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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Patryn of Elvenshae" data-source="post: 1896852" data-attributes="member: 23094">Only if you subscribe to a particularly limited cinematic view of what "Cleave" means.You perpetually insist, in your examples, that Cleave means "I hit you so hard my sword goes all the way through you and into him."If such is the case, why can't I take an AoO against an imaginary opponent who is running away, have my sword go through him (which would be pretty easy, considering that he isn't there!), and into you?Obviously, this doesn't make sense.The problem, however, is not with the rules, but rather with your very, very, obscenely limited cinematic view of Cleave.  In other words, you have a problem with the mechanics of Cleave based on your own non-mechanical explanation of the feat (after all, the rules text of the feat does not specify that you must hack through someone to attack someone else).In other words, you read the feat as:Now, replace the flavor text you have added (bolded, hack through someone into someone else)with the following flavor text (equally as valid, given the above rules):There.  Now you don't have the swinging at imaginary creatures problem.Moreover, the DM has greater flexibility in describing the cinematic results of the Cleave - whether it's on an AoO or not.  In your case, every Cleave is a mighty single swing that cuts off Bobby's head and ends up in Steve.In my case, that's *one* possible interpretation, but it need not be the only one.  Joe the Cleaver grabs Bobby's shoulder with his left hand and runs him through with his rapier; Bobby drops his blade from nerveless fingers and, as his life fades, feels himself being tossed sideways, interfering with Steve's blade.  Joe seizes the opening thus provided and manages to draw a red line along Steve's arm.Alternatively:  Jak fumbles in his pouch for the healing draught he knows is in there - somewhere.  Unfortunately for him, that moment's distraction is all Hrogar needs, and the dwarf's axe shears through Jak's buckler and the arm beneath it.  Jak screams in pain, blood spraying from the grisly wound and covering the face of Derik, partially blinding him.  Derik quickly shifts his grip and wipes the blood from his eyes, but in that instant, Hrogar is on him, and the first and last thing he sees through his newly-cleared eyes is a descending axe blade.Cleave and Cleave on AoO.Allowed in RAW, and Allowed Cinematically, as well.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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