| Elewan |
I'm just trying to see how all these work together.
Felling Smash
Benefit: If you use the attack action to make a single melee attack at your highest base attack bonus while using Power Attack and you hit an opponent, you can spend a swift action to attempt a trip combat maneuver against that opponent.
Piledriver (2hand fighter archetype)
At 11th level, as a standard action, a two-handed fighter can make a single melee attack with a two-handed weapon. If the attack hits, he may make a bull rush or trip combat maneuver against the target of his attack as a free action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
Tripping Strike
Whenever you score a critical hit with a melee attack, you can trip your opponent, in addition to the normal damage dealt by the attack. If your confirmation roll exceeds your opponent’s CMD, you may knock your opponent prone as if from the trip combat maneuver. This does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If you are tripped during your own trip attempt, you can drop your weapon to avoid being tripped.
So, this is my understanding of how these work together:
Requirements:
Felling Smash: Single attack using Power Attack
Piledriver: Single attack, 2hand weapon
Tripping Strike: Single or full attack w/critical
Cost:
Felling Smash: Swift action
Piledriver: Free action
Tripping Strike: Included
It seems to me that I can make a single melee attack using power attack, and if it hits, I can use a free action (Piledriver) to make a trip attempt, and if that fails I can use a swift action (Felling Smash) to make another trip attempt. If it is a critical hit, then I'd check the confirm roll against the opponent's CMD before rolling for the other trip attempts.
An attack of opportunity is also a single melee attack, and power attack says:
You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn.
Therefore Piledriver and Felling Smash would also apply to an AoO as long as I choose to activate PA for the AoO roll, or if I used it earlier in the round, and of course Tripping Strike applies to a critical.
Is this reasoning correct?
| Malk_Content |
I caught that too, but it's got to be just different language to say the same thing, right? Making an attack is a standard action.
Nope you can't do both. The Attack action is a specific standard action, just as Pile Driver is a different standard action. The language is made to separate these things. For example you cannot use Pile Driver and Vital Strike (Pile Driver standard, Vital Strike attack action) but you could use Vital Strike and Felling Smash as the both modify the attack action.
| Elewan |
Nope you can't do both. The Attack action is a specific standard action, just as Pile Driver is a different standard action. The language is made to separate these things. For example you cannot use Pile Driver and Vital Strike (Pile Driver standard, Vital Strike attack action) but you could use Vital Strike and Felling Smash as the both modify the attack action.
Does this also mean that a Piledriver cannot be used as an AoO, at the end of a charge, or with the Overhand Chop (2hand fighter archetype), whereas Felling Smash could be used with all these things?