How often do deal with AoOs?

[lordcloaker]

Multiple times in a round is very very rare, unless its a big combat with lots of monsters or combat reflexed monsters (or a warrior type in the party).
Normally with 5 feet steps, defensive casting and tumbling people avoid AoOs in general. So I would say that AoO happen once a round, maybe twice. But Id say it normally depends on the party build - Fighters with Trip, Disarm, Reach weapons, Combat Reflexes or Spring Attack normally make AoOs appear more in combat.

 

[UniversalMonster]

I would say multiple times per combat. They aren't difficult though- one character plays a spiked chain wielder with combat reflexes- he's pretty much built for delivering multiple attacks of opportunity.

We had one battle with the 4 PCs against something like 12 Skum outside an Aboleth lair. I had the Skum rush the AoO guy at one point. He was able to AoO and 1-strike-kill the first 4 of them, leaving only like two survivors.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

We use AoOs quite a bit, because one of the players in my group really enjoys the tactical aspect of combat. He'll do things like purposely provoking an AoO to make it safer for other party members to move to objectives. We also use AoOs quite a bit for the opposite reason ... many of the other players aren't very tactically sound, and make mistakes in combat.

In any event, while I concede that AoOs can be confusing for a 3.5 novice, IMO they're just not the rules headaches people make them out to be. All it should take to get them down is one fairly intense five-minute rules discussion. It's true that I have a couple of players in my games who will never understand AoOs, but these are the same players who can't add their own attack and damage bonuses, and who can't quite grasp the 5-then-10 diagonal movement rules.

 

[Victim]

Probably once every combat at most. Several of our characters can easily avoid AoOs with Tumble - and so do many of our enemies.. My character has a reach weapon and combat reflexes, but I usually use other weapons.

 

[AuraSeer]

We see AoOs just about every round. I've played in other campaigns where they are much less common. Their prevalence seems to depend on the level of tactics your party uses.

If your every action is "I attack the guy in front of me" or "I cast magic missile" or "I attack the guy in front of me again", of course you won't suffer any AoOs. You aren't seeing AoOs for the same reason the 2E gridless ruleset didn't include them. When the whole combat consists of trading blows with the monster until one of you dies, there aren't many dynamic situations where an AoO would make sense.

On the other hand, if you take advantage of all the new tactical options allowed by 3E + battlegrid, the AoO becomes a much larger factor. Use Disarm or Trip on pesky opponents with too many hit points. Barrel past the enemy tanks to put a hurt on their wizard. Disengage from one enemy to go finish off another one who's almost dead. Do anything more interesting than just stand there and swing a pointy stick, and you're liable to draw AoOs pretty often.

 

[swrushing]

Do anything more interesting than just stand there and swing a pointy stick, and you're liable to draw AoOs pretty often.

Sorry but this comes off quite condescending and frankly mostly wrong.

My gang tends to use plently of "interesting tactics" and not just stand and bash and throw magic missile, but we don't see many AoOs. i am in the one per combat kind of set.

you time your grapples against foes who don't have a weapoin drawn right then, like say clerics who are casting spells with shields in their non-holy symbol/material component hands.

you use skills like tumble to enable "blowing past" without having to take an AoO.

etc...

sure, you CAN choose to do these things without preparation and timing and as such decide you like taking more AoOs, but you don't have to take more AoOs to get interesting things done in combat.

Taking more AoOs is a sign of willingness to take more AoOs in combat, not a referendum on tactical complexity and play.

 

[Henry]

For us, about once per combat. Most players work to avoid them, and know by now on an almost subconscious level what triggers them and what doesn't (just because they've used them for five years). I have one player who acts with a bit of abandon, and is not afraid to weather an op-attack now and again for a good position of for a good bit of cinema; but mostly, I have players who avoid them meticulously.

 

[sniffles]

For us, about once per combat. Most players work to avoid them, and know by now on an almost subconscious level what triggers them and what doesn't (just because they've used them for five years). I have one player who acts with a bit of abandon, and is not afraid to weather an op-attack now and again for a good position of for a good bit of cinema; but mostly, I have players who avoid them meticulously.

I wonder why people develop that paranoia about them? Naturally you want to avoid taking damage whenever possible, but then what gives with people like the player Lord Pendragon mentioned? It's not like an AoO does double damage or automatic crits or something. It's just another attack.

I know what provokes them, but especially when playing lower level PCs I try to forget. I try to remind myself that my character isn't that tactically experienced.

 

[Henry]

On the other hand, if you take advantage of all the new tactical options allowed by 3E + battlegrid, the AoO becomes a much larger factor. Use Disarm or Trip on pesky opponents with too many hit points. Barrel past the enemy tanks to put a hurt on their wizard. Disengage from one enemy to go finish off another one who's almost dead.

That's why there are Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Improved Sunder, Improved Overrun, and Improved Bull Rush. If you wish to perform these more than once, they're definitely worth the feats, and more people need to take these feats seriously than I see doing so. Especially Improved Trip and Improved Overrun. YOWZA!

 

[Henry]

I wonder why people develop that paranoia about them? Naturally you want to avoid taking damage whenever possible, but then what gives with people like the player Lord Pendragon mentioned?

It's the words, "free attack." Does it every time.

They've seen one too many players in the early days of 3E taken unconscious by that ONE lucky op-attack that turned into a crit. If they had taken the time to avoid the hit, that PC would still be conscious/alive/un-level-drained/unpetrified/whatever.