Attacks of opportunity

Trunk-only: This article pertains to a feature of Crawl which is being tested. It will likely change before the next release, and may even be removed entirely.

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When you move away from an enemy, they have a small (1/3) chance of taking advantage and launching a free attack. Repositioning and retreating is often still good, but keep an eye out for those extra attacks.

If you have an enemy right next to you, moving away from them has a 1/3 chance to trigger an attack of opportunity.

There are several situations when monsters won't be able to get free attacks on you:

• Monsters that are slower than you don't get a free attack.
• Confused, fleeing, or incapacitated (asleep, caught in a web or net) monsters don't get a free attack too.
• Monsters that cannot see you cannot perform attacks of opportunity.
• Even monsters with reaching attacks must be right next to you to launch a free attack. You can kite a gnoll with a polearm or a snapping turtle absolutely safely as long as you have at least a tile of distance from them.
• The player becomes immune to attacks of opportunity while performing martial attacks or rampaging.

Note: slow attacking monsters lose a turn after an attack of opportunity, so you can get a tile after an ogre swings at you.

Several attack flavours don't apply when an enemy hits you with a free attack. A rust devil can corrode you, wraiths can slow you, etc. But engulf, ensnare, constriction, trample, phantom's blink with, and blink frog's blink don't trigger if you get hit by attacks of opportunity. Additionally, self-destructing enemies like lurking horrors and creeping infernos don't blow up when they get a free attack on you.

History

• Attacks of opportunity will be introduced in 0.29 as a replacement for the energy randomisation.