Rules mistake?

[Mechanize]

Attacks of Opportunity

Generally, if you cast a spell, you provoke attacks of opportunity from threatening enemies. If you take damage from an attack of opportunity, you must make a Concentration check (DC 10 + points of damage taken + spell level) or lose the spell. Spells that require only a free action to cast don’t provoke attacks of opportunity.

Feather fall is the only spell out of thousands that is free... at least as far as I know.

Should this AoO rule count for swift action spells? They changed quicken spell to swift action... is there another way to make your spells free actions?

[LTwerewolf]

Quickened spells do not provoke attacks either.

[JustPlayItLoud]

The ruling that free action spells don't cause attacks of opportunity is from the Player's Handbook, which was printed for swift actions were a thing. Free actions became swift or immediate to make is simpler to rule which abilities could be used outside your turn. And the term free action was used to describe things in the original rules as "not an action". And I think that makes sense because there were actions you could take that were considered "not an action", the given example being using the use magic device skill not being an action in itself but part of the standard action of using the item.

As far as RAW, I'm not aware of the specific language being correct with an errata file, but it makes sense that swift action spells do not provoke attacks of opportunity as swift actions used to be free actions. And on that note, I wonder if an errata file corrected feather fall to be an immediate action.

[eggs]

Didn't feather fall become immediate? Anyway, after some free actions were subdivided into swift and immediate, it means them.

I'm AFB, but I'm sure it's in the Rules compendium, and probably whichever book introduced swift actions (miniatures handbook?)

[Mechanize]

Recently I have been reading up on rules at d20srd because they seem to be more up to date rather than the old PHB. I copied that text from the SRD site so something didn't seem right.

I ask becasue I am building a battle cleric that focuses on a lot of swift action or quicken/dmm casting mixed with attacking in 1 round. After reading that rule, I thought it would be pretty crappy to get hit with AoO all the time on such quick spells.

[JustPlayItLoud]

Oh, upon further review, feather fall is totally listed as an immediate action on the SRD. And also in the SRD is the updated ruling that swift actions do no provoke and that quickened spells are swift actions. I guess I should really pay more attention to the mundane rules stuff. I had it basically memorized before the 3.5 was a thing and haven't read it much since. And I don't personally own any books that make the distinction of swift/immediate. I was unaware they made the distinction until after I'd returned to 3.5 after a long tabletop gaming hiatus.

[eggs]

Yeah. I dug around on the internet and it looks like Rules Compendium says that anything with a casting time of "Standard action or greater" provokes AoOs (which might be useful if there are move action spells floating around... but I can only think of move action powers); Miniatures Handbook explicitly says swift spells don't provoke AoOs and that Feather Fall is a swift spell that can be used out of turn (but that was before Immediate spells were a thing).

[Mechanize]

All very good to know, thanks for the help.

Let the melee swift casting begin! lol

[ericgrau]

Swift spells are also great for melee caster hybrids because most of them don't have somatic components and therefore no chance of arcane spell failure in armor. Spell compendium can make it downright nuts. Other spells to get on such a build are hour/level spells (cast in the morning with armor off), sometimes 10 min/level spells (same reason, but not always an option), and 1 or 2 buffs that you only use in buffing rounds. The buff can have ASF, but 25-40% chance of nothing is better than 100% chance of nothing. Or if it's an exceptional buff you might cast it in round 1 even without a buffing round and take the risk. Or as a last resort you grab still spell, but better to try workarounds first and delay that feat to high levels.

[Psyren]

Even more important for gishes, swift-action spells mean you can full-attack (or charge/withdraw) right after casting them. These are both common actions for melee to take.

[Mechanize]

Even more important for gishes, swift-action spells mean you can full-attack (or charge/withdraw) right after casting them. These are both common actions for melee to take.

I don't know what a gish is lol. can you full round attack after casting a swift spell with anyone or is that a specific build/race/class/ability?

[Psyren]

I don't know what a gish is lol. can you full round attack after casting a swift spell with anyone or is that a specific build/race/class/ability?

1) Gish = Fighter/mage, i.e. someone that is both good at fighting (and typically can wear armor) as well as cast spells. As opposed to a pure caster, which typically avoids melee and doesn't wear armor.

2) Yes, you can take a swift action before, after, or even during a full-round action. (But note there are some restrictions on that last one, e.g. you can't normally cast a spell while casting another one.)