Fixing Cleave

[T-Bone JiuJitsu]

Of all the official 3.5 feats, the one that still bothers me is CLEAVE.

In one fight, the PC's were getting AoO's against kobold minions who were trying to trip or disarm, and then cleaving the main villain (thru no fault of his own).

I think there is a good fix for this. No CLEAVE during an AoO. You can only use the feat during YOUR turn.

What do you think?

 

[Eolin]

Why was the main bad guy within 5-feet of his minions? Keep him a few hexes (yes, hexes) back, and he can't be cleaved.

 

[FireLance]

I think there is a good fix for this. No CLEAVE during an AoO. You can only use the feat during YOUR turn.

What do you think?

Sounds good to me, although the once-per-round limit on Cleave also helps limit the potential silliness. Great Cleave could do with this limitation, though.

 

[T-Bone JiuJitsu]

The thing is, I can easily imagine a fighter (on his turn) setting up an attack that would slice thru the kobold en route to hitting the true target - Big Bad Villain.

On the other hand, just because a kobold runs past him, how to justify the BBV getting attacked again. He hasn't let his guard down. The Fighter hasn't manouvered for better position. The only thing that has changed is that a kobold has left HIMSELF vulnerable. Obviously, D&D is abstract and not meant to exactly simulate realism, but this breaks believability.

 

[Darren Ravenshaw]

I like it. Thats a good idea.

 

[Ferret]

Ye be making a grand rules change me matey!

 

[Vrecknidj]

If you make that change, are you also going to make up a house-rule feat that allows a fighter to make cleave attacks on AoOs? I mean, it's just natural that someone playing a fighter is going to want this if you take it away from him . . . .

Dave

 

[T-Bone JiuJitsu]

I don't think you should be able to do anything too fancy as an AoO.

I've already endured the Combat Reflex/Improved Trip/Spiked Chain trip-monkey. God forbid this character have Cleave.

Simply not allowing special manouvers/trips/disarms/grapples/etc to be used during an AoO solvs lots of headaches.

 

[Li Shenron]

No CLEAVE during an AoO. You can only use the feat during YOUR turn.

That HR is already used in several gaming groups, and has no particular drawbacks to care for, except bothering some powerplayers

 

[Darklone]

That HR is already used in several gaming groups, and has no particular drawbacks to care for, except bothering some powerplayers

Right. IMC it was one of the first 3.0 houserules.