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There is a lot of confusion around my gaming table about what can be used with what. I've checked the FAQ on the PFd20SRD forum and to my surprise there is very little official FAQ posted on this topic. I've made my own judgment calls during games but find I'm forgetting from session to session what I ruled last time, and it's getting far too inconsistent. So if I could get some official clarification on this topic it would be fantastic.
Can combat maneuvers be used with attacks of opportunity?; i.e. disarm, trip, grapple, etc.
Can various standard action feats be used with attacks of opportunity?; i.e cleave, vital strike, power attack, etc.
Can someone/something with Improved Grab/Grapple or Improved Trip use it as part of an attack of opportunity?
If one has the Combat Reflexes feat, can they do different maneuvers with attacks of opp?; i.e. disarm one opponent, trip another, stab another, etc.
Can Vital Strike or its improved counterparts be used in conjunction with an attack of opportunity? What about with Spring Attack? What about as part of a Cleave? Can it be used with Power Attack or Deadly Aim? Can it be used with Rapid Shot and/or Manyshot?
There are probably other combinations I can't think of at the moment, but these are the ones that are causing my group some friction n' frustration. If these can be answered, it would also probably be useful to add them to the official FAQ. Thanks...
There is a lot of confusion around my gaming table about what can be used with what. I've checked the FAQ on the PFd20SRD forum and to my surprise there is very little official FAQ posted on this topic. I've made my own judgment calls during games but find I'm forgetting from session to session what I ruled last time, and it's getting far too inconsistent. So if I could get some official clarification on this topic it would be fantastic.
Can combat maneuvers be used with attacks of opportunity?; i.e. disarm, trip, grapple, etc.
Can various standard action feats be used with attacks of opportunity?; i.e cleave, vital strike, power attack, etc.
Can someone/something with Improved Grab/Grapple or Improved Trip use it as part of an attack of opportunity?
If one has the Combat Reflexes feat, can they do different maneuvers with attacks of opp?; i.e. disarm one opponent, trip another, stab another, etc.
Can Vital Strike or its improved counterparts be used in conjunction with an attack of opportunity? What about with Spring Attack? What about as part of a Cleave? Can it be used with Power Attack or Deadly Aim? Can it be used with Rapid Shot and/or Manyshot?
There are probably other combinations I can't think of at the moment, but these are the ones that are causing my group some friction n' frustration. If these can be answered, it would also probably be useful to add them to the official FAQ. Thanks...
If the combat manuever is a standard action such as sunder, you can't use it during an AoO because you only get one standard action on your turn. If you can use a manuever in place of a melee attack then yes you can use it as an AoO trip is a good example. Vital strike is an attack action which is a standard action so no on AoO's, but it wouldn't be overpowered to let someone use vital strike on AoO's, they typically can be avoided.
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Grasshopper said some of this, but here's an item-by-item answer:
Can combat maneuvers be used with attacks of opportunity?; i.e. disarm, trip, grapple, etc.
Anything that is an "attack" can be use with an "Attack of Opportunity". Anything that requires an action (Standard or otherwise) cannot be use with an AoO.
Can various standard action feats be used with attacks of opportunity?; i.e cleave, vital strike, power attack, etc.
This is the same answer as above with CMs. If it's an "attack" then yes, otherwise if it's an "action" of some kind, then no.
Can someone/something with Improved Grab/Grapple or Improved Trip use it as part of an attack of opportunity?
Grappling requires an action which means it cannot be used as an AoO. Improved Grapple does not change this fact, nor does Greater Grapple.
Improved Grab is a monster special ability that lets monsters with this ability initiate a grapple as part of their attack (making it an exception to the way grappling normally works). In other words, with this ability, they don't need a separate action to grapple; all they need to do is hit with the attack that is eligible for this ability. Unless there is some exception (it would say so in the monster's description), the monster can usually use any of its attacks (primary or otherwise) when it makes an AoO. If the attack it uses is eligible for its Improved Grab ability, then this ability works with the AoO.
If one has the Combat Reflexes feat, can they do different maneuvers with attacks of opp?; i.e. disarm one opponent, trip another, stab another, etc.
What you do with on attack has no bearing on what you do with your other attacks, so yes, you can do exactly what you listed, since disarming, tripping, and stabbing are all attacks. Just remember that some things require entire actions, so you cannot disarm one opponent and grapple another opponent, since grappling is a separate action.
Can Vital Strike or its improved counterparts be used in conjunction with an attack of opportunity?
Vital strike requires an "Attack action". This is worded poorly, but an attack action is different than an attack. There are really two attack actions, one of which is a Standard action and the other is a Full-round action. In either case, they are actions not attacks - you use these actions to make attacks. Since Vital Strike uses the action (and not the attack), it is not eligible for AoO.
What about with Spring Attack?
Spring Attack is another poorly written feat. Everyone can move once and attack once in a combat round (or move twice without attacking, but that's not relevant to this feat). All Spring Attack lets you do is use part of your movement before you attack and part of it after. Which means you are using two actions every time you Spring Attack: your Move action and your Standard action. And the same rule applies: if you can do it as an attack then you can do it as an AoO, but if it takes an action (or in this case two actions) then you cannot do it as an AoO.
What about as part of a Cleave?
Cleave specifically states that it is a Standard action. By this point, I'm sure you get the rule.
Can it be used with Power Attack
This is just an attack (not an action) so yes, you can.
or Deadly Aim?
Also just an attack, not an action.
Can it be used with Rapid Shot and/or Manyshot?
Both of these specifically state "Full-attack action" in their text, so nope, no AoO here.
There are probably other combinations I can't think of at the moment, but these are the ones that are causing my group some friction n' frustration. If these can be answered, it would also probably be useful to add them to the official FAQ. Thanks...
Hopefully the basic rule (Action = no, Attack = yes) should resolve just about any friction, once you get used to it.
Of course Spring Attack cannot be used in combination with Manyshot or Rapid Shot, or any other ranged combat ability, as Spring Attack explicitly only works for melee attacks.
Can Vital Strike or its improved counterparts be used in conjunction with an attack of opportunity? What about with Spring Attack? What about as part of a Cleave? Can it be used with Power Attack or Deadly Aim? Can it be used with Rapid Shot and/or Manyshot?
My turn to word something poorly... I didn't mean "can cleave be used with AOO" I meant, can Cleave be used with Vital Strike? Can Spring Attack be used with Vital Strike? Can Power Attack or Deadly Aim be combined with Vital Strike? Can Vital Strike be used with Rapid Shot and/or Manyshot?
Thanks for the other input thus far. I do hope these clarifications will be added to the FAQ, as I've heard far too much confusion on the topic in different arenas to exclude it.
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they don't need clarification, they say what actions they are.
Cleave and vital strike are both standard actions. you only get 1 standard action a round. power attack and deadly aim are non actions, they dont require any action to use and work with vital strike and cleave (well you cant cleave with deadly aim because you cant cleave a ranged attack)
you cant vital strike with anything that takes a standard action or full round action of its own.
manyshot- "When making a full-attack action with a bow..."
rapid shot- "When making a full-attack action..."
vital strike takes its own standard action.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/vital-strike-combat---final
read the clarification at the bottom
Clarification
The benefit of this feat can be read as the following, as it is clearer on how Vital Strike functions:
Benefit: As a standard action, you can make a single attack at your full base attack bonus that deals extra damage equal to the weapon's base damage dice (a light crossbow would gain +1d8, a greatsword would gain +2d6). This extra damage is not multiplied on a critical hit (other damage bonuses are multiplied normally).