Renaming the AoO

[messy]

How about "free attack".

bingo. i've been using "free attack" in my home game. short, sweet, and understandable.

before that, i abbreviated "attack of opportunity" as "a.o." and that worked fine.

messy

 

[Cadfan]

That could be pretty nasty if you've got spells or other awesome special abilities that activate on an immediate action.

Depends on the power level you choose for abilities which function as immediate actions. If they're all about equal (or if they have other costs), then its fine.

You're right that there would be certain things you'd have to be careful about with a feat like this. But it seems doable to me.

Its not the only solution, but its one possible solution.

 

[Zweischneid]

I'd vote for "DM Discretion"

If you do something foolish/risky/unlikely like drinking potions in mid-combat, the DM should pass an appropriate judgement such as "you drop the potion unless you make a skill-check X", or "the beasty gets a free attack" or whatever else the DM thinks is appropriate, enhances the story and helps prevent rule exploits and generally uncool behaviour.

Welcome to roleplaying.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

I like Free Attack.

If you move out of an enemy's threat range, you invoke a Free Attack from that foe.

If you draw a weapon on your turn and you're within melee range of a foe, they get a Free Attack against you.

etc...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

From what I gathered so far, it sounds as if the name becomes "Opportunity Attack". It's still pretty long, but at least you get the somewhat clunky "of" preposition out of the term.

Actually, I'd just put in a feat that gave you an extra immediate action per turn. Why not?

Giving extra actions freely usable is always dangerous (see Haste 3.0, Shadowrun Initiative system). Now, immediate actions aren't standard action, but they were invented because there needed to be a limit to such actions, and handing them out freely might lead to unforseen effects.

Best idea is probably to have a feat that grants extra immediate actions for a limited purpose (free attack, free defensive spell casting, free move, free shapeshift...).

 

[Dracorat]

"Free Attack" could be very misleading, especially as the term might get thrown around for just about anything.

If I had my druthers, we would use more formal names, this action being called a "Botta en Tempo" or "BT" or even just "Botta" for short. We already use Riposte and Coup de Grace (though oddly, not the other Coup methods, such as Coup de Main).

Technically "Botta" itself means only "attack" but it is an understood move in the art of sword fighting.

 

[Sammael]

Interrupt.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I don't really need to see a change to the name. Why rename something that everybody already knows. It is not that difficult to say or understand. I vote for keeping the old name, but if WotC really wants to rename it I am ok with "Emerald Phoenix Initiate Reactive Crystalwing Attack" since it matches the rest of their naming conventions.

 

[Szatany]

Sucker Punch


But Emerald Phoenix Initiate Reactive Crystalwing Attack works too.

"the giant moves 20 feet away, you have a free EPIRCA against him."

 

[BASHMAN]

How about "free attack".

As in, stop fighting someone who is still fighting you, and they'll get a free attack on you. Subject to DM discretion, of course.

That's it. All the rules that were ever needed. And none of this nonsense about threatened squares, different types of actions, etc.

Here Here! But I think they are going with Opportunity Attack. Hopefully it is too late for them to change it to Emerald Phoenix Initiate Reactive Crystalwing Attack-- but you never know. It is still in a state of flux right now and sounds very 4e...