Bull Rush... Effective?

[isoChron]

If one of your team members is helpless and a foe has positioned himself to deliver a coup de grace in the next round, it may be the only way to save your buddy with a successful bullrush. You can't always kill every enemy in one round so push him back, or your buddy .

 

[kjenks]

Although one use of it people haven't mentioned is that if you bullrush someone into a person or wall they fall prone which is nice.

This is not generally true. If you have the Shock Trooper tactical feat (Complete Warrior), you can use its Domino Rush ability. But if you don't have that feat, using Bull Rush to push someone into an illegal square simply moves that creature into the nearest legal square.

 

[billd91]

Bull rush also doesn't require a to hit roll, nor do you actually need to be able to harm your opponent (for those times in which the creatures DR is relatively high and you're poorly armed) to be able to do it. Again, two especially nice things for a strong but lower level cohort.

But the way I see it, if it's useful for a cohort, why wouldn't it be useful for the main PC as well? I suppose it ultimately depends on what your PC-building goals are, but if you can think of a justification for saddling a cohort with the feat, it shouldn't be much of a stretch to justify picking it up for your own character. Anything that cohort could do with it, your PC could as well (and might be called upon to do so).

 

[Saeviomagy]

The use of bullrush (and, indeed, most mobility-based feats) entirely depends on your DM's ability to make a fun battleground.

If every fight consists of a bare room with the BBEG in the middle, it's near-useless.

If every fight scene is near a cliff, inside a clockwork machine of death, and has flame spouts at regular intervals, it's likely to be very good indeed.

Most DM's will be somewhere in between. Once you know WHERE in between, you know how good the feat will be.

 

[Celebrim]

If every fight scene is near a cliff, inside a clockwork machine of death, and has flame spouts at regular intervals, it's likely to be very good indeed.

I confess to over using this sort of thing. Unfortunately, most of my monsters are either big or can fly, so its usually the PC's that are being bullrushed into things, over waterfalls, etc. I really do need to set up a situation where bullrush is the perfect tactical option for the PC's now that you mention it.

Hmmm... clockwork machine of death...

 

[sfedi]

Depending on your enemies' tactics (or DM's ) you can use BR to move an opponent from a strategic position:
-blocking a door
-threatening a prone ally
-cornering a caster/archer

Originally Posted by Stalker0
Although one use of it people haven't mentioned is that if you bullrush someone into a person or wall they fall prone which is nice.

Mmm... nowhere in the Bull Rush attack description this is mentioned.
In fact, it is something not defined by the rules, AFAIK.

 

[Sejs]

I've been playing a fighter recently that's been using bullrush quite often.

It's a very nice option for battlefield control that doesn't require magic. A very nice counterpart to tripping.

 

[kjenks]

Here's an interesting Bull Rush question:

I Bull Rush a wizard over a cliff. That means I'm standing at the top of the cliff and the wizard is in the sqaure in front of me, about to fall to his doom.

As he leaves the square in front of me, do I get an AoO on him?

 

[Caeleddin]

If you can get an AoO on him if he gets BR by someone else, I don't see why not. Consider him BR'd by gravity.

 

[Darth Malakh]

I regularly have to use BR to shove our wizard out of the way. He's blocking my line-of-charge at any given opportunity. Not by intent, I have to say, but by sheer stupidity.
Damn! I'm sick and tired of having to tell him again and again to keep the way clear. Last time he kept me from beating the BBEG senseless (Momentum Swing would have been a nice one) for a round. I ended up being disintegrated. I'm back by reincarnation though. As a freaking Centaur in the last part of CoSQ which means I'm squezed 100% of time since it's all dungeon-crawl in humanoid-sized buildings.

Thanks again...bone-head

Malakh