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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HeapThaumaturgist" data-source="post: 2388972" data-attributes="member: 12332">"Making an attack" isn't the same as "pulling a trigger".  Making an attack is lining up the shot, deciding if/how you can hit the guy, and trying to do so.  And getting AoOed doesn't end your turn, that must have been a house rule from your GM.  It just happens.  When orcs turn to flee from raging barbarians ... well that usually ends the orc's turn, as he gets bisected.My own AoO rules don't have people firing at a single opponent in front of you provoke.  I can see where you'd be paying enough attention to not getting clobbered that you'd plug the guy in front of you.  If you're trying to shoot somebody on the OTHER side of the room, though, and somebody is standing next to you, well, "whap" it is.  5' Squares are pretty big ... its assumed that alot is going on while nothing is going on.  I mean, what about saving throws?  Some how you can avoid taking damage from a grenade with "reflexes" yet are effectively standing in the same spot when the smoke clears?Some real-world tactics take advantage of an AoO-type logic.  The short stabbing swords of the early celts and the roman legionaires depended on getting up and inside the swing-arc of larger, more awkward weapons like axes and swords.  When your foe attempted to swing his arm around to attack with his weapon, you moved IN to stab with your own, effectively using HIS ATTACK to allow you to make yours.  I've always treated AoOs a little more flexibly than pure RAW.  If there's a raging barbarian on one side of a guy and a small rogue slipping past on the other, is the guy really going to take his eyes off of the Barbarian to make a swipe at the rogue?  Wouldn't that provoke an AoO itself?  AoOs can get pretty absurd, but they can also be cinematic in their own right.  What about a stocky dwarf, facing down a pack of orcs with his ranseur ... they laugh, nod to one another, and charge ... in a whistling blur of steel and blood, orcs go stumbling and falling, battered back, hooked at the knee with that wicked barbed blade, slashed and disoriented.  Dwarf with Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip, and a reach weapon taking AoOs against a handful of enemies trying to move through his threat squares ... all getting tripped and whacked for their trouble.  --fje</blockquote>

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