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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CharlesRyan" data-source="post: 3560258" data-attributes="member: 5265">I think confusion over the AoO rules are a legacy from the text that appeared in the original 3.0 PHB.3.0 didn't internalize the use of the 5-ft. grid the way 3.5 did, and it used a lot of soft language in describing space and areas in combat. In particular, the language surrounding the AoO rules was very mushy in referring to "threatened areas" (a vague, general term refering to the area surrounding a combatant) vs. specific squares that were threatened.I'm the one who wrote the 3.5 version of the rules, or at least the language that eventually became the 3.5 rules. I did it because even I (inside WotC R&D) was struggling with the mushiness of language; I needed to clarify the rules for my own use. So I very much appreciate how that soft language really muddied otherwise reasonably sound rules. (My text didn't change the rules (although I think I added the withdrawal action), it just tried to make them easier to parse.)I'd like to believe that the rules are much easier to understand now. But for anyone who initially tried to get them back in 2000 - 2003, the seeds of confusion sewn by those initial attempts might have made it very hard to ever completely parse even the fundamentals.</blockquote>