New Feat: Profound Cleave

[Anabstercorian]

The barbarian warrior stepped forward and his sword parted the warriors like water. As we approached, we were hewn asunder as though by malevolent spirits. We fled, and who could question it, for none could stand against his terrible sword! - Windheart the Prudent, General of the Regents of Endhome in the 5th Century, recalling early attempts to pacify the Jagredaan.

Profound Cleave [General, Fighter]
Lesser men are chaff before you.
Prerequisites: Str 17+, Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack, BAB 6+
Benefit: Once per round per point of base attack bonus, if you deal damage to a target equal to or greater than twice their maximum hit points in a single attack with a melee weapon, then the attack is immediately reduced to a free action.
This illustrated in the following example: Regdar, a 6th level fighter with a BAB of +6, confronts a horde of goblins, each of which has a maximum of 6 hit points. He steps forward 10 feet and strikes the first goblin, using Power Attack to deal more than 22 points of damage. 22 is 2 x 6 + 10, and so killing the goblin is a free action. As such, he can continue moving as if he had never taken a standard action to kill the goblin. He can continue moving and slaying in this manner until he inflicts less than 22 points of damage with an attack, has slain six creatures in this way, or runs out of targets within range of his movement.
Normal: You are a wuss, who is hampered in your warmaking by lesser men.

Effectively, this means that you have to take a penalty to hit equal to 5 plus the opponent's maximum hit points to ensure an effortless kill. I believe this is enough of a penalty to render this feat balanced.
Recall, in original DnD, fighters could swing their sword once per fighter level per round against creatures with one hit die or less...

 

[SableWyvern]

Seems to me that in situations where this is able to be used, it won't be particular useful. If you are dealing double maximum hp, you're not really benefitting from a further power-up.

Sometimes it will be useful, enabling a character to wade through super-wuss mooks to get to a primary target. But not often enough, IMO, to make the feat worthwhile.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I agree with SableWyvern that this isn't powerful enough nor applicable in enough situations to warrant making it a feat.

As an alternative, if you want to bring back the flavour of 1E, why don't you allow the effects of your feat to apply to any character at any time? You might be worried about balance and taking something away from the fighting classes, but how many times does a Cleric or Sorcerer hit an enemy with a melee weapon for twice the opponent's maximum hit points? This is a rare occurence for any character, and when it does happen, it is almost always a Fighter or Barbarian (occasionally Ranger or Paladin) to which it happens.

You might want to make exceptions for critical hits and sneak attacks (i.e. because suddenly this ability can be applied to much more powerful creatures), but playtesting can verify if this is necessary.

 

[Nifft]

I get where you're going with this, but I don't think it's mechanically balanced. Consider the following:

Sweeping Strike [General]
You wade through mooks like the nuisance they are.
Prereqs: BAB +8, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack
Benefit: When you drop an opponent, you may take an immediate free 5-ft. step before attacking again. Your total movement may not exceed your base movement.


Why is this better than your version? It's extending an existing mechanic (Great Cleave) instead of adding a new one.

Anyway, that's my humble opinion.

-- N

 

[Ferret]

Isn't that just supreme cleave?

 

[Baronovan]

I like it. Not all feats have to be the best for that niche. For some characters in some games, this feat would be priceless. Hoards of goblins fall by the clumps against fighters with this feat, moreso than they would with the Sweeping Strike feat.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I'm just curious at the sheer range of opinions I've seen. On the Wizards' boards, this feat is insanely broken. On the Necromancer boards, it's quite broken. Here, it's underpowered. On Monte's boards, it's more or less balanced. Wild.

 

[Nifft]

I wouldn't say it's underpowered, but I'd say it's a poor mechanic.

For one thing, it requires PCs to know things that only DMs should know -- like, say, the HP of a specific goblin. The use of a Feat shouldn't require meta-game knowledge.

Imagine if a PC Sorcerer asked the DM, "How many HP do these goblins have? I'm wondering if I should use this Feat I took, called 'Empower Spell'..."

-- N

 

[Aaron2]

Recall, in original DnD, fighters could swing their sword once per fighter level per round against creatures with one hit die or less...[/i]

This should probably just be a thing that happens, not a feat.

IMC, if a character's attack bonus exceeds the monsters AC (i.e. he would hit on a 1) and his minimum damage is more than the creatures hps, the character can kill the monster as a free action.


Aaron

 

[Anabstercorian]

Tristan Fastknife stood calmly before the army. "Tell them that you fight for my life," his mistress had said to him; "Tell them that you mean no disrespect, should they fall before your blade." And so he did. And as he spoke, the soldiers before him seemed to quake with fear. Their nation had never sent a hundred soldiers to fight a single man. And then, moments later, they knew why.

Tristan stopped on the other side of the battlefield, shook the blood from his sword, and turned to face the destruction behind him. One hundred awestruck corpses. There was no question as to who deserved whose respect this day. (Flavor text courtesy of Aosaw.)

Aristeia (Profound Cleave) [Fighter]
Prerequisites: Str 17+, Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, BAB 6+
Benefit: When you make a normal melee attack as a standard action, you may choose to take a -5 penalty to your attack roll to attempt an Aristeia. If, with this attack, you deal damage equal to or greater than twice your target's maximum hit points (after all damage reduction and similar effects are applied), you slay the target without effort, as a free action. Effectively, though the target does suffer the damage, it is as though you had never taken the action to attack the target. You may use this feat no more than once per round per point of base attack bonus.
Normal: You may not attempt an Aristeia.

Tristan Fastknife stood calmly before the army. "Tell them that you fight for my life," his mistress had said to him; "Tell them that you mean no disrespect, should they fall before your blade." And so he did. And as he spoke, the soldiers before him seemed to quake with fear. Their nation had never sent a hundred soldiers to fight a single man. And then, moments later, they knew why.

Tristan stopped on the other side of the battlefield, shook the blood from his sword, and turned to face the destruction behind him. One hundred awestruck corpses. There was no question as to who deserved whose respect this day. (Flavor text courtesy of Aosaw.)

Aristeia (Profound Cleave) [Fighter]
Prerequisites: Str 17+, Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, BAB 6+
Benefit: When you make a normal melee attack as a standard action, you may choose to take a -5 penalty to your attack roll to attempt an Aristeia. If, with this attack, you deal damage equal to or greater than twice your target's maximum hit points (after all damage reduction and similar effects are applied), you slay the target without effort, as a free action. Effectively, though the target does suffer the damage, it is as though you had never taken the action to attack the target. You may use this feat no more than once per round per point of base attack bonus.
Normal: You may not attempt an Aristeia.

Example: Tristan, a ninth level fighter with a BAB of +9, stands before a swarm of a hundred soldiers, each of whom has 10 hit points:

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    T

Tristan wins initiative, but does not attack first, instead electing to take a total defense action and offer one final chance to retreat. Confident in their numbers, the mass of soldiers charge with their longspears. Tristan is struck once and suffers damage.

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His ire raised, Tristan responds on his turn by taking a normal move action directly in to the crowd, while fighting defensively. He comes face to face with the first three soldiers, and provokes attacks of opportunity from each of them as he moves in to their threat range. Then, as a standard action, he attempts an Aristeia on the soldier directly in front of him.

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    T

The soldier, like all the others, is a normal human, has no dexterity modifier, wears scale mail, and has no shield - his armor class is thus 14. Tristan, with a -5 penalty for the Aristeia and an additional -4 penalty from fighting defensively, can still easily hit this armor class, and does.
Tristan wields a +3 Bastard Sword, has a strength of 20 (thanks to magical enhancements), has Greater Weapon Specialization, and he's Power Attacking for five. To deal double the target's hit points, he must inflict 20 points of damage with a single blow. He does so, killing the soldier, and thus succeeds at his Aristeia. The standard action is no longer expended, and he can continue moving. However, before he does so, he attempts (and luckily succeeds at) two more Aristeia to kill the soldiers on either side of the one before him. He advances (taking several more attacks of opportunity) and slays two more, but on his sixth attempt at Aristeia, he deals only 18 damage. This still downs the soldier, but not enough to let him succeed at his Aristeia. He still has Great Cleave, but unfortunately, he's already killed all targets available to him at his current position, so his turn is over.

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He weathers another volley of spear-stabbings before he continues. This time, he devotes all of his attention to offense, in order to maximize his chances at Aristeia - he ceases to attack defensively, and moves diagonally. He provokes many attacks of opportunity, but his magical protections help him avoid most of them. He kills nine with Aristeia's, and, no longer able to use the feat, finishes the round with a dramatic Great Cleave.

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At this point, sadly, Tristan is bleeding from almost twenty attacks of opportunity, and perishes before the force of the collective horde. Thus, we learn an important lesson - for goodness sakes, don't try to perform Aristeia on masses of foes with reach. If he'd attempted this on a mass of sword-wielding men, or continued to fight as defensively as possible, he'd have likely slaughtered them to the man. This feat makes you great, but great men nonetheless die great deaths.