I’m almost positive I know the answer to this already, but would the Smite Evil Magic feat provoke an Attack of Opportunity from the creature it’s being used on if the character using it didn’t also have the Improved Sunder feat?
Thanks in advance!
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'perform a sunder combat maneuver' - yep, you need some effect which prevents the AoO. Improved sunder is the simplest, but the dirty fighting feat or being invisible or something works too.
'perform a sunder combat maneuver' - yep, you need some effect which prevents the AoO. Improved sunder is the simplest, but the dirty fighting feat or being invisible or something works too.
I figured as much. I appreciate the recommendations, but as the character in question is honorable to a fault, it will be a case of simply having to hope for the best (with regard to the Attack of Opportunity)!
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Hoping for the best probably isn't workable. If you can't get improved sunder yet pick up a polearm or lance or something - if they can't reach you as you crack their spells they can't AoO you.
(Lances are usually considered terribly honourable)
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It's worth noting that combat maneuvers only provoke AoOs from the target of the combat maneuver. If you're surrounded by baddies and you sunder one of their weapons they don't all get AoOs against you, only your target does.
For Smite Evil Magic this means if you target an Evil Wizard's Mage Armour spell the Wizard will get an AoO against you (you're targeting a spell effect on their person). If it's an actual Wizard you probably don't care about their AoO - they're probably unarmed and their to-hit and damage are laughabke anyway. You do care if it's a Dragon though.
If you target the Wizard's Black Tentacles spell instead of Mage Armour the Wizard won't get an AoO since you're not making an attack roll against their person.
Also - as avr said - the Wizard can only make an AoO if they're threatening you, so using a reach weapon might mean they can't reach you anyway (or if they're unarmed they don't threaten, so no AoOs).
As a general rule though you don't want to provoke when performing a combat maneuver, because any damage done by the AoO becomes a penalty to your CMB roll. If the wizard is wearing a spiked gauntlet and manages to hit you for 1d4+1 damage you probably don't care about the hitpoint loss, but you will care about a 1d4+1 penalty to your Sunder check.
Good points, you two, and I apologize for the late response.
Mounted combat is, unfortunately, not an option, but a polearm (one of which I happily own) would be. One of the potential main adversaries this could come into play against is a Witch, and I feel comfortable about avoiding an Attack of Opportunity from her with my Smite Evil already in effect. The other, however, is a Bloodrager... which is obviously a different problem set altogether.
Thanks for the replies!