FootInFace's page

If you have access to the 2nd E boxed set 'Dragon Mountain', the premise is very similar and there are hoards of good ideas within for what you are trying to acheive.

Saw this thread several months ago and hoped something would come of it. Count me in with those who would *love* to reap the fruits of someone's conversion labors. Great module.

It's the using the RAW to deliberately create a gameplay distinction between the turn-based game and the concurrent activity it is trying to represent that I find cheesy.

I concur with this, and it was the main issue I had with the tactic originally. However, there have been some valid arguments to the contrary that haves softened my stance somewhat.

Foot in face: if every square was threatened, does that mean he provoked two attacks of opportunity in order to move and then move back? Or was it just one guy with 10ft reach who could hit him regardless.

Yeah, he actually provoked AoO from two goblins with his move.

Some say "cheesy", but I ask why?

I can definitely get on board with the idea of provoking from enemies in order to allow others free reign to do their business. What rubbed me the wrong way was it seemed odd to be able to take dmg from an attack and still cast during *that same round* without having to make a concentration check since the dmg would occur during the move action. Perhaps I was trying to compartmentalize the caster's round of actions rather than thinking about his turn as just his set of actions during the entire combat round as a whole...meaning dmg from an AoO during his move action shouldn't be thought of any differently than dmg dealt during any enemy action (if that makes any sense).

It seems like the player made the best of a difficult situation. He basically gambled and won by provoking an AOO that would not interfere with his casting and hoping his opponent took the bate and did not have Combat Reflexes. Basically he got the enemy to commit himself to an attack that left him open to return fire, and even if the attack hit it was worth the risk to incapacitate multiple enemies.

Putting it in this light is probably the way I should have been looking at it to begin with. It was basically the idea of him taking dmg during his turn yet still being able to cast w/o a concentration check that I had trouble rationalizing. Your comment helps puts it into a context that makes more sense to me.

@mergy: I admire your original suggestion about using a combat maneuver (trip, sunder) for the AoO. Like Arbane, I also was also under the impression that you could only make a standard attack when making an AoO (Confusion I can perhaps attribute to my year or so playing 4E.)

Er, what? What level are you talking about? Combat Casting makes casting defensively a sure thing pretty quickly.

The PC in question is lvl 2. They are investigating the Caves of Chaos (originally from Keep on the Borderlands, but I'm using the D&D Next rewrite as reference), specifically the Goblin Caves (Area D). The caster didn't take Combat Casting for whatever reason, so his DC 17 defensive casting check would have given him a 50% chance of failure.

The majority voice here is probably correct suggesting that its not a game-breaking mechanic. My main concern was the 'cheese factor' that Hugo referred to, but I suppose it's really nothing to get all that worried about...especially since it seems to be fully supported by RAW.

I won't disagree that is was a clever tactic, but mostly clever in manipulating game mechanics which isn't really the clever I'm looking to encourage. :P

@MatrixDragon: Unless I'm missing something, a defensive casting check is almost always a bad idea. Even with Defensive Casting, its rare that a cast has more than a 40% chance of success, no?

@Drakkiel/Blakmane: It was a situation where the were battling in a choke, and enemy reinforcements arrived from behind, so they were basically surrounded. Any 5ft step would have put him in a threatened square from other enemies. His current space was the best place for his cone AoE to hit the most enemies and he would have risked AoO from any space he could 5ft to.

Appreciate the feedback. I'm gathering that its a legit tactic, but like Blakmane said very difficult to visualize as making any amount of sense.

Curious to get some feedback on a situation that arose during my last session. The caster choose to move away from melee as a move action in order to provoke AoO from the threatening creatures. He then finished his move action by returned to the original square where he started his turn. He then used his standard action to cast color spray. The rational behind his move was he didn't mind risking the chance of taking dmg from the AoO in order to avoid having to cast defensively or risking the chance of taking dmg from the AoO provoked from casting and risk failing the resulting concentration check.

My understanding is that he would not have to make a concentration check as the damage did not occur during the casting of the spell.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/magic.html#_injury-while-casting

He would also not have to cast defensively as the creatures had used their AoO during his move and did no possess Combat Reflexes.

My question is: is there anything in RAW that would specifically disallow this? Is it effectively within RAW to allow a caster to burn his move action and take AoO in order to guarantee he can cast his spell without a chance of failure (assume he lives thru the AoO)?

FWIW, He actually did this same move twice. The second time, the creature in melee decline to use AoO when he used his move action, thus keeping it available for use if he reentered melee and attempted to cast.

I would be very appreciative if you could send a copy of your hard work to me as well.

I would love to see this thread revived. So many good ideas in here.