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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dykstrav" data-source="post: 5663268" data-attributes="member: 40522">I think the biggest result of removing opportunity attacks will affect your defenders. Some of their class features (and much of what they do when actually at the table) is going to depend heavily on how you deal with opportunity attacks. I remember my very early 3E days when not every group used attacks of opportunity (they were often decried as "power gaming," many groups didn't incorporate them until 2002-3 or so), so I do know how removing them affects those games. Although the experience is with 3E, it still might be helpful.In games without attacks of opportunity, the combatants indeed move around more. The biggest net effect I directly noticed is that your arcane caster gets their ass handed to them more frequently--establishing a line and defending your "artillery caster" is far more difficult when critters can just run unchallenged right past the fighter to get that squishy sorcerer. Most battles involved a big damage dealer running up and smashing the caster, then getting killed when that caster's allies swarmed and focus-fired on them. After the casters on both sides got smacked, the melee types would square off. Ranged attackers were awesome since they could take out casters from a distance.In games like that, arcane casters were heavily invested in the Toughness feat. Many human casters would take it twice at 1st level so they could start with 10+ hit points. They were also more heavily invested in defensive magic, most arcane casters had to split their spells between offensive power and defensive stuff to stay alive. Spells like mage armor and shield were imperative, and most casters took either blur or protection from arrows as soon as they got 2nd-level spells. Stoneskin and other such spells were important later on. In 4E, controllers aren't as fragile, so maybe that won't happen. On the "plus" side, casters could also toss spells with impunity since they don't provoke. Some casters would stand toe-to-toe with threatening critters and attack them right back with spells like burning hands or shocking grasp.Overall, there was less of a "line." Some parties bunched up so they could have the fighter or rogue help defend them or so the cleric could heal them. Some parties spread out and engaged targets in individual fights and let the cleric worry about patching up characters that dropped. In such games, mobility was very important, so people made hard decisions about wearing light armor.Hope that helps. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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