Opportunity attacks

[Tak Jr]

Sorry this is such a noob question, but I reread some stuff and got a little confused. These are two quotes from the PH.

When you’re adjacent to an enemy, that enemy can’t move past you....without putting itself in danger by allowing you to take an opportunity attack against it.

If an enemy leaves a square adjacent to you, you can make an opportunity attack against that enemy.

...so basically the question is, what if they leave a square next adjacent to you, but enter another one adjacent to you? Do you get an opportunity attack?

[tcrudisi]

If they shift, they do not incur an opportunity attack. If they teleport, they do not incur an opportunity attack. If they are forced to move via pull, push or slide, they do not incur an opportunity attack.

Note that if they move in any other way, even if it's only 1 square, it doesn't matter where their destination square is. It only matters that they are leaving a square that the enemy threatens.

Did that help clear things up?

[Tegu8788]

Think about it in Fluff terms, and the crunch makes more sense.

You are adjacent to the enemy, who then uses a ranged or area attack, he isn't paying attention to you. Smack him.

You are adjacent to the enemy, who moves only five feet away ("shift" one square). It's a cautious movement, so he's on guard and you can't smack him. Some features allow for more than one square shifting.

You are adjacent to the enemy, who teleports. It's instanteous, so you don't have time to smack him.

You are adjacent to the enemy, who up and runs away at full speed. When he does so, there is an openning. Smack him.

If you have a long melee weapon ("threatening reach") you can smack people further away.

You are adjacent to the enemy, who is inbetween you and an ally, he is going to have a harder time watching you both ("combat advantage") so you get to smack him with less effort.

Obviously, of you are unable to smack him for any reason, then you can't smack him. If more than one enemy provokes a smacking in one turn you have to choose which one to hit. A turn is really quick, and these are simple ("MBA") smacks I'm talking about. Also, because you get to smack him when he lets his guard drop, if your smack kills him or inflicts some status effect, you get to do that before he actually runs away or shoots someone else.

That help? I find fluff makes crunch easier to understand sometimes.

[Kurald Galain]

If you have a long melee weapon ("threatening reach") you can smack people further away.

Note that wielding a long melee weapon will not in fact give you threatening reach. There's a few exotic ways to get TR for a few minutes per day, but in general monsters get TR whereas player characters don't.

[Tegu8788]

My mistake, I just paraphrased the stat block. I should have said can.

[Tak Jr]

Thanks for all the input. Basically, I was just wondering if someone moves around someone else's threatened area, does that second someone still get an attack for the first box they move not at all.

Ya know after typing that it makes sense because of the part that says you only get one opportunity attack per turn. It wouldn't make much sense if someone could just run around your threatened area and not provoke opportunity attacks, but it also would make much sense if they didn't provoke it until they are running out of your threatened area.

In saying all that, it has to be provoked on the very first square they're moving from, right?

[Snowbody]

No. The attack may be taken any time an enemy leaves a square adjacent to you. Usually you take the attack as soon as it's available, but there are a few situations where you may want to let the enemy move a square before you smack 'em (e.g. when your MBA can push or slide, or when the enemy has an aura).