Have you played without this rule?

[cimerians]

Attack of Opportunities.....

3 years later and this big 3rd edition feature still bugs me.

I finally played a game with my buds without them and we had great fun. We hardly noticed it, it basically felt like we skipped over a bunch of combat rolls.

One global house rule I put in is anyone (including monsters) who retreats (more than a 5' step) from melee suffers an AOO. Thats it.

I just want to know if anyone else still has fun playing the game without this one combat rule. If so, what are your house rules?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts....

 

[AuraSeer]

You'd probably get more responses in the House Rules forum.

IMO, the attack of opportunity is an important balancing factor. It lets melee be controlled by melee characters, rather than by point-blank spellcasters or archers. It stops enemies from charging right through a shield wall to attack the mages. It makes combat maneuvers like Trip, Grapple, and Sunder less common, though they're still useful enough that people take the Improved feats. It's the main reason that monsters with reach are so dangerous.

Remove the AoO and you remove most of the interesting tactics from combat. I've tried it, and it reminded me of 1e. "I attack. The monster attacks. I attack. The monster attacks..."