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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2762056" data-attributes="member: 2011">First off, it's unbalanced because you can do it with any weapon, not just tripping weapons.That means you can take the mega-Greatsword and do trip attacks with it.Not only that, but since you need a 15+ Strength to do this, an average hit with a Greatsword does 10 points of damage. At low level, you do this the majority of the time. At high level, you do this virtually every time you hit.Secondly, it was broken (until errataed) that you could damage/trip/damage all with one attack. The errata took that away, but when first written, it was broken because of this.Third, with Improved Trip, if you fail the trip, you do not get to damage your opponent. Tripping is HUGE in 3.5 due to the difficulty of getting back up without taking damage from one or more AoOs. If you are fighting with Improved Trip against a high Dex opponent, it is a conscious decision to trip them knowing that you might often fail at it. That effectively wastes attacks. Doing it with Knockdown allows you to damage them and still have a chance of tripping them.In other words, in situations where your chance to trip is low, Improved Trip is a bad option. Knockdown is never a bad option because you can always choose to not trip. Granted, the feat states that you trip whenever you do that much damage, but I don't know of a DM who would rule that way. You don't have to use a feat, just because you have it.So, before the errata, it was definitely broken (and a pain for DMs to roll opposed trip rolls nearly every round). After the errata, it was merely questionable with regard to balance.Any feat that gives you two attacks in place of one is questionable. There should be downsides to them. Improved Trip is a questionable feat. Knockdown is even more questionable with regard to balance.</blockquote>

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