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Cleave - Automatic hits on 2nd target?

I'm having a hard time getting a solid read on the concern here. There seem to be two possible effects, and I can't tell which one bothers people. Is it:

a)Characters have abilities that can damage creatures with "unhittable" defense scores?
or
b)PCs engage in apparently bizarre behavior to gain a mechanical advantage(attacking minions to damage bosses)?

If it's a, there needs to be much more discussion about Reaping Strike(fighter 1), Astral Vibrance(Angelic Avenger feature), and Blade Storm(Stormwarden feature), all of which cause damage to an enemy with no attack roll and have no resource cost when used.

If it's b, you just need to remember that being better at fighting is not the only way to beat an opponent. Pretending you're going to attack somebody else in order to get your actual target to let his guard down is an entirely valid tactic. Don't forget:
Sun Tzu said:
The art of war is the art of deception.
 

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Wait, what? Why is this even a problem? Seriously.

Why the hell wouldn't this theoretical fighter use Reaping Strike instead? That's a sure dinky damage at-will. Cleave still requires you to hit the first target. Since minions still have appreciable ACs, why wouldn't the fighter just Reaping Strike the big baddy if he was so desperate to do damage that he's resorting to the piddling 2-10 damage he could be doing, depending on his scores?

This discussion makes no sense. There's no reason to complain about this. I'm not trying to be mean here, but seriously. In fact, it's obvious they dumbed down Cleave to make it NOT overpowered. I can just see those poor WoTC designers looking at Cleave and the following conversation occurring:

Wiz1: "Hey, cleave would be nice for Fighters as an at-will."
Wiz2: "Yeah, but we need to spice things up, make things new..."
Wiz1: "I know! We want Fighters to be able to kill off minions, right...?"
Wiz2: "Yeah..."
Wiz1: "How about we make cleave do insta-damage to an adjacent enemy after hitting another one?"
Wiz2: "No, that'd be overpowered... ah, I know! Let's make the damage so insignificant that no one will complain about it!"
Wiz1: "Yeah! That way it'll be obvious it's for minion-killing and group control!"
Wiz2: "Certainly nothing can go wrong with this plan!"

:hmm:

Srsly guys. Srsly.
 

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