Spirited Charge and Charging Lance

[IanB]

A reasonable (and realistic) house rule is: no power attack at all when using a lance in a charge. If you wanted to get more complicated, you could also add: use the mount's strength (or maybe con modifier) instead of your own (since the damage on a mounted charge is really coming from the mount, not the character.)

 

[Rystil Arden]

Level 6 human fighter

To add to kjenks' idea in a very dangerous fashion, get a mount that is intelligent enough that you don't need to spend a move action telling controlling it in battle (there are many ways to do this, of course--there are even purchase and training rules for some of the MM ones right in the MM, or you could do Paladin). Then gain some psionic PP somehow (psionic race, feat, etc). Then max out Concentration and take the Deep Impact feat and the Psionic Meditation feat. This will allow you to spend a move action every round to regain Psionic focus and still have your standard action to attack on the Spirited Charge, and you can spend the focus to make the attack a Touch Attack. Power Attack away!

 

[Legildur]

Someone told you wrong. A lance is a two-handed weapon and you can use it to get 2x Power Attack, while mounted or on foot.

While mounted, you may use a lance one-handed, but you'd lose out on the 1.5x Str bonus and 2x Power Attack for the dubious benefit of using your off-hand for a shield.

Says who?

A lance is a 'two-handed weapon'. Therefore you get the 2x PA and the 1.5x Str bonus to damage under all circumstances. (there are a couple of threads on all this)

 

[Hypersmurf]

Says who?

A lance is a 'two-handed weapon'. Therefore you get the 2x PA and the 1.5x Str bonus to damage under all circumstances. (there are a couple of threads on all this)

Well, this is for a Living Greyhawk character; my understanding is that Living Greyhawk uses FAQ answers, whether or not they match the rules.

So for the purposes of a Living Greyhawk character, a lance used in one hand is a one-handed weapon, despite the rules saying a lance is a two-handed weapon.

-Hyp.

 

[Legildur]

Well, this is for a Living Greyhawk character; my understanding is that Living Greyhawk uses FAQ answers, whether or not they match the rules.

So for the purposes of a Living Greyhawk character, a lance used in one hand is a one-handed weapon, despite the rules saying a lance is a two-handed weapon.

LOL! Okay, whatever they like.... Although I can understand in the interests of simplicity why they have a blanket rule about whether or not they accept the FAQ.

 

[kjenks]

To add to kjenks' idea in a very dangerous fashion, get a mount that is intelligent enough that you don't need to spend a move action telling controlling it in battle (there are many ways to do this, of course--there are even purchase and training rules for some of the MM ones right in the MM, or you could do Paladin). Then gain some psionic PP somehow (psionic race, feat, etc). Then max out Concentration and take the Deep Impact feat and the Psionic Meditation feat. This will allow you to spend a move action every round to regain Psionic focus and still have your standard action to attack on the Spirited Charge, and you can spend the focus to make the attack a Touch Attack. Power Attack away!

Since this is for the Living Greyhawk campaign, there are campaign restritions against some of those ideas.

To "get a mount that is intelligent enough that you don't need to spend a move action telling controlling it in battle," all you need is to make it "war-trained" or "trained for combat riding while in battle" (per the Ride skill description).

SRD
===
Fight with Warhorse: If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle, you can still make your own attack or attacks normally. This usage is a free action.
...
Control Mount in Battle: As a move action, you can attempt to control a light horse, pony, heavy horse, or other mount not trained for combat riding while in battle. If you fail the Ride check, you can do nothing else in that round. You do not need to roll for warhorses or warponies.
===

At most Living Greyhawk tables, giving an animal the six tricks in the Combat Riding package will suffice:

SRD
===
Combat Riding (DC 20): An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. Training an animal for combat riding takes six weeks. You may also “upgrade” an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat riding by spending three weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal’s previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Warhorses and riding dogs are already trained to bear riders into combat, and they don’t require any additional training for this purpose.
===

But since "war-trained" isn't well-defined, you'll see some table variations, where different judges have different opinions.

 

[kjenks]

A reasonable (and realistic) house rule is: no power attack at all when using a lance in a charge. If you wanted to get more complicated, you could also add: use the mount's strength (or maybe con modifier) instead of your own (since the damage on a mounted charge is really coming from the mount, not the character.)

The Living Greyhawk campaign discourages house rules.

 

[UltimaGabe]

To add to kjenks' idea in a very dangerous fashion, get a mount that is intelligent enough that you don't need to spend a move action telling controlling it in battle (there are many ways to do this, of course--there are even purchase and training rules for some of the MM ones right in the MM, or you could do Paladin). Then gain some psionic PP somehow (psionic race, feat, etc). Then max out Concentration and take the Deep Impact feat and the Psionic Meditation feat. This will allow you to spend a move action every round to regain Psionic focus and still have your standard action to attack on the Spirited Charge, and you can spend the focus to make the attack a Touch Attack. Power Attack away!

...Except that a Charge (spirited or not) is a Full-Round Action, not a Move and a Standard. It doesn't matter if your mount spends a move action or not, you still have to spend a full-round action to get the benefits of a charge. Otherwise, it's just a move and an attack.

 

[IanB]

The Living Greyhawk campaign discourages house rules.

I realize that; my comment was more meant for any non-LG DM who wanders across this thread and thinks "uh oh" when they seen the numbers.

 

[Diirk]

On a slight tangent, but does anyone else feel the alternate paladin class feature from PHB2, Charging Smite, is grossly overpowered?

Even at 5th level, a basic mounted charge with a lance will do (normal damage + 15) x 2 with a nice hit bonus from both the charge and the smite. Add in spirited charge and you're already looking at 45 damage BEFORE adding in strength, magic enhancements, base weapon damage etc... Rhino's Rush (Paladin lvl 1 spell) from Spell Compendium takes this up to a x4 multiplier for 60+ damage. Heck, even if you somehow miss, Charging Smite states you don't even lose the smite attempt...

That's pretty disgusting.


PS. you need armour class even for ride by attack to avoid the attacks of opportunity you'll incur. Ride by attack doesn't do anything to negate AoOs. Mind you, dead things don't get AoOs...