Pushing Assault question

[Skrayper]

I was wondering if I am interpreting this correctly.

Say you have a Hunter with Quick Draw and Pushing Assault.

You're adjacent to your large sized Animal Companion like so:

Monster Hunter
ANIMAL COMPANION

Guy with a standard (non-reach) weapon moves in to attack. You're wielding a reach weapon. As the guy moves in to attack you, both you and the companion get an AoO thanks leaving the threatened square like so:

Monster > Hunter
Animal Companion

With Quick Draw, the Hunter switches over to a Great Axe, Greatsword, etc - and then shoves the monster back. Then free action back to their reach weapon (or keep pushing the monster back with their reach weapon, forcing them to come back into the AC's reach, though that would take a bit more movement on the part of the AC.

[RAWmonger]

A couple of issues...

First: Free actions, other than speaking (and some other specific free actions), can only be taken on your turn. So you can't take a free action to draw a weapon as part of an AoO, even with Quick Draw.

Second: Quick Draw doesn't let you stow a weapon as a free action, that would still be a move action. You would have to drop your current weapon (a free action) before being able to use a different 2-handed weapon, and Quick Draw doesn't let you pick up a dropped weapon, so you'd still be stuck spending a move action to pick up the weapon you dropped. Essentially, you cannot "weapon cycle" with Quick Draw, you can simply draw weapons as a Free Action.

Third: Even if you could stow weapons as a free action as well, "there are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free, as decided by the GM". And repetitive weapon cycling if it was even possible is certainly something a GM with a brain would put a stop to quickly.

Fourth, and your biggest issue: "Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn’t count as more than one opportunity for that opponent". So even if you succeed in pushing the enemy back during his turn, he can simply continue his movement towards you and your animal companion *without* provoking any more AoOs.

I would highly recommend taking a read through the combat rules found here, even if just as a refresher!
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/Gamemastering/combat

EDIT: Your absolute best use for Pushing Assault with a reach weapon is that on your turn you can 5ft step away and take a full attack action, which if you hit one of your iterative attacks will push the enemy 5ft away, and he won't have the option to 5ft step up and attack you, so you'll win simply by action economy (assuming you don't push him away on your first attack). OR, if your enemy *does* have a reach weapon, simply full attack him before you move, and then 5ft step away after your full attack.

[Wonderstell]

Fifth: There's no reason to switch weapons anyway. Since the attack of opportunity from leaving your threatened square happens before they leave it, you can use your two-handed reach weapon to make the attack.

[Skrayper]

Thanks - yeah, I wasn't thinking on a few of those (especially the creature just taking a 5 foot adjust). Best to stick with your process and killing them with the action economy, or go a different route then.

[LordKailas]

Also, a side note. Most large animal companions do not have reach. So, in the general case only the character would get the AoO. Unless you're using one of the few animal companions that "should" get 10' reach at large size and your DM has agreed that they get reach as a large creature.

[Skrayper]

I was using reach to actually mean threatening the same squares that I would with a reach weapon. Not specifically reach (if memory serves, a large creature with reach would threaten). Then remembered that even though the chart does not specify, the cat is clearly "long" and not "tall", meaning it doesn't get that extended threat range.