D&D 4E AoO's are still in 4e

[Teflon Billy]

One of the 4e focuses is that combat is more mobile; it's easier to get moved around the battlefield by your foes. You'll see this in the red dragon fight description, where the dragon gets to use his tail as a free action to move a PC.

I don't think it needs to be more mobile. What with Tumble and entering threatened zones provoking AoO's rather than stopping movement, it makes it pretty hard to Hold the Line or defend a Spellcaster.

I have no doubt that the AoOs take this sort of movement into account. It would stink to have a foe irrestibaly move you past other foes, all of whom got a free shot on you.

Yeah

 

[Felon]

And, to be honest, they do make some amount of sense. Mucking about doing things that ought to make you vulnerable to the enemy while you're standing right next to him ought to get you slapped upside the head, right?

Sure, but some of the things that provoke in D&D are pretty questionable. I don't regard trying to disarm or sunder a weapon to be much more provocative than just trying to whack your opponent, for instance.

 

[frankthedm]

As it stands now, you get an AoO if your active opponent does something dumb, but the helpless guy next to him does not get one. AoOs should be allowed on them.

That is purely for game balance TBH.

A very simple way of allwing one to take AoOs on those in bad situations is this; On the start of your turn you draw an AoO, to avoid doing so you may "put your guard up" as a free action. You can not do this if you are Unconcious, helpless or perfoming an action that takes one round or longer.

 

[shurai]

He is if his enemy has a spear.

Or a foot. "Kick them when they're down" is an idiom for a reason. Some medeival armored footy things had that a big spike on the toe for just such a situation. The low guard in various forms of swordsmanship is arguably partly for the purpose.

 

[Stalker0]

That is purely for game balance TBH.
[/I]

Agreed, but hopefully they will find a better way to balance things like disarm in 4e

Perhaps everyone will get action points every encounter, and you can spend some of them on maneuvers like disarming.

 

[hong]

An AoO-replacement rule that I saw mentioned was like this. You get a free attack on someone who provokes (or who can't defend themselves, like the helpless guy). However, if you do so, you give up your own attack the next round (or one of them, if you have more than one attack). Seems to make sense, and also neatly limits the power of AoOs at the same time.

 

[Ds Da Man]

This thread is exactly why I hated AoO. Every time we played, the AoO arguements would rear their head.
I always played with attacks of opportunity, just didn't call them that. Do something stupid in combat (fall, turn your back, shoot a bow, cast a spell too close), and you could get wacked.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Sure, I will admit, if you are dead, you are (most likely) at a much larger disadvantage then being tripped... But that's not a valid argument man...

Come again?

The choices are "get your head cut off" and "get your feet cut from under you" and the argument that getting your head cut off will leave you dead is not valid?

 

[mmadsen]

Attacks of Opportunity could be greatly simplified in a number of ways.

First, they could be turned into Opportunities to Attack; that is, you could take your next turn's attack now, to attack the threatened character and disrupt what he's doing.

Second, they could apply with fewer exceptions, notably the immunity provided by a 5' Step. Without that peculiar rules, the game plays much more like old-school D&D, where everyone closes the distance and ends up engaged in melee combat, and disengaging means giving your opponent a free attack.

 

[mmadsen]

I hate that tripping is more feared than a regular attack.

That's largely an artifact of tripping ignoring hit points. If you try to take the guy's head off, he has a meta-game buffer protecting him. If you try to trip, disarm, or bull-rush him, he doesn't get that buffer -- but he gets an attack of opportunity.

Which is more scary in real life- someone trying to trip you with a halberd or someone trying to lop your head off with one?

In a real melee, getting tripped is a death sentence. You can realistically fend off one unarmed attacker from your back.