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Hi folks,
If climbing provoques an AOO what if that climbing is part of a movement that bring the climbers closer to the enemy with a reach or around him.
Do the PC have 2 AOO's, one for climbing and 1 from moving around a target or only one because the climbing is part of the movement?
EX: The PC climb over a table to move around a NPC to gain flanking bonus, so he move 3 square around the NPC.
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I believe this is a common misconception.
If you look at the Table: Actions in Combat You'll see that Climbing is not listed as something that provokes an attack of opportunity. What you WILL find is "Use skill that takes 1 action" Usually provokes an attack of opportunity. This covers something like a Heal Check which is a standard action.
However if we look at Climb we find that it also does not mention that the act of climbing provokes an AoO, additionally climbing is not a skill that "takes 1 action" it is done as part of a move action. What climbing WILL do, is cause you to lose your dexterity bonus to AC unless you have something that allows to you keep it.
So unless someone can show where Climbing specifically provokes, then you would only provoke once for moving OUT of a threatened square. Now when it comes to climbing onto a table you have to carefully consider when the person is actually climbing, and when they threaten. If the opponent threatens the table, but does not threaten the square the player is in when he starts to climb onto the table, the the act of climbing onto the table does not provoke. If the player then chooses to continue and CLIMB down off the table, that would provoke, and the player would not have his dexterity bonus to AC. However if once on the table, the player decided to jump down off the table, that too would provoke since the player is still leaving a threatened square, but the player would retain his dexterity bonus as he is no longer climbing.
Now if the opponent threatens the space the player is in before climbing onto the table, then the act of climbing onto the table would provoke, and would provoke while the player has no dexterity bonus to AC (since to move onto the table they are in the act of climbing) This is true whether the opponent also threatens the square the table is in or not.