Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Yruc 05-23-05, 04:05 PM	Question, improved Trip says that you must make an unarmed attack. My question is, what if I wanted to use a weapon (say a quarterstaff) to try and trip someone would the benifit of the feat help or is there a different feat I should look at?? Thanks
Callista 05-23-05, 04:14 PM	Not a different feat--a different weapon. There are quite a few weapons which allow trip attacks. Most of them are the sort which have hooked ends, or somehow allow you to tangle up your opponent.
Kintaran 05-23-05, 06:17 PM	A standard trip atttempt makes no use of your weapon. Some weapons (called out specifically in their description) can be used to make trip attacks and dropped to negate a successful reactive trip. Those with reach allow you to make trip attempts at reach and thus avoid some drawbacks. Typical trip attempts thus do not get the bonuses from your weapon or your weapon focus feat for that weapon, say, when making the initial touch attack. Those bonuses do apply for unarmed strike or for those trip-capable weapons. There is a feat in Sword and Fist that represents weapon tripping, sort of. It is called Knockdown, and whenever you deal 10 or more points of melee damage in a single attack, you get a free trip attempt with no reactive trip attached. However, you do forfeit the free attack that Improved Trip generates. Basically, rather than a trip generating an attack, your attack generates a trip.
Yruc 05-23-05, 06:20 PM	thank you both for the information, the knockdown thing is probably what I am looking for :) Thanks again
Colmarr 05-23-05, 09:25 PM	IMPROVED TRIP [GENERAL] Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise. Benefit: You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when you attempt to trip an opponent while you are unarmed. You also gain a +4 bonus on your Strength check to trip your opponent. If you trip an opponent in melee combat, you immediately get a melee attack against that opponent as if you hadn’t used your attack for the trip attempt. Normal: Without this feat, you provoke an attack of opportunity when you attempt to trip an opponent while you are unarmed. Special: At 6th level, a monk may select Improved Trip as a bonus feat, even if she does not have the prerequisites. A fighter may select Improved Trip as one of his fighter bonus feats. Note that you can use Improved Trip whilst armed. The feat wording is perhaps poor, but the intent of the feat is as follows: If you trip unarmed: You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when you attempt to trip an opponent while you are unarmed. You also gain a +4 bonus on your Strength check to trip your opponent. If you trip an opponent in melee combat, you immediately get a melee attack against that opponent as if you hadn’t used your attack for the trip attempt. If you trip with a weapon: You also gain a +4 bonus on your Strength check to trip your opponent. If you trip an opponent in melee combat, you immediately get a melee attack against that opponent as if you hadn’t used your attack for the trip attempt. The only thing you don't get from the feat when tripping with a weapon is the "no AoO" clause, but you don't need it anyway, because tripping with a weapon does not provoke an AoO.
Yruc 05-23-05, 09:34 PM	Thanks Colmarr for clearing that up, I can see it now ) I'll show this to my DM. Thanks a bunch!