| Cleave | |
|---|---|
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| Details | |
Prerequisites |
Power Attack, Strength 13 |
Effect(s) |
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 first and also within reach. You can only make one additional attack per round with this feat unless you also have the Great Cleave feat. When you use this feat, you take a -2 penalty to your Armor Class until your next turn. |
Cleave is a feat in Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
Effects[]
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 first and also within reach. You can only make one additional attack per round with this feat unless you also have the Great Cleave feat. When you use this feat, you take a -2 penalty to your Armor Class until your next turn.
Strategy[]
Cleave, and the subsequent Great Cleave, make mincemeat of early encounters with numerous, low health enemies. However, once your character reaches BAB6, using these feats imposes an opportunity cost of not allowing you to make an iterative attack. An iterative attack is a second, third, or fourth attack, made at a -5 penalty compared to the previous attack, which can target the same enemy as the previous one, or any other enemy within range should the first target have been slain. You gain your first iterative attack at BAB6, your second at BAB11, and your third at BAB16.
In general, if you have an adequate AC and can manage agro, large groups of low level enemies are merely inconviniences, not threats. The real danger is posed by exceptional single enemies, such as spellcasters who can disable your characters or brutal warriors who can simply overcome your AC with ridiculously high attack bonuses. Therefore, the ability to focus your damage on a single real threat using iterative attacks becomes increasingly vital as the game progresses.
At levels 1 through about 4, however, there really isn't any such thing as a large group of low level enemies, the difference between the player characters and the enemies has yet to develop, and even the humble Thylacine can overwhelm through sheer weight of numbers. At the earliest stages of your Pathfinder career, Cleave and Great Cleave will absolutely dominate.
Therefore, the conventional wisdom is to select those two feats early in the game, then retrain out of them when the mechanics require focused force, rather than distributed force.
Because Cleave relies on being able to reach multiple enemies from the same location, it is more effective on Medium characters such as Elves, Dwarves, and Humans, rather than Small characters such as Gnomes or Halflings. You may also find yourself better able to chain hits if you use a weapon that is inherently longer, such as a Longspear or a Glaive. Look for items that note a 6ft, not a 2ft, reach.