incorporeal creature discusion

[rabbedrabit]

ok so a rules question came up today while fighting wraithes. example ie a charicter is in the corner of a room fighting a wraith. the wraith moves north 5' into the wall. does the charicter get an oppertunity attack on the wraith or not for leaving its threat area becouse it went into a wall but not leaving its 8 squar area of threat?

[OneSidedDie]

"You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach." The game doesn't have a hard set definition of reach in normal terms. The closest it gets is the reach property of a weapon which adds 5 feet to the character's reach. My personal opinion is that when a hostile creature voluntarily leaves the area in which another creature can reach, they should get an opportunity attack. I feel the rule is there to have a consequence of leaving a creatures effective melee combat range without taking precautions. So I'd allow the attack. Whichever way you rule just make sure it is consistent when players and npcs do it and you will be fine.

[dulux-oz]

My take on it is that the wraith did not move away from the PC, just into an area that the PC couldn't get to, so there is no AOO.

Think of it this way: if the PC had a magic sword that could pass through armour, walls, etc, then the wraith would still be able to be attacked and no AOO would apply - just because the PC doesn't have such a sword doesn't change the AOO basis.

Now if the wraith had moved away from the pc, then an AOO would apply (IMNSHO)

Cheers

[Mavrik6666]

concur... the wraith did nothing to incur an attack of opportunity

[Zacchaeus]

Yep, Wraith would have to move somewhere where the PC could get at it for an Attack of Opportunity. So keep those Wraiths out of the corners :)