How often do you provoke an AoO on purpose?

[Ridley's Cohort]

How often do you provoke an AoO on purpose, given a PC that spends roughly a third or more of his combat time in melee? (Whether you spend that much time in melee on purpose on not is irrelevant.)

Clarification: "On purpose" means you chose an action that provokes an AoO when there arguably existed any other reasonable option that would not provoke an AoO. I am not speaking only of milking AoOs out of the opposition for some other tactical reason.

 

[castro3nw]

My Dragon Shaman provoked 1 tonight, and I was really kicking myself for not provoking a 2nd... But then, I have a bit of energy shield to hit back a little and the baddies were looking pretty beat up...

 

[blargney the second]

All the time. For starters, I've got a crusader PC with Elusive Target. For seconds, we like to use the fun combat maneuvers, so one PC will soak up the AoOs while someone better suited for the maneuver delays to attempt afterwards.

 

[Someone]

Sometimes you have to be there, no matter the cost. It doesn't happen too often, but it happens.

 

[FireLance]

Only on the rare, rare occasions when it is tactically sound to do so.

One came up in a recent game, and ironically enough, it arose because someone provoked an AOO from my character. A bandit charged past me to attack our party conjurer, and since I was armed with a morning star, I didn't think I would be able to stop him with a simple melee attack. So, I decided to disarm him with my AOO instead. Since I didn't have Improved Disarm, I provoked an AOO from him, but I figured he was unlikely to be able to hit me through my full plate armor (I was right). I won the opposed attack roll, and the bandit ended up screeching to a halt next to the conjurer empty-handed.

Interestingly enough, that adventure also featured a Cleave on an AOO. We made it into the bandit stronghold and managed to seriously injure the bandit leader, who decided to retreat. Our duskblade charged up his reach weapon with blade of blood and moved to attack the bandit leader, but missed. Another bandit, who was loyal to the leader and wanted to cover his escape, moved to attack the duskblade and provoked an AOO from him. The duskblade hit and the blade of blood discharged, dealing enough damage to drop the poor bandit, and leaving his leader vulnerable to the duskblade's Cleave attempt. Fortunately for the leader, the duskblade missed again.

 

[Pinotage]

On a number of occasions. Sometimes it's just cool for the big fighter to casually bash past the minions to get to the big dude on the other side.

Also, characters with Mobility are more inclined to do so in any case.

Pinotage

 

[Diomeneus]

pffft! While raging (and playing in character) I take AoO left right and center... if i decide that one of the bastards is dying then he is dying... its usually the one that inspired the rage to begin with...

 

[Kelleris]

In virtually every combat lately. I'm playing a barbarian/battle sorcerer focused on being well-nigh unkillable despite an AC of 8 or lower in a conversion of the old Bloodstone Mines module. We keep running into runty little duergar patrols, and between all my temporary hit points, fire shield and stoneskin as a swift action from the heart spells and immunity from a surprising number of debilitating effects, it's faster to let them kill themselves than to waste actions attacking them. That character also has the Retribution feat from Dragon - for every 5 full points of damage someone deals me, I get +1 to my next round's first attack against them. I've deliberately provoked from enormous heck-beasts of all kinds in the past to get the equivalent of a free-action true strike against them to do horrible, horrible things in return and clear up attack routes for other party members.

One of my other characters uses his tiny robotic minions to provoke attacks of opportunity all the time - they have hardness 10 but almost no offense at 3rd level, so opponents typically spend the first round or two of combat uselessly playing "swat the metal block" until they figure out that, no, the greatsword-wielding warforged is the one they should have saved those AoOs for. Then they die.

 

[Bagpuss]

Depends on the character, I have a dwarven Cleric with Combat Expertise, Mobility, and Whirlwind attack that doesn't mind provoking AoO's to get to a good position to spin his axe or to run over and help a downed ally. He tends to take one attack with his axe using full Combat Expertise then move into the new position, this gives him +9 AC verses the AoO's and considering he is a tank to start with they rarely land. It also is a good way to clear a path for weaker members to move through enemy lines.

Most of my other character's avoid provoking, because it's easy to do usually.

 

[Ahrimon]

I'm playing in a swashbuckling adventures campaign right now, so with that character...as much as humanly possible. I have a really High AC and a feat that allows me to make an AoO against someone every time they miss me with a melee attack. It's really fun to just run through the mooks, drop a couple, then get to my target and attack.

For normal games, about 10%-20%. I'll soak an AoO if it'll help the party in the long run.