Vegepygmy said:
The Combat Expertise feat says that "When you use the attack action or the full attack action in melee, you can take a penalty of as much as -5 on your attack roll and add the same number (+5 or less) as a dodge bonus to your Armor Class." By your logic, this would mean that you only get the bonus to AC after you make your attack...yet the 3.0 FAQ makes it clear that you get the bonus even while moving to make your attack. I see no reason to treat a Charge differently, especially given the flavor text.
Actually, in 3E, you could take the penalty/bonus while moving; in 3.5, you do not.
Why? Because in 3E, the Attack action was a standard action. What was a standard action in 3E? "A standard actin allows you to do something and move your speed during a combat round." So the Attack action in 3E was either "Move 30 feet and hit something", or "Hit something and move 30 feet". You can see that the movement is part of the Attack action, so while moving, you satisfy the "When you use the attack action" requirement of the Expertise feat.
Contrast with 3.5, where the Attack action is also a standard action, but
the definition of standard actions has changed.
Standard actions no longer incorporate movement; they more closely resemble the 3E concept of a partial action. So if I move 30 feet and hit someone, I am taking a Move action,
followed by an Attack action. My Attack action, unlike in 3E, does not commence until after my movement is concluded, and I am thus ineligible to use Combat Expertise while moving. (See Dervish Dance for an exception.)
Of course, even in 3E, I could only use Expertise while 'in melee'... which meant that I'd need to threaten or be threatened by an enemy at some point before activating it.
If I started off next to one orc, and wanted to move 30 feet and hit another, I'm a/ taking the Attack action (move and hit), and b/ in melee (I threaten the first orc), so Expertise is legal.
If I'm in a big empty space, and want to move and hit an orc, I'm taking the Attack action, but I'm not 'in melee'... so until I get close enough to the orc that one of us threatens the other, no Expertise for me!
(The change in the definition of Standard Actions is also why the 3.5 Spring Attack, read literally, allows for an extra Move action... but I've tended to overlay the assumption that this was an oversight.)
-Hyp.
