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Message: <blockquote data-quote="argo" data-source="post: 1036212" data-attributes="member: 5752">Right, so now that standing up provokes an AoO I hear a lot of people worry that trip fighters with combat reflexes will be way out of control.  They will knock you down and trip you over and over and over again each time you try to stand up and get a free attack each time.  Trip fighters are broken!Well maybe not.Rereading the section on AoO's I don't think that a fighter can legally keep you down.  Here is the relevant passage from the 3.5 SRD (also found in the 3.5 PHB on pg. 137 under "Making an Attack of Opportunity" heading)Two important things come out of this.  #1) The AoO takes place before the action that provoked it and  #2) There is nothing inherent about AoO's that causes the defenders action to fail if they take damage from an AoO.  An action only fails if it requires concentration (ie: spells) or the action explicitly states that taking damage causes it to fail (ie: disarm and grapple).With this in mind I propose that the correct by-the-book interpretation of standing up is as follows.  This scenario begins with the defender prone on his initatiave and the attacker standing next to him with Improved Trip and Combat Reflexes.Defender stands up (move-equiv action, provokes AoO)Attacker immediately takes his AoO (before the Defender's action takes effect).  At this point the attacker has many options but lets say he makes a trip.  He makes a touch attack with a +4 for the defender being prone and succeeds, he then makes a strength check with a +4 for Improved Trip so the Defender is prone (ie: no change) and finally takes his free meele attack at +4.  Net result: Defender is prone and attacker made one meele attack at +4.Now the Defender gets to finish the action that provoked the AoO unless it either requires concentration or explicitly states that taking damage causes it to fail.  Looking at the description of the Stand Up action (3.5 PHB pg. 143) I see that neither is the case meaning the Defender can now proceed to stand up.Net result: Defender is standing up, minus however many HP he took in the AoO, and still has a Standard Action left.This interpretation would seem to nullify the "trip you over and over and over again" scenario wouldn't it?  What do you guys think?  Am I right or just full of hot fudge?  Anything I overlooked?  I'm looking for criticism here folks  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> p.s.  I know there is a related thread open right now.  That one is about avoiding the AoO for standing up, this one is about soaking the AoO and getting up any way completely within the core rules.  I would like to keep the discussion limited to that (so no house rules please).  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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