My GM posed a seemingly simple question that just ground our game to a halt.
If an individual provokes an attack of opportunity, and the attacker critically fails, would that then allow the first individual to engage in their own attack of opportunity? There is no ruling on it in CRB, and I wanted to ask y'all what you thought.
Thanks in advance!
Is the first individual in this scenario a swashbuckler with Opportune Riposte? Regular attacks of opportunity aren't triggered by critical failures on strikes, but if it is Opportune Riposte and the character currently has a reaction available, I don't see why they couldn't take advantage of that. I think the swashbuckler could riposte on that attack of opportunity.
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Right. If the first individual has an ability to Strike as a Reaction to a critically failed Strike, there is no reason that the Strike from an Attack of Opportunity would not be a valid trigger. Aside from the possible confusion caused by incorrectly referring to all of these reactions as Attack of Opportunity, I dont see why the CRB would address this as a special case. Everything is working normally.
If the only reaction both characters have access to actually is AoO, the answer is no, of course, since a critically failed Strike is not one of the triggers for that reaction.
I don't think it would make sense the provoker could do an AoO, because they're already doing something else.
Moving through your threat range? You get an AoO before they do it, and then they continue with their move.
Manipulate - casting a spell or drawing something? You get an AoO before they do it, and then they continue casting or drawing/manipulating.
Making a ranged attack? You get an AoO before they do it, and then they get their attack.
The provoker getting an AoO in the midst of what they already said they were doing doesn't make sense to me. After they've done that provoking action, the trigger is gone.
I say no. Ymmv.
...Free actions with triggers and reactions work differently. You can use these whenever the trigger occurs, even if the trigger occurs in the middle of another action...
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I don't think it would make sense the provoker could do an AoO, because they're already doing something else.
Moving through your threat range? You get an AoO before they do it, and then they continue with their move.
Manipulate - casting a spell or drawing something? You get an AoO before they do it, and then they continue casting or drawing/manipulating.
Making a ranged attack? You get an AoO before they do it, and then they get their attack.
The provoker getting an AoO in the midst of what they already said they were doing doesn't make sense to me. After they've done that provoking action, the trigger is gone.
I say no. Ymmv.
The rules specifically state that triggered actions can occur in the middle of other actions. So the following sequence is totally valid:
1. Swashbuckler moves past fighter.
2. Fighters takes AoO.
3. Fighter critically fails AoO.
4. Swashbuckler ripostes
5. Swashbuckler completes movement
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The premise of the question is flawed.
There are many reactions, one of which is Attack of Opportunity. It wouldn't be provoked by critically failing an attack roll.
But as others note, assuming that one of people involved is a Swashbuckler with Opportune Riposte and the other is a fighter (or someone with AoO) then the Swash could provoke by moving, the fighter could critical fail the attack, and the Swash could use their reaction for Opportune Riposte.
Yeah, I agree.