Whirlwind Great Cleave?

[Kae'Yoss]

Yea, the only situation where the combo will help him is when there are a lot of weak enemies (which he can drop with a single attack) surrounding him. It won't help him if he's surrounded by stronger enemies, or if the enemy is alone or in very small numbers.
And I don't think that it will throw the whole thing out of balance to allow a fighter to slaughter weak enemies by the score (which would probably also drop if any wizard attacked them with a wand of fireball).
And the only situation where this occurs is when the DM surrounds the big cheese with a bunch of total weaklings....

Of course, sometimes there are munchkins, who will use the Bucket Of Snails, but that's no problem of the system, that's a problem of the DM, and munchkins will exploit everything they can, so better just strike them dead with a heavenly lightning bolt from a vengeful (read: trigger-happy) deity.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

oops - double-post

 

[Particle_Man]

There seem to be two quick ways to fix the combo:

1) Number off all the critters you are attacking with WA. Attack each critter separately, with a separate attack roll. If in the middle of your WA you cleave a critter, your bonus attack goes to the next-highest numbered critter who is still standing (if you have to, "wrap-around" to number 1 again).

2) If you don't like front-end work, just have any cleave attack be against one of the available nearby foes, but chosen at random.

Both options stop the problem of the BBEG getting attacked more because he has guards (since you are much more likely to get your bonus attack vs. a guard, rat, snail, butterfly, etc. than the BBEG), but still allows a fighter with the combo to mow down the guards like a weed-whacker on ecstasy. The numbering system does it slightly better, since the random method might still give you some extra attacks vs. the BBEG, while the numbering method will only ever give you one bonus attack per round.

And if you are still not happy, then ban the combo. (Maybe a feat can have anti-requisites? WA : Must not know Cleave. Cleave: must not know wa).

 

[Kae'Yoss]

And if you are still not happy, then ban the combo. (Maybe a feat can have anti-requisites? WA : Must not know Cleave. Cleave: must not know wa).

That's the last I would advice.

Just make sure the "guards" won't drop when a wizard stabs them with a dagger, and if players start buying buckets or go out hunting rats, send some accidents their way.

My bladesinger has both feats, and he was in the position to use that combo a couple of times. But it didn't change the outcome of the battle, because the enemies presented no problem at all.

And a big cheese NPC that will swarm his enemy together with his mooks deserves to be ripped apart by the party fighter. Smart villains will stand back and use reach weapons, ranged weapons, or magic, while his mooks soak the swordcuts.