Accidental Cleave

[taliesin15]

I tried hard to get through all those posts on the AoO Cleave issue and finally got tired of looking for this variation...

what about the possibility of a Fighter Character with the Cleave Feat cutting through a monster with such velocity that the blade keeps going (effectively a Cleave) and HITS one of his buddies, standing next to him--like yr Conan type fighter thinks that Orc will be like cutting Frozen Beef Flank, but it was more like Cooked Flounder or a creampuff, cause he just got his sword sharpened--maybe that's flouting the rules a bit, but feats are already adding nuance--is there already some mechanism for a follow-through that just keeps going til it hits something solid (like say the so-called "magic bullet" that hit Connolly, changed directions twice inside his body, then tore a huge hole in JFK's brain)...

 

[Thanee]

Hmm... no, the way it works mechanically, it doesn't "follow through", you just gain an extra attack after the first is done.

Bye
Thanee

 

[reiella]

Closest thing I think may be the frenzied berserker but even that wasn't that unreliable.

 

[azmodean]

The only mechanic I can think of to create this situation would be if the weapon in question were cursed to do this. A good stating price for adding this curse (if you care) would be the mighty cleaving weapon ability. I might have to nab this idea for my campaign, I'm always on the lookout for nasty weapon curses.

 

[azmodean]

Oopsie, accidental double post.

 

[KarinsDad]

There is no way to my knowledge to do this with the current rules.

But, a fumble house rule would emulate this best.

Anytime you roll a 1, you have a chance of hitting someone else, hitting yourself, breaking your weapon, etc. (maybe some chart for this).

So, a normal 1 might hit your ally.

Or, a threat followed by a 1 would hit your opponent followed by having a chance of hitting your ally.

Not so much a cleave (as per the cleave feat of killing someone) followed by hitting your ally as it is a very impressive attack (i.e. threat range) which continues on and hits your ally.

 

[Amaroq]

Or you could write an odd 'critical / fumble' combination house rule: 'If you roll a '1' while trying to confirm a critical the result is as follows: apply normal damage to your target, and then roll again to hit one other randomly chosen adjacent creature.'

Sometimes it helps (say, when surrounded by enemies), and sometimes it hurts (when your friends and you are surrounding a single enemy).

 

[atom crash]

There is no mechanic for accidentally hitting an ally with a targetted attack. The 3.0 rule for cover in melee from ranged attacks where you could accidentally shoot an ally was made a variant rule in v3.5.

The reason is most likely the game focus on party cohesion and cooperation. The first time you make a missed shot or missed Cleave strike an ally, you've discouraged that attack from ever being used again. The PCs have enough things to worry about; friendly fire shouldn't be one of them.

A secondary reason might be that the mechanics for this would get really ugly, confusing and complicated really quickly. Case in point: look at that variant rule about firing into melee. The arrow misses your opponent narrowly, now it hits your ally, but he dodges it, so it hits the opponent after all. Huh?

Perhaps a fumble could emulate this effect, but do you really want to introduce a mechanic where you miss so badly (roll a 1) that you actually strike well enough to hit your ally's AC?

OT: My version of a fumble ranges from dropping your weapon (rolling a 1 then rolling a second 1 to confirm the fumble) to overextending your reach (-2 on AC and -2 on next attack roll; garden variety critical miss). Anything stronger than that makes it too powerful, like making an insta-kill critical hit.

 

[UltimaGabe]

The only mechanic I can think of to create this situation would be if the weapon in question were cursed to do this. A good stating price for adding this curse (if you care) would be the mighty cleaving weapon ability. I might have to nab this idea for my campaign, I'm always on the lookout for nasty weapon curses.

Ooh, I like that idea. Word it like this: "If a creature wielding this weapon downs a foe, he gains an additional attack, as with the Cleave feat, but if no enemies are left within his threatened space, he must still carry out the attack. If an ally is within his threatened space, the attack is carried out against that ally (roll randomly for multiple allies), and if no allies are within reach, the attack is dealt against the wielder (roll the attack normally against the wielder's AC)."

 

[Fieari]

Furthermore, I'd make it a very nasty weapon capable of dealing a significant amount of damage, in order to make it attractive to PCs, perhaps even attractive regardless of the curse. And I'd say "as GREAT Cleave", not as cleave, so that it'll do this after EVERY kill made.