Uses for 5-ft Step/Exploit Adjustment Feat

[Saradominist]

Hi all, this is my first time posting here. I've looked at threads here for information about 3.5 topics for a couple years now, and finally decided to make an account. So please feel free to help me understand any etiquette I may be missing, so I can learn.

I am interested in the opportunist feat Exploit Adjustment, from Dragon 340. The feat lets you make an AoO
"...against any opponent who moves from one square adjacent to you to another square adjacent to you." Including 5-ft steps.

I was wondering, how useful can this be? In what kinds of situations would a creature take a 5-ft step from already adjacent to you to still adjacent to you? Any creative ideas? At first I thought it was 5-ft step within your threat range, but oh well.

EDIT: Also, would this override things like a creature tumbling through/beside your space?

[Troacctid]

The most common ones would probably be when you're in their space, when they're moving to flank you, or when they're moving to attack someone behind you.

[Kazyan]

If there is total cover between you and the adjacent creature--such as a tower shield that you're holding--they have to move around that cover in order to attack you. Consult your DM about the tower shield total cover rules, though, because of the loose wording.

[Gruftzwerg]

Imho for general purposes the ability is to situational and not much of real use/benefit.

But I could see value in it in specific situations/campaigns:
If you are the frontliner in a dungeon heavy campaign and build a stall and control type of build, it could be a nice icing on top of the build. Other than that, the amount of situation where this would apply are to inconsistent. If you are mostly fighting outside/in big areas, this feat will see no opportunity to become usable. Maybe you can tailor some kind of combo with other abilities for a more universal/flexible build, but that would require immense optimization imho.

Really, imho there are far more interesting options to focus on.

[Rebel7284]

If your party has a lot of ways of moving opponents around, this might be helpful. It doesn't say the opponents need to move under their own power. Knockback, etc.

Edit: wait, you can take a regular AOO in those cases already....

[Kazyan]

If you have the Stand Still feat, you can use Exploit Adjustment on a wider variety of movements: if a creature adjacent to you tries to move away, but also moves through a second adjacent square, you can just stop them--and then get your AoO back.

Many maneuvers from Setting Sun could trigger Exploit Adjustment. Among them are Clever Positioning, the various Throw ones, and Mirrored Pursuit (depending on your DM; you use it after they're finished moving, but the fluff is that you're following them closely). Slippers of the Setting Sun (Novice) can get you one of these of level 3 or lower for 3,000 gp.

[the_tick_rules]

If your party has a lot of ways of moving opponents around, this might be helpful. It doesn't say the opponents need to move under their own power. Knockback, etc.

Edit: wait, you can take a regular AOO in those cases already....

I thought 5 ft steps don't provoke attacks normally? Cause then you could totally use knockback to great effect.

[Elkad]

Positioning for flanking bonuses and moving past you are the biggest two. And at least one of those is likely to come up in every combat, possibly many times.

[Gruftzwerg]

I thought 5 ft steps don't provoke attacks normally? Cause then you could totally use knockback to great effect.

Maybe he mixed it up with the "Thicket of Blades" stance?


@ OP: Thicket of Blades (stance, Crusader 3, from Tome of Battle)

The stance can be either picked earliest by a pure Crusader 5 or latest by a non Crusader past lvl 10 (via Martial Study + Martial Stance feats). It gives an AoO for any kind of movement, including 5ft step. Much more useful than Exploit Adjustment since it applies to more situations (e.g. If you have reach and enemies try to make 5ft steps to approach you).
Exploit Adjustment is just too niche and gets totally overshadowed by this. Thicket of Blades has lesser prerequisites and is more useful.

[Darg]

Maybe he mixed it up with the "Thicket of Blades" stance?


@ OP: Thicket of Blades (stance, Crusader 3, from Tome of Battle)

The stance can be either picked earliest by a pure Crusader 5 or latest by a non Crusader past lvl 10 (via Martial Study + Martial Stance feats). It gives an AoO for any kind of movement, including 5ft step. Much more useful than Exploit Adjustment since it applies to more situations (e.g. If you have reach and enemies try to make 5ft steps to approach you).
Exploit Adjustment is just too niche and gets totally overshadowed by this. Thicket of Blades has lesser prerequisites and is more useful.

The stance only gives 1 AoO per action. Exploit Adjustment can give as many as there are spaces adjacent to you. If you are flanked but still want to make a full attack, you can take a 5ft step to ruin their flank which forces them to take a step to get their flanking back. This feat can be had at level 1. The stance requires a minimum level of 10 without initiator levels.