OAs/AoO - they gotta go

[SoldierBlue]

Attacks of Opportunity/Opportunity Attacks need to go, for two simple reasons:

1) They are complex in such a way that they deter new players. Hell, they even deter old players. I GM'd a campaign with experienced players last summer, and it was shocking how many didn't get the concept. There is in fact a thread on the 3.5 Legacy forum right now, where experienced gamers are still wrestling with the concept. It may sound simple - "You draw an attack when you leave a threatened square" - but it is not intuitive for a large percentage of players.

2) It obligates playing on a mat. That is an obligation that , judging by the results of the recent WotC blog poll, a large percentage of players just don't want.

Don't get me wrong - I love 'em. They are critical to understanding reach, properly accounting for the vulnerabilities of archers and spell-casters, and I know how critical they are to a slew of 4e powers. They add a nuance to the battlefield that was sorely missing in prior editions. I would say make them a modularized option, but that won't work - once you've got 'em in, they change too many disparate aspects of the game.

But they are a complication that severely frustrates new players and occasional players. Nothing else seems to make the occasional player seethe with frustration when the GM has to advise them they've drawn an AoO/OA, and we stop the game to explain exactly why that is. And then we all watch as that player (another player's girlfriend, for example, who only plays once or twice a month) goes back to computer games and Magic.

The OSR folks seem to survive okay without them (and indeed may have gone Old School because of them!), and many of us played for two decades without them. I understand, but only through heresay, that the new Pathfinder Basic Game hums along just fine without them also.

I say this with great regret in my heart, because I have no problem using them, and I know what value they provide to an interesting and dynamic battlefield. But for the good of the game, I can live without them (I think...I haven't fully convinced myself of this yet....)

Play what you want, Gamer Nation!

 

[LostSoul]

1) They don't need to be complex.

2) They don't need to require playing on a mat.

 

[Tallifer]

1) Nothing complex about them for me at the moment.

2) I like the mat.

3) They are important for realistically defending the squishier party members.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I am used to them from the get go. I started with ADnD 2nd edition nearly 20 years ago and the always were a part of combat:

1) running away from combat
2) casting or using a ranged attack in melee
3) passing by someone who defends a hall

those were and are still the usual cases where attack of opportunity matter.
Of course it is much ore codified now. But those things can easily be tracked without any battelemap

 

[Minigiant]

I taught an 6 year old to use them. It is relately easy to understand 90% of the times you provoke them. It is only the few times where weird stuff happens.


Now they can be removed but other rules must be added and other design goals be used to fill the gap.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I say only give them to Fighters (or those who select the ability through other means).

 

[mkill]

If I understand correctly, 5E core rules won't require battlegrid and miniatures. (Is this confirmed?)

If there is no battlemat, the position of PCs and monsters isn't as fixed, so there won't be attacks of opportunity. (At least not in the current form)

I'd say Opportunity Attacks are a prime example for the "option in the tactical module that you can drop in your game if you like that sort of thing".

The biggest difficulty is to make melee classes, especially those who defend allies, viable in a non-grid game. It's possible, but you need to adapt their class features accordingly.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

I disagree.

While I don't mind if the mechanic used is altered from 2eC&T/3e/4e, I believe the central principle should remain. If your character is distracted or ignores those who are threatening them, they are not defending themselves as usual and thus provide opportunity to those near them in either an offensive or defensive capacity. Otherwise, it sets up unrealistic entitlement to achieve things that a character otherwise wouldn't or shouldn't have. Stop trying to hack me apart while I search my backpack for a magical potion. I think not.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Frostmarrow]

Remove them. You do stuff on your turn when you are prepared to act and focused on your situation. When it's not your turn you prepare for when your turn comes up.

Shifting focus to react slows the game down. Some people can actually handle this (me) but not everybody (you).

 

[mach1.9pants]

They should be an optional module.