Hank McCoy's page

A monster, X, threatens a prone character, Y, who has a standing ally, Z, that is adjacent to character Y but on the opposite side of character Y (placement is the battle grid is XYZ). Character Z is not being threatened by anyone and monster X does not have reach. Character Z wants to drag the willing character Y directly back and away from monster X. Does character Y provoke an attack of opportunity from monster X when leaving the threatened square?

My ruling is that because character Y left a threatened square, an attack of opportunity was provoked.

It was brought to my attention that the combat maneuver Drag simulates the same situation. In the case of the combat maneuver, it is a monster X who is prone being dragged by character Y with neither being threatened by any other combatants. The combat maneuver provokes an attack of opportunity from the monster to the character when it is initiated (for two willing characters this would not occur), however, paragraph 3 under the Drag section states that "an enemy being moved by a drag does not provoke an attack of opportunity because of the movement unless you possess the Greater Drag feat." If an enemy does not provoke because of movement, why would an ally?

Here's the link to Drag, if needed.

So, does a prone PC being dragged out of threatened square provoke an AoO from the creature threatening it?