Question on Spellcasting AOO


Rules Questions

Sovereign Court

Hi everyone,

I just had a situation come up that I haven't seen before, so I wanted to see what the proper way to handle it is. It basically boils down to this:

When casting a spell with a casting time greater than a standard action (like Summon Monster or Sleep), do characters who begin to threaten the character while the spell is being cast get an AOO?

The particular situation involved a character summoning from a position of relative safety. An enemy approached by double moving, and was able to threaten the target. Giving them an AOO seems to be legal, though it also seemed strange to basically get a double move and an attack. Just wanted to double check that letting the AOO happen is the best way to rule.

Grand Lodge

The way I've always seen this rules is that the AoO is provoked at the beginning of casting the spell. Moving up to the caster doesn't allow for an AoO because the caster started casting before the other character was there.

Also the chart on page 183 of the Core Book seems to imply that the only spells that provoke AoO's are spells that take a standard action to cast. I don't know if I agree with that, but it could be a balancing factor since taking damage while casting a full-round or 1-round spell can interrupt those spells.

But again, the way I've always seen it run is if you start to cast a spell within the threatened area of an opponent you provoke an AoO unless you cast defensively. But if you start casting and are not threatened you don't retro-actively provoke the AoO if someone moves up to you.

Just my thoughts.


You only threaten when you start casting the spell, so you're fine.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

You only provoke when you begin casting.

Here is the rule:

CRB p187 wrote:
You only provoke attacks of opportunity when you begin casting a spell, even though you might continue casting for at least 1 full round. While casting a spell, you don’t threaten any squares around you.

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