Full defense question.....

[dr_nukem]

You can take AOO when taking the full defensive action, the sage adviced in that same remark to give this AOO a -4 penalty just as with fighting defensive. Besides, to fight defensively you have to make an actual melee attack roll that round. So under a lot of circumstances characters cannot fight defensively at all. I have little problems with allowing AOO for characters on the full defensive.

You're getting your concepts mixed up here. You have Total Defense and Fighting Defensively.

TD -- +4 AC and you can only move. No attack action required

FD -- +2 AC, -4 BAB, and from the SRD:
"A combatant can choose to fight defensively when taking the attack action. If a combatant does so, the combatant takes a -4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC for the same round. " This is under Attack (melee). So you have to do some sort of Attack Action.

I believe the Sage has clarified that when using TD you *DO* threaten and area and that you *DO* get AoO if available.

I just disagree with him...

 

[ruleslawyer]

You're getting your concepts mixed up here. You have Total Defense and Fighting Defensively.

TD -- +4 AC and you can only move. No attack action required

FD -- +2 AC, -4 BAB, and from the SRD:
"A combatant can choose to fight defensively when taking the attack action. If a combatant does so, the combatant takes a -4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC for the same round. " This is under Attack (melee). So you have to do some sort of Attack Action.

How does madfox have this mixed up?

What he said (and what the Sage said) was that when using the Total Defense action, you still threaten an area and get AoO, and that any AoO you take are made at a -4 penalty on the attack roll, the same penalty that would apply if you were taking an AoO while fighting defensively.

Incidentally, FD is -4 to attack rolls, not -4 BAB. Small difference, but sometimes important.

 

[dr_nukem]

when using the Total Defense action, you still threaten an area and get AoO, and that any AoO you take are made at a -4 penalty on the attack roll, the same penalty that would apply if you were taking an AoO while fighting defensively.

That simply doesn't make sense. *If* you threaten an area when using Total Defense, *why* is your AoO modifier the same if you were using the Fighting Defensively action? You get a higher AC bonus from using TD (+4) vs the FD (+2), so shouldn't your attack modifier be different?

It's really a stupid point. The Sage has spoken and thus it shall be...but I still think that when you are using TD, you don't threaten anything...you're just trying to keep from being hit...

 

[FANGO]

To get a grasp on the huge effect that size has on wrestling, one can look at the different weight categories in human wrestling. The categories are split up into ranges as small as a few pounds, because if you have as little as a 5 or so pound advantage on a guy that can go a long way to helping you beat him. Taken to the extreme, a creature who has a 100+ pound advantage on a human, along with a few more feet for extra leverage, would have a huge bonus to grappling. If an ogre were to grapple a person, then I sincerely doubt that anyone would have a chance to get away (by pure strength, at least...there is still the possibility of wriggling out, which is covered under the rules by an escape artist check). A human who is just as strong as an ogre would have a mediocre chance, possibly, of getting away (through luck or something), but the ogre still has much more leverage, and three feet of height and a couple hundred pounds of mass can go a long way when it comes to pushing things around (especially considering that even a couple inches or pounds can make a drastic difference when it comes to leverage (this is why the tall and/or fat guys are always on the tug o' war team)). It may be harder to grab the faster, smaller etc. creature you're trying to grapple, but once you get a hold there is no question that the larger creature has a massive advantage (more than can be accounted for just by the increased strength of that creature).

 

[rhammer2]

You get a higher AC bonus and no attack.

That simply doesn't make sense. *If* you threaten an area when using Total Defense, *why* is your AoO modifier the same if you were using the Fighting Defensively action? You get a higher AC bonus from using TD (+4) vs the FD (+2), so shouldn't your attack modifier be different?

It's really a stupid point. The Sage has spoken and thus it shall be...but I still think that when you are using TD, you don't threaten anything...you're just trying to keep from being hit...

 

[dr_nukem]

That's nice and all, but it still doesn't fit with how I see the Total Defense action working.

The description states that "all you do is move." Just Move = NO AoO.

You're trying not to be hit, not waiting for an opening against your opponent. You're not paying attention so that you can hit someone...but so that you don't get hit.

Again, the Sage has already given his ruling, I just disagree.