Ranged AOO

[Horvigabi]

Does a character with ranged weapon provokes an AOO with every shot when he uses full attack?
So if a character with ranged weapon finds himself in the middle of a meele, and he takes the full attack action with three attacks he provokes 3 AOO from his opponents? (His opponents have the Combat Reflexes feat).

 

[Der Rote Baron]

I say yes. Every attack opens you for another AoO.

 

[Jacek]

Looks like. Check out note 7 on p.182 of the core book.

Baron, I was late by 2 full minutes. Looks like I was looking for an example quite a while :wink:

 

[Kev]

With all due respect, I'm going to disagree with Jacek and the Baron and say, no, the archer does not provoke attacks of opportunity with every shot of a full attack action.

Last night I took a good look at the AoO rules on pp. 178-9 as well as the list and note on pg. 182 that Jacek referred to.

While there certainly seems to be some room for differing interpretations*, the sense I got was that an AoO is triggered by the type of action being attempted, not the elements of that action (whatever they may be).

Thus, IMHO, it is the taking of a ranged attack action (whether it is standard or full doesn't matter) that triggers a single AoO from adjacent, threatening foes. Thus, the number of arrows loosed in no way determines how many attacks of opportunity a foe gets should that foe have Combat Reflexes.

Circumstantially, this is backed up by the rule for attacks of opportunity provoked by moving through a foe's threat range: it doesn't matter how many squares you pass through within that threat range, your foe only gets a single AoO.

*in other words, as with any rule in the game, do what seems best to you as GM

 

[Clovenhoof]

Looking strictly at the SRD table of Action in Combat, and if they provoke AoOs, it reads:

Attack (melee) No
Attack (ranged) Yes
[...]
Full attack No

Without further rule extensions to clarify, I'd say that only the _first_ ranged attack in a round provokes an AoO, because that still counts as Standard Action, and then if the player decides to use his iterative attacks, it turns into a Full Attack which, as per this table, does not provoke AoOs.

_However_, note that per SRD you would simply take a 5'-Step without drawing an AoO and then, when you're no longer in a threatened square, fire away to your heart's content.
In Conan, taking a 5' step may or may not draw an AoO depending on the actions that follow (which is a stupid rule imho, and we have kicked it).

 

[Vambelte]

If I remember it right, you can't make two attacks of oportunity against the same target, in one given round, even if you have comabt reflexes. The feat just alows you to make more than one AoO per round.

 

[Clovenhoof]

@Vambelte: you can make only one AoO for one given _opportunity_, but you can potentially make several AoOs if there are several opportunities.
The point is that movement only counts as _one_ opportunity. Even if the guy walks around you for 30' total and leaves five threatened squares in the process, you only get one AoO because it's one movement.

I think the thought behind that is that when you fight big monsters (trolls, dragons..), you should be able to surround them without drawing an AoO for every square you have to move to get in the monster's back.

 

[Supplement Four]

@Vambelte: you can make only one AoO for one given _opportunity_, but you can potentially make several AoOs if there are several opportunities.

No, I believe Vambelte is correct. A character can only make one AoO per round regardless of the number of opportunties he has.

Pg 177, 2E Rules: Characters get only a single attack of opporunity every round (unless they take the Combat Reflexes Feat; see pg. 123) regardless of how many attacks they can normally make.

Thus, in order to make more than one AoO in a round, a character has to have the Combat Reflexes Feat.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Um, sure, that's a given. We've been talking about characters with Combat Reflexes all the time. See starting post.

 

[Supplement Four]

Um, sure, that's a given. We've been talking about characters with Combat Reflexes all the time. See starting post.

I'm an idiot. Somebody throw a tarp over me.

 

[Der Rote Baron]

Consider yourself tarped. :wink: