Spellcasters and AoO

[werk]

"An attack of opportunity "interrupts" the normal flow of actions in the round. If an attack of opportunity is provoked, immediately resolve the attack of opportunity, then continue..."

I would say nothing can be done prior to the AoO, like casting a spell as a free action...or any aciton for that matter. A held charge spell is a lot different, as the inflict wounds as a CdG thread points out.

 

[Three_Haligonians]

By my understanding of the RAW this is not possible. But I'm more curious if folks would allow it as within the spirit of the rules. Because I'm not entirely sure its not within the rules.

This is a little off-topic perhaps, but just to let you know there is an Epic feat called "Spell Opportunity" which allows you to take attacks of opportunities with spells.

As to the main part of the thread, if the spell is an immediate action spell, couldn't you just do it whenever you wanted anyway? Nobody would have to provoke an attack of opportunity, would they?

R from Three Haligonians

 

[OptionalRule]

I'd say no since he doesn't threaten with the spell while the action that provoked the AoO took place. If they had the spell charged and held though I would probably allow it but since only melee attacks count as a threat they would have to make a full unarmed attack (subject to AoO themselves and with a normal to hit roll).

 

[DanMcS]

By my understanding of the RAW this is not possible. But I'm more curious if folks would allow it as within the spirit of the rules. Because I'm not entirely sure its not within the rules.

AoO:
An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and you can only make one per round. You don’t have to make an attack of opportunity if you don’t want to.

Spells with an Immediate Casting Time:
An immediate spell consumes more time then a free action, but less then a standard. An immediate spell can be cast at any time, even if its not your turn.

The cast at any time is what gives me pause...
Can a spellcaster use an Immediate spell with a touch attach as an AoO?
(Ignore for the moment there seems to be no Immediate spells except for feather fall.)

The spirit of the immediate action rules is that they allow an action that is:
a) outside your normal round
b) in reponse to some event
c) only one immediate action per event

If you view an attack of opportunity and an immediate action as refinements of the same kind of timing rule (I do), then you obviously can't both cast an immediate action spell AND take an attack of opportunity if someone provokes an attack of opportunity. You'd be taking two immediate actions in response to one provoking event, which is outside the spirit of the timing rules as they currently exist.