ankle bitter


Rules Questions


ankle bitter allows you to make an attack as an immediate action vs anyone who tries a maneuver on you.

does this damage translates to a penalty to opponent's cmb similar to a provoked AoO from the maneuver?

relevant text:
ankle bitter:

Quote:
If you are the target of a combat maneuver you can, as an immediate action, attempt to bite your opponent in addition to any attacks of opportunity or other consequences your opponent might incur from attacking you. This bonus natural attack does not provoke an attack of opportunity itself and deals base damage appropriate for a creature of your current size (usually 1d4 for Small creatures). If grappled or pinned, you can continue to make this additional bite attack each round as swift action on your turn. You gain a bonus on any attempt to break the grapple equal to the damage you dealt with your bite that round.

maneuvers:

Quote:
When performing a combat maneuver, you must use an action appropriate to the maneuver you are attempting to perform. While many combat maneuvers can be performed as part of an attack action, full-attack action, or attack of opportunity (in place of a melee attack), others require a specific action. Unless otherwise noted, performing a combat maneuver provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of the maneuver. If you are hit by the target, you take the damage normally and apply that amount as a penalty to the attack roll to perform the maneuver. If your target is immobilized, unconscious, or otherwise incapacitated, your maneuver automatically succeeds (treat as if you rolled a natural 20 on the attack roll). If your target is stunned, you receive a +4 bonus on your attack roll to perform a combat maneuver against it.

i'm asking because the actual text says " if you are hit by the target" and not "if you are hit by this AoO", so it seems to suggest that it applies in general if you take damage from the target during your attempt, regardless of how this damage was incured (like p.e. if you try to grapple someone with a fireshield, you take the burn damage as a penalty, which makes some kind of sense since you try to hug a burning dude)

opinions?


Are you sure it's not "ankle sour" or "ankle sweet" or maybe even "ankle pungent"?

;)

In any case, the literal reading of this rule seems to allow your ankle biter's damage to apply as a penalty against the CMB roll. However, I don't think it's the intention (clearly the authors of the CMB rules in the CRB weren't worried about ankle biters) but also, the "If you are hit by the target" sentence immediately follows the "CMBs provoke AoOs" sentence - the two sentences are obviously related (which doesn't mean they automatically preclude other potentially applicable rules, but does mean that the second sentence was meant to relate to the first).

So, long story short, each GM is going to need to rule on this as he or she sees fit - hopefully without causing any bitterness... ;)

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