Attacks of opportunity
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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 whenever you move; capable enemies of same or faster movement speed will have a 1/3 chance to get a free attack* when you do so. 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, distortion**, 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.
* Slow attacking monsters lose a turn after an attack of opportunity, so you can get a tile after an ogre swings at you.
** Although distortion-branded attacks of opportunity cannot blink or banish you, they still have a chance to add extra damage. Compared to regular attacks, the chance of adding 1-7 damage rises from 35% to 47%, the chance of extra 3-26 damage goes up from 25% to 33%.
History
- Attacks of opportunity will be introduced in 0.29 as a replacement for the energy randomisation.
