I've always had trouble with the idea of a character moving, provoking, getting hit, and continuing to move unimpeded - especially if a crit was scored. I've been toying with a way to address this, and have some rough ideas below. Tell me what you think.
1. If a character is injured by an AoO while moving, he must succeed at a REF save vs DC5+damage scored in order to continue moving. This, in my thinking, takes into consideration the fact that if you're hit, your movement could be disrupted, or maybe you could shrug it off and keep going. It's not a huge DC, but it's there.
2. If a character is injured by a critical hit scored by an AoO during movement, his movement is stopped and he stays in the square where he was when he sustained the damage. I thought about just increasing the DC to 10+damage, but I thought "hey, a crit should be rough, right?" and just went with an automatic halt to the movement. I decided not to add any condition on top of this in order to let the crit do its job - and I use the Critical Hits deck, so many of them include conditions.
Thoughts?
I get your thinking on this, but here's what I don't like about it. You're adding more dice rolls into a situation where there are already added dice rolls in the middle of someone's turn in the round. Think about what might happen if you get into some kind of an AoO chain, or if you are moving in between multiple foes... You could be there sitting and rolling dice for five minutes before one person's turn is up. Then everyone is just sitting around and watching one guy try and continue a movement. It takes enough time just to adjudicate AoO's as it is. I wouldn't want to add another mechanic into that system, just for the sake of "realism."
That's my 2 coppers.
Just wanted to point you at a different thread that's popped up with a very similar discussion. The discussion revolves around making a subsequent acrobatics check at the same DC or being knocked prone, which I believe would be the answer to stopping someone's movement.
Tumbling Checks.
I think it might be simpler if you just permitted everyone who connects on an attack of opportunity to make a CMB check in the same way that stand still works. We have the CMB system, it makes sense to use it in this case. rather then including reflex saves, which I dont think is very representative of what is happening. A charging rhino probably doesnt have a very good reflex save, but do you think it is more likely to be stopped by an attack of opportunity then a gnome? I thin cmb vs cmd is a better representation of this, so in your case, just adding the check to all attacks of opportunity instead of having to replace it (via stand still) would make the most sense as a house rule.
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The way that I see it, hit point damage is a gauge for how much fight you have left in you, not crippling wounds. You fight just as well at 1hp as you do at 100hp. Hp damage is mostly minor cuts and bruising that doesnt greatly hinder your ability to fight. If the npc making the attack of opportunity wants to stop you from moving, they have ways of doing so (such as a trip attack).
Thank you for the input, everyone. I, too, worry about adding add'l rolls to the mix, and thus slowing things down. I'll keep puttering with the idea, trying to create a mechanism that doesn't add more cost than benefit. And if I can't, so what - the rules are good enough already.
Again, thanks.