Universal Spring Attack: Has anyone tried this?

[Nebulous]

I'm thinking about letting everyone, Pc's and monsters alike, have spring attack from the get-go. Move, attack, move again. How would this impact the game? AoO would still be used, so all that movement could get hairy. Fights would be much more fluid. Lots of movement on the board, minis would be pretty much mandatory (which is fine, i love minis). Has anyone else tried this and found it worked? Or not?

 

[GuardianLurker]

How are you going to account for mounted and flying combatants? Both Ride-by and Fly-by Attack are a little weaker than Spring Attack.

 

[Thaniel]

No one would ever get a full attack. Everyone's running around and such.

 

[Nebulous]

No one would ever get a full attack. Everyone's running around and such.

Yeah, that would definitely be an issue for PC's to consider. Although it wouldn't be an issue until mid levels.

How are you going to account for mounted and flying combatants? Both Ride-by and Fly-by Attack are a little weaker than Spring Attack.

Hadn't even thought about it. This house rule could very well alter the game too much, i was just rolling the idea around. Thanks for the input though.

 

[ARandomGod]

Yeah, that would definitely be an issue for PC's to consider. Although it wouldn't be an issue until mid levels.



Hadn't even thought about it. This house rule could very well alter the game too much, i was just rolling the idea around. Thanks for the input though.

If I were to have this in the game, I'd want to include a new feat: "Pounce", which grants the pounce ability.

Of course, everyone would take it. But still.

 

[gray stranger]

I'm personally thinking this isn't such a good Idea

why you ask?

well, 1st: characters with special abilities that work with movement (charging, scouts etc.) would gain alot while giving nothing up

2nd: per default a character with 10 more movement speed as the other character would always win, assuming the slower character doesn't rely on ranged attacks to deal damage
This would really penalize armor wearers over light or non-armor wearers
(I.E. Wearing armor = moving slower, moving slower = less attacks on enemies, less attacks on enemies = enemies live longer, enemies live longer = you get more damage)

3rd: since movement plays a very important role in a universal spring attack game, and movement gives advantage, items or classes that give more movement speed will be wanted.

EDIT: all of this is IMHO ofcourse, you should run your game the way YOU want it to be

 

[Enkhidu]

Instead of giving Spring Attrack to everyone, why not go the route of "feats remove penalties" and give everyone the option of using Spring Attack, but with a hefty penalty on their attacks? Say, a -4 for every feat in the Spring Attack chain that they don't have (max of -12 for those without Dodge, Mobility, or Spring Attack).

 

[genshou]

People sometimes rant about this being such a serious game-breaker, but remember you cannot double move and attack with Spring Attack. If you have 40' of movement, are 10 feet from an enemy and use Spring Attack to close and then withdraw, you can attack then move to 40' away. That's far enough that with only 30' of movement they can only attack you with a reach weapon, but what if they just charge? You would have to have a movement speed much higher than your opponent in order to Spring Attack and then withdraw outside of the range in which they can charge.

I would allow a character to spring attack, moving both before and after their attack (not exceeding the movement allowed by a single move action), but they would provoke all attacks of opportunity as normal and take a -4 penalty to the attack roll. The Improved Spring Attack feat (replacing the current non-Improved feat) would negate the -4 penalty as well as negating the attack of opportunity for the target of your attack.

 

[Nyaricus]

I would allow a character to spring attack, moving both before and after their attack (not exceeding the movement allowed by a single move action), but they would provoke all attacks of opportunity as normal and take a -4 penalty to the attack roll. The Improved Spring Attack feat (replacing the current non-Improved feat) would negate the -4 penalty as well as negating the attack of opportunity for the target of your attack.

Probably the most level-headed breakdown yet. Treating this like a Sunder Check, Bull Rush, etc, is the best way to do it, and Genshou reflects this perfectly.

This is actually a pretty interesting idea, however *pondering smiley*

 

[airwalkrr]

I'm thinking about letting everyone, Pc's and monsters alike, have spring attack from the get-go. Move, attack, move again. How would this impact the game? AoO would still be used, so all that movement could get hairy. Fights would be much more fluid. Lots of movement on the board, minis would be pretty much mandatory (which is fine, i love minis). Has anyone else tried this and found it worked? Or not?

Well, I only have two questions. 1) Can I play in your campaign? 2) You do still allow Tumble right?