How to avoid falling down when fighting

[talino7]

when fighting certain creatures my front line characters are getting mauled because they tend to get tripped and then hit with opportunity attacks when trying to stand. Is there a way for me to reduce the chances of either falling in the first place or being attacked when trying to stand up?

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Its a combination of getting good dice rolls and exploiting the ai stupidity.

To clairfy.
There are many ways for a character to fall down.
Most i think require reflex safe.
Now a common early game trick is:
Greas before you.
Put your group on hold.
Have the enemy charge to you and triping over greas(unless they make a reflex save.)

Using your meatsheilds to intercept those going after your archers.

Alternaty you stack as many buff's as possible.
Bless, Guidance, Linzy singing, etc.

Pathfinder is all about stacking the numbers in your favor and praying the dice gods arent going to ♥♥♥♥ you over.

Read the spells, Watch D&D rules explained.
There is a lot of tiny details that make a huge difference.

For example:
A sleep spell can turn a hard fight into a cakewalk or not do anything.

I suggest you use the combat log in the right corner and read what cause them to fall.
Then read up on what it does, What counters it.
Then implement counter.
Its all about learning who is weak to what and how to exploit it to your advantage.

[Silyon]

The primary things that cause Trips, at least in the early game, are Wolves and Dogs. They get a free Trip attempt whenever they successfully land an attack, so the easiest way to avoid trips is to make sure your front-liner's AC is absurdly high to begin with. To that end, the value of consumables like Potions of Faith and Potions of Barkskin cannot be understated. Especially since they can be used from the belt as a move action, which is generally otherwise left unused by melee-types until you have Full attack options at Lv. 6+.

Make sure as well you're understanding the full effects of certain abilities you might be using without a thought. For instance, Amiri's Rage does indeed increase her attack, damage, and a bunch of other things but it comes at a cost of -2 to her AC, making her an easier target to hit. Similarly, powerful offensive abilities like Charge and Cleave also give a temporary penalty to AC until the character's next turn, so charging into a pack of wolves is generally a bad idea.

Having your character fall down, whether it's from a Trip or some other effect like Sleep, Grease, or Hideous Laughter means they're left prone (and unlike in actual Pathfinder, unable to do anything) until they take a move action to stand up. Taking this action means that any enemy still on their feet around them can make an Attack of Opportunity against them, which depending on the combat situation could result in as much as 5 enemies getting a free attack on them. Thus, as counter-intuitive as it might be, sometimes the right call is actually to have that character simply pass or delay their turn until the rest of the party can deal with the enemies immediately around them in some way. That can be by killing them outright, as well as using crowd control abilities like Sleep or Color Spray to deny them a turn.

[AzureTheGamerKobold]

Your Combat Defense or CMD is 10+Base Attack Modifier+Strength modifier+Dex modifier+Size Modifiers+Misc modifiers such as feats ect so...

10+BAB+Str and Dex Mod+Size+Misc

This will basically give you your AC vs any attack that trips, pushes, knocks over ect so the higher this is the harder it is to knock you over. The big issue is alot of monsters get huge bonuses to this stuff or get a free trip when they attack. Getting this high is going to also be class dependent so your martials will have an easier time of it.

Are feats to improve this but the short answer is--- its not an easy way to avoid it not really for a long time.

[Wyrtt]

You cant. But you can return the favour. Use grease spell before fight to set up tunnels for AI to die in. Place your tanks outside pool of grease. That way enemy will have to pass reflex check EVERY round. For trolls you can use laughter. CC spells turn any encounter from too hard to patheticly easy because sudenly insted of 5% chance to hit you have 100%.