Cast A Spell versus Attack of Opportunity

[ryt_007]

If I cast ray of frost, and dictate I use the verbal action first (does not manipulate), then the somatic (does manipulate, and triggers attacks of opportunity), and I am standing next to an enemy that gets an attack of opportunity, what is the order of actions? Does the AoO get triggered before I finish casting or do I get to resolve the spell effect before the AoO?

[Edge93]

You get attacked during the provoking action, so regardless of the order you get attacked before the spell is complete, possibly losing the spell.

It would be a bit silly if they were like "This casting action provokes and getting hit for it might cost you the spell" but then were like lol you can just do the actions in an order that doesn't risk losing the spell. XD

[Draco18s]

Do the somatic first. Then if you get interrupted, you start over.

S
SV

3 actions spent. 1 spell cast.

[Edge93]

That's... very clearly not how it's supposed to work. That's kinda just nonsense.

[Draco18s]

Edge93 wrote:

That's... very clearly not how it's supposed to work. That's kinda just nonsense.

I'd love to see a rules snippet that supports that.

[Dante Doom]

Draco18s wrote:

Edge93 wrote:

That's... very clearly not how it's supposed to work. That's kinda just nonsense.

I'd love to see a rules snippet that supports that.

You are misunderstanding the rule. You think that for cast a spell you use 2 actions. That's normally not the case...

Most spell are an Activity, that cost 2 actions.

But when you start an Activity you are already using all the actions necessary.

Activity wrote:

An activity is an ability that uses 1 or more of a creature’s actions to perform a special effect for the activity as a whole, rather than an effect for each action used.

Cast a Spell wrote:

CAST A SPELL

You Cast a Spell you know or have prepared. Casting a Spell is a special activity that takes a variable number of actions depending on the spell, as listed in each spell’s stat block. You can spend those actions in any order you wish, provided you do so consecutively on a single turn. As soon as all spellcasting actions are complete, the spell effect occurs.

Some spells allow you take a spellcasting action as a reaction or free action. In this case, you Cast the Spell as a reaction or free action (as appropriate) instead of as an activity; such cases will be noted in the spell’s stat block (for example, “Reaction Verbal Casting”).

Some spells take minutes or hours to cast. The Cast a Spell activity for these spells includes a mix of the listed spellcasting actions, but it’s not necessary to break down which one you’re doing at a given time. You can’t take other actions or reactions while casting such a spell, though at the GM’s discretion, you might be able to speak a few sentences. As normal for the activity rules, you can’t cast these types of longer spells in an encounter, and if combat breaks out while you’re casting one, your spell is disrupted (see Disrupting Spells on page 196).