Stay back! The joy of OAs.

[Mithreinmaethor]

I have not looked up the polearm gambit thing. but just because you OA something doesnt mean you stop its movement. Only if you dropped it to 0 or fewer hps.

PHB Pg 290

"Interrupts Target’s Action: An opportunity action
takes place before the target finishes its action.
After the opportunity attack, the creature resumes
its action If the target is reduced to 0 hit points or
fewer by the opportunity attack, it can’t finish its
action because it’s dead or dying."

 

[MeMeMeMe]

You've made the same mistake I made . The fighter has a class ability that stops movement when he makes an OA.

 

[Surgoshan]

A key question is that of where he stops the movement.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

That question is actually what this whole thread is about.

And <pause for dramatic effect> I have the answer!

Earlier, I wondered:

In Immediate Actions, which are a different type of action, it lists Immediate Interrupt - and has a long section describing how interrupts actually work. But it's not clear to me whether it is describing how immediate interrupts work, or how all interrupts work.

You'd think each of those two sections (Opportunity Actions and Immediate Interrupt Actions) there'd be text like "this Interrupts an action," with a second seperate definition "interrupts undo the action which triggers them."
It seems to me that leaves open the interpretation that Immediate Interruptions work like that, but Opportunity Actions might not. Then again, why mention that opportunity actions interrupt actions, if they don't work like that? <confused>

I've just stumbled over the Opportunity Attack action writeup on page 290 of the PHB where, lo and behold, it gives a different definition for this form of interrupt.
"An opportunity action takes place before the target finishes its action. After the opportunity attack, the creature resumes its action. If the target is reduced to 0 hit points or fewer by the opportunity attack, it can’t finish its action because it’s dead or dying."

So it is clear that this type of interrupt does not undo the action that caused them.

Since the polearm glaive is an opportunity attack, the guy moves adjacent to the fighter, suffers an opportunity attack and if hit, stops moving because of the fighter's combat superiority. But because this is an opportunity attack and not an immediate interrupt, he is not pushed back.

The answer was in the text all along.

 

[Makaze]

An opportunity action takes place before the target finishes its action

But that part right there indicates that it does act like an immediate interrupt. The action is the enemy moving adjacent. The OA therefor happens before that and much like killing something makes completing the movement impossible.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

I agree it can be read that way, though that inyterpretation didn't occur to me before.
The way I read it is, "An opportunity action takes place before the target finishes its action" where action is a standard action, move action, or minor action. In this case, it's always a move action.
So the action is, move some number of squares. After moving into the adjacent square triggers this opportunity attack, the rest of the movement (if any) is interrupted, the attack is resolved, and then any movement remaining is taken.

I think you're using the definoition of interrupt as defined in the immediate interrupt section, wheres the opportunity action is using interrupt in its plain English meaning: you move here, someone says, "hold it, stop there, I get my attack!", the attack is resolved, and movement continues.

I'm not 100% certain though.

 

[Tony Vargas]

What the OP describes is pretty close to 3e, with a trip or Stand Still or something thrown in.

It seems to me that when WotC nixes something, they like to slip it back in a nerfed way, just to suck in those used to abusing it. My guess is that's what Polearm Gamble was meant to be, a 3e munchkin 'trap.' Look at how little it's actually got going for it:

- It's a paragon feat. You're taking this instead of boosting your AC by 1 and moving at full speed in scale armor or something like that - and you can't be a 3e-style reach fighter at the heroic level, at all.

- The OA is triggered upon entering a square, instead of the usual leaving a square. That's strictly inferior to the threatening reach that monsters get. In addition to the point of contention, above (the OA could very well be happening in the adjacent square), this means you can't OA someone that moves through your reach, but never comes adjacent to you, so your ability to stop an enemy from 'going around you' is no different than any other fighter's, in spite of our reach.

- Finally, it grants combat advantage to the guy you OA. A fair trade if you stack enough feats, features, and powers onto your OAs, I suppose, but still an additional downside, and a painful one where sneak attacks are concerned (you're the self-flanking fighter).


Contrast this with 3e, where simply holding a pole arm let you take an AoO on anyone who moved through the area you threatened, and adding a feat (or using a Guisarme or Spiked Chain, for that matter) would let you stop him.

 

[Zaruthustran]

What the OP describes is pretty close to 3e, with a trip or Stand Still or something thrown in.

It seems to me that when WotC nixes something, they like to slip it back in a nerfed way, just to suck in those used to abusing it. My guess is that's what Polearm Gamble was meant to be, a 3e munchkin 'trap.' Look at how little it's actually got going for it:

- It's a paragon feat. You're taking this instead of boosting your AC by 1 and moving at full speed in scale armor or something like that - and you can't be a 3e-style reach fighter at the heroic level, at all.

- The OA is triggered upon entering a square, instead of the usual leaving a square. That's strictly inferior to the threatening reach that monsters get. In addition to the point of contention, above (the OA could very well be happening in the adjacent square), this means you can't OA someone that moves through your reach, but never comes adjacent to you, so your ability to stop an enemy from 'going around you' is no different than any other fighter's, in spite of our reach.

- Finally, it grants combat advantage to the guy you OA. A fair trade if you stack enough feats, features, and powers onto your OAs, I suppose, but still an additional downside, and a painful one where sneak attacks are concerned (you're the self-flanking fighter).


Contrast this with 3e, where simply holding a pole arm let you take an AoO on anyone who moved through the area you threatened, and adding a feat (or using a Guisarme or Spiked Chain, for that matter) would let you stop him.

It's clearly worse than 3e reach, but Actions are still the king of combat, and anything that gives you an extra action is therefore still quite good.

To address your specific issues:

• It is a paragon feat. Nothing we can do about that.
  
• The OA is triggered on enemy's "move adjacent", so people can run around you if they keep 1 square away. That makes it not as effective for crowd control as 3e's reach (or 4e's Threatening Reach), but as the title of the thread says, it also means that you can keep people from moving adjacent. Against monsters without ranged attacks or reach, that's pretty big deal--I'd say it's even superior to an OA triggering off "leaving a square".
  
• Granting combat advantage is a trade off. However, you can mitigate it with the Uncanny Dodge feat. You're still at risk for sneak attack and similar effects (they still have CA against you), but at least they don't get +2 to their attack.

 

[Contrail]

• Granting combat advantage is a trade off. However, you can mitigate it with the Uncanny Dodge feat. You're still at risk for sneak attack and similar effects (they still have CA against you), but at least they don't get +2 to their attack.

Also, there's a 2nd level Fighter Utility exploit that lets you negate Combat Advantage once per encounter, which would prevent sneak attacks and other attacks that rely on CA.

- Contrail

 

[Arbitrary]

It's a bit of work for an interesting ability that isn't going to warp a game and has reasonable counters. Balance-wise, it's fine.

I think Zaru's example does an excellent job of showing how the mechanics of the game work and I think I can do one better to cement the character-

The most common opportunity action is an opportunity attack. When an enemy leaves a square adjacent to you, or when an adjacent enemy makes a ranged or an area attack, you can make an opportunity attack against that enemy.

So, when do you get the attack? Do you get the attack while the creature is still adjacent, or after it is one square away from its movement? While it is still adjacent of course. The triggering action is it attempting to move away, you get your attack, and the action continues. If you were supposed to get the attack after it wouldn't do anything because the target would be out of reach. In this situation the triggering action is moving adjacent so you stop everything right there, get your attack, any consequences of it occur, and the action continues.

When you get an attack on a creature trying to move away is no different than when you get an attack on a creature trying to move in (with these features/powers).