Sweeping Strike War Mind ability

[John Q. Mayhem]

Does this say what I think it does?

Sweeping Strike (Ex): At 5th level, a war mind gains the ability to make great, sweeping swings with a melee weapon. On each melee attack a war mind makes, he can choose squares he threatens that are adjacent to each other, and his attacks apply to creatures in those two squares equally. A war mind can use this ability on any attack, even an attack of opportunity or a cleave attempt.
A war mind cannot use this ability if he has moved more than 10 feet since the end of his last turn. If a war mind drops one or both of his foes with a sweeping strike, he can attempt a cleave normally; however, he makes only one cleave attempt per sweeping strike, even if he drops more than one foe.

It looks like it lets you make double your normal attacks. Is it just me or is this ridiculous?

 

[daTim]

It would appear so...

 

[Spatula]

It doesn't double your normal attacks. The warmind's melee attacks apply to two adjacent targets with sweeping strike, instead of just one. It's sort of like a limited-arc whirlwind attack that's always on. If you're not fighting more than one foe, or if you're fighting two foes and they're flanking you, etc. then sweeping strike does you no good.

 

[Darklone]

Wasn't there errata about it?

 

[Spatula]

No. But then, there are a lot of things that weren't errata'd and probably should have been (although I'm not sure the warmind falls into that category).

 

[Scion]

I was looking this ability over, does it work in conjunction with whirlwind?

Whirlwind says:
When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities.

Which would seem to override:
A war mind can use this ability on any attack


Still, for my own games I will likely remove that line from whirlwind anyway. Few to no one in my group wanted to take it before, it didnt change for the better with that change

Just wanted to make sure that the text from whirlwind would override the ability though. It doesnt seem like an extra or bonus attack, merely applying the attack to two seperate squares.

 

[brehobit]

Does this say what I think it does?
It looks like it lets you make double your normal attacks. Is it just me or is this ridiculous?

This looks like the "bag of snails" all over again. (well not quite as bad).

Have ally throw a handful of snails. Take AoO against each (up to max, assumes combat reflexes). Get free attack against baddy also. Realistically, a 5th level follower could toss a MSIII as MSI and get these free attacks going.

Icky Icky bad. Game mechanics which can be broken by having the PC attacked by mooks are bad mechanics.

 

[the Jester]

Speaking as a dm with a high-level warmind imc, sweeping strike is not so bad, and it only comes up once in a while.

As to WA- I wouldn't let someone use 'em together.

 

[Scion]

it only comes up once in a while.

That is the reason I am thinking of letting them stack.

The number of situations where they will stack in a useful way are pretty limited in scope. Beyond that it takes a fifth tier feat and 5 levels in a specific prc.

Against large groups of weak creatures it can do a lot of damage, but then worrying about creatures that are so far below ones ability is what the whirlwind feat is all about. Extra things from other sources simply help it do its job But then, I personally feel that whirlwind is a very weak feat because it is so highly circumstantial. Putting the two together requires even more things to go just right.

I can definately see that it could be very powerful indeed in just the right circumstances, but then so can anything