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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheOverlord" data-source="post: 5177086" data-attributes="member: 83747">From the SourceI see where you are going with this and while there has been a lot of speculation about interpretation, none of that is not necessary. I have a direct answer to your question from the horse's mouth. Trip attacks are addressed in this <a href="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20060307a" target="_blank">article</a> by the man himself, Skip Williams. But there is one paragraph in particular that answers your question and dilemma very specifically."The rules don't come right out and say it, but you use your melee touch attack to get a purchase on your foe (so you can throw, push, or pull him down). The melee touch attack provokes an attack of opportunity from your foe." -- excerpt from Rules of the Game Article by Skip WilliamsThe intent here is revealed in full. To get the leverage over your foe enough to actually trip they require a melee touch - not a melee attack. The confusion comes from the pairing of the statement make a melee touch attack and then equating unarmed strikes...which by definition are not melee touches at all. No where do the rules state either in improved trip or trip attack that you can make a melee attack (unarmed or otherwise) to start the trip. In fact, it explicitly states that it must be a melee touch.This to me seems very similar to why creatures need Improved Grab to land a melee attack and start a grapple instead of a melee touch. However, there is no such option for tripping. Your options include using a weapon to make the melee touch which is a workaround for the sole purpose of avoiding the AoO. Or taking the feat which is the other explicit work around. The Improved Unarmed Strike feat does not allow you start a grapple without provoking an attack of opportunity even though you are considered armed b/c a melee touch is not "unarmed strike" it is just a melee touch which is its own creature entirely.</blockquote>

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