Hello everyone,
In my last session, our group had to fight three white dragon wyrmlings. I play a paladin, so when they are flying around using their breath weapons, my combat capabilities are severely reduced. I did however get to make one opportunity attack as one of the dragons flew past me and within my range.
My question is the following: can you decide to knock a target prone on an opportunity attack? I don't have my PHB with me right now, but I seems to recall that you can only knock a target prone if you use the 'Attack' action and an 'Opportunity Attack' doesn't strike me as the same thing.
Thanks for clearing this up for me!
Logain08 wrote:
Noctaem wrote:
The rules on OA say you make one melee attack. Isn't shove and grapple a variant melee attack?
strider13x wrote:
RAW may say no, but couldn't you see the hero grabbing the tail of the beast as it flies past? Or tripping the Kobold as it scurries away? With that said the OP stated he was able to make an Attack so why wait for the OA to Shove? You should have taken the action when the opportunity was there!
strider13x wrote:
strider13x wrote:
Next time ready an attack to knock it prone if it comes in range. 
Orethalion wrote:
Noctaem wrote:
For the sake of completeness in responses: A battle master fighter that happens to have taken the appropriate maneuver can do special stuff like tripping the target on an opportunity attack.
Focus on the narrative rather than rules and that idea may have came to you naturally.
DM states, "Dragons are swooping in ready to eat you! What do you do?"
"As soon as it comes close enough I grab at it so I can throw it to the ground!" Player responds.
To me that beats the DM stating, "Dragon moves 15 ft, takes an Attack action (Bite), then moves another 15 Ft."
Players says, "I Ready an Action to make a variant Attack (Shove) once the creature moves into melee range."
strider13x wrote:
Ones a boiled potato and one is a twice baked potato topped with cheddar and bacon bits!
Yeah, dinner is in the oven and I'm starving...
But seriously, I have found taking the narrative approach and avoiding rules interpretation during play has expanded my game immensely! It took playing D&D with a 7 year old to get me there! Now, the kind of rules mastery that Noctaem displays is important for the DM so that the narrative approach flows smoothly but it is easier to justify things like HP with narratives IMHO. Otherwise the fun is lost on discussing rules... to me at least. I imagine Noctaem's group prefers debate over storytelling. ;)
With the proper tricks, you can knock someone prone as an opportunity attack. You just need a spell that does it (Tasha's Hideous Laughter would work fine) and the War Caster feat.