![]() ![]() You can get two attacks against charging enemies if you prepare an action.If they were happy to focus on you (which is a success by some measures), most of your build falls apart and you’re left hugely vulnerable. If enemies could charge you and get inside your reach for free, the entire strategy would only work if enemies were actively trying to get past you. The footnote makes the most important part of are control defense functional.This has some extremely important implications: This column indicates whether the action itself, not moving, provokes an attack of opportunity.Īnd yes, that footnote also existed in the 3.5 rules if you’re curious. The important clarification is in the footnotes:ġ Regardless of the action, if you move out of a threatened square, you usually provoke an attack of opportunity. In the Actions in Combat table, “Charge” says “No” in the “Attack of Opportunity” column because no part of the Charge action provokes an attack of opportunity beyond the parts of the action that already do so. I’ve had this debate with my own games, so let me settle it here: Charging through a creature’s reach does provoke an attack of opportunity. Without this clarification, the entire Area Control Defender concept falls apart unless you make yourself large. Make absolutely certain to explain this to your DM. However, the fix never made it onto the SRD. This was clarified/fixed in this FAQ from 2014, promising that the fix would be added to the next round of errata. Without this note, a medium creature with a reach weapon can’t attack any space directly at a diagonal to them, thereby allowing enemies to walk totally unimpeded in and out of your reach. ![]() ![]() Pathfinder’s Combat rules omit that note. (This is an exception to the rule that 2 squares of diagonal distance is measured as 15 feet.) Note: Small and Medium creatures wielding reach weapons threaten all squares 10 feet (2 squares) away, even diagonally. 3.5’s version of the same rule includes the following text: There is a serious error in the original Pathfinder combat text for reach weapons. So prominently, in fact, that I’m abbreviating them to AoO’s, though I generally try to avoid doing so in my other articles. AoO’s will feature prominently in this guide. Before proceeding, read the rules on Attacks of Opportunity. Once we’ve got our heads around the rules, we’ll dig into build options. There are some complicated (and sometimes poorly written) rules concepts which you need to grasp in order to fully take advantage of the options available. There are a dizzying number of options available to you, and there are some rules minutiae to be discussed which will clarify exactly how and why this strategy works, and why it is so popular. However, there is much more to the concept than just a couple of feats and guisarme. Using a reach weapon, Combat Reflexes, tripping, etc. “Area Control Defender” is a term that I invented largely in a vaccuum, so in the case that it’s meaning isn’t immediately clear:Īrea Control Defender: A character built to separate enemies from their allies by strategically controlling an area on the battlefield.Įxperienced players will probably have a basic understanding of this concept. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |