I am looking for ideas.
Principally I don't like the way the skill acrobatics is used to enable people to avoid attacks of opportunity. It tends to result in my experience in some classes taking this skill just so they can have a shot at avoiding attacks of opportunity. Ie wizards & sorcerers
Plus I don't like skills having such a crucial combat role.
I realize many will not agree with me.
In my view certain classes need to be able to move about the battlefield relatively freely. Rogues, monks and rangers (from the basic classes) but this mechanic is unsatisfactory. I would almost prefer doing away with that element of tumbling and granting those classes some sort of ability to ignore a certain number of attacks of opportunity a round. But that sounds too clumsy a mechanic.
Does anyone else have anything they use or have seen used?
Make it a CMB check to avoid the AoO. The DC can be the CMD. I have not worked out the match, but it might work. The only problem is that classes like rogue that need it more would be pretty bad at it.
You give give the rogues an ability to add 1/4 of their class level to the CMB roll to avoid an AoO.
Sure, 4e does this with the extension of the "shift" mechanic. The rogue in our 4e party can routinely shift up to six squares. Also common in 4e is the teleport mechanic. Skirmishers tend to use one or both of those to great effect.
I frankly have no problem with a wizard or sorcerer maxing out acrobatics and tumbling all through melee. It only works when they move, they can't tumble out of a spell-casting attack of opportunity, so if they're in melee, they're gonna end up getting whacked eventually. One bad roll...
I must say I've played this game a long time and this is probably the first time I've ever heard any GM complain about wizards or sorcerers tumbling freely around in melee. You must have one heck of an interesting play group.
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You *do* realize that the DC is equal to the opponent's CMD, right? And that it goes up by +2 for each additional opponent you pass? And that you move at half speed?
Yeah, not exactly a great maneuver. Playing a dexterity focused melee character, I *still* sometimes let them take the AoO just to get a little more movement, and even when I do acro I am not guaranteed to succeed (max ranks, very high dex, class skill) even against a single opponent.
I must say I've never even seen a caster taking acrobatics. They simply would not be good enough at it to dodge the AoO an appreciable amount of the time, and most of the time that it would be used can be solved just as easily with a 5-foot step without skill investment.
Monks eventually get abundant step, which lets them ditch the AoOs since they're teleporting. The other two classes are not inherently skirmisher types (there are a LOT of different builds for those two), but all three can easily take mobility to gain a big boost to AC, along with other tactics.
Honestly I'm not seeing what the issue is.