What do you think of Robilar's Gambit?

[DarkKestral]

Best way to defeat? Get a humanoid w/ Powerful Build, enlarge them, and turn him into a spiked chain tripper, so the Robilar's user can't really afford to take AoOs since the NPC may get 2-3 for every one the Robilar's user gets, as they'd ALWAYS be within reach, since they'd have the reach of 20 ft. Even with Spring Attack and ordinary 30 ft. reach, they'd NOT be able to take spring attack AoOs without provoking an additional 2-3 per round that the NPC would be able to take against them while they couldn't strike back.

I think a Goliath Fighter would be perfect here. It's only LA+1...

 

[pawsplay]

I'd be wary of attempting the gambit against a group of duergar monks with Improved Trip.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Robilar's Gambit is very good with the Elusive Target feat (I might have the name wrong) from Tome of Battle. Anytime an enemy would provoke an AoO from you, you can instead choose to take a free 5-foot step. A nice way to get free movement and get away from an enemy. Of course, I don't if the "only one 5-foot step per round" or "can not take a 5-foot step if you've moved in the same round" stipulations come into play.

 

[KarinsDad]

I'd be wary of attempting the gambit against a group of duergar monks with Improved Trip.

Even without Improved Trip, many NPC combatant type opponents (except possibly some monsters) at 12th+ level (the point in time when a PC can get Robilar's Gambit) should have a way to trip opponents in combat.

Trip becomes a pretty standard tactic to minimize enemy combatant type full round melee attacks often starting around 6th level or so. Out of the two 9th level combatant type PCs in my game, both have Improved Trip. And an issue with Improved Trip that all players do not necessarily know is that it gives one the +4 when he tries to trip an opponent, but it does not give him +4 when an opponent tries to trip (or countertrip) him. So, using Robilar's Gambit could easily end up with the user getting tripped himself.


However, a Dwarf with Improved Trip and Robilar's Gambit can move through a combat area and at least in the first round, have a good chance of tripping up a lot of opponents. He'll probably take quite a bit of damage doing so (even with Mobility), but it'd be kind of like bowling where the enemies fall down right and left.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

I have this feat on my swordsage, and it works pretty well. However, at the higher levels, I'm burning through all of my AoOs and only giving out 1 or 2 good hits, since their AC is outpacing my attack bonus by far. Against mooks, this is killer. I started my turn, did the flaming weapon maneuver, the maneuver that you do a normal attack and gain DR 10/Adamantine for 1 round, and started walking, taking an AoO when they took their's. Killed one mook outright who was low on hit points, and killed the first one who took an AoO, and the rest decided to just not attack me. Then I walked right into flanking position for the next player, who ripped apart the next mook. They were all orc barbarian/rogues dishing out tons of damage, swarming a single character each round. They also allowed me to try my new "trip one guy and throw him 60' through the other guys and do 6d6 damage to everyone involved" maneuver. So much fun.