Is D&D combat meant to be heroic?

I was looking over the combat rules for D&D 3.5 and it occured to me that combat isn't designed to be "heroic". Now I'm defining heroic in the sense of coolness, where my character can perform the type of actions and maneuvers found in a typical S&S movie or book. My problem is that D&D 3.x kind of pushes going totally for the straight hit. Most of the special attacks all seem to have way too many drawbacks to even consider(even with feats) an attempt to perform them unless absoloutely neccessary.

Take Disarm: Why would you ever try this without the Improved Disarm feat. Not only is there a chance you will get whacked for damage, but if you fail you then have a chance of being disarmed yourself. The size and weapon bonuses are ridiculous in my experience(I have taken Escrima for three years and have serious issues with these rules). The easiest way to disarm someone is to slice their knuckles, this has nothing to do with size or strength and a faster weapon is usually better for this than a two-handed weapon (However this is not the crux of my disscussion so I will let it be, and Improved Disarm offsets this a little). Now even with the Improved Disarm feat, if you fail the opponent gets a "free" opportunity to disarm you. An opponent doesn't get a free attack when you miss and he can only do so much in a round. You've effectively given him three actions this round(two with Improved Disarm) to try a disarm maneuver.

Now assuming you disarm him, and his weapon is on the ground all you've done is given yourself an extra attack next round in exchange for not doing any damage last round(picking up the weapon is a move action that provokes AoO). Was it really worth the risk?

If you fail there are a few possibilities...
1.)opponent hits with AoO; You loose your action, take damage and opponent will attack you again on his turn in the round.

2.) You fail in your attempt to disarm; Opponent gets to try and disarm you for "free"(no AoO) and can still attack you on his turn in the round.

3.) Opponent does disarm you; Opponent gets to attack you again on his turn in the current round, gets an AoO next round when you retrieve your weapon and an attack on you during his turn for that round.

IMO it's just not worth it, even with Improved Disarm(and not only is that one of your feats gone, plus a fighter has to have an Int of 13 and spend a feat on Combat Expertise to get it). Just to note I have this same problem with tripping, overrunning, etc. The risk is greater than the reward. I wonder if this could be part of the problem with the fighter class in general, make these maneuvers easierfor them to achieve and qualify for and it opens up greater possibilities for the class.

You're pointing out that D&D combat is neither meant to be cinematic nor realistic. It's meant be heroic by way of being fairly abstract and utterly unrealistic.

Its game mechanics. It's not meant to be heroic nor realistic.

If you think tripping can't be used effectively, you haven't seen it done well. A reach weapon+improved trip is a beautiful thing. Let's not forget that EVERYONE get's that AOO when the bad guy stands up, not just the tripper. Nice little touch attack, no AOO (if you have imp trip) and a decent chance of success vs realistic targets. (Trying to trip a Bullette is a bad idea)

If anything, a trip monkey can be almost overpowering. He gives every front line fighter an extra shot and a +4 bonus as well.

it is meant to be fun.

Now I'm defining heroic in the sense of coolness, where my character can perform the type of actions and maneuvers found in a typical S&S movie or book.

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For me, this is all in the description. Say a character hits. I describe it as:

"You successfully crouch under a half-hearted slash by your foe, and, steadying your blade, see an opening. Rising from the crouch, your blade rises through your enemy. He tries to block it with his arm, but your sword plows through, hitting home. You hear the satisfying crunch of bone and snap of sinew as hot, red blood from the severed veins splashes onto you."

Of course, if they get a crit, maybe the enemy is hurtled backwards. If they deal enough damage to kill, perhaps they managed to take off a limb.

Heroics can be as much in description as it is in mechanics.

There are better games out there for more accurately modeling real world combat and other systems that are big and cool and cinematic.

D&D combat is their utilitarian cousin.

Imaro said:

Now assuming you disarm him, and his weapon is on the ground all you've done is given yourself an extra attack next round in exchange for not doing any damage last round(picking up the weapon is a move action that provokes AoO). Was it really worth the risk?

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The 20th level fighter opponent who has just been disarmed, picks up his sword (move action) and attacks you once (standard action).
If you had not disarmed him, the 20th level fighter would have attacked you 4 time (or 5 with haste).

1) You got a free attack on him (AOO) that replaced your disarm.
2) All your budies in range got an AOO on him as well
3) He was no longer a threatening opponent until he picked up his weapon
4) You saved 3-4 attacks on yourself

How about your buddy moved up and picked up the opponents weapon from the floor?

Now that he is disarmed your buddies can try trip/sunder/grapple on him without the feats as he is unarmed and doesn't get an AoO to negate those things....

Reasons to Try to Disarm

The foe is:
. . . about to drink a potion of some kind.
. . . about to stab a helpless person.
. . . your best friend and accidentally picked up the evil intelligent sword
. . . the evil overlord of doom and just picked up the wand of orcus
. . . an insolent young warrior and you want to humiliate them with the ease you accomplish it.
. . . an ally who is dominated.

I can come up with many more examples, but they get increasingly specific, though no less dramatic or fun.

Reasons to Try to Trip
The foe is:
. . . trying to get to the evil sword of Holy Healing-Death upon the altar of DOOM
. . . nearly surrounded by your companions and if he is on the ground it will be easier for all of them to hit him before his next action
The foe is:
. . . a blind/dominated ally who is walking towards a cliff edge


You get the idea. . .

Veril said:

The 20th level fighter opponent who has just been disarmed, picks up his sword (move action) and attacks you once (standard action).
If you had not disarmed him, the 20th level fighter would have attacked you 4 time (or 5 with haste).

1) You got a free attack on him (AOO) that replaced your disarm.
2) All your budies in range got an AOO on him as well
3) He was no longer a threatening opponent until he picked up his weapon
4) You saved 3-4 attacks on yourself

How about your buddy moved up and picked up the opponents weapon from the floor?

Now that he is disarmed your buddies can try trip/sunder/grapple on him without the feats as he is unarmed and doesn't get an AoO to negate those things....

Click to expand...

Thanks this was more what I was looking for, real reasons to use "heroic" combat maneuvers that don't end up with you gettin the whoopin handed to you.