Cleave and enemy-specific bonuses

[Merkuri]

The text of cleave says:

The extra attack is with the same weapon and at the same bonus as the attack that dropped the previous creature.

Let's say you are a ranger who took cleave. Your favored enemy is gobliniods. You finish off a goblin and cleave through him to the human behind him. Does your cleave attack on the human use the favored enemy bonus that you used on the goblin?

Are enemy-specific bonuses like favored enemy or the knight's fighting challenge abilities exempt to the cleave rule that you attack the second creature with the same bonuses as the attack that killed the first creature?

 

[blargney the second]

If you put the words "base attack" between "same" and "bonus", you'll understand what it means.

 

[backbeat]

I can see the argument that cleave should give the same overall bonus, but I don't think that's a reasonable interpretation of what is meant. I would exclude all enemy specific bonuses including: fighter's challenge, favored enemy (unless new target qualifies), but I would think Smite and True Strike bonuses would apply.

 

[Plane Sailing]

It is attack bonus, not damage bonus.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I can see the argument that cleave should give the same overall bonus, but I don't think that's a reasonable interpretation of what is meant. I would exclude all enemy specific bonuses including: fighter's challenge, favored enemy (unless new target qualifies), but I would think Smite and True Strike bonuses would apply.

For what it's worth, the 3E Main FAQ addressed True Strike and Cleave:

If you use the true strike spell and you get a threat, does
the +20 bonus from the apply to the critical confirmation
roll? Would the +20 bonus apply to the extra attacks you
get from the Cleave, Great Cleave, or Whirlwind attack
feats?

When you roll to confirm a critical, you use whatever
bonuses applied to the attack roll that made the threat, no
matter where those bonuses came from.
True strike affects only one attack. (Rolling to confirm a
critical is not a separate attack for this purpose.) If you make
multiple attacks in a round, your bonus from true strike applies
only to the first attack you make, no matter how you managed
to get multiple attacks.

I've always read the Cleave wording to effectively mean, as blargney the second suggested, "using the same BAB component". Any situational modifiers - Charge, True Strike, Smite Evil, higher ground, Bane weapons, flanking, invisibility, etc, etc apply to each attack individually.

-Hyp.

 

[Merkuri]

That makes sense. Thanks guys!

I was anticipating this to come up soon, as I'm playing a knight who just got cleave and was wondering how it would work with the knight's challenge abilities.