Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Rogue Agent" data-source="post: 5786664" data-attributes="member: 6673496">Actually introduced in the 2E Option rulebooks.And although that's where the term &quot;attack of opportunity&quot; comes from, this was actually just a centralization of several mechanics that had been present since AD&amp;D1.(1) Characters could choose to either &quot;fall back&quot; or &quot;flee&quot;. And choosing to &quot;flee&quot; meant opening yourself up to a rear attack from your opponent. (2) Spells were specifically delayed until after other attacks had been resolved so that they could be disrupted in pretty much exactly the way AoOs allow.(3) The rules for grappling allowed armed targets to make an attack first. If the attack was successful that &quot;indicate<s> that the attacker trying to grapple, pummel or overbear hos been fended or driven off, and the attack is unsuccessful. The weapon-wielder then has the opportunity to strike at the weaponless one &quot;for real&quot;, if he or she so chooses.&quot; Sound familiar?</s><s></s><s>And so forth.</s><s></s><s>A lot of the stuff that people think was &quot;new&quot; in 3E was actually just rules they'd never bothered using in AD&amp;D.</s><s></s><s>Personally, I think there were two big problems with 3E's implementation of AoO:</s><s></s><s>(1) As 4E demonstrates, forced movement is fun. Putting all the forced movement in 3E behind AoOs was probably a mistake and doesn't seem to be necessary.</s><s></s><s>(2) The laundry list of what does and does not provoke an AoO is too long. It makes the rule impossible to memorize, meaning that you need to perform a chart look-up every time somebody performs a non-trivial action. I'd limit AoOs to:</s><s></s><s>(a) Moving out of a threatened space</s><s>(b) Casting a spell</s><s>(c) Making a ranged attack</s><s>(d) Trying to grapple an armed opponent</s><s></s><s>And you could probably even talk me out of D if you tried hard enough. </s><s></s><s>That would make the rule short enough that it could be easily memorized and used.</s></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rogue Agent, post: 5786664, member: 6673496"] Actually introduced in the 2E Option rulebooks. And although that's where the term "attack of opportunity" comes from, this was actually just a centralization of several mechanics that had been present since AD&D1. (1) Characters could choose to either "fall back" or "flee". And choosing to "flee" meant opening yourself up to a rear attack from your opponent. (2) Spells were specifically delayed until after other attacks had been resolved so that they could be disrupted in pretty much exactly the way AoOs allow. (3) The rules for grappling allowed armed targets to make an attack first. If the attack was successful that "indicate[s] that the attacker trying to grapple, pummel or overbear hos been fended or driven off, and the attack is unsuccessful. The weapon-wielder then has the opportunity to strike at the weaponless one "for real", if he or she so chooses." Sound familiar? And so forth. A lot of the stuff that people think was "new" in 3E was actually just rules they'd never bothered using in AD&D. Personally, I think there were two big problems with 3E's implementation of AoO: (1) As 4E demonstrates, forced movement is fun. Putting all the forced movement in 3E behind AoOs was probably a mistake and doesn't seem to be necessary. (2) The laundry list of what does and does not provoke an AoO is too long. It makes the rule impossible to memorize, meaning that you need to perform a chart look-up every time somebody performs a non-trivial action. I'd limit AoOs to: (a) Moving out of a threatened space (b) Casting a spell (c) Making a ranged attack (d) Trying to grapple an armed opponent And you could probably even talk me out of D if you tried hard enough. That would make the rule short enough that it could be easily memorized and used.[/s] [/QUOTE]

Verification