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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 1819217" data-attributes="member: 3424">Naturally, the spiked chain fighter will play to his strengths, if you let him.There are several ways to get around this problem. Ranged attacks and spells are the most obvious. Spring Attack is another. You could also swarm the spiked chain fighter with more opponents than he has AOOs (and each point of Dexterity means less points in Strength in point-buy games). Or you could just use big, tough creatures that just soak the AOO damage and close to give the spiked chain fighter a real pounding.Just take a 5-ft step back and attack.The initial touch attack is to check whether you can make the trip attack in the first place. Even if you hit, you're into opposed check territory, and if you don't succeed, you could end up tripped instead of your opponent. Trip is useful against opponents of up to your size and strength, but against larger and stronger opponents, it's less useful. Plus, you can also trip with a whip (at longer range, too), a guisarme, a halberd or a flail. If it is a problem, it's not unique to the spiked chain.You need good Dexterity to get the most use of Combat Reflexes, and in point-buy games, that means less Strength (which makes trip less of a problem). Moving within 10 feet of every enemy isn't a great tactic for AOOs anyway, since spellcasters can take a 5-ft step out of reach, and meleers can take a 5-ft step to close.As mentioned, for Combat Reflexes you need good Dexterity and for tripping you need good Strength, and Intelligence 13 for Improved Trip. In a point-buy game, there is a natural trade-off.Try designing a few encounters around ranged weapons, spells, incorporeal creatures, grapplers, creatures with Spring Attack, and really big creatures that soak AOO damage and close to give the spiked chain fighter a real pounding.If all the encounters are designed around straight melee combat, it's not difficult to see why the spiked chain fighter is effective.</blockquote>

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