OAs, Combat Superiority, ending Movement and finishing square

[Aenghus]

A fighter's Combat Superiority means he can stop movement on a successful Opportunity Attack (OA). My question is, in what square does the target of the OA stop?

The options are in the original square adjacent to the fighter they were leaving to trigger the OA, OR the square they were entering.

p290 "If an enemy leaves a square adjacent to you, you can make an opportunity attack against that enemy. However, you can't make one if the enemy shifts or teleports, or is forced to move away by a pull, a push or a slide"

P79 Combat Superiority "An enemy struck by your opportunity attack stops moving, if a move provoked the attack".

(Now I know the target can resume moving if they have actions left, this isn't relevant to the question above).

I'm hoping there's some consensus on the answer to this issue.

 

[BarkingDeathSquirrel]

An opportunity attack interrupts the action (pg 290) that provoked it, so I would assume that the creature is forced to stop in the square it attempted to leave.

 

[fba827]

Since OAs are defined as immediate interrupts (not immediate reactions) I'd say that the person is stopped in the square that they were attempting to leave.

Edit: Ninja-ed by a Barking Death Squirrel! Sounds vicious

 

[Tellerve]

I see it differently, as the creature needed to have left that initial square thus provoking the AoO. At which point if you hit him he stops dead in his tracks one square away. Hmmm, although then if he backed out away from you he'd end up out of your adjacent areas and if he had a move action left he could skedaddle away.

Ok, i'll have to think about this more, but I still go opposite what you guys think for now.

Tellerve

 

[Kordeth]

I see it differently, as the creature needed to have left that initial square thus provoking the AoO. At which point if you hit him he stops dead in his tracks one square away. Hmmm, although then if he backed out away from you he'd end up out of your adjacent areas and if he had a move action left he could skedaddle away.

Ok, i'll have to think about this more, but I still go opposite what you guys think for now.

Tellerve

By this logic no one could ever make an OA, because once the target has left the square adjacent to you, you can't reach it with a melee attack.

The rules are pretty clear. An OA interrupts the action that triggers it--it happens before the triggering action. You stop the target moving in the square it was trying to leave.

 

[SableWyvern]

I see it differently, as the creature needed to have left that initial square thus provoking the AoO. At which point if you hit him he stops dead in his tracks one square away. Hmmm, although then if he backed out away from you he'd end up out of your adjacent areas and if he had a move action left he could skedaddle away.

Ok, i'll have to think about this more, but I still go opposite what you guys think for now.

Tellerve

An OA occurs "before the target finishes it's action". The question then is, when movement provokes, is the target's action 'Move over there, six squares away', or 'leave this adjacent square'. If the former, you could rule that the target is stopped before or after the first square of movement. If the latter, the target is stopped before moving at all.

It's also worth noting that, while an OA does interrupt the target's action, it most certainly is not an immediate interrupt. Calling it such is only likely to cause confusion.

 

[Hypersmurf]

An OA occurs "before the target finishes it's action". The question then is, when movement provokes, is the target's action 'Move over there, six squares away', or 'leave this adjacent square'. If the former, you could rule that the target is stopped before or after the first square of movement. If the latter, the target is stopped before moving at all.

Reactions essentially treat each square of movement as a discrete event; specifically, while they normally occur after an action, they may interrupt movement (though only after at least one square has been moved), and there is reference to "a portion of movement" triggering a Readied action.

I can Ready an action to trigger "when he moves into that square", and it will trigger after he enters the square but before he continues, whether he is moving one square, five squares, or ten squares.

It's not explicitly stated that interrupts (immediate interrupts or opportunity actions) also treat each square of movement as a discrete event, but it's fairly clear that the most common opportunity attack - attack a creature leaving an adjacent square - must trigger before the creature has actually moved, because otherwise much of the time he will no longer be close enough to attack.

Given those two points, I've no hesitation in ruling that an opportunity action or immediate interrupt triggering off movement happens just before the movement into (or out of) the critical square occurs.

-Hyp.

 

[SableWyvern]

Given those two points, I've no hesitation in ruling that an opportunity action or immediate interrupt triggering off movement happens just before the movement into (or out of) the critical square occurs.

-Hyp.

FWIW, I agree entirely.