rules.
Speed. Rather than moving foot by foot, move square by square on the grid. This means you use your speed in 5-foot segments. This is particularly easy if you translate your speed into squares by dividing the speed by 5. For example, a speed of 30 feet translates into a speed of 6 squares.
If you use a grid often, consider writing your speed in squares on your character sheet.
Entering a Square. To enter a square, you must have at least 1 square of movement left, even if the square is diagonally adjacent to the square you’re in. (The rule for diagonal movement sacrifices realism for the sake of smooth play. The Dungeon Master’s Guide provides guidance on using a more realistic approach.)
If a square costs extra movement, as a square of difficult terrain does, you must have enough movement left to pay for entering it. For example, you must have at least 2 squares of movement left to enter a square of difficult terrain.
The ground in a 20-foot radius centered on a point within range twists and sprouts hard spikes and thorns. The area becomes difficult terrain for the duration. When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.
So, after all that, either you moved in a 5' segment from a space out of the effect into it or you didn't. Or we're not using grid rules.
Reread the relevant rules. If you don't understand them, that's ok. I can help after you give it a try for yourself.
Actually, if you need the help, I'll point out a couple of things.
The spell actually says that movement into the area counts.
The spell doesn't actually say that the creature takes damage "for every 5 feet it travels within the area." You are assuming the "within the area" part (and ignoring the into). The spell actually says that the creature takes damage "for every 5 feet it travels." Judging from the preceding phrase, this is every 5' into or within the area.
You are outside. You need 5' of movement to move in. Therefore at least some of that 5' is used in the space outside the area of effect. Try it yourself with graph paper. Draw a line from the middle of one box to the middle of the next.
But... and try to follow me on this... that doesn't matter because movement INTO the area COUNTS.
For those arguing about moving into squares and all that BS, the rules make it pretty clear:
If you are using grid play, moving into a square costs 5' is considered 5' feet of travel. moving from square to square equals 5' of travel for the square you move into, period.
Got a rule quote that says this? Would be great if you did, and would decisively prove you correct. Otherwise, basic reason says otherwise. That the movement is across some split between both squares.
From the PHB, rules on grid variant
Squares.Each square on the grid represents 5 feet.
Speed. Rather than moving foot by foot, move square by square on the grid. This means you use your speed in 5-foot segments. This is particularly easy if you translate your speed into squares by dividing the speed by 5. For example, a speed of 30 feet translates into a speed of 6 squares.
If you use a grid often, consider writing your speed in squares on your character sheet.
Entering a Square. To enter a square, you must have at least 1 square of movement left, even if the square is diagonally adjacent to the square you’re in. (The rule for diagonal movement sacrifices realism for the sake of smooth play. The Dungeon Master’s Guide provides guidance on using a more realistic approach.)
Everyone talking about grid play and moving x feet is technically playing it not the way the rules state. You skip a step when you translate grid play directly to feet. You are supposed to move by squares, and each square is 5'. I'm doing it to, but this means that for grid play, the minimum amount of movement and travel is 5'. Also, movement, as a subset of travel/moving, equals travel/move distance unless difficult terrain or other effects say otherwise.
The visual representation of what you describe is someone deciding to move into one square away. They take their move and immediately glitch to the edge of the adjacent square and start to walk forward a few ft and glitch back to the start of the square and then finish the 5ft of movement within that square. It's super silly.
Its the abstraction that takes place when you play on a grid. Don't like it? Don't use a grid. When playing on a grid, you move by squares. Each square costs 5' of movement, and you can't move partial squares, because you have to spend squares in whole increments per the above rules.
Nothing about spike growth says that the distance traveled resets when your turn (or the round) ends. if you aren't using grid play, and travel a non-5' interval on a turn, the damage occurs when you pass each 5' interval, based on cumulative distance traveled in the area. traveling 4' would not trigger that turn, but even 1 foot of travel the subsequent turns would, because cumulative travel was then 5'.
True. But, that's not when it ends. It ends after you finish moving. It has nothing specifically to do with rounds or turns or whatever. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of effect triggers. Since it triggers when you move, for each time you move. It doesn't store up travelled distance from prior to then. If you move 4' on your move, then, you trigger the damage immediately, and that damage is 0. But then it is over. Until you trigger it again.
Read Spike Growth again, the trigger only starts up the count of travel distance. Damage is only tied to distance. There is absolutely nothing in the rules that says that the damage from Spike Growth isn't based on cumulative travel distance, that is a fabrication/interpretation on your part, not the RAW.
The trigger is: When a creature moves into or within the area.
That starts up the count of travel only. Its a start/stop on an odometer, not a trigger for damage.
So it triggers when you move. Every time you move. A new move would be a new trigger and it would be calculated then for that triggering event. Not some longstanding collection over time or whatever you just posted. In D&D, effects trigger when they say they do.
a new move is a new trigger to start up the odometer again, nothing in the spell text says the distance resets.
If you are teleporting, you are traveling (and moving, but you aren't using movement, just so my position is clear), but not in the area, so distance traveled via this method is moot to damage calculation.
I'm curious. If you're saying that teleporting 30ft from one spot in the area to another spot in the spell area isn't travelling in the area. Then, where is it? Where did they travel those 30ft?
I don't know (the weave? other dimensions?), but it certainly isn't in the area of Spike Growth, otherwise you would be physically moving through it and would take the damage.
Let's say you decide to play on a grid but set the scale at one foot per square instead of five feet per square, because it's your game and you can make those kind of decrees. Now, when someone casts spike growth, it's covering a 20x20 area of squares and not 4x4. If you move five squares into that area, you take 2d4 damage, right?
So what's the difference between moving across five 1x1 squares and one 5x5 square?
But what if you only moved 4 squares?
Your refusal to answer my question says it all, really.
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Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
it is impossible to move the goalposts less than 5 feet when the smallest possible unit of measurement is 5 feet, my dude.
You cannot move them 4 feet on a grid of 5 foot squares.
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Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I mean, just logistically... how would you even track this partial movement across a 5 foot square that you want to do, Kotath? Are you writing little numbers in the corner of the box your mini is in like it's a sudoku?
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Since it got buried in a 20th page post, I think it is helpful to understand how the game wants you to run grid play:
VARIANT: PLAYING ON A GRID
If you play out a combat using a square grid and miniatures or other tokens, follow these rules.
Squares. Each square on the grid represents 5 feet.
Speed. Rather than moving foot by foot, move square by square on the grid. This means you use your speed in 5-foot segments. This is particularly easy if you translate your speed into squares by dividing the speed by 5. For example, a speed of 30 feet translates into a speed of 6 squares.
If you use a grid often, consider writing your speed in squares on your character sheet.
Entering a Square. To enter a square, you must have at least 1 square of movement left, even if the square is diagonally adjacent to the square you’re in. (The rule for diagonal movement sacrifices realism for the sake of smooth play. The Dungeon Master’s Guide provides guidance on using a more realistic approach.)
If a square costs extra movement, as a square of difficult terrain does, you must have enough movement left to pay for entering it. For example, you must have at least 2 squares of movement left to enter a square of difficult terrain.
Corners. Diagonal movement can’t cross the corner of a wall, large tree, or other terrain feature that fills its space.
Ranges. To determine the range on a grid between two things—whether creatures or objects—start counting squares from a square adjacent to one of them and stop counting in the space of the other one. Count by the shortest route.
It is impossible to move 4' in grid play if you play by RAW. Since you have to convert movement and travel to squares, you are moving/traveling in 5' increments by default, with no smaller option available. If you want to play on a smaller grid of 1'x1' squares, you will have to adjust how those rules that rely on grid play work, but that is a theoretical exercise that has absolutely no bearing on the RAW or interpretations of RAW, RAI, etc. It's a red herring to even posit such a question.
If you want to eschew grid play and do distance in TotM, it is of course possible to travel in increments less than 5', but nothing in the rules for Spike Growth indicate that the damage resets every time you move, or every turn, or every round (in fact, if it did, you could argue that you could move in 4' increments, pause, move again, pause, move again, etc, on a single turn and defeat the damage. That is both illogical and a misapplication of both RAW and RAI). You take 2d4 for every 5' traveled, period. That means if you move 4', attack, then move 6', you take 4d4 rather than 2d4. if you did the same on different turns, you would take 0 damage the first and 4d4 the second, based on when you cross each 5' threshold for more damage. But this argument cannot be applied to RAW grid play, because in grid play you translate movement to squares and then to distance. That translation makes the minimum movement 5'.
You are outside. You need 5' of movement to move in. Therefore you moved into the area. Try it yourself with graph paper. Draw a line from the middle of one box to the middle of the next. Does it go into the second box?
it is impossible to move the goalposts less than 5 feet when the smallest possible unit of measurement is 5 feet, my dude.
You cannot move them 4 feet on a grid of 5 foot squares.
No you can't. But you did move 5' Part of that 5' was outside the area, though so it follows that you moved less than 5' into the area, even though you moved 5' total.
Lets look at the spell text, since you seem to be ignoring it.
When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.
There's an 'or' in there. That means there are options. Let's lay them out.
When a creature moves into the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.
When a creature moves within the area, it takes 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels.
You are outside. You need 5' of movement to move in. Therefore at least some of that 5' is used in the space outside the area of effect. Try it yourself with graph paper. Draw a line from the middle of one box to the middle of the next.
But... and try to follow me on this... that doesn't matter because movement INTO the area COUNTS.
And not all of the movement is INTO the area. It is simple math.
Let me ask it differently. If you were a Tabaxi monk dashing, who had moved 180' total that round and ended up in just inside the area of effect, how much of that movement is 'into' the area?
If we're talking about using the grid rules and using speed, only the last 5' segment was into the area.
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No it is not. If you travelled 5ft into that 5ft wide square you're not in that square anymore. Because it is 5ft. Some portion of that 5ft movement happened in your starting square, some portion of that movement happened in your destination square. How much was in either? Abstract. But an amount was in the starting square and an amount was in the destination square. That much is clear.
And since an amount was in the starting square then whatever remaining amount of that 5ft movement is less than 5 ft. That is also clear.
Discussing the rules on the rules and mechanics forum vs arguing with your DM midgame are two very different activities. Do you often argue with your DM? And, is your relationship with them genuinely this adversarial?
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I have noticed that there is a reply to this that I cannot read. That's fine, because it likely doesn't add any rules information or contribute meaningfully to rules understanding. Remember the relevant grid rules when discussing this and please refrain from excluding inconvenient parts of those rules.
and from spike growth
So, after all that, either you moved in a 5' segment from a space out of the effect into it or you didn't. Or we're not using grid rules.
For those arguing about moving into squares and all that BS, the rules make it pretty clear:
You're still unable to grasp that the "box" is an abstraction, a convenience. It doesn't really exist. Your campaign world does not have a grid of 5x5 squares seared into the landscape.
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Got a rule quote that says this? Would be great if you did, and would decisively prove you correct. Otherwise, basic reason says otherwise. That the movement is across some split between both squares.
The visual representation of what you describe is someone deciding to move into one square away. They take their move and immediately glitch to the edge of the adjacent square and start to walk forward a few ft and glitch back to the start of the square and then finish the 5ft of movement within that square. It's super silly.
True. But, that's not when it ends. It ends after you finish moving. It has nothing specifically to do with rounds or turns or whatever. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of effect triggers. Since it triggers when you move, for each time you move. It doesn't store up travelled distance from prior to then. If you move 4' on your move, then, you trigger the damage immediately, and that damage is 0. But then it is over. Until you trigger it again.
The trigger is: When a creature moves into or within the area.
So it triggers when you move. Every time you move. A new move would be a new trigger and it would be calculated then for that triggering event. Not some longstanding collection over time or whatever you just posted. In D&D, effects trigger when they say they do.
I'm curious. If you're saying that teleporting 30ft from one spot in the area to another spot in the spell area isn't travelling in the area. Then, where is it? Where did they travel those 30ft?
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I... don't know exactly the point of that statement except that I guess you're saying you don't use the grid optional rules. That's fine because, as iconarising kindly pointed out, since spike growth doesn't require that the movement be on one turn, you can spend 5 turns moving 4' a turn across it and still take 8d4 of damage for moving the 20' across it.
This is 100% false. The spell effect has a specific trigger that causes damage. "when you move" It triggers each and every time "you move" into or within the area. Each time it triggers it does damage based on the listed formula. 2d4 per 5 ft travelled.
If you move 7'. You'd take 2d4 damage. Because you travelled at least 5ft when you moved. If next turn you moved 8ft, you'd take 2d4 damage. Because you travelled at least 5ft when you moved.
This is how triggered effects work in 5e D&D.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I believe in you, Kotath. I really think you can get this, so I'm going to try one more time.
Let's say you decide to play on a grid but set the scale at one foot per square instead of five feet per square, because it's your game and you can make those kind of decrees. Now, when someone casts spike growth, it's covering a 20x20 area of squares and not 4x4. If you move five squares into that area, you take 2d4 damage, right?
So what's the difference between moving across five 1x1 squares and one 5x5 square?
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
No. You'd need to move 6 squares into that area.
Some amount of that first ft of movement was in your starting square outside the area. So you'd need another square in to make up for that.
Edit: Guys. This is fact. Just get a graph paper or something. Draw your spell area. pick ANY point to start a straight line from an adjacent square outside the area and measure exactly the width of 5 squares deep into the spell effect with a ruler. Then measure exactly how much of that line is inside the spell area. Every. Single. Time. It will be less than 5 squares. Ie less than 5ft. Every Time. Without fail. If your line if 5 long, and starts OUTSIDE the spell effect (ie in the outside square) it MUST be less than 5ft INSIDE. That's just basic reasoning.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I mean the spell actually says "into" so excluding that portion of the spell is moving the goalposts.
Reread the relevant rules. If you don't understand them, that's ok. I can help after you give it a try for yourself.
Actually, if you need the help, I'll point out a couple of things.
But... and try to follow me on this... that doesn't matter because movement INTO the area COUNTS.
From the PHB, rules on grid variant
Squares. Each square on the grid represents 5 feet.
Speed. Rather than moving foot by foot, move square by square on the grid. This means you use your speed in 5-foot segments. This is particularly easy if you translate your speed into squares by dividing the speed by 5. For example, a speed of 30 feet translates into a speed of 6 squares.
If you use a grid often, consider writing your speed in squares on your character sheet.
Entering a Square. To enter a square, you must have at least 1 square of movement left, even if the square is diagonally adjacent to the square you’re in. (The rule for diagonal movement sacrifices realism for the sake of smooth play. The Dungeon Master’s Guide provides guidance on using a more realistic approach.)
Everyone talking about grid play and moving x feet is technically playing it not the way the rules state. You skip a step when you translate grid play directly to feet. You are supposed to move by squares, and each square is 5'. I'm doing it to, but this means that for grid play, the minimum amount of movement and travel is 5'. Also, movement, as a subset of travel/moving, equals travel/move distance unless difficult terrain or other effects say otherwise.
Its the abstraction that takes place when you play on a grid. Don't like it? Don't use a grid. When playing on a grid, you move by squares. Each square costs 5' of movement, and you can't move partial squares, because you have to spend squares in whole increments per the above rules.
Read Spike Growth again, the trigger only starts up the count of travel distance. Damage is only tied to distance. There is absolutely nothing in the rules that says that the damage from Spike Growth isn't based on cumulative travel distance, that is a fabrication/interpretation on your part, not the RAW.
That starts up the count of travel only. Its a start/stop on an odometer, not a trigger for damage.
a new move is a new trigger to start up the odometer again, nothing in the spell text says the distance resets.
I don't know (the weave? other dimensions?), but it certainly isn't in the area of Spike Growth, otherwise you would be physically moving through it and would take the damage.
Your refusal to answer my question says it all, really.
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
it is impossible to move the goalposts less than 5 feet when the smallest possible unit of measurement is 5 feet, my dude.
You cannot move them 4 feet on a grid of 5 foot squares.
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I mean, just logistically... how would you even track this partial movement across a 5 foot square that you want to do, Kotath? Are you writing little numbers in the corner of the box your mini is in like it's a sudoku?
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Since it got buried in a 20th page post, I think it is helpful to understand how the game wants you to run grid play:
It is impossible to move 4' in grid play if you play by RAW. Since you have to convert movement and travel to squares, you are moving/traveling in 5' increments by default, with no smaller option available. If you want to play on a smaller grid of 1'x1' squares, you will have to adjust how those rules that rely on grid play work, but that is a theoretical exercise that has absolutely no bearing on the RAW or interpretations of RAW, RAI, etc. It's a red herring to even posit such a question.
If you want to eschew grid play and do distance in TotM, it is of course possible to travel in increments less than 5', but nothing in the rules for Spike Growth indicate that the damage resets every time you move, or every turn, or every round (in fact, if it did, you could argue that you could move in 4' increments, pause, move again, pause, move again, etc, on a single turn and defeat the damage. That is both illogical and a misapplication of both RAW and RAI). You take 2d4 for every 5' traveled, period. That means if you move 4', attack, then move 6', you take 4d4 rather than 2d4. if you did the same on different turns, you would take 0 damage the first and 4d4 the second, based on when you cross each 5' threshold for more damage. But this argument cannot be applied to RAW grid play, because in grid play you translate movement to squares and then to distance. That translation makes the minimum movement 5'.
You are outside. You need 5' of movement to move in. Therefore you moved into the area. Try it yourself with graph paper. Draw a line from the middle of one box to the middle of the next. Does it go into the second box?
Lets look at the spell text, since you seem to be ignoring it.
There's an 'or' in there. That means there are options. Let's lay them out.
If we're talking about using the grid rules and using speed, only the last 5' segment was into the area.