Allies and Opponents

[Cheiromancer]

Is it ever defined exactly what an 'ally' or an 'opponent' is?

If it would be advantageous to treat a member of your party as an opponent, may you do so? If not, can you think of an in-game reason why not?

I'm thinking of feats like Elusive Target (Bo9s) that give you a benefit when an opponent triggers an AoO. You should be able to get the same benefit if an ally did the same thing, right? After all, an opponent is uncooperative, but an ally would be willing to help you out.

Hmmm. Elusive Target could get cheesy very fast: if you are your own ally, you could grant yourself free 5-ft. steps. Are there any free actions that provoke AoO's?

I doubt that is the intention of the feat, but I don't know why you would get more benefit from an opponent than an ally.

edit: Found these quotes in another thread.

Mechanically speaking an 'opponent' is whoever you say it is, just as an 'ally' is who or whatever you choose to define as such. If you want to limit an effect to actual enemies, you have to add limiting language such as the 'foe must present a direct immediate threat to you or an ally' stuff in the healing strikes from Devoted Spirit.


...As Tyckspoon says there is no hard definition for enemy in core (which is where coup de grace is from), so its left entirely up to player choice.

[Feilith]

[QUOTE=Cheiromancer;15657449]Is it ever defined exactly what an 'ally' or an 'opponent' is?

If it would be advantageous to treat a member of your party as an opponent, may you do so? If not, can you think of an in-game reason why not?

I'm thinking of feats like Elusive Target (Bo9s) that give you a benefit when an opponent triggers an AoO. You should be able to get the same benefit if an ally did the same thing, right? After all, an opponent is uncooperative, but an ally would be willing to help you out.
QUOTE]

No they never clearly define what an ally or enemy is. So if you really want to, you could switch sides mid-combat and wreak havoc on the other PCs. A few reasons why this doesn't happen normally:
1) OOC they'll be upset, its a co-op game and killing them will make them want to kill you IC.
2) Assuming you're in combat if you use that your DM will probably give away flanking bonuses to enemies (bad for your meat shield)
3) Just don't turn on your buddies, its a bad idea.

But yes any time another PC moves out of your threatened area you are entitled to an AoO, most DMs wont ask because 99.9999999.....99999% of the time most people won't want to take it.

[Galvin]

Allies and opponents are never clearly defined, though also there is nothing about defining an ally as an enemy to gain the bonuses entitled. Though I would not allow the sponteaneous re-definition of these titles as suddenly turning to a hostile attitude to a buddy in character would not be realistic. I believe the elusive strike feat in the Tome of Battle never specifies you gain the five foot step on an AoO against an enemy, rather with anyone that leaves your threatened area.

[Karnith]

Is it ever defined exactly what an 'ally' or an 'opponent' is?
They are defined, but not in a particularly helpful manner. Per the glossary entry for Ally (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_ally&alpha=A):
A creature friendly to you. In most cases, references to "allies" include yourself.
And the entry for Enemy (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/glossary&term=Glossary_dnd_enemy&alpha=E):

A creature unfriendly to you.

[Jormengand]

It is usually assumed that an ally and enemy follows the definitions given in the quotes in the first post. However, this quickly gets silly when you end up with the Infinite Bard and other funnies. A DM ruling could easily be that no-one should be counted as your enemy unless you actually intend to fight them, with the exact parameters of that being determined by the DM.

[Dimers]

Yeah, this is pretty much the bag-of-rats problem. The game breaks in certain ways when you can take something that isn't a threat and pretend that it is just to get around intended function.