Auto-Trip + Cleave?

[Infiniti2000]

"Hit them hard enough" ? What on earth does that mean? It's a straight 50% chance, it has nothing to do with hitting them hard enough. But, on a miss, by your reasoning you could cleave, right?

And, attacking two adjacent squares at once?

I'm just not sure where you're going with this and I'm somewhat afraid to find out.

 

[Sejs]

Me, I thought the point was that the creature 'dropped' needed to fall down or otherwise get out of the way so that you could follow through with your stroke.

Nah, Cleave isn't about blow-through; hitting your opponent so hard that the same strike tears clear through his body and into the guy next to him. If that were the case you'd only be able to Cleave into an adjacent opponent (as opposed to anyone within your threatened area), and you couldn't do it with a piercing, or arguably a crushing weapon (which you can).