While engaged in melee, you can't leave the enemies zone of control without triggering an attack of opportunity, I get that.
But what if you want to maneuver to another square still adjacent to the enemy you're engaged with in melee? Is this allowed? So let's say you start out round 1 to the west, facing an enemy to your east engaged in melee. During round 2 you still want to attack but would like to try to maneuver to be on your enemy's north side [ who is now to your south ], can you do this without provoking an attack of opportunity? Is some opposed skill roll against your enemy required to do this?
You only provoke an attack of opportunity if you leave an enemy's reach. Movement within an enemy's reach doesn't provoke.
If you're within reach on only one enemy, you can freely move around them. If you're within reach of multiple enemies then you're limited to moving within the intersection of their reach, since otherwise you'd leave the reach of at least one enemy.
InquisitiveCoder is spot on, but the only thing I want to add is that you might conclude from their wording that a creature must always have exactly one reach. This need not be the case, for multiple reasons. To give some examples, imagine fighting a bugbear with a whip and a knife:
On its turn, the bugbear has 15 foot reach with the whip, and 10 foot reach with unarmed strikes and the knife, because of a racial ability it has increasing its reach on its turn. That is, the bugbear's reach is 10 feet, and whip has the reach property, which adds 5 feet to reach when attacking with it.
On your turn, both reaches shrink: the unarmed strike/knife is now 5 feet (again, this is the creature's reach), and the whip is 10 (because the other thing the reach property does is add 5 feet when determining your reach for opportunity attacks with the weapon).
This means if you are 10 feet away from the bugbear and walk up to be 5 feet away from it on your turn, nothing in particular happens.
If you are 5 feet away from the bugbear and walk to 10 feet away, you have provoked an opportunity attack. The bugbear could kick you or stab you with the knife, but could not whip you.
If you are 10 feet away from the bugbear and walk to 15 feet away, you have provoked an opportunity attack. The bugbear can only make this attack with its whip. If it had two whips, it could choose which whip to take the attack with.
Opportunity attacks trigger when someone leaves your reach, not the reach of your weapons.
You can choose to use any melee weapon you have, the dagger, the whip, or something else.
Nothing in the rules for opportunity attacks says otherwise.
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Opportunity attacks trigger when someone leaves your reach, not the reach of your weapons.
You can choose to use any melee weapon you have, the dagger, the whip, or something else.
Nothing in the rules for opportunity attacks says otherwise.
You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. To make the opportunity attack, you use your reaction to make one melee attack against the provoking creature. The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach.
Emphasis mine. When you would make an opportunity attack with a reach weapon, you must add 5 feet to your reach when determining whether or not you can. So when someone provokes an OA from you by stepping from 5 feet away to 10, they have have only done so if you are not measuring reach to see if you can OA with a whip, because if you measure with the whip, they have not left your reach.
That’s why PAM is so good. It’s not only a extra bonus action attack. But you increase your reach and turns the maneuverability of your enemies a huge pain because now they provoke OAs when they enter your reach.
Then add sentinel feat then when you use PAM to make an opportunity attack you make their movement zero on a hit.
Unless they have reach or a ranged weapon they can't hit you. Then attack on your turn and take a step back. Hit them again when they enter your reach using PAM and again sentinel will reduce their speed to zero. Wash, rinse, repeat.
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While engaged in melee, you can't leave the enemies zone of control without triggering an attack of opportunity, I get that.
But what if you want to maneuver to another square still adjacent to the enemy you're engaged with in melee? Is this allowed? So let's say you start out round 1 to the west, facing an enemy to your east engaged in melee. During round 2 you still want to attack but would like to try to maneuver to be on your enemy's north side [ who is now to your south ], can you do this without provoking an attack of opportunity? Is some opposed skill roll against your enemy required to do this?
You only provoke an attack of opportunity if you leave an enemy's reach. Movement within an enemy's reach doesn't provoke.
If you're within reach on only one enemy, you can freely move around them. If you're within reach of multiple enemies then you're limited to moving within the intersection of their reach, since otherwise you'd leave the reach of at least one enemy.
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InquisitiveCoder is spot on, but the only thing I want to add is that you might conclude from their wording that a creature must always have exactly one reach. This need not be the case, for multiple reasons. To give some examples, imagine fighting a bugbear with a whip and a knife:
Opportunity attacks trigger when someone leaves your reach, not the reach of your weapons.
You can choose to use any melee weapon you have, the dagger, the whip, or something else.
Nothing in the rules for opportunity attacks says otherwise.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/combat#OpportunityAttacks
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/equipment#WeaponProperties
Emphasis mine. When you would make an opportunity attack with a reach weapon, you must add 5 feet to your reach when determining whether or not you can. So when someone provokes an OA from you by stepping from 5 feet away to 10, they have have only done so if you are not measuring reach to see if you can OA with a whip, because if you measure with the whip, they have not left your reach.
That’s why PAM is so good. It’s not only a extra bonus action attack. But you increase your reach and turns the maneuverability of your enemies a huge pain because now they provoke OAs when they enter your reach.
Then add sentinel feat then when you use PAM to make an opportunity attack you make their movement zero on a hit.
Unless they have reach or a ranged weapon they can't hit you. Then attack on your turn and take a step back. Hit them again when they enter your reach using PAM and again sentinel will reduce their speed to zero. Wash, rinse, repeat.