Getting Up from Prone & Avoiding Attacks of Opportunity

[Mars Ultor]

5th-level Fighter, my regular method of attack is Improved Trip. Add in Combat Reflexes and I'm tripping and getting Attacks of Opportunity regularly.

Last night as part of an adventure the spell casters disguised themselves while my character and another PC pretended to be captives in order to get into a orc stronghold. The plan went wrong nearly immediately and we were in combat with orcs and worgs. Since I was pretending to be a prisoner, I was only armed with a hidden dagger. I had to fight a worg and it bit me and pulled me down time after time. I did not like the taste of my own medicine.

We had to stop mid-battle and I'm currently on my back, getting turned into puppy chow. Are there ways to stand up from prone or crawl away, or do something to get away from a worg which will prevent him from getting a free attack on me? Once you're tripped is there a way to recover which doesn't involve more attacks of opportunity?

[Mr Adventurer]

Not in the middle of a fight.

There's a spell called Stand.

There's a skill trick that needs ranks of Tumble.

I think there's a feat also.

Levels in Thief-Acrobat will do it.

Otherwise - you can just fight from prone. You exchange the AoO and action cost for the combat penalties.

[Eldariel]

Just eat up the AOO and get up. It can't retrip you with the AoO so just pull back if necessary. You should be fine against it in all likelihood.

[noce]

An item in M.I.C. lets you stand from prone as a swift action without causing attacks of opportunity. It's pretty cheap, too. Unfortunately, it's too late to buy it.

[King of Nowhere]

with a DC 35 tumble, you can stand up from prone as a free action without provoking. Unless you are a high level rogue or monk, or get it from a prestige class or a skill trick, it's not going to happen.

I would take that -4 to hit and fight prone.

[Inevitability]

Teleportation might be the answer. Either you could argue that teleporting allows you to change your orientation (or teleporting to the other side of a spherical world would have you ending up upside-down), or you could teleport straight up and use any of the various features that allows you to land on your feet after a fall.

Also, if you dip a level of cleric and pick up the Sloth domain, you don't take penalties to armor class while prone. Too bad the domain is absolutely awful.

[Crake]

Just eat up the AOO and get up. It can't retrip you with the AoO so just pull back if necessary. You should be fine against it in all likelihood.

I wanna reinforce this, in case OP's group didn't realise. Also, this is a lesson for you for next time, when you're being disguised by wizards, keep your gear on under the disguise.

[King of Nowhere]

Just eat up the AOO and get up. It can't retrip you with the AoO so just pull back if necessary. You should be fine against it in all likelihood.

Why not? can't you make a trip attempt as an attack of opportunity? I mean, by raw you are stilll prone when the aoo happens, so you can't be tripped again, you take the attack and then you are standing. but by common sense, a trip attempt as an aoo against someone getting up from prone would be an attempt to keep him dow


Also, this is a lesson for you for next time, when you're being disguised by wizards, keep your gear on under the disguise.

This can backfire easily. imagine if a guard grabs the prisoner and feels metal under his hand when he sees someone in a loincloth.
The best thing to do in that case is if you have someone in the party with vow of poverty, he does not even need a disguise :)

[heavyfuel]

You can go from Prone to Kneeling. This is presumably a Move Action and since there's nothing saying so, it doesn't provoke. Then you can from Kneeling to Standing using the same assumption. So you can spend two move actions to go from prone to standing without provoking AoOs.

Also, third-ing the fact that you can't Trip a prone opponent (well, you can, but there's no effect)

[jmax]

Just eat up the AOO and get up. It can't retrip you with the AoO so just pull back if necessary. You should be fine against it in all likelihood.

Is this because the attack of opportunity happens before the action triggering it? Or is there a specific clause somewhere stating this? By rules as written, this seems accurate, although from a how-would-that-actually-work perspective it seems pretty shaky.

[Eldariel]

Is this because the attack of opportunity happens before the action triggering it? Or is there a specific clause somewhere stating this? By rules as written, this seems accurate, although from a how-would-that-actually-work perspective it seems pretty shaky.

The first case, yes. Certainly, it can be ruled either way.

[weckar]

Regardless, you CAN take a Withdraw action while prone. This need not be an issue.

[jmax]

The first case, yes. Certainly, it can be ruled either way.

Yep. Comes down to a question of how powerful you want tripping to be, I think. And whether your players say "But that makes no freaking sense!" when they can't trip someone as they try to get up :-P


Regardless, you CAN take a Withdraw action while prone. This need not be an issue.

Here we go - I was looking for the crawling rules yesterday and couldn't find them. Today I'm smart enough to just search the SRD for "crawl" :-P

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#crawling

You can crawl 5 feet as a move action. Crawling incurs attacks of opportunity from any attackers who threaten you at any point of your crawl.

By rules as written, it sounds like you probably can't Withdraw while crawling, but it would be totally reasonable to allow a prone character to watch the one enemy closely while scrambling away for 10 feet of movement. However, if the tripper has reach - such as with a spiked chain - you're SOL, since Withdraw (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#withdraw) only covers the square you start in. After that, you provoke attacks of opportunity normally.

[weckar]

Crawling (in RAW) has nothing to do with being prone.
Frankly, it is rather unclear when you would ever crawl, and what movement options get restricted at all while prone.

[jmax]

Crawling (in RAW) has nothing to do with being prone.
Frankly, it is rather unclear when you would ever crawl, and what movement options get restricted at all while prone.

True, I am making the assumption that "crawling" is the default for "moving while prone" and includes scrambling backward when prone face-up. Strictly speaking, prone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#prone) does not state any penalties on movement whatsoever. I suppose that, by strict RAW (and I should be more careful invoking the term "RAW"), you can withdraw while prone for double your normal move speed. You could also run while prone. That actually does neatly solve the problem of getting stuck in the endless trippage cycle, although it also feels a little silly. It probably falls into the category of things that are best adjudicated by watching how it works in movie action scenes :-P

[Bronk]

Here are some ideas from old threads:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=14691353&postcount=1553

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?430063-Tumble-Skill