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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cabled" data-source="post: 2757234" data-attributes="member: 23297">Combat ReflexesAlso if 5' steps provoked AoO's, prepare to see almost every front liner taking the Combat Reflexes feat and having the Dex to utilize it.  This will in turn lead to a bogging down of combat as 50 AoO's take place each turn (an exaggeration, but you get my point).  The alternative is that nobody ever moves so as not to provoke the "AoO storm", but that's at least as boring as the "same tactic every time" scenario you talked about in the first handful of posts.Picture this..character B1 is flanked by attackers A1 and A2.  He takes a 5' step laterally to get out of the flank, and draws 2 attacks of opportunity, one from each attacker.  Since he is still only 5' away, just not between them anymore, when he tries to drink a potion, use a wand, do almost *anything* to heal from getting beat on, the attackers are presented with a different opportunity, and thanks to thier combat reflexes feats, poor B1 is subjext to two more attacks of opportunity.  Then when A1 and A2 take thier 5' steps to re-establish flanking, each of them is subjext to an AoO from B1, thanks to his combat reflexes feat.  At the higher end game, where the hitters almost never miss thanks to brilliant energy weapons and massive BaB's, expect very short and brutal fights, because what you're effectively doing is giving people quite a few more attacks at thier full BaB.  In fact, I'm going to wager that in an environment where this is "natural law", any race without a high dexterity and combat reflexes would have died out long ago, because having a 5' step provoke AoO's removes the "duck and dodge" effect of combat.  You've seen those specials on Animal Planet where one lion chases some deer towards another lion waiting in the grass, and at the last minute the deer seem them and take a leap to the side?  Well, the lions were flanking that deer, and it jumped to the side to get out of it.  Now the lions get extra swings at the deer.ON another note, since AoO's technically interrupt the action that provokes them, now the 5' step has become interruptible.  Expect players to flock to flails, spiked chains, and anything else with a trip attack, and expect them to become very good at it.  Because that's how players are <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The more I have thought about it, the more I think the reason for a 5' step not provoking an AoO is that it's just too fast.  It really is just one big step with a couple foot shuffles on each end.  Making it provoke an AoO really seems to imply that the attacker knows where the 5' stepper is stepping before he actually does it.  In one on one combat, it's possible to read your adversary that way, and I suppose you could come up with something..sense motive or something..to do that.  But in a combat situation where there are two orcs in front of you, some guy behind you thrusting over your shoulder with a polearm, an ogre with a club on your right, between you and your dwarven buddy, and *somewhere* you hear the words of a spell being cast, I just don't think you'd have the time to devote that much attention to one foe.</blockquote>

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