Post/Author/DateTime	Post
theblindman 08-20-06, 04:32 PM	As a houserule of the current rules on attacks of opportunity, I want to add the following line to the SRD: Making an Attack of Opportunity An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can only make one per round. You don’t have to make an attack of opportunity if you don’t want to. An attack of opportunity never provokes an attack of opportunity. In lieu of an attack of opportunity, a character may instead perform a free action or a swift action without provoking an attack of opportunity. Basically this means that if you open yourself up to an attack of opportunity, you may be tripped, disarmed, grappled, overrun, sundered, and no doubt a host of other spells, spell-like abilities, feats, etc. I like this - it makes combat more interesting by allowing characters without feats like Improved Trip to make trip attacks without great risk. Special attacks make combat more varied and tactical, but I don't really feel like they get a lot of use. Does anybody see problems with this? I'm sure there are implications I haven't discovered yet - broken feat combos, broken spells, broken character builds. Does it make Improved Trip a useless feat?
Xeviat-DM 08-20-06, 05:39 PM	This change might make the Improved Combat Maneuver feats chosen less (that sentance sounds bad), but I'm not thinking it will be a bad change. It could open more tactics to the game. But, with this implimented, people will be even more careful to not provoke AoOs.
True Cavalier 08-20-06, 05:51 PM	Which is a good thing :D I like it. PS Perhaps Combat Reflexes could allow one person to make attacks of opportunity if provoked by the enemy's attack of opportunity. Just to add a twist to it... for when a PC happily tries to trip the enemy he got an AoO against and finds out he's faster to respond than he thought-
theblindman 08-20-06, 07:45 PM	Those are both good points, Xeviat. I like it because it keeps combat out of the infinite "I hit him again with my broadsword" loop. But you're right, it might mean that players become even more careful than they already are. I'd like to see more ways to provoke, or induce, AoOs and Special Attacks. Feinting should be one way, for instance. And I'm throwing around this idea that with a critical hit you can forfeit your extra damage to gain a Special Attack option. (GNG rules have a similar mechanic, I think) @TC: you're right, there should be a feat like that. I'd want to put in an opposed dex check to see which AoO goes first though - or would that gimp the feat? I foresee only high-dex characters taking it anyway (hi dex should be a pre-req)
058 08-20-06, 08:05 PM	Hm. What if, instead of any character with that Feat getting an Attack of Opportunity against any enemy who gets an AoO against him/her, you give any character with that Feat a chance to roll for an AoO when an enemy gets one against him/her? That way, you don't get to fight back against *every* attack of opportunity used against you, but you get to do it against some.
theblindman 08-24-06, 06:49 PM	Much of this thread was lost during the transmigration to the new boards. I'm re-posting the feats and other goodies I've been working on to balance a game with more AOOs. I'd still like some way to provoke an attack of opportunity as part of combat. I've written up a feat for it below, (Opportune Strike) along with several others, but preferably I'd like something akin to the feint combat manouever. I do feel like this feat adds something to the game without overshadowing the rogue's Opportunist ability, but I'd like to hear other's opinions. I'm still mulling over a combat manouever in my mind, but it's not looking terribly promising. Suggestions are always welcome :) Counter Attack[General] Prerequisites Int 13, Combat Expertise Benefit When your opponent unsuccesfully attempts a special attack option as part of an attack of opporunity, you get an attack of opportunity of your own following their action. Normal A special attack made as an attack of opportunity does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Special A fighter may select Counter Attack as one of his fighter bonus feats. Nimble Offence[General] Prerequisites Dex 13, Dodge, Mobility Benefit When your foe is subject to an attack of opportunity by you, you may take a 5 foot step before attacking. Normal An attack of opportunity does not allow the attacker a 5 foot step. Special A fighter may select Nimble Offence as one of his fighter bonus feats. Nimble Defence[General] Prerequisites Dex 13, Dodge, Mobility Benefit When you are subject to an attack of opportunity, you may take a 5 foot step before your foe attacks. Normal An attack of opportunity does not allow the defender a 5 foot step. Special A fighter may select Nimble Defence as one of his fighter bonus feats. Opportune Strike[General] Prerequisites Dex 13, Int 13, Combat Expertise, base attack bonus +8 Benefit When a foe you threaten takes damage from a critical hit, you get a free attack of opportunity against that foe. You can make only one attack of opportunity per round. Normal A critical hit does not cause an attack of opportunity. Special If you have the Combat Reflexes feat you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. A fighter may select Opportune Strike as one of his fighter bonus feats. Opportune Archer[General] Prerequisites Dex 13, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, base attack bonus +4. Benefit With a ranged weapon you threaten flatfooted foes up to a range of 30 feet. You can make only one attack of opportunity per round. Normal Ranged weapons do not threaten foes. Special If you have the Combat Reflexes feat you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. A fighter may select Opportune Archer as one of his fighter bonus feats. I'll edit these into the first post once I've had some time to reflect on them, and gotten some feedback.
mesix 08-25-06, 02:38 AM	Eh .. in which situations do AOO cause AOOs normally ? :confused: mesix ;)
theblindman 08-30-06, 02:50 PM	Mesix: the variant lies in the fact that the special attack options (trip, sunder, etc.) provoke attacks of opportunity, and thus are never voluntarily used by characters who lack the Improved X feats because the risk is too great. The idea is to make combat more interesting by encouraging the use of special manouevres. Example: Richard the Bard is fighting several orcs. One of them provokes an attack of opportunity by moving out of Richard's threatened zone. Richard decides to trip the orc. Richard does not have the Improved Trip feat, so normally he would provoke an attack of opportunity against himself when attempting to trip an opponent. However, because he is making his trip attempt as part of his attack of opportunity, (attacks of opportunity never provoke attacks of opportunity) he can trip the orc without fear of being attacked.
Jackmojo 08-30-06, 03:14 PM	Looks like a fun variant to me. I'm in favor of reducing dependance on feats to perform stylish combat manuevers anyway so this looks like fun to me (perhaps remove the "Improved X" feats as well?) I also like the variation of allowing non-fighters something useful to do when they are provoked, although perhaps allowing spells with a casting time of one standard action would be more useful to them, perhaps oerpowered... As to the feats you're adding, some of them could be built right into the rule variation (i.e. allowing a 5 foot step before an AoO) since you're already allowing a large variety of movement in response to opportunities Jack
Jisho 08-31-06, 01:04 AM	I like the idea, and might use it. However, I had a couple of questions. First, the Opportune Archer feat. I might be forgetting something, but as I understand it, to provoke an AoO, you need to take an action...and a character who has taken an action is no longer flatfooted. So if I'm right, that feat is kind of useless. Also, the Nimble Defense feat. As this seems like it would allow a character to be practically immune to attacks of opportunity (just move out of range of the attacker), given room to move, doesn't it seem a little overpowered, especially since a character can get it so early?
theblindman 08-31-06, 01:25 AM	Nimble Defence may be a bit overpowered, but the idea is to encourage mobility and movement around the battlefield, as well as provide some balance for a mechanic that makes attacks of opportunity more common. It introduces a wonderful tactic commonly called "forcing them into a corner" and overall, I hope at the very least, encourages more tactical combat. The Nimble Offence feat is supposed to counteract this, as well as allow a character to move into a flanking position before making an attack of opportunity. But if it is over-powered, what pre-reqs would you suggest introducing to make it more in line with your expectations? And I worded the Opportune Archer feat poorly. It should say that you get an attack of opportunity against flatfooted foes within 30 ft. with a ranged weapon. Outside ambush situations this is not partiuclarly useful, and 30 ft. (6 squares) is fairly close quarters for a ranged weapon. It's well-within charging distance, at least. I do see it synergizing well with a melee-ist who uses the Feint combat manouevre. Rewording: Opportune Archer [General] Prerequisites Dex 13, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, base attack bonus +4. Benefit With a ranged weapon you may make an attack of opportunity against flatfooted foes up to a range of 30 feet. You can make only one attack of opportunity per round. Normal Ranged weapons do not threaten attacks of opportunity foes. Special If you have the Combat Reflexes feat you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. A fighter may select Opportune Archer as one of his fighter bonus feats. I just had this wonderful idea of an archer with the OA feat taking potshots at a fighter who keeps using his ND to duck behind a wall.