How often do deal with AoOs?

[Quasqueton]

Hmmm. So it seems that most [potential] AoOs are the result of movement rather than action?

Quasqueton

 

[the Jester]

Personally, I've never understood the storm around AoOs. The rules are pretty easy to understand, for general conditions (don't move out of a threatened space casually), and there's a chart for everything else.

Likewise- I 'got' AoO's pretty quickly (after a single read of the 3.0 PH). Then again, I was already familiar with the concept from the 2.8 Players Option: Combat and Tactics book (best one of the PO line, imho!).

Honestly, anyone who ever calculated THAC0 should be able to handle AoOs.

A bumper sticker proposed by a friend of mine: "THAC0 kept the riff-raff out."

 

[Thanee]

Voted once per combat, that's a bit of a guess, tho; sometimes there are quite a few in one combat, sometimes none. Most of them are surely from movement and a good portion of those from reach.

And that's not counting the opportunistic rogue, of course.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Quasqueton]

By "deal with" I meant "roll the AoO". I can see how merely thinking about or taking it into consideration would come up every round. I mean, it's the threat of AoO that keeps the rogue from running up, around, and behind the BBEG immediately to flank him and get sneak attack on the first round.

I would think, though, that having to be wary of an ogre's reach would be a good thing for the game. Not an annoyance.

Quasqueton

 

[argo]

I think that we actually roll an AoO about once per combat. Though I know that more than once I or one of my players has "missed" a potential AoO in all the excitement.

Though as others have pointed out we think about AoO's constantly. Avoiding them/positioning yourself to potentially take advantage of them/deteer the enemy from comming this way is all part of basic battle strategy.

 

[the Jester]

Most combats end up triggering one or more AoOs, in my experience... between reach, special combat moves, people forgetting to declare casting on the defensive, people moving and attacking or moving and casting- there are lots of opportunities, especially in a dynamic tactical situation.

 

[tetsujin28]

Not to mention tumbling rolls and the mobility feat to avoid worrying about them.

 

[CronoDekar]

It's rather rare, because my usual group usually tries to avoid AOOs like the plague. Usually when it does happen it's either because of a failed Tumble check, or even more rarely when it's we determine that the enemy just can't do that much damage. Personally though, I wouldn't mind playing a more tankish char who draws AOOs to get through the fray.

 

[MonsterMash]

Frequently - it varies with the situation, but in the group I play in as we have a monk using trip attacks and tumbling and a fighter/rogue in the party using tumbling it does come up pretty often.

With the group I GM for it is less frequent as the party composition is different and there is much less use of trip or tumble.

 

[blargney the second]

I play a Monk/Druid built around AoOs. He tends to provoke them lots with movement, special attacks, and spellcasting while threatened. He also has Combat Reflexes to get in the occasional extra attack.

I think AoOs are a fun part of the game - you try something risky, you get commensurate potential reward. It makes tactical decisions interesting.

-blarg