Pulling an unconscious ally out of combat

[carborundum]

If a party member pulls an unconscious ally away from a nasty beastie, would the nasty beastie get an AoO on the moving hunk of flesh?


In our Savage Tide game tonight, the party met Ripclaw, a savage (supernaturally extra vicious) deinonychus. The barbarian got pounced on and went from full (35) hitpoints to -1 in one round. Cue panic in the players - Muhahahaha!

A party member immediately pulled his unconsciuos form out of the way and I felt that the beast would happily take the opportunity to grab his prey (AoO bite) and pull it back to him for dinner. At the same time, I felt it a bit mean (a successful hit does at least 9 damage for a start).

The beastie in question did not have extra reach so technically the unconscious guy was only having an involuntary move only action away from the beast. I wasn't sure of the rules but since he was only moving out of a threatened area and not through one I let it go. No-one was quite sure so the dramatic tension did its work and they were relieved to get away with it.

After the fight we still weren't 100% sure if the beast had a right to attack the poor unconscious lummox or not - hence my post. Playwise, it was the right decision, but how about ruleswise?

 

[UltimaGabe]

From a reality standpoint, andgoing by the "logic" that explains what Attacks of Opportunity, simply being unconscious should technically provoke attacks of opportunity every round. However, from a RAW standpoint, as well as a fairness standpoint, the unconscious player shouldn't provoke an attack of opportunity because he isn't doing anything- someone else is doing it for him. So the character pulling him should provoke, but not the unconscious player.

 

[Felnar]

no AoO
compare to bullrush

 

[carborundum]

Yeah, it's the first time that 'doing the right thing' felt like ignoring a rule.

It's like dragging a toy mouse in front of a cat and having him only able to attack your hand!

 

[LonePaladin]

When the rules come into conflict with what's fun for the players, go with the latter.

In this case, having someone put himself at risk to get an ally out of harm's way made for tension at the table: will they be able to do so before it gets a chance to finish him off? Even if they do, will they deal with the threat in time to ensure their friend's survival, or will that 10% stabilizing roll consistently fail?

I'd say you made the right call on this. No animal, even one affected by the savage tide, would've ignored other combatants waving weapons and spells in its face to take a leisurely bite out of a fallen enemy's hide. If he'd still been lying there, sure, have it grab him and try to run off — but don't just automatically kill the character off when it's more dramatic and fun to give them the chance of losing someone.

(One caveat: If your players start to get cavalier about this — "Oh, he won't kill one of us outright" — feel free to throw an unavoidable kill at them. Just make sure the victim will have a chance of either being raised, or let the player bring in a replacement character without much hassle.)

 

[kensanata]

In our game, I tell players they have to move into their dying buddy's square (like picking up an item) and start dragging (move action). Thus: The player doing the dragging will provoke an AoO. If the bad guys start eating the fallen character, I treat it as a Coup de Grace.

 

[frankthedm]

In our game, I tell players they have to move into their dying buddy's square (like picking up an item)

There have been some disagrrement on that subject in this forum.

If the bad guys start eating the fallen character, I treat it as a Coup de Grace.

I'd call that just damage. Feasting on soft chewy entrials is a bit less lethal than tearing the targets head off. Mind you, a lot more painful.

The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you.

 

[mvincent]

In our game, I tell players they have to move into their dying buddy's square (like picking up an item) and start dragging (move action).

You can pick up, manipulate, etc. items in adjacent squares (indeed, sometimes this is the only way to do so). This has been conclusively discussed before (threads links available on request).

 

[frankthedm]

You can pick up, manipulate, etc. items in adjacent squares (indeed, sometimes this is the only way to do so). This has been conclusively discussed before (threads links available on request).

Links would be cool as I don't remember if it was that conclusive...

After all, if not limited to ones own square, why not within one's melee reach?

 

[mvincent]

Links would be cool as I don't remember if it was that conclusive

Here

if not limited to ones own square, why not within one's melee reach?

Yup. You can indeed grab an item if it is within one's unarmed melee reach. Thank you for helping clarify my earlier statement.