Cleaving Finish, not that bad!

[belmondo_89]

Hi guys,
i recently find this feat and i start wondering if it is a trap as Cleave is, or if it is good as it seems to be.

Ultimate Combat wrote:

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.

For what i read, while Cleave is quite a feat tax, this feat seems not bad at all if i can use it in conjunction with a full Attack and maybe the use of the Lunge feat or a Reach Weapon.

What do you think about it, it's kind of a "Red Herring" or it could be worth the investment, maybe in a build focused on melee attacks, with a couple of spare feats?

Thanks guys, as always!

[kyrt-ryder]

It was kind of worth it in 3.5 when you didn't have to take PF's version of cleave to get it.

If you can, get your GM to just let you take 3.5 Cleave without the trash.

[cnetarian]

It comes down to your GM's style, if your GM likes sending multiple dangerous opponents who pack together against you then cleaving finish (and the dwarf cleaving line) is worthwhile. Contrariwise if your GM tends to use one big monster or spreads the opponents out over larger areas or only throws sword fodder out in packs, then it isn't going to be very useful.

[The Dragon]

Cleaving finish is better mainly because it allows you to hit things that aren't adjecent. It's better than 3.5e cleave with needed that. I don't think it's a whole extra feat slot better, but it's still pretty good, and 3.5e cleave isn't on the table anyway.

[kyrt-ryder]

3.5 didn't need adjacent either. I did include a link for reference, but apparently it's not on the table anyway.

[Joey Cote]

I greatly enjoy cleaving finish with my barbarian. It was worth it early on to buy cleave, when hitting two guys with one standard action was useful, and the buy into cleaving finish is still proving useful at 8th when there are a lot of not hugely high hp opponents or they have had their hp reduced by the wizard. Not used every fight like power attack is, but it definitely has its moments. Especially with a swinging two handed with a higher crit range weapon. As a barbarian I don't think I could justify great cleave or improved cleaving finish, just not enough feats. But maybe a pure fighter.

[rungok]

If you want to make it effective, you probably want to have lunge and great cleave at least, that way you can swing-hit-hit-kill target>switch to enemies flanking you-hit-hit-Kill, etc. At least to my mind, it synergizes well.

[Exguardi]

The feat tax of Cleave / Great Cleave is less than ideal. I will say that it fails the "bag of rats" test, for what it's worth-- a Summon Minor Monster spell or anything else to put weak creatures on the battlefield can upconvert secondary natural attacks or iteratives into full BAB two-handed smashes, as far as I can tell.