Opportunity Action Rules Question

[Melkor]

Was reading through the 4E PHB, DMG, and MM last night for fun, and had some questions about the Opportunity Action rules.

The PHB states the following:

Turn: On your turn, you take actions: a standard
action, a move action, a minor action, and any
number of free actions, in any order you wish. See
“Action Types,” page 267, for what you can do with
these different actions.

Once per Combatant’s Turn: You can take no
more than one opportunity action on each other
combatant’s turn. You can’t take an opportunity
action on your own turn.

Does this mean that if you had 5 or 6 kobolds running by your fighter down a corridor, you could technically make an attack of opportunity against each of them on their turn?

-Or-

The DMG states:
Each player character rolls initiative separately, of
course, but don’t give the monsters the same attention.
Roll once for each distinct kind of monster in the
encounter.

Does that mean that the kobolds are all considered to act on the same 'Turn' if you only roll one initiative roll for all of them, and therefore, your fighter would only get a single opportunity attack?

Thanks.

 

[D'karr]

Yes, on each kobold's turn, as they are provoking an opportunity action, you can take an opportunity action. Even if you only roll initiative once for them they are each acting on their own turn.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Ayup, you can issue an OA against each monster that provokes in general. You have to note with the fighter that his CS attack is an interrupt, not an OA, and thus he gets THAT one only once a round, a point which was endlessly confusing to new players.

EDIT: turn -> round.

 

[Balesir]

You have to note with the fighter that his CS attack is an interrupt, not an OA, and thus he gets THAT one only once a turn, a point which was endlessly confusing to new players.

I believe you mean "only once a round" rather than once a turn. It is confusing, but it works well IME, in practice.

To remember the difference between 'turns' and 'rounds' - "when everyone has taken a turn, you have gone a-round"...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I believe you mean "only once a round" rather than once a turn. It is confusing, but it works well IME, in practice.

To remember the difference between 'turns' and 'rounds' - "when everyone has taken a turn, you have gone a-round"...

Sorry, it was just a typo, yes, a round means 'once a round the table'.

 

[Balesir]

Sorry, it was just a typo, yes, a round means 'once a round the table'.

Yep, I guessed it was a slip of the finger, but I think , too, was confusing (or confused!) as I tried to address two people with the same post...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yep, I guessed it was a slip of the finger, but I think , too, was confusing (or confused!) as I tried to address two people with the same post...

Yeah, it was confusing. 'turn' is sort of a weird word too, people are befuddled by it because in most board games it tends to get used indiscriminately to mean both 'my turn', and "everyone's turn(s)" plus it had a connotation in earlier editions of D&D that implies 'what we all did in this unit of time'. It may be 20 years since I really played 2e, but AD&D terminology is still etched into my brain forever. I can still recite virtually every spell and chart from 1e by rote.