Space and AOO's

[wedgeski]

We've run into this one as well, and concluded similarly: you only get 5' of unthreatened 'movement' before being susecptible to AoO's. As someone else has noted, one of the disadvantages of being large is that there's more of you to hit.

Remember also that it can be impossible to withdraw cleanly (i.e. without taking any AoO's) even if you're Medium; it all depends on the positions of your opponents and your avenues of escape. When you're Large or even bigger, those avenues start to shrink unless you can move in more than 2 dimensions.

 

[Someone]

For the purposes of withdrawal, I´d treat a creature with a face of x as composed by x^2 creatures moving at the same time. If any of them draws an AoO, the larger-than-medium creature draws one AoO.

 

[Ranger REG]

Just a thought but when a creature of large or larger size moves do you consider only one 5' square as unthreatened for the first 5' or do you consider it's entire space unthreatened?

And before you scoff if you have any logical progressive thought you'll know where this is going.

That depends on the reach of the creature who threatens the large creature. I assume the large creature is making a withdrawal action.

If the large creature's opponent is medium-sized with a reach of 5 feet: If after making his first 5-feet move the large creature no longer occupy any of the squares his opponent can threaten, then he is safe.

IOW, it depends on which square(s) he occupy after making the first 5-feet move. If he is still within a threatened square, then he is guaranteed to provoke AoO when he leave that square, unless he stop and considered having finished his 5-feet step.

Tactically, if you're a large character going up against a large opponent, it's best not to move your character adjacent to it, just within your threatened reach (10 feet).

 

[Infiniti2000]

I assume the large creature is making a withdrawal action.

I only make that assumption if he's at the right bank.

 

[BalazarIago]

The way I would word it is that the first five feet of movement is free of AoO. After that, the target is fair game. To say that the area they occupied at the start of the move is safe from AoO would imply that if the mover doubled back and passed through those squrares a second time, they would not provoke an AoO because the space is considered "safe". This is obviously not what the designers intended.

It is also my understanding that if that dragon did make a move and the rogues got an AoO for the move, they would only get one, not more than one. I believe that person can only claim one AoO against a target for their turn, even if they do more than one thing that would provoke an AoO.

If you think that large, or larger, sized creatures are being penalized by this rule, then modify it to allow for their large, or larger size. That is what house rules are for.