Hydras and Combat Reflexes

[Markn]

Just my opinion...

But, you are never allowed to have more than 1 attack of opportunity against an opponent in 1 round no matter how many times he provokes and no matter how many attacks you get attacks due to combat reflexes and a high dex. Thus, I would say that the hydra would get 1 attack per head but could only take one attack on any individual target.

I am at work so I can't quote any sources and I don't remember anything special written in the hydra that overcomes this.

 

[Hypersmurf]

But, you are never allowed to have more than 1 attack of opportunity against an opponent in 1 round no matter how many times he provokes and no matter how many attacks you get attacks due to combat reflexes and a high dex.

That was the rule in 3E, but not in 3.5.

If you have Combat Reflexes, and someone moves through your threatened area and then casts a spell beside you, you get an AoO for each of those two opportunities.

-Hyp.

 

[Markn]

Shocked....

That was the rule in 3E, but not in 3.5.

If you have Combat Reflexes, and someone moves through your threatened area and then casts a spell beside you, you get an AoO for each of those two opportunities.

Really?!?!? I gotta say, that is the single biggest reason I disliked how they transitioned to 3.5. There are soooo many small changes and errors in editing in the book that it is easy to overlook something like this.

So there is no limit at all then?

So if you are moving away from a creature (assuming you are not withdrawing) that has a reach of 4 squares he would get 4 attacks on you (provided you planned to do some other standard action once outside of his reach)? Is that correct?

 

[Darkness]

So there is no limit at all then?

Well, you're still limited by the maximum number of AoOs you can make per round - generally 1, unless you have Combat Reflexes.

 

[Markn]

Clarify

Well, you're still limited by the maximum number of AoOs you can make per round - generally 1, unless you have Combat Reflexes.

I get that...I mean regarding Combat Reflexes, you could get 4 attacks if your dex was high enough and you had combat reflexes? I can't believe we have overlooked that for soooo long. I am in utter shock.

 

[dcollins]

So if you are moving away from a creature (assuming you are not withdrawing) that has a reach of 4 squares he would get 4 attacks on you (provided you planned to do some other standard action once outside of his reach)? Is that correct?

It's not quite that bad -- you get one per opportunity, and a single movement action like you describe is only one opportunity. There are some who argue that this was actually the same intent as in 3.0. From the 3.5 SRD, "Combat: Attacks of Opportunity":

Combat Reflexes and Additional Attacks of Opportunity: If you have the Combat Reflexes feat you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. This feat does not let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity, but if the same opponent provokes two attacks of opportunity from you, you could make two separate attacks of opportunity (since each one represents a different opportunity). Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn’t count as more than one opportunity for that opponent. All these attacks are at your full normal attack bonus.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So if you are moving away from a creature (assuming you are not withdrawing) that has a reach of 4 squares he would get 4 attacks on you (provided you planned to do some other standard action once outside of his reach)? Is that correct?

No - as dcollins explains, movement has its own special rule.

But if you use Rapid Reload to reload and fire your crossbow four times while threatened, you provoke eight AoOs, and someone with Combat Reflexes and a Dex of 24 could take all of them.

It's not something that really comes up all that often. The main one I can think of is someone attempting to grapple you with iterative attacks. Under the "one per opponent per round" rule, you get an AoO to disrupt their first grapple attempt, but after that, you can't stop their second one (unless your grapple check is better than theirs, obviously). Under 3.5, with CR, you can use AoOs to disrupt all their grapple attempts, unless you run out of AoOs before they run out of attacks...

-Hyp.