[RPG] How to resolve an endless loop of attacks of opportunity

opportunity-attackpathfinder-1e

Combatant Alice and combatant Bob, both wielding a dagger in one hand, strike each other using an off-hand unarmed attack. No one has the Improved Unarmed Strike feat.

Assuming that you can make AoO against other AoO, and you can make AoO using unarmed strike, their actions will be:

  1. Alice tries to hit Bob, triggering the AoO from Bob
  2. Bob tries to hit Alice with his AoO, using unarmed strike, triggers AoO as well
  3. Alice tries to hit Bob with her AoO, using unarmed strike, triggers AoO
  4. (go to 2)

How this endless loop of attempts should be resolved? Who attacks first?

Best Answer

It's not an endless loop

Combat on Attack on Unarmed Strike says, "An unarmed character can’t take attacks of opportunity (but see 'Armed' Unarmed Attacks, below)." "Armed" Unarmed Attacks says

Sometimes a character’s or creature’s unarmed attack counts as an armed attack. A monk, a character with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, a spellcaster delivering a touch attack spell, and a creature with natural physical weapons all count as being armed….

Thus when Alice—who lacks the feat Improved Unarmed Strike—makes an attack with her unarmed strike against Bob, Alice provokes an attack of opportunity from Bob. But Bob—who also lacks the feat Improved Unarmed Strike—can't make attacks of opportunity with his own normal unarmed strike. Were Bob to possess the feat Improved Unarmed Strike—or employ his dagger—, he'd make his attack of opportunity normally with that appropriate weapon due to Alice's attack and wouldn't himself provoke.

Despite both wielding daggers, wielding a weapon doesn't obviate the attack of opportunity provoked by attacking with a normal unarmed strike nor does wielding a dagger allow a combatant to threaten with the combatant's normal unarmed strike. As per Attacks of Opportunity on Threatened Squares: "If you’re unarmed, you don’t normally threaten any squares and thus can’t make attacks of opportunity." When making a normal unarmed strike, both Bob and Alice are unarmed.

(Note that also both Bob and Alice would both have to possess the feat Combat Reflexes or something similar to even make multiple attacks of opportunity in a round, usually eliminating the possibility of this situation becoming an endless loop that way, too.)