longspears, knock down and disarm

[Willtell]

1. A character hits an enemy for 10 pts of damage whie using a longspear. Can he trip the enemy with the longspear if he has the knock down feat (you can not normally make trip attacks with a longspear).

2. A character using a longspear tries to disarm an enemy without reach. Without the improved disarm feat he normally provokes an aoo, does he now since the longspearman is not in an area threaten by the enemy?

 

[Crothian]

1) Yes, the knockdown feat allows you to perform the trip like manuvuer with any melee weapon.

2) No, they can't reach you with the AoO. However, I think they should be allowed to try to disarm or sunder you since they can reach your longspear.

 

[hong]

You can make trip attacks while armed with a longspear, even if you don't have the Knockdown feat. The tripping rules are just D&D's abstract way of handling any attempt to knock a foe on his back. How you do this is immaterial: you can do this by pushing him down, knocking his legs out from under him, etc. If you have a weapon that gives you special benefits (eg a flail), you can use that as well.

 

[Malin Genie]

IIRC you can't trip with a longspear. However, being armed with a longspear doesn't prevent you making a trip attack (pushing, tripping with your legs etc.) Unlike with the guisarme, you do not get the benefit of doing this at 10ft range.

As for disarming etc - no, you are not threatened by the opponent (assuming they have only 5ft reach) so they can't AoO you. Your DM may allow them to AoO the longspear itself, however, as it is certainly within their reach...

 

[Vaxalon]

If you're ten feet away from someone, and you have a longspear, you can't trip them, though you can hit them with a regular attack and knock them down if you have the knockdown feat and do enough damage.

If you're not armed with a "tripping weapon" then any trip you make is a leg-hook or the like, and thus can't be done at reach.

 

[hong]

If you're ten feet away from someone, and you have a longspear, you can't trip them, though you can hit them with a regular attack and knock them down if you have the knockdown feat and do enough damage.

Um, using the Knockdown feat _does_ invovle a trip attack. Hence it's possible to trip someone 10' away.

If you're not armed with a "tripping weapon" then any trip you make is a leg-hook or the like, and thus can't be done at reach.

That's one way of tripping someone. Another is to sweep their legs out from under them with a polearm; biting their shins and pulling (which is how wolves do it); just pushing them down; etc.

There's nothing in the rules that mandates a trip attack being made using one method or another. All that's required is an initial touch attack, following by an opposed Str/Dex check. I see no reason why the initial touch attack can't be made with a reach weapon.

 

[Magus_Jerel]

1. You CAN normally make trip attacks with a longspear - or for that matter just about any weapon out there - so yes. Weapons explicitly designed for this purpose may let you do so as part of your normal attack - or provide a bonus to your trip attack.

2. He can - and probably should - take His AoO to disarm or sunder the longspear. As he doesn't have reach - he can't take the AoO against you directly.