So, from a literal reading of the material, it appears to me that an attack of opportunity occurs in the following circumstances:
- Fail Body Control Roll when picking up an item while in close combat range
- Fail a Body Control roll while standing up from prone
- Fail a disengagement role
- Move into close combat and do not engage
- Fail certain maneuver checks as specified in the individual maneuvers
Now, I admit maybe I missed some other cases, but that is all I have found for now. So, lets call the above case Rules As Written (RAW).
The above means basically, that only those four conditions trigger an Attack of Opportunity (AoO).
I have also seen it interpreted by players that basically anything you do that is not an engagement activity (attack or defend) in close combat can trigger an AoO. In other words, they seem to be interpreting "move" in close combat as any activity. And, in fact, in game parlance, many view a "move" as an activity in a game round, so that makes sense. So I view this second approach as:
Any activity done in close combat range that is not an attack or defense triggers an AoO if a Body Control Check is failed.
Let's call this CASE 2 if we need a term for it. I can see the validity of this claim as well, except for when I review some rules, I would expect the cases to be called out. For example, Long Actions. No where does it mention in the Long Action rules that if done in Close Combat range an AoO is triggered. Now, I admit, that is possibly because it is assumed. Especially because in the example of the interrupt case given, the interrupting attack is a ranged attack. Meaning, the authors did not use a melee example because in their minds it would be ludicrous to do so. However, the penalty for defending in a long action is already pretty steep - if you choose to defend, you may have to start over.
So, not to belabor it too much, I really come down to - aside from everyone's individual interpretations, have the designers ever come out and clearly stated their design intent around this OR is this rule more clearly stated in the German language version?
Debates on this could go around for ever, due to the flexibility of the meaning of the words. Plus, I will have to deal with players also "What do you mean a one action reload just triggered an AoO?" Or better yet, spell-casters that have combat spells that take 2 or more actions to cast. It doesn't say anywhere that they trigger an AoO, but CASE 2 would clearly have that happen, and it makes sense too.
So, have the designers ever weighed in on this?
Thank you again,
George
