Creature With Reach

[Tharialas]

I was playing some Pathfinder a few weeks ago and am curious about the logic of reach with a natural weapon(I.E. Claws/Talons/Tails). Why would I not be able to prepare and action to attack a limb of a creature with reach that is hitting me with a natural weapon? Or for that matter trying to sunder a weapon that is hitting me with reach?

[BYC]

Because the game breaks down completely if you allow that. The mechanics of reach and threatening squares are completely thrown out the door if the rules allowed it. Reach would have very little advantages.

There are a few 100+ post threads about this if you want to do a search.

Remember, this is a game. Logic often does not apply. Balance is important than logic IMO, otherwise the game breaks down and becomes unplayable.

[Mergy]

You can on the other hand ready an action to attack your enemy when he gets into his melee range, because you can five-foot-step as part of a readied action.

[blahpers]

Hopefully their reach isn't larger than 10'.

[Tarantula]

You can't because they don't occupy a square you threaten.
The strike back feat in CRB allows you to ready an attack against someone who attacks you in melee, even if they have reach.

[Mergy]

You can as long as you make the conditions of your readied action appropriate to the situation:

"When the enemy gets withing 10 feet of me, I will five-foot step forward and attack."

Unless Tarantula wasn't talking to me. >_>

[Tarantula]

Yes Mergy, I was saying the reason you can't just swing back at them is because you don't threaten the square they at attacking from.

[Mergy]

You can five-foot step as a readied action. So you can five-foot step into his reach and take your action.

[Tarantula]

To be more accurate, you can 5-foot step as part of your readied action.

[Mergy]

Yes, I mistyped. That does mean it's legal to five-foot step and attack a creature with reach as your readied action.

[Anguish]

There's a feat that allows this, actually.

Also, my group(s) house-rule allow this without the feat. As a DM frankly I'd rather see PCs wasting actions readying to attack my bad guy's claw than taking one AoO to get in close. Once they're close, next round either I lose an action to back off or they're going to start getting full attacks. No thanks. Stay... out there. Where I can pound you to little bits.

[Grick]

Anguish wrote:

Once they're close, next round either I lose an action to back off or they're going to start getting full attacks. No thanks. Stay... out there. Where I can pound you to little bits.

If the creature has natural reach, rather than using a reach weapon, they threaten all squares within their range. An ogre, for example, can hit someone 10 feet away, but he can also hit someone adjacent to him. So even if the PC takes an AoO to get adjacent, the ogre can still full attack him. And even better, if the PC wants to get away, the Withdraw action only prevents provoking for the first square, so you still get to him him if he runs.

-edit-
I misread your statement. You don't want the PC to get full attacks against your creature. Disregard!