No AoO...?

[ValhallaGH]

making improved feint the standard bluff in combat manuver with improved fient making it a swift action.

How about a skill challenge (-5 to the bluff check) to feint as a Move Action and Improved Feint removes the penalty and allows you to take a challenge (-5 to the bluff check) to feint as a free action.

This way anyone can feint quickly, but those that have mastered it either do it better or can feint even more quickly.

 

[Bayonet_Chris]

Removing AoO

I've been experimenting with this myself.

I would go with either a penalty to checks (where an AoO would normally be provoked) or possibly making any action that would provoke an AoO a full action. For example, if you're going to run through threatened squares to get somewhere, you can't move and attack - you can move only (normal, not double). Essentially you're losing a half action for doing something overly dangerous.

I'm just throwing these out - I realize their are problems with each approach.

 

[jdrakeh]

To contribute more directly, when I removed AoOs from my Unofficial Codex for Warlords of the Accordlands, I didn't replace them with other rules (e.g., modifiers, full actions, etc). Rather, I simply removed them. Period. It didn't seem to unbalance anything, though it did make some feats and maneuvers rather pointless (so I remvoed those, as well). It took all of one evening to edit the appropriate sections of the SRD.

 

[Grimstaff]

I've quietly done this (remove AOO's) over the last few weeks without even telling my players, I'm still waiting for someone to notice. I've cut back on the battleboard alot too.

I can only assume they are having too much fun with the now fast and furious combats to notice.

 

[jdrakeh]

I can only assume they are having too much fun with the now fast and furious combats to notice.

This seems to mirror my experience with the single WotA session I ran (see my earlier posts) before selling/trading my books (I wish that I hadn't had to, but I was unemployed and seriously hard up for cash at the time).

 

[Flynn]

Does anyone else have any experiences to share in this same vein? Has anyone had a bad experience with doing this? I can remember when 1st and 2nd Edition didn't have AOOs and what the combat was like, but I'm looking to see what others experience with doing so under the 3E/v3.5 rules.

Thanks In Advance,
Flynn

 

[Plane Sailing]

Second, remove AoOs. Completely take them out. Characters can perform almost any action and will never provoke for it. The only "down side" is that it makes it far more difficult for one character to block a fifteen foot wide hallway; honestly, this doesn't bother me because I can't recall the last time anyone in fiction or myth single-handedly blocked a fifteen foot wide path.

Removing AoO can be done in a slightly better way than this.

a) take them out (along with combat reflexes)
b) characters CAN'T do stuff that would have provoked an AoO in standard D&D. i.e. can't drink a potion or cast a spell when you are standing right next to an armed opponent, can't just run past an opponent (you've got to do it in 5ft steps).

Tumble can still be used for getting past foes, Mobility feat becomes an automatic ability to run past foes.

optionally
c) characters who really, really want to do something naughty in a threatened area might have to make a difficult concentration check to make it happen

This can work well.

Cheers

 

[Baby Samurai]

Removi
characters who really, really want to do something naughty in a threatened area might have to make a difficult concentration check to make it happen

Love that – what qualifies as naughty?

…Mooning the enemy?