Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hypersmurf" data-source="post: 3897205" data-attributes="member: 1656">Power Attack is different to Combat Expertise.Combat Expertise requires that you take the attack action or the full attack action.  Casting a spell?  No Combat Expertise.  Charging?  No Combat Expertise.  Opening a door?  No Combat Expertise.  Taking the attack action?  Combat Expertise away!With Power Attack, the requirement is that you have not yet made an attack roll this round.  You activate Power Attack... and then, after that, it affects any melee attacks you make that round.  So you can be Power Attacking for 4 while casting a spell, or opening a door, or shooting a bow, or whatever... it just doesn't do anything unless there's a melee attack or melee damage roll involved.You can't use Combat Expertise with a melee touch attack spell if you're delivering it as part of the Cast a Spell action - that's neither the Attack action nor the Full Attack action.  You can if you were holding the charge from last round, because you're now using the Attack action to deliver the spell.You can't use Combat Expertise on a charge (which uses the Charge action), but you can use it on a Flurry of Blows (which uses the Full Attack action).  Fighting Defensively is not a separate action; 'Fighting Defensively as a standard action' is described under the Attack action, and 'Fighting Defensively as a full-round action' is described under the Full Attack action.  Fighting Defensively is something you do while taking the Attack action or Full Attack action, similar to using Combat Expertise.Note that the requirement is not taking the attack action with a melee weapon (like, say, Spring Attack); rather, it is taking the attack action (or full attack action) in melee.  So you can use Combat Expertise while taking the attack action with your bow, as long as you are in melee when you do it.  Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and either threatens the other.  So if you're adjacent to the enemy hobgoblin with a falchion, and you shoot him with your bow (the attack action), you're in melee, since he threatens you; you are thus taking the attack action in melee, and can use Combat Expertise.  Which might be a good plan, since he'll get an AoO given you're making a ranged attack in a threatened square...-Hyp.</blockquote>

Verification