Dropping your guard

[Syries]

I just saw on a reddit thread something about being able to drop your guard as a non/free action, allowing an enemy to take an AoO on you even if you did absolutely nothing. This would allow, say, a snapping turtle clutch style tetori monk to initiate a grapple as an immediate action and still allow that monk a full-round action like attacking.

Is that actually viable per the rules?

[Claxon]

There is nothing in the general rules for this.

There is a feat that does something like this, but I can't remember what it's called. However, it's a team work feat and it allows someone else with the feat to take the AoO, not you.

[Claxon]

Broken Wing Gambit is what I was thinking of, which sort of does what I was talking about.

Broken Wing Gambit wrote:

Prerequisite: Bluff 5 ranks.

Benefit: Whenever you make a melee attack and hit your opponent, you can use a free action to grant that opponent a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls against you until the end of your next turn or until your opponent attacks you, whichever happens first. If that opponent attacks you with this bonus, it provokes attacks of opportunity from your allies who have this feat.

[Claxon]

Even if something like this existed more generally, I wouldn't expect it the tactic to work more than once per combat.

Once enemies learn that making an AoO against you is bad for them, I wouldn't expect to see it happen again.

For what it's worth though, you don't need it to be AoO. You just need them to miss you with Snapping Turtle Clutch. Which also means AoO can be bad, since they're done at full BAB which means they're more likely to hit than iterative attacks from full attacks.

[Kimera757]

I can see why such an ability should exist. How often have I read about a warrior who faked a weakness, luring an opponent into committing themselves and realizing, too late, that they shouldn't have taken the bait. (It's always the warrior who takes advantage of it, not an ally.) But IMO that should require a Bluff check and/or a feat.

[Claxon]

I mean, I can totally see something as a feat.

Which is basically Broken Wing Gambit. But instead you take a standard action to bluff that your open rather than making an attack.

It's basically the same at that point.

[Jared Walter 356]

Kimera757 wrote:

I can see why such an ability should exist. How often have I read about a warrior who faked a weakness, luring an opponent into committing themselves and realizing, too late, that they shouldn't have taken the bait. (It's always the warrior who takes advantage of it, not an ally.) But IMO that should require a Bluff check and/or a feat.

In game terms I would call this a "feint" action, as is already covered in the bluff skill.

[Java Man]

Or you can try a sunder maneuver without the feats. Trip and disarm also work, but can backfire if you blow the roll. Unarmed attacks without IUS, or rummage in your backpack.

All of these require actions, but can have actual good effects if they happen to succeed.