Known AoO Triggers in 4th Edition

[jaer]

AoO on spell casting works for the party as much as it works against the party (since other spell casters don't pull AoO due to concentration/defensive casting).

I would imagine, now that I think about it, casting should provoke AoO; it makes the controller's and defender's jobs more important by creating a need to keep enemies away from certain other classes (and actually keeping them away from the caster rather than just making sure the enemy isn't focused on the caster).

Also, with movement becoming more important, it stands to reason a wizard will need to (and be able to) keep moving or keep pushing enemies away in order to be able to cast spells safely.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

It all sounds good so far. But I would like to compare the AoO mentions in the Bullette article with other known AoO mentions.

A quick browsing of the WotC Design and Dev articles did not have any other mentions of how AoO are likely handled jump out at me. The only other significant mention was here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20070816b

He’s sword and board, man.”

“Longsword?”

“Yeah. I thought about going high Con and using a hammer, but I wanted to start with the chance to make a couple of attacks, so I’m using rain of blows as my good weapon attack, and I went with high Wis so that I can switch to the better oppy powers later.”

All that tells us is that the number of AoO's for Fighters will be impacted by weapon choice. From that, one could infer that the total number of AoO's, and what a player can do during an AoO, will be dictated by choices made in character creation.

From playtest reports, all I could find was this:

That poor goblin fired on Heron, missing but triggering an immediate counterattack from the ranger

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drpr/20070831a
No idea if this qualifies as an AoO, but it does sound like one. It is hard to be sure since the report stays away from game specific terms, but a Feat or Class ability that grants "One AoO to a target that attacks you with a ranged weapon when you are also using a ranged weapon" sounds plausible.

Anyone know of anything else out there that is more direct?

 

[frankthedm]

I believe AoO's are getting streamlined by removing exceptions.

You move through threat, you draw an AoO. No ”if’s”, “and’s” or “but’s”.

Abilities that DO let you pass through threat safely are not called movement, rather use a different term, ”adjustment” IIRC. Those may also let you pass through foes spaces.

No casting defensively, a high level wizard might not draw AoOs at all when casting, but until that point, AoOs each time, every time.

 

[Scribble]

I believe AoO's are getting streamlined by removing exceptions.

You move through threat, you draw an AoO. No ”if’s”, “and’s” or “but’s”.

Abilities that DO let you pass through threat safely are not called movement, rather use a different term, ”adjustment” IIRC. Those may also let you pass through foes spaces.

No casting defensively, a high level wizard might not draw AoOs at all when casting, but until that point, AoOs each time, every time.

Yeah that's kind of what I'm thinking as well.

Combine a simplified AOO with a Bo9S style approach.

Simplify AOO to basically anything not an active attack, or slow movement.

Then make your various "stances" and "powers" modify it if they need to.

Maybe the Wizard can get a "stance" that allows him to avoid incuring an AoO when casting in a threatened square.