Great Cleave, Cleaving Finish, and Improved Surprise Follow Through

[Matterhorn731]

Say I have a half-orc Skulking Slayer Rogue with the feats Great Cleave, Cleaving Finish, and Improved Surprise Follow Through (feat text at the bottom). I'm in a fight and am somewhat surrounded by my enemies (R is me, #s are enemies, _s are empty):

23_
1R_
__4

I make a Great Cleave attack as a standard action against guy #1, hit him, and then cleave through guys #2 and #3, applying my sneak attack damage to them due to ISFT. #3 drops, so I now have a Cleaving Finish attack that I can use against anyone in reach (#1, #2, or #4).

My question is: who, if anyone, in this scenario would be denied their DEX bonus to AC against the Cleaving Finish (allowing me to sneak attack them)?

My thinking is that guy #1 would not lose his bonus based on the wording of ISFT (emphasis mine):

Improved Surprise Follow-Through wrote:

When using Great Cleave, each opponent you attack on your turn (other than the first) is denied his Dexterity bonus against you.

Based on that same sentence, it seems to me that either guy #2 or guy #4, however, could be hit with the Cleaving Finish and not get their DEX bonus ("...each opponent you attack on your turn..."). On the other hand, perhaps the Dex bonus denial only works on opponents hit by the Great Cleave itself ("When using Great Cleave,...").

How would you interpret this?

Tangential question: If guy #2 dropped instead of guy #3, would I make my Cleaving Finish immediately (and could I continue the Great Cleave afterwards) or would I make it after finishing the Great Cleave? And would this affect whether or not the Cleaving Finish is affected by ISFT?

D20PFSRD wrote:

Great Cleave (Combat):

You can strike many adjacent foes with a single blow.

Prerequisites: Str 13, Cleave, Power Attack, base attack bonus +4.
Benefit: As a standard action, you can make a single attack at your full base attack bonus against a foe within reach. If you hit, you deal damage normally and can make an additional attack (using your full base attack bonus) against a foe that is adjacent to the previous foe and also within reach. If you hit, you can continue to make attacks against foes adjacent to the previous foe, so long as they are within your reach. You cannot attack an individual foe more than once during this attack action. When you use this feat, you take a –2 penalty to your Armor Class until your next turn.

Cleaving Finish (Combat):

When you strike down an opponent, you can continue your swing into another target.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Cleave, Power Attack.
Benefit: If you make a melee attack, and your target drops to 0 or fewer hit points as a result of your attack, you can make another melee attack using your highest base attack bonus against another opponent within reach. You can make only one extra attack per round with this feat.

Improved Surprise Follow-Through (Combat, Orc/Half-Orc):

You follow up an attack with a surprising series of sweeping blows.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack, Surprise Follow Through, base attack bonus +8.
Benefit: When using Great Cleave, each opponent you attack on your turn (other than the first) is denied his Dexterity bonus against you.

[Paladin of Baha-who?]

In answer to your second question: Since Cleaving Finish doesn't specify an action type, I would think that means it's "not an action", like an Attack of Opportunity, and happens as soon as the circumstances that trigger it obtain, thus before you continue to cleave.

I'm not sure about the first question, though. One way to interpret it would be that the first opponent you attack in a round is immune for the rest of the round to ISFT's effects. Another way would be that this only applies for the first attack, and that he isn't considered 'the first' when you attack him again using Cleaving Finish. However, I believe that either 2 or 4 would lose their Dex bonus because they're 'opponents you attack on your turn' during the process of using Great Cleave.

Hitting the FAQ button.