Does Opportunity Action + MBA = Opportunity Attack?

[Prestidigitalis]

If you use an Opportunity Action to make a Melee Basic Attack, does that make the attack an Opportunity Attack?

I ask because over on the WotC community boards they seem to think that the attack granted by the Knight feature Battle Guardian cannot be enhanced by feats that enhance Opportunity Attacks, e.g. Combat Reflexes.

 

[Mirtek]

If you use an Opportunity Action to make a Melee Basic Attack, does that make the attack an Opportunity Attack?

No, it's just an MBA made as an opportunity action.

I ask because over on the WotC community boards they seem to think that the attack granted by the Knight feature Battle Guardian cannot be enhanced by feats that enhance Opportunity Attacks, e.g. Combat Reflexes.

They are right.

 

[Shin Okada]

The answer is "No". There are many opportunity actions. Opportunity Attack is just one of them, though the most popular one.

Also, if you have Heroes of the Fallen Lands, read P.27 of that book. Now Opportunity Attack itself is defined as an attack power itself, which has specific trigger, target and effect.

So, unless otherwise noted, other attacks made as an opportunity action are not Opportunity Attack, even if that is a melee basic attack.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

The answer is "No". There are many opportunity actions. Opportunity Attack is just one of them, though the most popular one.

Also, if you have Heroes of the Fallen Lands, read P.27 of that book. Now Opportunity Attack itself is defined as an attack power itself, which has specific trigger, target and effect.

So, unless otherwise noted, other attacks made as an opportunity action are not Opportunity Attack, even if that is a melee basic attack.

Hmmm, that's an interesting development. Is this Opportunity Attack power itself also a Basic Attack? I'd assume it would have to be. That would make good sense and resolve people's confusion over this hair splitting between OAs and OAs...

 

[Prestidigitalis]

The answer is "No". There are many opportunity actions. Opportunity Attack is just one of them, though the most popular one.

Also, if you have Heroes of the Fallen Lands, read P.27 of that book. Now Opportunity Attack itself is defined as an attack power itself, which has specific trigger, target and effect.

So, unless otherwise noted, other attacks made as an opportunity action are not Opportunity Attack, even if that is a melee basic attack.

Wow. That freaks me out. I will admit that page 27 makes it pretty clear that RAW = RAI in this case, but wow. I'm sure that will trip up a lot of players.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Hmmm, that's an interesting development. Is this Opportunity Attack power itself also a Basic Attack? I'd assume it would have to be. That would make good sense and resolve people's confusion over this hair splitting between OAs and OAs...

"Effect: You make a melee basic attack against the target."

 

[Shin Okada]

Hmmm, that's an interesting development. Is this Opportunity Attack power itself also a Basic Attack? I'd assume it would have to be. That would make good sense and resolve people's confusion over this hair splitting between OAs and OAs...

The "Effect" of the "Opportunity Attack" power is "You make a melee basic attack against the target."

 

[DracoSuave]

Hmmm, that's an interesting development. Is this Opportunity Attack power itself also a Basic Attack? I'd assume it would have to be. That would make good sense and resolve people's confusion over this hair splitting between OAs and OAs...

No.

Effects that grant basic attacks are not themselves basic attacks. As an example: Commander's Strike, Charge, and Hypnotism are effects that grant basic attacks. They are not basic attacks.

Opportunity Action is a catch all term, like Move Action. Opportunity Attack is a specific type of Opportunity Action, with specific triggers. Opportunity Attacks -are- Opportunity Actions, but not vice versa.

Think of it as similiar to this:

The Walk action allows you to move your speed. There are powers that are move actions that tell you to 'Move your speed.' Those powers are not walk actions. They might have similiar effects, but they are not the same thing.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

No.

Effects that grant basic attacks are not themselves basic attacks. As an example: Commander's Strike, Charge, and Hypnotism are effects that grant basic attacks. They are not basic attacks.

Opportunity Action is a catch all term, like Move Action. Opportunity Attack is a specific type of Opportunity Action, with specific triggers. Opportunity Attacks -are- Opportunity Actions, but not vice versa.

Think of it as similiar to this:

The Walk action allows you to move your speed. There are powers that are move actions that tell you to 'Move your speed.' Those powers are not walk actions. They might have similiar effects, but they are not the same thing.

I'm well aware of all of this...

I was simply curious as to whether this new Opportunity Attack power was considered a BA or not. If it is simply triggering an actual BA then that pretty well answers the question. It accomplishes the same thing effectively as being a BA itself, though it is a bit more indirect. The 'issue' has always been that MOST players IME don't grasp the hair-splittingly obtuse difference between an OA and an OA... I think creating that distinction in the first place was bad design. It has long since been cemented in place due to different bonuses being made relevant, but it should never have existed to start with. Good advice to game designers, obtuse rules that make obscure distinctions between things that are basically identical from a game world perspective is crappy design.

 

[DracoSuave]

I'm well aware of all of this...

I was simply curious as to whether this new Opportunity Attack power was considered a BA or not. If it is simply triggering an actual BA then that pretty well answers the question. It accomplishes the same thing effectively as being a BA itself, though it is a bit more indirect. The 'issue' has always been that MOST players IME don't grasp the hair-splittingly obtuse difference between an OA and an OA... I think creating that distinction in the first place was bad design. It has long since been cemented in place due to different bonuses being made relevant, but it should never have existed to start with. Good advice to game designers, obtuse rules that make obscure distinctions between things that are basically identical from a game world perspective is crappy design.

How is it difficult?

An opportunity action is a type of action, like immediate, move, free, or standard. Opportunity attack is a specific action, like Crawl, Drop Prone, or Twin-Strike.

It's in the PHB. Lack of understanding is likely to have caused from a lack of bothering to look. Learning rules from hearsay is the source of the obscurity, not the actual rules themselves.