Cleave feat

[tensen]

The cleave doesn't care about AC of the secondary party just like the other ones that provide damage on miss don't care.

It works insofar as it seems the common thread of 4th edition design is to take into account that hit points aren't actually for sustaining damage.

My guess is that you aren't supposed to take out minions with this power either, just like you can't kill them on a miss (which is in effect what this power provides.)

The visual probably isn't that you cut through your foe and strike the secondary, but you sweep your blade through your opponent into adjacent areas, so the adjacent foes are using up precious (luck) hit points in dodging just like they would have if they were the direct target.

 

[chaotix42]

My guess is that you aren't supposed to take out minions with this power either, just like you can't kill them on a miss (which is in effect what this power provides.)

Nope, you can definitely kill minions with the extra damage.

 

[Mort_Q]

My guess is that you aren't supposed to take out minions with this power either, just like you can't kill them on a miss (which is in effect what this power provides.)

You guessed wrong.

Excerpts: Minions

Have sufficient defenses: A PC should hit a minion at about the same rate as that PC would hit a typical monster of the same level. If the PC only misses on a natural 1, then that part of the fight becomes trivial. Thus, the minion’s defenses are set using the same scale as other monsters of its level. Similarly, while minions are meant to be easily dispatched, we didn’t want it to be too easy, so we decided that minions shouldn’t die when missed by an attack roll, even if that attack would normally deal damage on a hit. Of course, they might still die if they take damage from other sources, like walking through a wall of fire or getting hit by a Cleave from a fighter.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

It came to the point in my 3.x games that the same people who took Cleave in the first place were the ones also cutting big circles in the enemy ranks anyhow.
I like this power as described! It saves not only a bucket of table time for the non-fighter/barbarian characters to talk about teevee and grrls. But it also saves the fighter/barbarian player from his carpel tunel he got from lack of grrls.

 

[MrIllusion]

Regarding the Cleave At-Will, does the adjacent target receive strictly Str modifier damage only, or is it also subjected to bonuses and penalties, such as the Pit-Fighter trait or being weakened?

 

[webrunner]

As an aside, a basic attack, reaping strike and cleave all have exactly the same effect on a minion standing on it's own

 

[Nebulous]

You could also look at it as being 3 hp of morale damage to the secondary target -- the primary target's blood and intestines just splattered all over him.