Nomad4life
First Post
AoO’s, like all other unnecessarily annoying things in the universe, are better off never having existed in the first place.
Getting rid of AoO-Good Idea?
- Thread starter beldar1215
- Start date
Evilhalfling
Adventurer
Why not?
keep the suggested concentration check to cast in meele. Casting should be harder in combat, period.
if your building the characters the feats are easy enough to ignore, (and most still have other benifits)
Tripping people, denies them making a full attack or run, gives everyone a +4 to hit until their turn, and looks funny. Its still a good move without AoOs
new players should be encouraged to try Odd moves, AoO's are a deterent, and slow things down.
Complications -
cover and concealment both prevent AoO's (I once saw a diagram of how to attack a giant - first guy moves up and stops before prevoking an AoO, the next two people use the first as cover, taking diagnal steps forward.... its pretty metagamy.
keep the suggested concentration check to cast in meele. Casting should be harder in combat, period.
if your building the characters the feats are easy enough to ignore, (and most still have other benifits)
Tripping people, denies them making a full attack or run, gives everyone a +4 to hit until their turn, and looks funny. Its still a good move without AoOs
new players should be encouraged to try Odd moves, AoO's are a deterent, and slow things down.
Complications -
cover and concealment both prevent AoO's (I once saw a diagram of how to attack a giant - first guy moves up and stops before prevoking an AoO, the next two people use the first as cover, taking diagnal steps forward.... its pretty metagamy.
airwalkrr
Adventurer
beldar1215 said:
I get rid of AoOs for movement only. This is combined with the fact that I allow only a single action each round (akin to AD&D), but I think it will work out fine. It is a relatively new rule I have implemented to speed up gameplay though so play-testing will bear it out.
You could simplify things by keeping AoO for only two circumstances: casting in melee while threatened and firing a ranged weapon while threatened.
As far as the other feats go, little tweaking, if any, is needed. Some suggestions:
--Combat Reflexes: You can Take 10 on your initiative roll.
--Mobility: Your movement is only reduced by 5' in Medium or Heavy armor (instead of 10').
--Improved X (with X being Grapple, Trip, etc.). These feats do not really need to be adjusted as they grant a bonus to do the action you are wanting to do, and a +4 is a pretty healthy bonus.
--Spring Attack, Shot on the Run, etc.: These are fine as is, in that they allow you to make your attack at any point in your movement instead of either at the beginning or end.
That should simplify things pretty well. If you don't want to bother with feats, just drop the ones that have to do with AoO or the effects on AoOs for ones like the Improved X feats that affect AoOs.
As far as the other feats go, little tweaking, if any, is needed. Some suggestions:
--Combat Reflexes: You can Take 10 on your initiative roll.
--Mobility: Your movement is only reduced by 5' in Medium or Heavy armor (instead of 10').
--Improved X (with X being Grapple, Trip, etc.). These feats do not really need to be adjusted as they grant a bonus to do the action you are wanting to do, and a +4 is a pretty healthy bonus.
--Spring Attack, Shot on the Run, etc.: These are fine as is, in that they allow you to make your attack at any point in your movement instead of either at the beginning or end.
That should simplify things pretty well. If you don't want to bother with feats, just drop the ones that have to do with AoO or the effects on AoOs for ones like the Improved X feats that affect AoOs.
beldar1215
Explorer
Thanks again to everyone for all the great viewpoints. We have been playing for awhile and it wasn't so much that the kids couldn't figure it out. I was just trying to come up with ways to speed things up and not bog them down to much. I have a pretty large group (sometimes as many as 9) and sometimes it's hard to keep the focus. I have had many people say that I could speed things up by not having such a large group or spliting the group. These really are not options because I'm only able to run twice a month. I guess I'll have to think about the AoO question more based on all the repiles. So here's another question. What are some ways you can think of to help keep the focus of a big group of young people?
Beldar
Beldar
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
Best idea EVAR.
Seriously, I'm all for it, but you may need to tweak the way certain feats function.
Seriously, I'm all for it, but you may need to tweak the way certain feats function.
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
If you want to speed things up, I've found that the players roll all the dice variant works wonders. Not only does it keep the pace going faster, it also makes thinking about tactics much easier for the DM, and most importantly it keeps players engaged when it's not their turn.
Warbringer
Explorer
Where are you running? Over at Attactix? If so, say hi to Heather for me...
Kevin
Kevin
TheAuldGrump
First Post
From my own experience, the best way to introduce the kids to Attacks of Opportunity is to have them be the ones who get them in the first few game sessions. Have Aaargh! the axe wielding orc run past the fighter to attack the wizard (because Aaargh! hates wizards...). Have Sniffle the Kobold spellcaster try to do Burning Hands without stepping back. Just make sure to tell the players 'if you were the one doing this then I would be the one rolling the dice right now...' When I have done it that way the players quickly start looking for opportunities to get their AoOs. 
The Auld Grump
The Auld Grump
