Cleaving after an AoO

[Vlos]

This came up last night in session and caught me a bit off guard. We ruled in game that it was ok, but wanted outside opinion just to confirm for future reference.

A character had the ability to make an Attack of Opportunity, where in the process he downed the attacker, he then used his Cleave feat to attack another attacker (which had not provoked an attack of opportunity).

Was this legal? Does anyone house rule this different if it is? And why?

Thanks

 

[Scion]

By the raw it works, although there are people who dissallow it for various reasons.

Personally, I have no issue with it, seems pretty cinematic to me and allows a little more use into a feat that generally looses power pretty rapidly as levels increase.

Others feel it shouldnt be allowed because they cannot picture it (although many in this boat have a hard time pictureing cleave to begin with so it is understandable that a further wrinkle might push them over the edge) or feel that it makes it too powerful.

Either way though, raw yes, after that you can figure out what makes the most sense for your game

 

[LokiDR]

Three words: bag of puppies.

 

[Scion]

Three more words: not an enemy

or two words: impossible setup

Even if that did work, which is unlikely from many, many angles, it would still take a pile of feats to set up and a pretty hefty list of conditions. Next, we'll have all of the air particles define the character as an enemy and they will all rush away, that'll teach the character to abuse puppies. There are other rules in place that will help to prevent such occurances.

 

[Gaiden]

This came up last night in session and caught me a bit off guard. We ruled in game that it was ok, but wanted outside opinion just to confirm for future reference.

A character had the ability to make an Attack of Opportunity, where in the process he downed the attacker, he then used his Cleave feat to attack another attacker (which had not provoked an attack of opportunity).

Was this legal? Does anyone house rule this different if it is? And why?

Thanks

I have a houserule that cleaving is possible with AoO but that each cleave attempt eats up another AoO. So unless you have CR, you are not getting any cleaves at all, and even with GC, you only get at most a handful of extras. This solves the bucket of snails problem (or bag of puppies for the more rules-savy munchkiners) grants you a nice synergy with feats that don't see that much use, but provides some balance. Also, it encourages taking CR which I think is a descriptively very cool feat but one that I don't see alot of fighters take.

 

[Thanee]

I do not allow it for various reasons (mostly because an attack, which is limited to one specific target (AoO), is then "carried over" (Cleave) to another target, which could not have been attacked with it in the first place, thus it penalizes a character for another character's provoking of an AoO), but as Scion said, officially it's possible to Cleave from an AoO.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Allowed by the rules as written, but I am against it.

In a nutshell, I would say provoking AoOs should be encouraged and allowing the Cleave discourages AoOs.

As I play in campaigns where PCs are often running around the battlefied one hit from unconsciousness, preventing cascades of PC death seems like a good idea.

 

[qstor]

If it works for the bad guys let it work for the PC's.

I have a 3rd level human fighter PC that has Hold the Line and Cleave. His primary weapon is a longsword so if 2 orcs charge him side by side, odds are he'll down one and Cleave the other. Cinematic and works by the rules, IMHO...

Mike

 

[Anabstercorian]

By the rules, it's allowed. But in my opinion, it's completely retarded.

 

[NPC]

I love it, especially when combined with reach weapons!