How do you deal with characters when they whine in confusion?

[JacktheRabbit]

I have a plan I am going to pull against my party soon.

It will be in a fight where a fighter 5th level or higher is meleeing with the party.

Basically the fighter is going to attack once and then hold his second attack when he full round attacks. The hold condition will be if the hero in front of him draws anything he attacks that item via sunder or attack an object.

IE the party cleric pulls out his holy symbol and starts to cast a spell. Or the party wizard pulls out the spell components to cast a spell, Or the fighter in the party pulls out a potion of cure critical to drink.

Now the 3rd one draws an attack of opportunity so the fighter would get swung at twice. The other two though do not draw AOO's if the caster makes his combat casting roll.

So my expectation is I will get an incredilous look from my player and a whine of "but he cannot attack me I made my roll"

Or lets say the wizard drew a wand or a dagger, neither of those would generate an AOO but the fighter would still attack them with his attack an object held action.

So how do you handle this? Do you as a DM merely tell the player you fully understand AOO and that is what happened? Or do you ruin the suspence and surprise of the fight by explaining that the fighter gets more than 1 attack per round and he was holding one action to do this?

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Just a thought - you could be even more evil and make it a disarm attempt rather than a sunder.

 

[godfear]

I thought the only way to 'interrupt' an action was by readying. On a hold, don't you have to wait until the end of each character's initiative? Or am I confused?

 

[Vurt]

I'd have a post-mortem of the combat, but only after it took place; possibly even after the session took place. Anything that might disrupt the flow of the game usually gets me to invoke Rule 0 for the time being. If the players are pissed, or confused, it can get discussed to death afterwards. And heck, maybe in the meantime one of your players will figure it out on their own!

But this lets you keep the element of surprise/mystery, and forces your players to re-evaluate their plans and actions mid-stride -- which is always fun!

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I thought the only way to 'interrupt' an action was by readying. On a hold, don't you have to wait until the end of each character's initiative? Or am I confused?

Ignore my poor choice of terminology. The fighter will ready an action with his last attack to sunder anything the character in front of him draws.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Just a thought - you could be even more evil and make it a disarm attempt rather than a sunder.

Disarm is opposed roles. I just like the idea of shattering that precious potion or wand in their hand.

 

[Tiberius]

It's a great idea, but I don't think it's legal per the rules. While he could ready a partial action to attack a potion or a caster or some such, I don't think you can use the ready action in conjunction with the full attack action. I may be misremembering, however, and am currently too lazy to check the SRD.

-Tiberius

 

[godfear]

It's a great idea, but I don't think it's legal per the rules. While he could ready a partial action to attack a potion or a caster or some such, I don't think you can use the ready action in conjunction with the full attack action. I may be misremembering, however, and am currently too lazy to check the SRD.

-Tiberius

That was going to be my next post, except I did check the SRD, and it does require a Standard action which you don't have left after attacking unless you're hasted.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

It's a great idea, but I don't think it's legal per the rules. While he could ready a partial action to attack a potion or a caster or some such, I don't think you can use the ready action in conjunction with the full attack action. I may be misremembering, however, and am currently too lazy to check the SRD.

-Tiberius

Then I will house rule it. There is no logical reason why a fighter couldnt take his last attack from a full round attack and use it as a ready action. Especially since there is a good chance he will lose the attack if his foe merely takes a 5' step.

 

[godfear]

Ya just can't argue with Rule 0. More power to ya. I think they're gonna be mad though, if they don't know you allow it. But hey, it could just be a new maneuver or some such.