Combat Maneuvers

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Combat Maneuvers

During combat, you can attempt to perform a number of maneuvers that can hinder or even cripple your foe, including bull rush, disarm, grapple, overrun, sunder, and trip. Although these maneuvers have vastly different results, they all use a similar mechanic to determine success.

Combat Maneuver Bonus

Each character and creature has a Combat Maneuver Bonus (or CMB) that represents its skill at performing combat maneuvers. A creature's CMB is determined using the following formula:

CMB = Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier + special size modifier

Special Size Modifier

The special size modifier for a creature's Combat Maneuver Bonus is as follows:

Fine –8, Diminutive –4, Tiny –2, Small –1, Medium +0, Large +1, Huge +2, Gargantuan +4, Colossal +8.

Some feats and abilities grant a bonus to your CMB when performing specific maneuvers.

Performing a Combat Maneuver

• When performing a combat maneuver, you must use an action appropriate to the maneuver you are attempting to perform.

• Combat maneuvers may only be attempted on your turn, never as part of an attack of opportunity or a bonus attack.

• Each combat maneuver may only be performed once per round. This means a character can't use two attacks to perform a pair of trips in the same round, but could use those two attacks to perform a trip and a reposition.

• Most combat maneuvers are standard actions, but some of them may be used as part of an attack action in place of an attack, or as part of a charge.

• Unless otherwise noted, performing a combat maneuver provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of the maneuver. If you are hit by the target, you take the damage normally and take a -4 penalty to the attack roll to perform the maneuver.

• If your target is immobilized, unconscious, or otherwise incapacitated, your maneuver automatically succeeds (treat as if you rolled a natural 20 on the attack roll). This allows you to drag or reposition unconscious creatures automatically, for example.

• If your target is suffering any condition which denies it an action of any type, you receive a +4 bonus on your attack roll to perform a combat maneuver against it.

• When you attempt to perform a combat maneuver, make an attack roll and add your CMB in place of your normal attack bonus.

• Add any bonuses you currently have on attack rolls due to spells, feats, and other effects. These bonuses must be applicable to the weapon or attack used to perform the maneuver.

• The DC of this maneuver is your target's Combat Maneuver Defense.

• Combat maneuvers are attack rolls, so you must roll for concealment and take any other penalties that would normally apply to an attack roll.

• If you wish to, and you are currently wielding a weapon you are proficient in, you may inflict damage if your CMB roll equals or exceeds your target's CMD. This damage is in addition to the normal effects of the Combat Maneuver, and is equal to the base damage dice of the weapon. As the base damage dice increase with level, this damage increases. If you wish to inflict subdual damage with a Combat Maneuver, the CMB roll is penalized for subdual damage as normal.

• If you have natural or class-based non-weapon attacks(such as a Monks Unarmed Attacks), you may roll one iteration of the lowest damage type that would apply. (A Monk can't use Echoing Strike or Flurry of Blows as part of a Combat Maneuver, for example.) In no cases may you apply bonuses from enhancements, feats, spells, class abilities, or any other boost to this damage. This damage can never be increased as a critical, either.

Combat Maneuver Defense

Each character and creature has a Combat Maneuver Defense (or CMD) that represents its ability to resist combat maneuvers. A creature's CMD is determined using the following formula:

CMD = 10 + Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier + special size modifier + miscellaneous modifiers

Special Size Modifier

The special size modifier for a creature's Combat Maneuver Defense is as follows:

Fine –8, Diminutive –4, Tiny –2, Small –1, Medium +0, Large +1, Huge +2, Gargantuan +4, Colossal +8.

Some feats and abilities grant a bonus to your CMD when resisting specific maneuvers.

Miscellaneous Modifiers

A creature can also add any circumstance, deflection, dodge, insight, luck, martial, morale, profane, and sacred bonuses to AC to its CMD. Any penalties to a creature's AC also apply to its CMD. A flat-footed creature does not add its Dexterity bonus to its CMD.

Determine Success

• If your attack roll equals or exceeds the CMD of the target, your maneuver is a success and has the listed effect.

• Some maneuvers, such as bull rush, have varying levels of success depending on how much your attack roll exceeds the target's CMD. Rolling a natural 20 while attempting a Combat Maneuver is always a success (except when attempting to escape from bonds), while rolling a natural 1 is always a failure. In no way is a natural 20 on a Combat Maneuver ever a critical.

Bull Rush

• You can make a bull rush as a standard action or as part of a charge, in place of the melee attack.

• You can only bull rush an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than you.

• A bull rush maneuver attempts to push an opponent straight back from the square of the attacker. If you do not have the Improved Bull Rush feat, or a similar ability, initiating a bull rush provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If that attack of opportunity hits, you take a -4 penalty on your CMB for the bull rush attempt.

• If your Combat Maneuver attack is successful, your target is pushed back 5 feet. For every 5 by which your attack exceeds your opponent's CMD you can push the target back an additional 5 feet.

• You can move with the target if you wish but you must have enough movement to do so. A bull rush maneuver does not grant any extra movement. It is quite possible to knock a foe so far away you cannot reach that foe any longer.

• If your Combat Maneuver attack fails, your movement ends in front of the target.

• An enemy being moved by a bull rush does not provoke an attack of opportunity because of the movement unless you possess the Greater Bull Rush feat.

• You cannot bull rush a creature into a square that is occupied by a solid object or obstacle.

• If there is another creature in the way of your bull rush, and you wish to bull rush both of them, you must immediately make a combat maneuver check to bull rush that creature as well. You take a –4 penalty on this check for each creature being pushed beyond the first. Note that you cannot damage ANY creature except the first one you Bull Rush.

• If you are successful on all rolls to bull rush multiple creatures in a stack, you can continue to push the creatures a distance equal to the smallest result.

• Example: A fighter bull rushes a goblin for a total of 15 feet, but there is another goblin in a straight line 5 feet behind the first. He may stop the bull rush after five feet, or he may make another combat maneuver check against the second goblin (at -4) after having pushed the first 5 feet. If this check reveals that he can push the second goblin a total of 20 feet, he can continue to push both goblins another 10 feet (since the first goblin will have moved a total of 15 feet, which is the lesser result). If the second roll showed he could push the second goblin only five feet, he can push both goblins another five feet (the lesser result) and then both stop.

Dirty Trick

You can attempt to hinder a foe in melee as a standard action.

• This maneuver covers any sort of situational attack that imposes a penalty on a foe for a short period of time. Examples include kicking sand into an opponent’s face to blind him for 1 round, pulling down an enemy’s pants to halve his speed, or hitting a foe in a sensitive spot to make him sickened for a round.

• The GM is the arbiter of what can be accomplished with this maneuver, but it cannot be used to impose a permanent penalty, and the results can be undone if the target spends a move action (unless a feat makes that into a standard action).

• If you do not have the Improved Dirty Trick feat or a similar ability, attempting a dirty trick provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. if that attack of opportunity succeeds, you take damage as normal and suffer a -4 penalty on your combat maneuver attack roll.

• If your combat maneuver attack is successful, the target takes a penalty. The penalty is limited to one of the following conditions:

• blind
• dazzled
• deafened
• entangled
• shaken
• sickened

• The condition inflicted by Dirty Trick maneuvers lasts for 1 round. For every 5 by which your attack exceeds your opponent’s CMD, the penalty lasts 1 additional round. This penalty can usually be removed if the target spends a move action.

• If you possess the Greater Dirty Trick feat, the penalty lasts for 1d4 rounds, plus 1 round for every 5 by which your attack exceeds your opponent’s CMD. In addition, removing the condition requires the target to spend a standard action.

Disarm

You can attempt to disarm your opponent in place of a melee attack.

• If you do not have the Improved Disarm feat, or a similar ability, attempting to disarm a foe provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If that attack of opportunity hits, you take damage as normal and suffer a -4 on your Disarm combat maneuver attack roll. Furthermore, attempting to disarm a foe while unarmed imposes another –4 penalty on the attack.

• If your combat maneuver attack is successful, your target drops one item it is carrying of your choice (even if the item is wielded with two hands).

• If your attack exceeds the CMD of the target by 10 or more, the target drops the items it is carrying in both hands (maximum two items if the target has more than two hands). Yes, you can knock both the sword AND the shield out of a foes hands.

• If your attack fails by 10 or more, you drop the weapon that you were using to attempt the disarm, if any.

• If you successfully disarm your opponent without using a weapon yourself, you may automatically pick up the item dropped. Yoink! Monks and Brawlers love doing this.

Drag

You can attempt to drag a foe as a standard action. In many ways, a Drag combat maneuver is a Bull Rush maneuver in reverse.

• You can only drag an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than you.

• The aim of this maneuver is to drag a foe in a straight line from its space through the space the attacker occupies when the roll is made and possibly further.

• If you do not have the Improved Drag feat or a similar ability, initiating a drag provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If that attack of opportunity hits, you take damage as normal and suffer a -4 penalty on your Drag combat maneuver attack roll.

• If your combat maneuver attack is successful, both you and your target are moved 5 feet back, with your opponent occupying your original space and you in the space behind that in a straight line.

• For every 5 by which your attack exceeds your opponent’s CMD, you can drag the target back an additional 5 feet. You must be able to move with the target to perform this maneuver. If you do not have enough movement, the drag goes to the maximum amount of movement available to you and ends.

• An enemy being moved by a drag does not provoke an attack of opportunity because of the movement unless you possess the Greater Drag feat.

• You cannot move a creature into a square that is occupied by a solid object or obstacle. If there is another creature in the way of your movement, the drag ends adjacent to that creature.

• Stability Racial Trait: Some characters or types of creatures prove particularly sure-footed, making them more difficult to overthrow and move around the battlefield. Any racial ability that grants a bonus to CMD versus bull rush attempts grants the same bonus against drag combat maneuvers.

Grapple

As a standard action, you can attempt to grapple a foe, hindering his combat options. You roll your CMB against a target DC of the victim's CMD. You must equal or exceed the target's CMD to succeed.

• If you do not have Improved Grapple, grab, or a similar ability, attempting to grapple a foe provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If that attack of opportunity hits, you take damage as normal and suffer a -4 on the combat maneuver check to initiate the grapple.

• Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take an additional –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll.

• If you make your Grapple combat maneuver attack roll successfully, both you and the target gain the grappled condition.

• If you successfully grapple a creature that is not adjacent to you, move that creature to an adjacent open space (if no space is available, your grapple fails).

• Although both creatures have the grappled condition, you can, as the creature that initiated the grapple, release the grapple as a free action, removing the condition from both you and the target.

• If you do not release the grapple, you must continue to make a check each round, as a standard action, to maintain the hold. If your target does not break the grapple, you get a +5 circumstance bonus on grapple checks made against the same target in subsequent rounds.

• Once you are grappling an opponent, a successful check allows you to continue grappling the foe, and also allows you to perform one of the following actions (as part of the standard action spent to maintain the grapple).

Move

You can move both yourself and your target up to half your speed. At the end of your movement, you can place your target in any square adjacent to you. If you attempt to place your foe in a hazardous location, such as in a wall of fire or over a pit, the target receives a free attempt to break your grapple with a +4 bonus.

Damage

You can inflict damage to your target equal to your unarmed strike, a natural attack, or an attack made with armor spikes or a light or one-handed weapon. This damage can be either lethal or nonlethal.

Pin

You can give your opponent the pinned condition (see Conditions). Despite pinning your opponent, you still only have the grappled condition, but you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC.

Tie Up

If you have your target pinned, otherwise restrained, or unconscious, you can use rope to tie him up. This works like a pin effect, but the DC to escape the bonds is equal to 20 + your Combat Maneuver Bonus (instead of your CMD). The ropes do not need to make a check every round to maintain the pin. If you are grappling the target, you can attempt to tie him up in ropes, but doing so requires a combat maneuver check at a –10 penalty. If the DC to escape from these bindings is higher than 20 + the target's CMB, the target cannot escape from the bonds, even with a natural 20 on the check.

If You Are Grappled

• If you are grappled, you can attempt to break the grapple as a standard action by making a combat maneuver check (DC equal to your opponent's CMD; this does not provoke an attack of opportunity) or Escape Artist check (with a DC equal to your opponent's CMD). If you succeed, you break the grapple and can act normally.

• Alternatively, if you succeed, you can reverse the grapple, so that you become the grappler, grappling the other creature (meaning that the other creature cannot freely release the grapple without making a combat maneuver check, while you can).

• Instead of attempting to break or reverse the grapple, you can take any action that doesn’t require two hands to perform, such as cast a spell or make an attack or full attack with a light or one-handed weapon against any creature within your reach, including the creature that is grappling you.

• See the grappled condition for additional details.

• If you are pinned, your actions are very limited. See the pinned condition in Conditions for additional details.

Multiple Creatures

Multiple creatures can attempt to grapple one target.

• The creature that first initiates the grapple is the only one that makes a check, with a +2 bonus for each creature that assists in the grapple (using the Aid Another action).

• Multiple creatures can also assist another creature in breaking free from a grapple, with each creature that assists (using the Aid Another action) granting a +2 bonus on the grappled creature's combat maneuver check.

Overrun

As a standard action, taken during your move or instead of the attack at the end of a charge, you can attempt to overrun your target, moving through its square. This will allow you to 'charge through' an opponent if successful.

• Overrun does not require you to move in a straight line unless you combine it with a charge.

• Overrun attempts must end your movement in an open space. If there is no open space to end your movement, the overrun fails in the square before the opponents space.

• You can only overrun an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than you.

• If you do not have the Improved Overrun feat, or a similar ability, initiating an overrun provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If this attack of opportunity hits you take damage as normal and suffer a -4 penalty to complete the Overrun maneuver.

• If your overrun attempt fails, you stop in the space directly in front of the opponent, or the nearest open space in front of the creature if there are other creatures occupying that space.

• When you attempt to overrun a target, it can choose to avoid you, allowing you to pass through its square without requiring a combat maneuver attack.

• If your target does not avoid you, make a combat maneuver check as normal. If your maneuver is successful, you move through the target's space. If your target occupies more than one square, one overrun check will get you through it's entire space, but you must have enough movement to make the whole trip.

• If your attack exceeds your opponent's CMD by 5 or more, you move through the target's space and the target is knocked prone.

• If the target has more than two legs, add +2 to the DC of the combat maneuver attack roll for each additional leg it has.

Reposition

You can attempt to reposition a foe to a different location as a standard action.

• You can only reposition an opponent that is no more than one size category larger than you.

• A reposition attempts to force a foe to move to a different position in relation to your location. You may never move out of your starting square during a reposition attempt.

• If you do not have the Improved Reposition feat or a similar ability, attempting to reposition a foe provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If this attack of opportunity hits, you suffer damage as normal and take a -4 penalty to hit with the combat maneuver attack.

• You cannot use this maneuver to move a foe into a space that is intrinsically dangerous, such as a pit or wall of fire.

• If your combat maneuver attack is successful, you may move your target 5 feet to a new location within your reach.

• For every 5 by which your attack exceeds your opponent’s CMD, you can move the target an additional 5 feet. The target must remain within your reach at all times during this movement, except for the final 5 feet of movement, which can be to a space adjacent to your reach.

• An enemy being moved by a reposition does not provoke an attack of opportunity because of the movement unless you possess the Greater Reposition feat.

• You cannot move a creature into a square that is occupied by a solid object or obstacle.

Steal

You can attempt to take an item from a foe as a standard action. This maneuver can be used in melee to take any item that is neither held nor hidden in a bag or pack.

• You must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to attempt this maneuver. The Steal attempt is made with that empty hand, and no damage can be inflicted, ever.

• You must select the item to be taken before the check is made.

• Items that are simply tucked into a belt or loosely attached (such as brooches or necklaces) are the easiest to take, imposing no penalty.

• Items fastened to a foe (such as cloaks, sheathed weapons, or pouches) are more difficult to take, and give the opponent a +5 bonus (or greater) to his CMD.

• Items that are closely worn (such as armor, backpacks, boots, clothing, or rings) cannot be taken with this maneuver.

• Items held in the hands (such as wielded weapons or wands) also cannot be taken with the steal maneuver—you must use the disarm combat maneuver instead. The GM is the final arbiter of what items can be taken.

• If you do not have the Improved Steal feat or a similar ability, attempting to steal an object provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If this attack of opportunity hits, you suffer damage as normal and take a -4 penalty to the attack roll of the Steal maneuver.

• Although this maneuver can only be performed if the target is within your reach, you can use a regular non-combat whip to steal an object from a target within range with a –4 penalty on the attack roll.

• If your attack is successful, you may take one item from your opponent. You must be able to reach the item to be taken (subject to GM discretion).

• Your enemy is always immediately aware of this theft unless you possess the Greater Steal feat.

Sunder

You can attempt to sunder an item held or worn by your opponent as part of an attack action in place of a melee attack. Note that sunder cannot be used against unattended objects or fortifications (including doors and walls), as those objects use a different set of rules.

• If you do not have the Improved Sunder feat, or a similar ability, attempting to sunder an item provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If this attack of opportunity hits, you take damage as normal and suffer a -4 to-hit on the Sunder combat maneuver attack roll.

• If your attack is successful, the item you are sundering gains the Broken condition. Broken weapons suffer a -2 penalty to attack and damage rolls until repaired, and broken armor inflicts a -2 penalty to the wearer's armor class. Wands and Staves which are broken require twice as many charges to activate their abilities. Any other item which is broken stops providing any benefit until repaired.

• Objects cannot be destroyed with the Sunder maneuver, even if used against an object that already has the broken condition.

• Only actual items, armor or weapons can be sundered. Natural armor, natural weapons and special abilities are not subject to Sunder attacks.

Trip

You can attempt to trip your opponent in place of a melee attack.

• Note that trip does not require a standard action: It replaces a melee attack, and only one melee attack, even if you have more than one attack per round. If you make a trip attack at less than your full BAB, use the BAB of the attack used to determine your CMB.

• You can only trip an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than you.

If you do not have the Improved Trip feat, or a similar ability, initiating a trip provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. If this attack of opportunity hits, you take damage as normal and suffer a -4 on your attack roll for the Trip maneuver.

• If your Trip combat maneuver attack exceeds the target's CMD, the target is knocked prone.

• If your attack fails by 10 or more, you are knocked prone instead.

• If the target has more than two legs, add +2 to the DC of the combat maneuver attack roll for each additional leg it has.

• Some creatures—such as oozes, creatures without legs, and flying creatures—cannot be tripped.