Leap Attack

[jontherev]

First of all, I just discovered this feat, and it seems to be one of the coolest for any fighter or monk. Now my question:

Can this feat be used during movement other than ground? Mainly I'm wondering about flight. For example, if you were flying right above the ground towards an opponent (who is on the ground) and then briefly touched the ground to jump at your foe (from at least 10' away) would this feat work? I can see a tumble check being required here. I guess I'm wondering if this would be considered changing direction.

 

[Grunj]

It's fairly specific. A touchdown is not a jump. I'd say no. FYI, there is also some errata on this feat available on the WOTC website. The errata clarifies the extra damage. It's an additional 100% of the Power Attack bonus damage, not three times the damage, as one interpretation of the original text can indicate. So if the attacker takes a -2 to hit with a 2-handed weapon that's +4 damage with normal Power Attack and +8 damage with Leap Attack. One of my players had a STR 22 Orc Barb/Fighter who usually did around 35 points of damage with his +1 keen falchion when he used Leap Attack and took a -5 penalty. That comes out to 70 points if he got a crit, which happened around 30% of the time.

I find the feat synergizes well with the Scout's Skirmish ability. Don't forget that for every 10' of speed beyond 30', you get a +4 to jump. So a Barbarian 2/Scout 3 with a move of 50' gets +8 to their jump roll. It makes a DC 10 running jump much easier to achieve. If you have any kind of STR bonus, success can be automatic on the jump. You also get to add the Skirmish damage since the character moved 10'.

 

[Krafen]

Which book was Leap Attack in?

 

[BASHMAN]

Actually, Doubled Doubling Becomes tripling. That rule has been around forever, and hasn't gone anywhere.

So if you Leap Attack with a 2H weapon power attacking for 2, you would do 6 extra damage. Still a worthwhile feat, just not super awesome. The problem is that now you have closed, you cannot use it, unless you plan to risk a bunch of AOOs and "bounce" around the battlefield between opponents.

This feat is near and dear, do my heart however. I once played in 2nd ed D&D with a Bullywug Cavalier (he was a frog-prince, get it). One of their abilities was Leap Attack, which let them do double damage with a piercing weapon.

I remember the very first time using this character I was level 1, the party was level 10 (my DM was old-school like that) and I was surrounded by 3 of them who wanted to kill me because I was a bullywug, and therefore evil (by their logic). At that moment, a Basilisk jumped out between us and stoned them! I Leap Attacked it, and rolled a natural 20, with a Longspear, which does 3d6 dmg to large creatures. I also had a large STR bonus because I had 18/77 STR and pumped up my Muscle Sub-stat by 2 levels. In those days, doubled doubles did not triple, but was quadruple! So 4x(3d6+5) dmg ended up being enough to kill the thing in one hit! Not bad for a 1st level character's first impression in a group of 10th!

 

[jontherev]

It's fairly specific. A touchdown is not a jump. I'd say no. FYI, there is also some errata on this feat available on the WOTC website. The errata clarifies the extra damage. It's an additional 100% of the Power Attack bonus damage, not three times the damage, as one interpretation of the original text can indicate. So if the attacker takes a -2 to hit with a 2-handed weapon that's +4 damage with normal Power Attack and +8 damage with Leap Attack. One of my players had a STR 22 Orc Barb/Fighter who usually did around 35 points of damage with his +1 keen falchion when he used Leap Attack and took a -5 penalty. That comes out to 70 points if he got a crit, which happened around 30% of the time.

I find the feat synergizes well with the Scout's Skirmish ability. Don't forget that for every 10' of speed beyond 30', you get a +4 to jump. So a Barbarian 2/Scout 3 with a move of 50' gets +8 to their jump roll. It makes a DC 10 running jump much easier to achieve. If you have any kind of STR bonus, success can be automatic on the jump. You also get to add the Skirmish damage since the character moved 10'.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a touchdown is not a jump". I don't see any difference between charging on the ground and jumping and flying/charging 5' off the ground and doing the same thing. If that errata is true, it makes this feat even more powerful.

The jump bonus isn't necessary for this feat since you only need to jump 10' and you need 8 ranks of jump to even get this feat.

 

[jontherev]

Which book was Leap Attack in?

It's either Complete Adventurer or Complete Warrior...sorry I'm not at home and can't remember.

 

[glass]

Actually, Doubled Doubling Becomes tripling. That rule has been around forever, and hasn't gone anywhere.

Indeed it hasn't. But since power attack doesn't double anything, the multiple multipliers rule has no bearing.


glass.

 

[jontherev]

Indeed it hasn't. But since power attack doesn't double anything, the multiple multipliers rule has no bearing.


glass.

If you power attack with a 2-handed weapon or while wielding a 1-handed weapon in 2 hands, you double the power attack damage. It's in the special section of the feat description.

 

[Iku Rex]

We've been over this several times before. Here's a thread with a CustServ answer:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=178197 .

Basically the (current) intent from WotC is that you double the extra damage from Power Attack, leaving you with a damage bonus of 2x (one-handed) or 4x (two-handed) the number subtracted from your attack rolls.

 

[jontherev]

We've been over this several times before. Here's a thread with a CustServ answer:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=178197 .

Basically the (current) intent from WotC is that you double the extra damage from Power Attack, leaving you with a damage bonus of 2x (one-handed) or 4x (two-handed) the number subtracted from your attack rolls.

You forget that some of us are not as frequent posters and readers as you. A good search tool would help. Thanks a lot for the link. Holy cr@p! X4!?!