trip, whip and twf

[Kahuna Burger]

Say you have a character fighting with a whip in one hand and a light melee weapon (we'll say a sickle) in the other. Say further that while said character has the twf feat, he chooses to make a full attack with the whip instead, at no penalty.

Question 1 - you don't threaten with a whip, but you do with a sickle. Can the character take an attack of oppertunity with the sickle in a round where he attacked only with the whip? (a FAQ question on reach weapons and armor spikes implies this one is yes, but I'm curious on people's interpretations)

Question 2 - if the same character has the improved trip feat and he successfully trips someone with the whip (assuming for the sake of argument they are within 5 ft of and we dealt with the AOO issue seperately) could he make the followup melee attack with the sickle? The wording of the feat grants an additional melee attack, not specificly one with the same weapon.

Question 3 - Can the character make his remaining iterative attacks that round with the sickle, assuming that in total he takes his standard number of iterative attacks and not an "extra" off hand attack?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Question 2 - looks legal.

Question 1 and 3 depend on your definition of 'fight this way'.

If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. You suffer a –6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a –10 penalty to the attack with your off hand when you fight this way.

There are two ways of reading 'fight this way':

1. 'wield a second weapon in your off hand'.
2. 'get one extra attack per round with that weapon'.

I read it as the first - if you are wielding a second weapon in your off hand, you take TWF penalties, and you can get one extra attack per round.

Others read it as the second - if you get an extra attack with an off-hand weapon, you take TWF penalties.

By the first reading, if you make an attack with the whip while there is a sickle in your off hand, and don't take penalties, then you are obviously not wielding the sickle... you're just holding it. Since you're not wielding it as a weapon, you don't threaten with it, and can't make an AoO with it. If you make your remaining iterative attacks with the sickle, you are obviously wielding a second weapon in your off hand, and thus take the penalties on all attacks whether or not you avail yourself of the extra attack.

By the second reading, unless you take the extra attack with your off hand, you don't take TWF penalties... so you threaten quite happily with the sickle, and can make your iterative attacks alternately between whip and sickle at no penalty.

... except, of course, for the normal -4 for making an off-hand attack, unless you have the TWF feat (see the definition of 'off hand' in the PHB Glossary).

-Hyp.

 

[RangerWickett]

An additional question. By my understanding, you can take a 5-ft. step any time during your turn, even between attacks of a full attack. Could you trip someone 10 ft away with the whip, then step forward 5 ft. to get your improved trip bonus attack with the sickle?

 

[Zandel]

I'd have to agree with hyp's first reading. If your not wielding the weapon you don't threaten.

 

[Zandel]

You can NOT make a 5' step in the middle of a full attack without a special feat (think it's whirlwind attack not sure). Before the attacks or after but not during.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I'd have to agree with hyp's first reading. If your not wielding the weapon you don't threaten.

the FAQ says that you can make an attack of oppertunity with armor spikes in the same round as you make one with a reach weapon and strongly implies that you threaten with any combat ready weapon whether you chose to attack with it in the last round or not. Is "wielding" defined in the rules somewhere? That would be helpful to a conclusive answer.

 

[Taloras]

Think of it this way. A wizard, holding a sword in his off hand. He casts a spell, someone moves by him. he gets an attack of opportunity, because he is wielding a weapon. Wielding means to be holding it, ready for an attack, even if your not attacking with it. So Id say yes, you could attack with the sickle.

 

[Zandel]

This requires more thought. Personally I've always played that if you have two weapons drawn then choose to attack with only one you have to sheath the other weapon or suffer the TWF penalties. As this takes a move action it's always been done and we never had any trouble.

In combat if your holding a weapon then your considered to be using it and therefore take the TWF penalties if you have two. The only exception to this fule that i can see is if you also have a buckler and decide to gain it's AC bonus in wich case you can't attack with the off-hand weapon and can't make AOO's anyway.

 

[Len]

You can NOT make a 5' step in the middle of a full attack without a special feat (think it's whirlwind attack not sure). Before the attacks or after but not during.

No, that's wrong.

The only movement you can take during a full attack is a 5-foot step. You may take the step before, after, or between your attacks.

 

[Chorn]

You can NOT make a 5' step in the middle of a full attack without a special feat (think it's whirlwind attack not sure). Before the attacks or after but not during.

You can take your 5-foot step in the middle of a full attack. Even during a Whirlwind Attack you can use your 5-foot step to reach more targets. You can't take a 5-foot step when using Cleave as it is explicitly disallowed by the feat.