Spellcasting and AoO

[Letsplayforfun]

How many times does a single opponent get to attack you per round when you cast?

Like: if you've speed and cast 2 spells/round, does he get 2 AoO?

[Jayde Moon]

A single character/monster/creature should only get one AoO per round.

[Gwydion]

Does the character suffering an AoO for missle fire or casting get a tumble check (DC 15), THEN the attack is allowed?

[Oskar Maxon]

Tumble is for moving around in combat.

[Gippy]

Jayde's correct. Each monster/player/whatever only gets a single AOO a round. If they waste this slashing at the monster that ran past them -- and then you cast -- you will not suffer an AOO from them for that round.

[Jayde Moon]

Does the character suffering an AoO for missle fire or casting get a tumble check (DC 15), THEN the attack is allowed?

To avoid attacks of opportunity while casting there is a free mode for casters called 'Defensive Casting'.

When in defensive casting, you do not draw attacks of opportunity.

You roll a Concentration Check with a DC of 15+Lvl of spell being cast (so fireball would have a DC of 18 ).  If you succeed, spell goes off, no AoO made.  Failure, then spell fails.

If you are within 4 meters of an enemy, the DC is bumped up by 4. (DC for fireball becomes 22).

The feat Combat Casting negates this penalty.

[TheImpossibleDream]

Fun fact, monsters and pc's can only get one type of aoo per round total! This applies to all forms of aoo's!

[Vlaid]

Maybe a little off topic, but I never understood the point of incurring a -4 penalty to defensive casting while within 4 meters of an enemy. The only reason you WOULD cast defensively, is if there is an enemy within 4 meters.

Unless I am missing something...

[Jayde Moon]

Think about it in reverse, it might make more sense:

The Concentration DC is 19+spell level, unless you take Combat Casting, which adds 4 to your concentration check.

There's a lot of feats and abilities that apply -4 penalties, this is one of them, which they applied so they could create a feat to remove.

[Vlaid]

Wouldn't it have made more sense to just make the check 19+spell level and have the feat add 4 to the roll? It's less complicated and makes more sense rather than "In the only situation defensively casting makes sense, you receive a -4 penalty"?

[Kotenku]

Vlaid:

arrows.

The purpose of defensive casting as I understand it isn't to avoid Attacks of Opportunity. The point is to keep from having your spell DISRUPTED.
Basically, you make a slightly more difficult roll than normal, in order to avoid an -impossible- concentration check from taking damage while casting.

Whether or not Defensive Casting mode actually prevents attacks of opportunity like the above poster says, I'm not completely certain, as I haven't played with it much before.

[Skrillix]

It does indeed prevent Attacks of Opportunity.

[Ommadawn]

I found it almost impossible to use in any case, as it can't be hot-keyed.

[Vlaid]

Oh, casting defensively makes it so you can't lose spells due to damage? I didn't know that. I thought ALL it did was prevent AoO's due to casting spells.

[Skrillix]

You lose the spell if you fail the Concentration check, instead of worrying about being damaged and losing the spell on top of that. It's useful for relatively low level spells that need you to get in close, such as Combust.