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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Olgar Shiverstone" data-source="post: 942276" data-attributes="member: 5868">6.  Combat  a.  Creatures now control an area that is square, regardless of the size they actually occupy.  For example, a displacer beast occupies an area 5’ x 10’, but is considered to control an area 10’ by 10’ (this simplifies the turning and facing of large, long creatures).  It may be attacked all along the 10’ x 10’ area, but is considered 5’ wide for the purposes of passages it can navigate.  The PH will include rules for big creatures to fit into smaller spaces, so that 15x15 cloud giant can still pursue you down the 10-ft. corridor.  b.  There are no more partial actions.  There are only move, move-equivalent, standard, and full-round actions.  Replace instances of the “partial action” in the original rules with “standard action”.  The surprise round grants a standard action, not a partial action (effectively no change).  c.  Attacks of Opportunity:The melee combat rules assume that combatants are actively avoiding attacks. A player doesn't have to declare anything special for her character to be on the defensive. Even if a character's miniature figure is just standing there on the battle grid, you can be sure that if some orc with a battleaxe attacks the character, she is weaving, dodging, and even threatening the orc with a weapon to keep the orc a little worried for his own hide.Sometimes, however, a combatant in a melee lets her guard down, and she doesn't maintain a defensive posture as usual. In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to attack her for free. These free attacks are called attacks of opportunity.Threatened Squares: You threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your action. Generally, that means everything in all squares adjacent to your space (including diagonally). An enemy that takes certain actions while in a threatened square provokes an attack of opportunity from you. If you're unarmed, you don't normally threaten any squares and thus can't make attacks of opportunity (but see Unarmed Combat).Reach Weapons: Most creatures of Medium or smaller size have a reach of only 5 feet. This means that they can make melee attacks only against creatures up to 5 feet (1 square) away. However, Small and Medium creatures wielding reach weapons (such as a longspear) threaten more squares than a typical creature. For instance, a longspear-wielding human threatens all squares 10 feet (2 squares) away, even diagonally. (This is an exception to the rule that 2 squares of diagonal distance is measured as 15 feet.) In addition, most creatures larger than Medium have a natural reach of 10 feet or more; see Big and Little Creatures in Combat.Provoking an Attack of Opportunity: Two kinds of actions can provoke attacks of opportunity: moving out of a threatened square and performing an action within a threatened square. Moving: Moving out of a threatened square usually provokes an attack of opportunity from the threatening opponent. There are two common methods of avoiding such an attack -- the 5-foot-step (see Miscellaneous Actions) and the withdraw action (see Full-Round Actions).Performing a Distracting Act: Some actions, when performed in a threatened square, provoke attacks of opportunity as you divert your attention from the battle. Casting a spell and attacking with a ranged weapon, for example, are distracting actions. Table 8-2: Actions in Combat notes many of the actions that provoke attacks of opportunity.Remember that even actions that normally provoke attacks of opportunity may have exceptions to this rule. For instance, a character with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat doesn't incur an attack of opportunity for making an unarmed attack.Making an Attack of Opportunity: An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can only make one per round. You don't have to make an attack of opportunity if you don't want to. An experienced character gets additional regular melee attacks (by using the full attack action), but at a lower attack bonus. You make your attack of opportunity, however, at your normal attack bonus -- even if you've already attacked in the round. An attack of opportunity "interrupts" the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then continue with the next character's turn (or complete the current turn, if the attack of opportunity was provoked in the midst of a character's turn).Combat Reflexes and Additional Attacks of Opportunity: If you have the Combat Reflexes feat, you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. This feat does not let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity, but if the same opponent provokes two attacks of opportunity from you -- such as by moving out of a threatened square and then casting a spell in a threatened square -- you could make two separate attacks of opportunity (since each one represents a different opportunity). Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn't count as more than one opportunity for that opponent. All these attacks are at your normal attack bonus. You do not reduce your attack bonus for making multiple attacks of opportunity.d.  Trip attempts:  Trip is clarified in 3.5 to be an unarmed touch attack (which provokes an AoO), *unless* you have the Improved Trip feat (in which case there's no AoO for the attempt), or if you're using a weapon specifically designed to trip (such as the halberd), in which case it's an armed attack and you don't provoke the AoO.  If you're using a tripping weapon, and would be tripped during your own trip attempt, you can drop the weapon instead. e.  Bonuses from magic ranged weapons and ammunition no longer stack, they overlap (ie, only the highest magic bonus from a magic bow and magic arrows applies).f.  New condition: Sickened (-2 on all checks including weapon damage rolls)g.  The grappling rules have been set up to be a more step-by-step procedure, walking you through the process of starting a grapple.  WOTC also added a few cool actions that you can take while grappling, such as:·    Draw light weapon with a grapple check.·    Can use opponents weapon against them (with grapple check).·    Can prevent pinned opponent from speaking.·    -4 on attacks (natural, light weapon and unarmed strike - but NOT opposed grapple check).·    Win opposed grapple check to move (& drag opponent with you)·    Cool spellcasting rules.h.  New size rules and mounted combat: "For simplicity, assume that you share your mount's space during combat."i.  Critical Hits: Multiple effects that expand critical threat ranges no longer stack.j.  Sundering: Each +1 of enhancement bonus adds 2 to hardness and 10 to hp. That +5 longsword will have a hardness of 20 and 55 hp (or hardness 30 if it's a +5 adamantine blade).k.  Ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an enhancement bonus of +1 or higher is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.l.  You can coup de grace a creature with total concealment, but doing so takes two full-round actions.m.  When “squeezing” into a space smaller than their size – “Difficult terrain” (example: Ogre (large) moves into 5’ wide corridor) – movement cost is doubled; ie, each square moved counts as 2 squares (5’ counts as 10’).  Diagonal movement would be 3 squares.  You can always make just a 5’ step, even with penalties to movement.n.  “Tall” creatures have an extra 5’ of reach where “long” creatures do not (eg: Ogre (Large, tall) has 10’ reach; horse (Large, long) has 5’ reach).o.  Cover grants an untyped bonus to AC.p.  There are now only two types of concealment, normal (20% miss chance) and total (50% miss chance).</blockquote>

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