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Hi!
Having trouble with wrapping my head around some of the rules surrounding Reach weapons and AoO. Apologies in advance as it seems this question is asked a lot, but none of the threads I've found really helped me.
So, based on This Rules reference card and this FAQ, it seems that you threaten the second diagonal with a Reach weapon. This would mean that any action normally provoking an AoO (as well as passing through the square) would provoke from the character on the second diagonal. Is that right?
But as the square is 15 ft. away, you can't make a non-AoO attack on that square, am I mistaken? So while the threatened are would be a full square, the area in which you can attack normally would be a square without corners:
O X X X O
X O O O X
X O C O X
X O O O X
O X X X O
C = Character
X = Square you can attack
O = Squares you cannot attack
Have I missed something?
Thanks!
With the FAQ you threaten all squares that are exactly 2 squares away from you, even if it would normally be 15'. So, yes, you threaten 15' on the diagonals with a reach weapon.
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With the FAQ you threaten all squares that are exactly 2 squares away from you, even if it would normally be 15'. So, yes, you threaten 15' on the diagonals with a reach weapon.
OK that's what I thought, thank you. What about a normal attack though? Can you attack on all the squares you threaten, or is it limited to exclude the 15' diagonals?
Same thing. Your reach is 2 squares. Don't let the range in feet confuse you.
The reason they put that in is so that someone can't walk a weird path through the diagonal squares to avoid an AoO. While it would make sense in game terms it makes no sense in real-life terms that someone could get inside your guard depending simply on the direction they attack from.
The reason they put that in is so that someone can't walk a weird path through the diagonal squares to avoid an AoO. While it would make sense in game terms it makes no sense in real-life terms that someone could get inside your guard depending simply on the direction they attack from.
I mean it does, because attacking from behind is a great way to do that.
Except creatures in Pathfinder don't have a backside and spin around in a circle of death so fast that they create a superposition in which they are facing every direction at all times.
However, the weird artifact of moving through a creature's diagonals and avoiding their attacks made little sense in the greater context of how the game functioned.