Fighter Feat Choice: Cleave vs. Hold the Line?

[Ciaran]

I'm building a 2nd level fighter for an upcoming campaign, and I'm looking for advice on choosing my feats. The campaign includes several cool homebrew feats with Combat Reflexes as a prerequisite, so I'm definitely picking that up; I'm also planning to grab some feats from the Power Attack tree, which seems like a good idea with STR 17.

I'd like to get an extra melee attack now and then, and right now that leaves me with a choice between Cleave and Hold the Line. (The latter appeared in Sword and Fist; whenever someone charges you, you may take an attack of opportunity against them that goes off before their charge does.) In your experience, which feat is more likely to come into play, both at lower and higher levels? Which would you recommend and why?

 

[Infiniti2000]

Cleave will occur more often, that's for sure. Ask your DM how she/he rules cleaving off an AoO.

 

[Stalker0]

I would go with cleave as well. Cleave comes up fairly often in a lot of combats. Great Cleave on the other hand only comes up so often, I would get cleave and then hold the line.

 

[Crothian]

Cleave seems more useful.

Hold the Line I'm not as familiar with, but it doesn't sound that great. If you get the AoO before he charges then he will be at least 10 feet away.

 

[SteelDraco]

Cleave first, then Hold the Line. Great Cleave is only useful against creatures that you really outclass, and you won't get too many extra attacks from it. I'm playing a psychic warrior right now with Great Cleave, and I only took it because it's fun with reach (via the Expansion power). I seriously considered going the Combat Reflexes route, to play around with AoOs.

I've played one character with Hold the Line, and it's a good feat. You can generally expect to get an extra attack out of it once or twice a combat, if you're the most obvious melee threat around, or if you stand out front with the hope of getting charged. If you take Hold the Line, I'd consider picking up some abilities that let you do something more interesting than a damaging melee attack with the AoO - Improved Trip or Improved Disarm would both be good.

The reason I prefer Cleave is because it's active - you take the action that creates the extra attack, rather than relying on NPCs to grant it to you.

 

[Xanterith]

Hold the Line vs. Cleave

I played a Tribal Defender who had both those feats with a reach weapon. What I found was that I used Cleave in just about every combat, especially in combats with a lot of opponents. Hold the Line I used twice in the entire campaign. Reason being, well number one I had the reach weapon, and could get an AoO from that in most cases, number 2, very few opponents actually charged me. If you play in a campaign in wide open spaces and are not using a reach weapon and your opponents charge all the time, then it is useful. Otherwise, Cleave > Hold the Line. Use those 5 foot steps to move in position so when you get the kill you know another one is going to get hit as well.

The good thing about Hold the Line with reach weapon is you get 2 AoO. One when they move to 10' from you, then again when they move from 10' to 5'. That can be deadly.

 

[Rhun]

Cleave, for sure. No doubt about it.

 

[mikebr99]

Cleave now... Hold the Line later in life... if you stay straight Fighter.

Mike

 

[mikebr99]

Feats like Hold the Line and Close-Quarters Fighting are really dependant on your DM's fighting style... if he throws charging and grappling opponents at you all the time... then these are the feats to take. YMMV

Mike

 

[Nail]

Cleave.

You will *always* be dropping foes. Foes will not *always* be charging you, and will do it only once per combat.