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.

Adjacent enemies may trigger an attack of opportunity on movement. Capable enemies of same or faster movement speed will have a 1/3 chance to get a free attack whenever you move. Attacks of opportunity are for most intents and purposes equal to a regular melee attack, though many movement-related attack flavours (engulf, ensnare, constriction, trample, phantom's blink with, and blink frog's blink) don't trigger, and self-destructing enemies like lurking horrors and creeping infernos won't blow up.

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 are unable to chase you.
• 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.

History

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