[Practical Tactical] Provoking Opportunity Attacks for more Damage;Use that Defender!

[Syrsuro]

Except, it is a good tactic when it lets you always have flank. Even on ranged attackers.

And rangers and warlocks get a +1 to ranged attacks this way too.

How does this relate to the specific 'tactic' described above.

What you describe is simply one of the major advantages of having a fighter marking your foe - if you move to gain flanking (or for other tactical reason) it must either let you make the move or it must let the fighter whack it.

But that isn't the the same thing as the tactic described above - taking extra movements (or doing a 'move 1' rather than a 'shift 1') for the purpose of triggering OAs and thus Fighter combat challenge. In fact - the simplest basic case used in the OP actually shows a character moving OUT OF flanking position to 'draw' an OA. And if I were playing an intelligent creature I'd probably be happy to let him do it with a fighter right there.


Or more likely, I'd take the OA, and then on my turn I'd hit the fighter and then shift myself (now safe from the Combat Challenge) into a position where the two characters could no longer gain flanking on me the next round (and thank the other character for moving away from me and making that move easier). Or maybe instead of attacking I'd even take a shift and standard-> move and get out of that position entirely to somewhere better suited to my tactics, somewhere I can't be flanked at all or where I can give one of the other creatures combat advantage - since the players were so kind as to let me out an otherwise bad tactical situation.

Which the essential weakness of this tactic. It doesn't recommend using FIghter's Combat Challenge to control the battlefield. Rather, it appears to recommend making otherwise poor tactical moves for the express purpose of drawing OAs. And this only works if the creature actually takes those OAs. Otherwise you are just making bad tactical moves for no gain.

Carl

 

[keterys]

How does this relate to the specific 'tactic' described above.

It relates in that it is exactly the tactic described above - intentionally triggering OAs to let you defenders do damage. Section IV mentions using ranged attacks without moving if you want to be really explicit.

Which the essential weakness of this tactic.

There are a lot of people who don't get that provoking OAs to get in a better position is a win-win often, so every bit helps. I do know that I've cheerfully ignored OAs when they wouldn't be useful in the past, of course... I also know that when I play a warlock with hellish rebuke I'm going to be triggering OAs like mad.

 

[inati]

Just for clarification, this article does not advocate making a movement of One. Please note that the initial diagram clearly states "PC continues their Move action." The article distills the movement down to the instance that a player triggers an OA, which happens to be when the player leaves a threatening square. Showing all possible movement paths after that is not within the scope of the article.

The case for "Monster Intelligence" and how it relates to tactical fighting and movement should best be left for another thread, as this issue is ultimately up to the DM and how he wishes his Monsters to fight on his table. Arguing over it here will never generate any sort of consensus; there is no "right" answer.

Or more likely, I'd take the OA, and then on my turn I'd hit the fighter and then shift myself (now safe from the Combat Challenge) into a position where the two characters could no longer gain flanking on me the next round (and thank the other character for moving away from me and making that move easier). Or maybe instead of attacking I'd even take a shift and standard-> move and get out of that position entirely to somewhere better suited to my tactics, somewhere I can't be flanked at all or where I can give one of the other creatures combat advantage - since the players were so kind as to let me out an otherwise bad tactical situation.

First of all, thank you for communicating your concerns, because I was also having similar thoughts when I began writing up the initial article (and critiquing it for myself), so it's nice to have the opportunity to address them. I would like to point out that your scenarios are flawed in that:

1. Please read Section IV 'Maintaining Flank (aka Move without Moving)' before your Monsters start thanking players for moving. (already addressed)

2. The fact that your Monster took the OA anyways, and consequently the Defender damage, shows that you have already fallen for the tactic. Usually monsters never trigger the Defender damage ability, which is kind of one of the points of the article. (already addressed)

3. This tactic also works perfectly fine even without being in flanking positions, as has been stated already in the article more than once. (already addressed)

4. If your Monster uses a shift and then a Standard action to Move away, the players have just taken away one Standard action that could have been used to attack them instead, creating a net "win" for the round. This was addressed in an earlier draft of the article under Section III titled 'Conservation of Actions', but was taken out for the final draft that was posted here due to it being overly wordy, and the fact that it didn't really have anything to do with drawing OAs. (unrelated)

5. As for the being safe from the Combat Challenge bit, that's a very good point. I've already written an article addressing this concern. However, I need to finish up the diagrams before appending it to this article. I should be done sometime this week hopefully. (to be added, pending diagrams)