Refluffing Cleave

[N0Man]

I have a group of friends who have practically no exposure to 4E D&D, but have played previous editions. One of my players wanted a character to be a middle-aged former soldier, who is competent on the battlefield, as well as has a knack for combat tactics. However, one thing he specifically mentioned was that he wanted to be able to use his light shield as a weapon, and would like to be able to do a combat maneuver where he can slash one opponent with his weapon, and then bash a 2nd target with his shield.

Now, there doesn't seem to be a power that directly would go along with this, but I'm thinking of suggesting that he take the Warlord class, with the Fighter multiclass feat, and houserule that he can give up his Combat Challenge feature of the fighter, in exchange for taking the Fighter's "Cleave" at-will as an encounter power, and re-flavor the Cleave so that instead of him doing 2 melee weapon attacks, that he is actually doing one weapon strike and then striking with his shield, but leaving the effect unchanged.

Does this sound like a good way of handling it to you guys?

I suppose if I want to stick *closer* to the rules, I could require that he be a half-elf instead of a Human, and take the Cleave as the Half-Elf's bonus at-will as an encounter power, but I think he really has a human in mind for this.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Instead of changing the mechanics why not leave cleave the way it is? Just rename it?

Sword and Board (Fighter, At will)
Standard Action, Melee Weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Str vs AC
Hit: 1[w]+str modifier damage. You strike a foe adjacent to your target with your shield dealing damage equal to your strength modifier
Increase damage to 2[w] at 21st level.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you and your player want?

 

[David Sid]

I'm thinking of suggesting that he take the Warlord class, with the Fighter multiclass feat, and houserule that he can give up his Combat Challenge feature of the fighter, in exchange for taking the Fighter's "Cleave" at-will as an encounter power, and re-flavor the Cleave so that instead of him doing 2 melee weapon attacks, that he is actually doing one weapon strike and then striking with his shield, but leaving the effect unchanged.

Does this sound like a good way of handling it to you guys?

This sounds balanced and excellent. If it doesn't grant an unfair advantage (which it doesn't), and it allows the player to fulfill some creative part of his character idea, I'd say it's a great idea.

 

[guybrush]

I'd probably go even simpler and just let him choose Cleave - renamed "Shield Bash" or the like, and requiring Sword and Shield - instead of one of his Warlord at-will powers. I can't imagine it's going to break anything - Cleave is cool but hardly earth-shattering, and if he wants it to be his signature move, he probably wants to be able to do it more than once in an encounter.

(As an aside, I'm considering a houserule which makes multiclass powers more accessible if they're from the same power source. It makes sense to me that a ranger who multiclasses into wizard only starts out with enough arcane knowledge and skill to cast Fiery Burst once per encounter. By contrast, though, a ranger already has significant martial training and I can't imagine it would be difficult for her to learn a fighter move well enough to perform it whenever she wants. Of course, the current rules allow you to become "fluent" in such a power as you rise in level and grow in skill in your second class, so this might all be redundant; I'll have a think about it further and maybe start a thread on it, if there isn't one already.)

If the player does want to multiclass, your decision sounds perfect, though given your description, you may also want to consider whether the character might work better as a Fighter multiclassing into Warlord? As an old soldier with a knack for tactics and who's still competent in battle, he could go either way, though probably your first suggestion is the right one.

My only other comment is that if he picks up the other multiclass feats, at 10th level he can swap out an at-will power for one of the secondary class anyway. If he wants to do that with Cleave, you'll want to work out what to do; I'd vote for replacing the original cleave encounter power with the standard Challenge feature from the original multiclass feat.