Crazy Wings the pixie berserker charges into monsters' spaces

[OnlineDM]

A buddy and I were flipping through the Heroes of the Feywild book over the weekend and thought the idea of a pixie berserker with a Badge of the Berskerker who charges into enemy spaces was hilarious.

Then we thought, hey, this could actually be pretty good! The berserker's defender aura would be extremely hard to escape if the defender is in the enemy's space. They could still walk away and provoke an opportunity attack, but shifting isn't going to help.

Thus, I put Crazy Wings the pixie berskerker together. Add in Light Blade Expertise and Streak of Light as Crazy Wings' first two feats, and his charge is pretty nasty.

More details are available on the blog.

 

[Ryujin]

Sounds like a pretty cool idea. Would also make for a good monster. 'You see 5 Pixies, wearing war paint, flying right at you!'

 

[herrozerro]

Can you explain how you can charge into an enemies space? dont you have to charge to the nearest spot you could attack from? Which would be a space adjacent to a creature.

 

[OnlineDM]

The requirement to stop the charge as soon as you're in range to attack was errata'ed away a long time ago (before I started playing in early 2010, I believe). The only requirements for the charge now are that you end at least 2 squares from where you started and that every square of movement of the charge brings you closer to the target. The last square, where the pixie enters the opponent's space, takes the pixie from 1 square away to 0 squares away, which is legal - and hilarious.

 

[herrozerro]

Ah, I see it now.

 

[JohnnyO]

I think it's a great build.

Watch out for auras though, its just as difficult for you to get out. (i.e. an enemy with damage for starting or entering a square in the aura means you take 2x aura damage)

 

[OnlineDM]

Sure; this is probably not something you'd want to do to a monster with a vicious aura! Leave that one to the ranged PCs.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The requirement to stop the charge as soon as you're in range to attack was errata'ed away a long time ago (before I started playing in early 2010, I believe). The only requirements for the charge now are that you end at least 2 squares from where you started and that every square of movement of the charge brings you closer to the target. The last square, where the pixie enters the opponent's space, takes the pixie from 1 square away to 0 squares away, which is legal - and hilarious.

The summary of the errata is interesting:

Use the following revised rules for
charge. This change clarifies that when you are
moving as part of a charge, every square of movement
must reduce the distance between you and the target,
including the distance you count through blocking
terrain. In addition, it clarifies that you can take free
actions after a charge.

I'm not at all sure the intent of this 'clarification' was to remove the requirement that you attack from the first square possible. For a creature without reach, the effect is identical. For one with reach (or a pixie without reach, but able to move into and attack w/in an enemies square because it's Tiny - assuming Wee Warrior doesn't screw that up somehow), it's quite different.

For a creature with /threatening/ reach, it's quite a devestating little loophole, allowing it to cross the battlefield early and seriously pin down a victim. The pixie effectively has threatening reach writ small (or rather Tiny), since it can enter an occupied square, and via Wee Warrior, threaten every square an enemy might shift 1 into.

 

[Rechan]

Sounds like Toot-Toot.

Although I'm a big fan of the Charging Rogue build.

 

[OnlineDM]

I'm not at all sure the intent of this 'clarification' was to remove the requirement that you attack from the first square possible. For a creature without reach, the effect is identical. For one with reach (or a pixie without reach, but able to move into and attack w/in an enemies square because it's Tiny - assuming Wee Warrior doesn't screw that up somehow), it's quite different.

For a creature with /threatening/ reach, it's quite a devestating little loophole, allowing it to cross the battlefield early and seriously pin down a victim. The pixie effectively has threatening reach writ small (or rather Tiny), since it can enter an occupied square, and via Wee Warrior, threaten every square an enemy might shift 1 into.

I believe Charge was errataed twice. The errata you're looking at was in part clarifying that you can take free actions (including spending an action point) after a charge; this came later.

The original PHB1 Charge rules on page 287 say, in part:

Movement Requirements: You must move at least 2 squares from your starting position, and you must move directly to the nearest square from which you can attack the enemy.

That's the requirement that was removed at some point that I was talking about. There's no mention of "the nearest square from which you attack the enemy" in the current Charge rules.