Rules clarifications

There are some areas of the rules that we don't really understand and that therefore detract from the game, either by slowing it down due to arguments, or due to hard feelings arising from disagreements over the rules, or because where I am unsure of the rules I will generally err on he side of giving the advantage to the players, which may make some challenges too easy. I will try to read up on these rules and clarify them before we start playing again. I hope when we next play, everyone can be on the same page, especially with regards to things that may have changed between second and third edition.

Flurry of Blows

There had been some confusion as to when a monk (i.e. Imre's character) could use the flurry of blows, and whether this required a full attack action or whether he could use it after moving. I didn't understand it either, but I have just read up on it here.

When unarmored, a monk may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus column on Table: The Monk. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the monk might make before her next action. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. A monk must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.

So if you move and attack, you can't use the flurry of blows. When moving and attacking, or when making an attack of opportunity, a monk only gets a single attack, just like everyone else.

Attacks of opportunity

The rules on attacks of opportunity are here.

An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack at your full attack bonus. You cannot use it to cast a spell, to make multiple attacks (including flurry of blows), to move, or to fire a ranged weapon.

You threaten any squares that you can make a melee attack into. Since we are not using a grid with squares, you basically threaten anything you could attack without moving first.

If you are wielding a reach weapon (such as a longspear) you can make a melee attack at 10ft distance, and you therefore threaten opponents up to 10ft from you.

You provoke an attack of opportunity when you move out of, or perform certain actions in, a threatened square. Moving up to attack someone does not normally provoke an AoE, since you are moving into but not out of a threatened square. However, if your opponent has a 10ft reach (either because they are Large sized or because they are wielding a reach weapon), you do provoke an AoE because you are moving from one threatened square to another as you approach the enemy.

Contrary to what I had previously thought, charging does not provoke an attack of opportunity. (Bull rush, and most other special attacks, do.) The SRD has tables summarizing which standard, move and full-round actions provoke AoEs.

If there are any other rules you can think of that we've been having trouble with, please let me know and I will clarify them before we next start playing.