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Had some confusion over the nature of an attack of opportunity.
The round went like this:
Gunslinger's turn
Move action - move up to bad guy
Standard action - ready a shot if he made any sort of attack (asked him to surrender)
Bad guy's turn
Free action - dropped his weapon
Standard action - started to disarm Gunslinger
that caused the readied action to go off, and since he didn't have improved disarm, the gunslinger was also allowed an attack of opportunity. Except not really, because the gun is a ranged weapon, but wait, the gunslinger has Pistol Whip, which allows the gunslinger to make a melee attack with it (and if it hits, to knock them prone).
The argument is, Pistol Whip is a "standard action" and an AoO is an "attack action". However, Pistol Whip is also fairly specifically a melee attack. So is it allowed?
Comparisons were also made with Charge, Feint and Grapple, but charge requires a run-up, and both feint and grapple are described as "standard actions" while Disarm and a few others are described as "attack actions in place of a melee attack".
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The readied action should go off before the AoO, and as you prepared to attack, if the enemy attacked, you should be able to pistol whip him. The attack he provoked though would not let you use this action due to the nature of the pistol whip ability, but you could attack him with any melee weapon you have, provided you threaten, including an unarmed strike.
The readied action goes off -- since it was stated to *shoot* the guy the shot goes off, which could provoke an AoO from your enemy -- if it does he gets his AoO before your shot.
If he doesn't then you'll get your AoO before his disarm check -- you can't use pistol whip because it is a standard action but you could punch him in the face don't you have gauntlets on or something? Remember that unarmed strikes don't threaten unless you have gauntlets on or have improved unarmed strike.
In his description of the events he said:
Standard action - ready a shot if he made any sort of attack (asked him to surrender)
Assuming he literally meant a shot wasn't a stretch considering we are talking about a gunslinger here (especially if he has deft shootist, which is a distinct possibility).
But you are correct he could have said, "Ready an attack if he made any sort of attack." Instead which would allow the pistol whip.
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The readied action is a poor way to describe what I was after - it has nothing to do with the AoO issue I'm talking about. They're two separate attacks.
The problem is between the "standard action" and "attack action" wording in the rules, and since the melee attack portion of the Pistol Whip ability is a "melee attack", I would've thought the rules would OK this, but it turns out that this might not be the case if it's only considered a "standard action", which seems to directly affect AoO's.
Using the gun as an improvised weapon seems like it would have worked.
(no gauntlets - I'm not even sure you could use gauntlets with the trigger of a gun??)
The problem is between the "standard action" and "attack action" wording in the rules, and since the melee attack portion of the Pistol Whip ability is a "melee attack", I would've thought the rules would OK this, but it turns out that this might not be the case if it's only considered a "standard action", which seems to directly affect AoO's.
Pistol-Whip (Ex) is a Standard Action. You can use this with a readied action, but you cannot use it as an attack of opportunity, or with the attack action (such as with Vital Strike). It cannot be used for iterative attacks, or as part of a cleave, or spring attack.
An Attack of Opportunity is not an attack action. It's not a standard action, or any kind of action other than an AoO. It cannot be used with Pistol Whip, Vital Strike, Cleave, etc.
Disarm and Trip can be made in place of a melee attack, which works with AoOs, iterative attacks, cleave, etc. Grapple is a standard action (barring Grab or similar abilities). Charge is a special full-round action which can sometimes be made if limited to only a standard.
That would work (as an improvised weapon) but he would have a -4 penalty on the attack roll of course.
The round went like this:
Gunslinger's turn
Move action - move up to bad guy
Standard action - ready a shot if he made any sort of attack (asked him to surrender)Bad guy's turn
Free action - dropped his weapon
Standard action - started to disarm Gunslinger
Your readied action to shoot him would trigger.
If he still threatened your space (why the hell did he drop his weapon--you can disarm with a weapon out) via an improvised weapon, Improved Unarmed Strike, a gauntlet (that just about everyone ever should wear just for these sorts of occasions), armor spikes, or some natural attack of some sort, then he'd get an AoO against you for shooting in melee.
If he's smart, he'd use his AoO to disarm you. If he succeeded, you'd be unable to shoot him with your readied action, and it would then be forfeit, but his original Disarm would also fail since you'd have nothing to disarm.
If that AoO either doesn't happen or he fails to disarm or chooses not to, you get to shoot him.
Then, if you threaten him (if you have armor spikes, a gauntlet, improved unarmed strike, a natural weapon, or even just an improvised melee weapon), his Disarm attempt provokes an AoO from you.
After you make that attack, he'd finally get to use his original Disarm action.
So, in short, assuming both you and your enemy threaten each other in melee it'd resolve as:
1) Enemy attacks you with AoO
2) Assuming that AoO was not a successful Disarm, you shoot him
3) You get to hit the enemy with an AoO
4) Enemy attempts to Disarm you
Now, had the enemy acted more intelligently this is what would have happened:
The enemy declares an attack against you with his weapon because there's absolutely nothing to be gained from dropping it.
This would allow your readied action to trigger, but it would provoke an AoO from him because he definitely threatens you with a weapon.
He would use that AoO to Disarm you of your gun, which could provoke from you if you threatened him, but would only be a paltry improvised weapon hit in all liklihood, since you apparently don't have armor spikes or gauntlets or anything.
Your gun would be Disarmed, your readied action wasted, and his original swing would go off and hurt you on top of that.
All in all, a bad outcome for you.
On the other hand, if you had been smarter, you'd have either moved to a location he would be unable to charge, and then readied an action to shoot him if he tried anything, or you would have moved up to his face and readied a Pistol Whip if he attacked, so you wouldn't provoke for shooting him and he'd be prone for his attack if he connected.
But yeah, ultimately, if you want the "surrender or I'll shoot you" sort of scene, you don't want to use a system with bags of Hit Points like D&D for it.
Oh, and to answer your question, the Pistol Whip takes a standard action, so it can be used only as a Standard action and at no other times, which means, among other things, that it can't be used as an AoO.