Attack of Opportunity resets... when?

[Dross]

Far as withdrawing...that's the funny thing about reach. A lot of big monsters I've seen DMs play will try to charge in and attack at the extreme of their reach, but in fact it's often better to move in close.

If using the Charge action then you must strike as soon as you can attack, which means at reach if you have it (I'm sure you knew but just saying). But yes, other than that moving up to limit withdraw actions is a good idea in most cases.

As for the OP:
I agree with the others saying that AoO's recharge on the creature's turn.
I agree with the others saying that the AoO's shouldn't change mid-encounter. The timing of the requested rule check would annoy me, as it appears on the surface like the player is happy for the rule until it inconveniences him but okay at other stages.

As for the undead tree, I don't mind the way FranktheDM suggest to run the spell

 

[Shin Okada]

I agree with the others saying that AoO's recharge on the creature's turn.
I agree with the others saying that the AoO's shouldn't change mid-encounter. The timing of the requested rule check would annoy me, as it appears on the surface like the player is happy for the rule until it inconveniences him but okay at other stages.

I too agree with all of those points.

Regarding undead monster using Mass Inflict spells to attack PCs and regaining own HPs at the same time.

Living PCs can do the same when fighting against undead creatures. So, why not?

 

[Dingleberry]

To those who reset attacks of opportunity at the start of a character's turn: do you also have the ready and delay actions delay the reset? That's how I DM it.

 

[Elethiomel]

To those who reset attacks of opportunity at the start of a character's turn: do you also have the ready and delay actions delay the reset? That's how I DM it.

I have the delay "action" delay the reset. I do not have the Ready action delay the reset.

As far as I can remember it's never come up on ready actions though, and I can see how not delaying the reset on it would make it arguable that a character who readies should get two resets during the same "round" for someone else.

On the other hand, and this is the argument that settles it for me, someone who readies can potentially go for the whole round without having the condition of their readied action happen - to take away their AoO reset would render such a character completely inert until such a time as their readied condition happens. If a player of mine makes an AoO-based character without Combat Reflexes and abuses this ready-resets-AoOs to get more AoOs ("I recursively ready to ready for when I pull my weapon back after an AoO, for when I pull my weapon back after my next AoO"), I can just tell them to stop being an .

A character who Delays, though, has complete flexibility on when they come back into initiative, so I don't see a compelling reason to have them get more AoOs.