I hate reach and attacks of opportunity (old thread)

Psychic Warrior said:
... and engage the mino before he has a chance to act (thus he is flat footed and cannot make attacks of opportunity). It's how I make my spiked chain wielding Half-Orc monk goe crazy.

I hope you're not short-changing the half-orc Monk, since if he has Combat Reflexes one of the benefits it gives you is that you CAN make AoO when you are flat-footed. That is one of the reasons so many reach weapon users take Combat Reflexes even if their Dex isn't anything special to write home about ;)
 

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Minotaurs and AoO

A couple things said in this thread compel me to post.

First, a rogue's sneak attack (or ninja for that matter) will not be effective at taking out a minotaur during the first round of battle. Minotaurs can never be flat-footed, so they cannot be sneak attacked in that way.

Second, an invisible creature will not be able to sneak up on him either. Minotaurs have scent, which means within 30 ft, they know you are there, and within 5, they can pinpoint your location.
 
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The usual ways to avoid an AoO:

- Tumble
- Spring Attack
- swarming him (so he doesn't have enough AoO's to get everyone)
- use reach weapons
- use ranged weapons
- use 5' steps + total defense
- catch the character flat-footed
- teleport next to the character

Of course, the character probably has taken Combat Reflexes, and thus can make a few AoO's a round, and while flat-footed.

I don't know about other special feats that might let someone avoid potential AoO's.

AR

These are good ideas. Tower shields that grant cover don't incur AoO's. A good choice of a ranged fighter with the bow feats can make short work of a melee only opponent.

The other thing is that you can have your player play his uber character and allow him to play his strengths through some combats and then mix it up with other factors. For example, since the minotaur has reach and is going around killing everything, the defenders are going to get wise and set up barriers for cover, they are going to switch to ranged weapons to take down the killing machine, and so on. It's the same if your group of players has an over-effective spellcaster. The enemies, if given time, will adapt.

Just recently, I ran an encounter where the PC's were fighting the high-level cleric cultist. The sorcerer evoker opened up the combat with her hellfire ability. Bad mistake, because that immediately made her the target for the cleric's destruction in which she failed her save and was obliterated.

In another combat, the ranger with her awesome bow shots was going around hitting a rogue group of cavaliers. They were not afraid of the paladin who did uber damage because they were able to outmanuever him and the sorcerer at the time wasn't using blasty spells, so the lead cavalier issued his challenges and charged the ranger and skewered her with his deadly feat combos for mounted combat. She survived the combat, but had to flee the battle as she couldn't take another hit.

Also, if you have monsters that are large size or bigger, they have reach too. :)
 

Second, an invisible creature will not be able to sneak up on him either. Minotaurs have scent, which means within 30 ft, they know you are there, and within 5, they can pinpoint your location.
Still stops AoOs.

You can’t execute an attack of opportunity against an opponent with total concealment, even if you know what square or squares the opponent occupies.

Dealing with reach requires using corners of allies to grant cover to negate AoOs.

Enemies start like this...
clericimbiggenedsv9.gif


End like this
aoodenialtk1.gif


Honestly, the player chose to be 5 character levels in the hole with 6 mediocre Monstrous Humanoid HD replacing 6 character levels. As you have seen the character crumples pretty well to damage so stop pulling punches, have the enemy deal with him and maybe the next character the player makes won't be such a glass cannon.
 
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Caltrops.
Net.
Large bags of highly poisonous insects.
Eye blinding powders.


And I wouldn't have allowed this because it sounds like he's a powergamer. In my games I only allow the base races from the PHB.
 


And I wouldn't have allowed this because it sounds like he's a powergamer. In my games I only allow the base races from the PHB.
Not sure if I would call this powergaming unless the player knew the DM was going to take steps to avoid killing off the character. More like putting all your eggs in one basket.
It's been almost 6 years. Thread necromancy at its finest worst. :eek:
Thanks for pointing that out! :) The Necromancers got XP thanks to you.
 
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I can think of four simple solutions.

Number one, opponents with high mobility and AC boosting abilities can get in range without suffering attacks of opportunity.

Number two, opponents with high hit points and perhaps damage reduction can take a licking and keep on ticking.

Number three, opponents with reach.


The Mog is 100% correct. You can always trust a guy with a pom.

My paladin/sorcerer regularly generates AoOs from enemies when he's charging in on a rhino's rush-bolstered charge attack. His AC when charging (and when otherwise maximized) is 41. He also has DR 5 / --. If the monster DOES manage to hit him with its AoO (which happens rarely with monsters at ECL 14), I can take the hit and still do far more damage to him than he's going to do to me.

My cohort uses a spiked chain and rarely needs to generate AoO because he has a natural reach of 10 feet and bracers that increase his range by 10 feet 3 times per day.

So let the mino-dragon get his AoO, and then have the bad guy deal really nasty damage on him thereafter -- or give the bad guy even better reach. Your players will need to change up their game plans.

Good luck!
 


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