Complete Arcane - Hideous Blow and Aoo

[Particle_Man]

In Complete Arcane, the Warlock invocation "Hideous Blow" allows you to make a meele attack as a standard action, and if you hit, to do the Eldritch Blast damage in addition to the weapon damage. In general invocations are spell-like abilities that provoke attacks of opporunity.

My questions: Does this provoke an attack of opportunity because it is an invocation? Or does it count as a "mere" meelee attack, and so fail to provoke an attack of opportunity?

If it does provoke an attack of opportunity, could one cast/invoke on the defensive to avoid the Aoo?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Oh, Hideous Blow. Cue jokes about this being a disadvantage, the opposite of Awesome Blow.

Anyway, I'd say you provoke an AoO (you have to invoke the thing) but you can do it defensively if you want.

 

[Rath Lorien]

Are there any other thoughts on this?

I don't see it as being unbalanced to allow it as written (as a melee attack without incuring an AoO), but I have not run the warlock in a game.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Allow me to play devil's advocate, then.

The description of Hideous Blow says you make a melee attack, and if it hits, the target of that attack is affected "as if struck by your Eldritch Blast". In other words, you do not activate your eldritch blast. You make a melee attack and the target is affected as if you had activated the eldritch blast and scored a hit with it. Since you do not activate the eldritch blast, you do not provoke an attack of opportunity.

In this case, you can consider the Hideous Blow invocation to be a spell-like ability that is "always on", and so you don't have to activate it each time you use it. Since activating a spell-like ability is a standard action, and you use your standard action to make the attack, this is the only interpretation consistent with the rules.

There ya go.

 

[UltimaGabe]

In this case, you can consider the Hideous Blow invocation to be a spell-like ability that is "always on", and so you don't have to activate it each time you use it. Since activating a spell-like ability is a standard action, and you use your standard action to make the attack, this is the only interpretation consistent with the rules.

That's the way I see all of the Eldritch-Blast-Altering Invocations- they're "always on", and you can choose whether to use them or your Eldritch Blast whenever you want. I'm not too sure if the rules agree with me, or not.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

By the power of my axe, I cast Raise Thread...

Does using Hideous Blow require two standard actions?

In other words, does a warlock have to shape the eldritch blast one round and attack with the melee weapon to release it the next round?

 

[Dandu]

By the power of my axe, I cast Raise Thread...

By the Sword of Shannara...

Does using Hideous Blow require two standard actions?

No.

In other words, does a warlock have to shape the eldritch blast one round and attack with the melee weapon to release it the next round?

You do it as one standard action that provokes an Attack of Opportunity. It's pretty suck; go with Eldritch Glaive (Dragon Magic) instead.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

Thanks, Dandu.

Eldritch Glaive does look interesting. We haven't used Dragon Magic, yet, in our game. I've had it on the shelf for quite a while, though.

Makes me wonder what the harm would be in house-ruling Hideous Blow to work in a similar fashion to Eldritch Glaive. Instead of the warlock forming his eldritch blast into a physical reach weapon, why not let it ride on any physical melee weapon and last until the start of his next turn so that he can use it on iterative attacks and attacks of opportunity?

 

[Dandu]

It would make Hideous Blow worth taking.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

It would make Hideous Blow worth taking.

Probably. Certainly more so than it is now.

And for what it's worth, I wouldn't charge an AoO to Hideous Blow even if the text for it explicitly said to do so; it's just that weak and pathetic. But yeah, even though they're technically also invocations, to me blast shapes and essences are just "riders" of the eldritch blast, and should be considered either always on or just in all ways part of using the invocation, like how you use jump during your movement, not as its own action (although it could be your entire move action, if you can jump far/high enough).