Artoomis
First Post
First, please be civil so this thread does not get closed by a moderator.
Second, please help me draft up a note to send to the errata folks at WotC customer service.
There are a couple of issues with the Charge action.
1. As published in the 3.5 PHB, an enemy could avoid your charge if you used the Overrun action, but an ally could not. Errata was published to "fix" this by disallowing the Overrun action when charging.
This ruling severly handicaps Charge as a legitimate tactic. The Trample feat becomes useless if you cannot overrun as part of a Charge. If you could Overrun as part of a Charge, then you have the problem of why can't allies move when opponents can?
2. Ride-By Attack is also nearly impossible. The Ride-By Attack feat needs to allow one to actually ride-by your opponent instead of charging up to the nearest square, which would, in most cases, prevent the Ride-By Attack from happening.
3. You do not seem to be able to Ready a Charge any more. This is too severe a restriction on a legitimate tactic form 3.0e.
4. The four changes that are actually needed to fix the Charge action are:
1. Restore Overrun to the way it is written in the PHB.
2. Change the Charge action so that you CAN charge through allies as with any other movement.
3. Change Ride-By Attack so that you may ignore the normal Charge rule that forces you to go to the closest space to your opponent, while preserving the "straight-line" rule and the restricted terrain rule.
4. Specifically allow a "Readied" Charge action, but make it clear that the single move action allowed with that Charge would be the total movement allowed in the round.
Why is it important to be able to use the Charge action without the "allies-in-the-way" or "closest space" rules? Because some character concepts are designed around being able to conduct a mounted charge. Generally, one can get triple damage with the Spirited Charge feat with a lance, true, but that is balanced by having to take three feats to make it a viable tactic and the "hit-or-miss" nature of making a single attack. Most of the gain is a way to help overcome DR by getting all your damage in one blow instead of multiple attacks. The above changes make this a viable tactic, but the restricted terrain rule goes a long way to keep this from being abusive.
It may be that some feel that mounted charges were too effective and thus unbalancing, but several years of experience with a paladin who always has his flying mount (a small paladin with a half-celestial war dog) makes it clear that such a character still does not do better in combat than a straight fighter or a barbarian. In certain situations he does better in melee, in others he does worse. Strictly following the published errata (no Overrrun) together with the "closest space" rule makes this type of character nowhere near as good in melee as any other PC designed for melee.
Second, please help me draft up a note to send to the errata folks at WotC customer service.
There are a couple of issues with the Charge action.
1. As published in the 3.5 PHB, an enemy could avoid your charge if you used the Overrun action, but an ally could not. Errata was published to "fix" this by disallowing the Overrun action when charging.
This ruling severly handicaps Charge as a legitimate tactic. The Trample feat becomes useless if you cannot overrun as part of a Charge. If you could Overrun as part of a Charge, then you have the problem of why can't allies move when opponents can?
2. Ride-By Attack is also nearly impossible. The Ride-By Attack feat needs to allow one to actually ride-by your opponent instead of charging up to the nearest square, which would, in most cases, prevent the Ride-By Attack from happening.
3. You do not seem to be able to Ready a Charge any more. This is too severe a restriction on a legitimate tactic form 3.0e.
4. The four changes that are actually needed to fix the Charge action are:
1. Restore Overrun to the way it is written in the PHB.
2. Change the Charge action so that you CAN charge through allies as with any other movement.
3. Change Ride-By Attack so that you may ignore the normal Charge rule that forces you to go to the closest space to your opponent, while preserving the "straight-line" rule and the restricted terrain rule.
4. Specifically allow a "Readied" Charge action, but make it clear that the single move action allowed with that Charge would be the total movement allowed in the round.
Why is it important to be able to use the Charge action without the "allies-in-the-way" or "closest space" rules? Because some character concepts are designed around being able to conduct a mounted charge. Generally, one can get triple damage with the Spirited Charge feat with a lance, true, but that is balanced by having to take three feats to make it a viable tactic and the "hit-or-miss" nature of making a single attack. Most of the gain is a way to help overcome DR by getting all your damage in one blow instead of multiple attacks. The above changes make this a viable tactic, but the restricted terrain rule goes a long way to keep this from being abusive.
It may be that some feel that mounted charges were too effective and thus unbalancing, but several years of experience with a paladin who always has his flying mount (a small paladin with a half-celestial war dog) makes it clear that such a character still does not do better in combat than a straight fighter or a barbarian. In certain situations he does better in melee, in others he does worse. Strictly following the published errata (no Overrrun) together with the "closest space" rule makes this type of character nowhere near as good in melee as any other PC designed for melee.
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