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Question: How do you rationalize opportunity attacks?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5881120" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Any turn based game is going to have problems with real time. That really is an additional discussion that covers problems well beyond attacks of oppurtunity. The 'ready' action is one of the most problimatic in the game.</p><p></p><p>That said, I'd not be surprised that your bitterness at the above situation has less to do with the rules and more with how the DM made the decision to gank your archer. The following points stand out:</p><p></p><p>1) If you did not need to interrupt the attackers action, you could have used a 'hold' action rather than a 'ready' action. This would have let you attack three times in a turn immediately after the opponent's finished their move.</p><p>2) Where the attackers aware of you before they turned the corner? If not, you are owed a surprise round - a free shot - even before we start talking about the attackers moving. Not that while the metalanguage is different, the ready action and the surprise round cover the same narrative situation. If the rules are transparent, the story will sound the same to the hearer.</p><p>3) Even if the attackers were aware of you, because its a 90 degree turn, they can't use a run or charge action this turn, so there is no way that they can attack before you get to act.</p><p></p><p>So how does this work out? Well, there are a lot of variations but it basically amounts to that if you are less than 10 yards from the corner then you'll probably only have time for 1 arrow before your foes close to melee (threatening you with attack if you don't defend yourself), but if you are more than 10 yards from the corner, then chances are you'll get at least 3 arrows off before they close with you. Does that seem reasonable? If we transform the mechanics and turns into a narrative, then I think that the answer is yes. If you are right on the edge of the corner, you might get off one shot, but if you are bit farther away and a heroic archer then you can cinematicly fire an arrow into each foe as they advance on you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 5881120, member: 4937"] Any turn based game is going to have problems with real time. That really is an additional discussion that covers problems well beyond attacks of oppurtunity. The 'ready' action is one of the most problimatic in the game. That said, I'd not be surprised that your bitterness at the above situation has less to do with the rules and more with how the DM made the decision to gank your archer. The following points stand out: 1) If you did not need to interrupt the attackers action, you could have used a 'hold' action rather than a 'ready' action. This would have let you attack three times in a turn immediately after the opponent's finished their move. 2) Where the attackers aware of you before they turned the corner? If not, you are owed a surprise round - a free shot - even before we start talking about the attackers moving. Not that while the metalanguage is different, the ready action and the surprise round cover the same narrative situation. If the rules are transparent, the story will sound the same to the hearer. 3) Even if the attackers were aware of you, because its a 90 degree turn, they can't use a run or charge action this turn, so there is no way that they can attack before you get to act. So how does this work out? Well, there are a lot of variations but it basically amounts to that if you are less than 10 yards from the corner then you'll probably only have time for 1 arrow before your foes close to melee (threatening you with attack if you don't defend yourself), but if you are more than 10 yards from the corner, then chances are you'll get at least 3 arrows off before they close with you. Does that seem reasonable? If we transform the mechanics and turns into a narrative, then I think that the answer is yes. If you are right on the edge of the corner, you might get off one shot, but if you are bit farther away and a heroic archer then you can cinematicly fire an arrow into each foe as they advance on you. [/QUOTE]
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