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<blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 23390" data-attributes="member: 259">Just imagine defensive casting a little differently, and you won't need any rules changes at all.Normal spellcasting is full of big gestures and squeezing your eyes shut and shouting and concentrating on what you're doing and stuff like that.&nbsp; Your focus on the spell, rather than your focus on your surroundings, is what elicits the AoO.&nbsp; Imagine someone figuring out prime numbers in the middle of a battle and shouting them out as quickly as they can (maybe pantomiming the numbers), and you'll see how ripe they are for a thwack upside the head.Casting defensively is different.&nbsp; Here, you're paying a lot more attention to what's around you, and making smaller gestures, and generally not opening yourself up so much.&nbsp; You easily avoid the AoO (just as you'd easily avoid an AoO by standing still and doing nothing), but given your focus on your surroundings, you have a harder time reciting the primes correctly and remembering the correct pantomimes.&nbsp; You have to make a concentration check to remember to do everything right, when you're paying attention to your surroundings.Someone can still thwack you (with a readied action), and you still have to make another concentration check (&quot;17, (whoops, dodge)! 19 (throw up staff to block)! 23 -- OW, dammit!&nbsp; Uh, uh, 27?&nbsp; No -- 29 -- dang!&quot;)&nbsp; But you're concentrating on your surroundings, so they'll not see as easy an opening as they would if you chose to cast the spell with your usual competence.Imagined this way, no opposed roll is necessary, and it makes perfect sense that higher level wizards would easily know how to cast their spells in the middle of battle while paying attention to their surroundings.Daniel</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Pielorinho, post: 23390, member: 259"] Just imagine defensive casting a little differently, and you won't need any rules changes at all. Normal spellcasting is full of big gestures and squeezing your eyes shut and shouting and concentrating on what you're doing and stuff like that. Your focus on the spell, rather than your focus on your surroundings, is what elicits the AoO. Imagine someone figuring out prime numbers in the middle of a battle and shouting them out as quickly as they can (maybe pantomiming the numbers), and you'll see how ripe they are for a thwack upside the head. Casting defensively is different. Here, you're paying a lot more attention to what's around you, and making smaller gestures, and generally not opening yourself up so much. You easily avoid the AoO (just as you'd easily avoid an AoO by standing still and doing nothing), but given your focus on your surroundings, you have a harder time reciting the primes correctly and remembering the correct pantomimes. You have to make a concentration check to remember to do everything right, when you're paying attention to your surroundings. Someone can still thwack you (with a readied action), and you still have to make another concentration check ("17, (whoops, dodge)! 19 (throw up staff to block)! 23 -- OW, dammit! Uh, uh, 27? No -- 29 -- dang!") But you're concentrating on your surroundings, so they'll not see as easy an opening as they would if you chose to cast the spell with your usual competence. Imagined this way, no opposed roll is necessary, and it makes perfect sense that higher level wizards would easily know how to cast their spells in the middle of battle while paying attention to their surroundings. Daniel [/QUOTE]

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