Best use of Truestrike

[Magda Luckbender]

Please help Magda get creative with the spell True Strike. She can cast truestrike once per day as a Standard Action, and once per day as a Swift Action. It doesn't get enough use.

While nearly-automatic damage is nice, sometimes it might be better to trip, or disarm, or something else. Magda has no maneuver feats and is just a damage-dealing, zone-controlling polearm wielder.

Please suggest some nifty ways to use Truestrike in combat, besides just auto-whacking things for lots of damage. What are some techniques that are unlikely to otherwise work, but are useful with the +20 bonus?

[Cranky Dog]

You already have the right idea in using combat maneuvers combined with your reach weapon. Unless your foe also has reach, you'll avoid most AoOs.

In addition to trip and disarm, you can use Dirty Trick to really annoy a foe, possibly for more than one round too.

Say you tied a bag of flour at the end of your polearm and smack it over your enemy to blind him, or a tied skunk to sicken him, or an animated skull that goes "Boo!" to shaken him. Endless possibilities!

[Fromper]

Magda Luckbender wrote:

What are some techniques that are unlikely to otherwise work, but are useful with the +20 bonus?

• Tripping things with more than two legs.
  
• Disarming the guy with the flaming... anything.
  
• Grappling anything bigger than you are.
  
• Firing a ranged weapon from several range increments away.
  
• Sundering a very small and hard to hit item, such as the enemy cleric's holy/unholy symbol.
  

Remember, combat maneuvers provoke an attack of opportunity if you don't have the improved feat. But they can only take their AoO if you're within reach, so your polearm could allow you to disarm, trip, or sunder without worrying about it if the enemy only has 5 foot reach. That doesn't apply to grapple, which doesn't use the pole arm.

[blahpers]

Bull rush is my favorite use, since it scales with higher rolls, and my characters inevitably end up fighting on bridges or rooftops or near cliffs.

[Magda Luckbender]

Bull Rush would not work, though, lacking the Improved version. It would draw an AoO, which would probably spoil the +20 attack attempt. Or does a Bull Rush still work, even if it provokes an AoO that hits?

[Sammy T]

You still get the maneuver even if you are hit, you simply take the damage as a penalty to the maneuver.

[SteelDraco]

Yeah, I don't think you can bull rush with a reach weapon, which is the ideal use of true strike. Disarm, sunder, and trip are the three I know you can do with weapons, but I'm not clear on the rest. I would think, however, that a bull rush would require the force of your body behind it slamming into the target.

[Hrothdane]

One of the nice qualities of true strike is that it ignores concealment, which I see people often forget.

When faced with gaze attacks, my magus has occasionally just closed his eyes and done spell combat true strike.

If you pinpoint the square with an invisible creature, you can true strike and shoot a dye arrow at them, or throw a bag of flour.

[Imbicatus]

Trip, Disarm, and Sunder are going to be your best options, as they are weapon based maneuvers so you can do them at reach to avoid AoOs with the enhancement bonus of your glaive.

I notice that you have An Adamantine Grayflame Glaive, which would be quite useful for sundering.

[PSusac]

As a GM, I like to give my mooks a potion of true strike, and a heavy Ballista to fire. Add a harpoon, tied off to a team of horses (or just a heavy rock on the edge of a cliff), and you can tag the tank and then drag him away from the front of the party.

Good times.

[Lessah]

A quick note, despite what numerous loot tables and APs suggest, Personal spells can't be made into potions by RAW.

Otherwise, PSusac's suggestions are excellent and I'll add the humble Net to the list of weapons which benefit from True Strike.

[blahpers]

Rr: bull rush, the weapon is not relevant; I'd left it as a given that it would provoke an attack of opportunity. Sometimes that's acceptable.

The other main reason I'd use true strike is to be certain that I land those nasty touch or ray spells, like bestow curse or disintegrate, especially with casters with subpar physical stats against targets with high touch AC. But that's a fairly obvious use of the spell.

[Tomos]

Good suggestions so far.
I recommend the Lunge feat for a better ability to avoid AOOs from Combat Maneuvers at reach.

Disarm, Sunder, Trip, Drag, and Reposition are all awesome ways that you can use your pole arm for Combat Maneuvers, as long as it has the Trip special ability.

The developers (SKR) have elaborated on the 'trip' quality of weapons. It includes 'drag' and 'reposition.'
See this blog post for more info:
Combat Maneuvers Blog Post by SKR

Guisarme, Hooked Lance, Horsechopper, Kusarigama, and Meteor Hammer are the only weapons that have 'reach' and 'trip' qualities (Ultimate Equipment).
It looks like a Guisarme is probably going to work best with your ability to cast Truestrike.
That's five different Combat Maneuvers that you can always use at reach.

You could also give your pole arm the Returning property and use Truestrike to throw it like a spear at an enemy that's way out of reach. With Truestrike up, you could really do some awesome throws.

To hit: BAB + Dex bonus+ Weapon Enhancement -4 (improvised penalty) +20 Truestrike
10' range increment
Add Str + Weapon Enhancement to damage dice.

[Kayerloth]

Hrothdane wrote:

One of the nice qualities of true strike is that it ignores concealment, which I see people often forget.

When faced with gaze attacks, my magus has occasionally just closed his eyes and done spell combat true strike.

If you pinpoint the square with an invisible creature, you can true strike and shoot a dye arrow at them, or throw a bag of flour.

My Loremaster most often used it to ignore concealment, typically while using a ranged touch attack (the +20 is nice but often overkill with touch attacks). So I'd be looking for ways to be able to cause concealment when I needed to hinder my foes (for greater self protection) and then use the True Strike to ignore the concealment. Most (All?) of the above tactics/Combat Maneuvers could be executed under concealment just as readily as under 'normal' conditions with True Strike in play.

[Smite Makes Right]

I would say that grapple is a poor choice unless you do not need to maintain the grapple on the subsequent rounds, but I am not sure how that would be helpful.

[SmiloDan]

Dirty Trick sounds fun. Also, striking at creatures with darkvision and lurking in darkness, tiny hut, mists, fogs, clouds, etc.

Also useful if you're taking multiple penalties, like from Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Dazing Assault (I think), etc. etc.