[Skill Use, Feat] Provoke Attack

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I've had the idea of characters tricking their opponents into using up Attacks of Opportunity for quite a while. The thoughts began percolating since the subject came up in a campaign I once DMed where I resorted to having bad guys simply run through the PCs' threatened spaces to do just that so their teammate could make trip attacks without being disrupted by an AoO. Of course, that didn't quite sit well with me, and thoughts about a more elegant way of doing it have been turning in my head since.

I only just recently put some of my ideas to paper/computer screen, and here's what I have. It's a new action that can be performed with the Bluff skill as well as a feat to improve one's ability to use the technique. Let me know what you think.

[hr]Provoke Attack

You can distract your opponent by pretending to leave yourself vulnerable.

As a standard action, a Bluff check opposed by your opponent's Sense Motive. Like a feint, your opponent can add his BAB to the Sense Motive roll as a bonus. If you succeed, your opponent believes you are doing something that provokes an Attack of Opportunity, such as initiating a trip attack, casting a spell, or attempting to leave his threatened area. He may then choose to take the Attack of Opportunity or ignore you as normal. If he attacks, you get a +4 dodge bonus to your AC against that attack. Your opponent must threaten you for you to use this action. You may only use this action against a single opponent no matter how many enemies threaten you.

This action is commonly used to deprive opponents' of their attack of opportunity for the round so that an ally may actually safely perform some action that would provoke an attack of opportunity from that opponent.

This action counts as feinting for the purpose of the feat Improved Feint and any spells or other effects that alter one's ability to feint in combat.

Improved Provocation [General, Fighter]
You are better at avoiding attacks from those you provoke.

Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise, Improved Feint
Benefit: The dodge bonus you get from the provoke attack action increases to +8.
Normal: You gain a +4 dodge bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity incurred through the use of the provoke attack action.
Special: A fighter may choose Improved Provocation as a bonus feat.[hr]
So, what do you think? Too weak? Too strong? Just right? At the moment, I'm particularly unsure if the AC bonus is strong enough, but, of course, you can tear into any other element from above.

[Fax Celestis]

The skill use's AC bonus is too much, since it grants the same AC bonus as that of a similar feat: Mobility. Perhaps cutting it to +2 would be good enough, and having Improved Provocation use Mobility instead of Combat Expertise would make sense.

Oh, damn, nevermind. Doing that'd make you have to have Combat Expertise, Imp. Feint, Dodge, and Mobility.

In any case: I'd say +2 from the skill, +6 from the feat.

[Proven_Paradox]

This is something I would definately use, especially if I'm playing support to a spellcaster. Like Celestis said, though: the Mobiliy feat gives some of the same bonuses.

I'd say just take out Improved Provocation, and leave the action as is. Maybe, if you want, you could having Mobility gives some other kind of bonus (such as +2 or so to the bluff check needed for provoking) or redo Improved Provocation so that it gives a competence bonus to said check.

[woc33]

it seems underpowered to me. a bluff check against his sense motive+BAB and if you can beat this chance your opponent attacks you with lower chances of hitting, and all that is done with a standard action... you might as well just move 10 ft. and do your normal attack, with you getting hit and hitting the enemy. which seems to me like a better chance since if you lose the bluff check vs. the quite high dc you lose your standard action of that round.

[Miles Invictus]

Coincidentally, I've got a similar feat written up in the There Are No Dump Stats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10237) thread.


Provoke (General)
Entice an enemy into making attacks of opportunity on you.
Prerequisite: Cha 15
Benefit: As a swift action during your round, you may attempt to provoke one enemy who can threaten you with an attack of opportunity. Your target must make a Will save (DC 10 + ½ character level + Cha modifier). If your target fails, they must make an attack of opportunity against you, and are unable to make attacks of opportunity against any other creature until the beginning of their next round.
Normal: Enemies may make attacks of opportunity against anyone they wish.
Special: Any class with a good base attack bonus may select this as a bonus feat.

[Triaxx]

If you're doing it from a DM's point of view, you might consider this special power:

Thousand Kobolds
Prereq:Army of Kobolds, Evil NPC.
Effects:Summons 1,000 kobolds to run past the heroes, not actually attacking, but provoking AoO's. Maybe used once per fight.

For balance I let them attack whomever they like with the AoO, but you don't have to.

[I_Got_This_Name]

This feat seems a bit underpowered to me, too; standard action to take a hit, albeit at a + to AC. Mobility doesn't really enter in to this, because Mobility's purpose is to let you escape enemies more easily; this feat is for drawing fire. If anything, even the skill use should be at least as good as Mobility, since Mobility is an action category smaller and you get a benefit (you're in another square).

As a possible buff (to the feat), perhaps once you have the feat you can attempt a Bluff vs Sense Motive against one target every time you actually provoke an AoO, and if you succeed they think that you're faking it?

[Talanic]

Make it a swift action when it's Improved and you've got something worth using more than once in a long, long while. As-is, a standard action is just too valuable in combat...

OR...

Make it a full-round action, that provokes the bluff check; if they fail, then they make an attack of opportunity; you gain no AC bonus. If they HIT, then it is resolved absolutely normally. If they MISS, they can make no more attacks of opportunity the rest of the round even if they have combat reflexes, and they are considered flatfooted until their next turn.

I was thinking of suggesting that they forfeit their next standard action if they miss but it seemed too powerful.

[Seffbasilisk]

......Why not just fient? If they're flatfooted they get no AoOs...

[Shhalahr Windrider]

No, they are not flat-footed. They simply lose their Dex bonus against your next attack as long as said attack comes before your next turn. They certainly don't lose AoOs.

As to the feat being potentially underpowered: What if I removed one of the prerequisites? That way, it would be a bit closer to to Mobility. The prereq. would have to be Improved Feint.

Of course the situation in which it would be useful would come up less often than Mobility, even for a PC that uses this tactic a lot. It's probably balanced without any of the feat prereqs. And the Int prereq. was just there for Combat Expertise...