Spring Attack and other craziness.

[macfadden510]

A friend of mine is considering playing a two-weapon fighter/tempest and wants to maximize his number of attacks while still remaining mobile. So how do these things interact?

Two-Weapon Spring Attack (Complete Adventurer)
Bounding Assault/Rapid Blitz (Player's Handbook II)
Weapon Enhancement: Speed (Dungeon Master's Guide)
Slashing Furry (Player's Handbook II)
Overpowering Attack (Player's Handbook II)

[olelia]

At the very least the Speed enchantment would do nothing with the Two Weapon Spring Attack since it is not a full attack action.

Edit: Maybe you'd kick in the standard action with slashing fury...since the ability description on Two Weapon Spring Attack says "attack" action.

The Overpowering Attack doesn't look like it would work either...since its a full round action.

Those are my 2 cents at least.

[Curmudgeon]

Spring Attack is an attack action in the middle of a split move action. If that's a standard action attack then Slashing Flurry applies (though that's one heavy list of prerequisites) to give you a second attack. If you use Bounding Assault with Spring Attack you also get a second attack. Because each of them gives a second attack, not an extra attack, the benefits of these two feats overlap rather than stack. You'll need to pick just one.

Overpowering Attack requires its own full-round action, so it doesn't work with anything else you've listed. And olelia is correct about Speed: that one's useless unless you use a full attack action. If you can find a way to get an extra move action in the round, you could use Spring Attack as a full attack action in the middle of a split move action. That's probably not worth pursuing unless you've got a lot of extra move actions available.

One feat you haven't listed that would stack an extra attack is Snap Kick (Tome of Battle, page 32). You can buy the Improved Unarmed Strike prerequisite in the form of Bracers of Striking (Magic of Faerûn) for 1,310 gp.

[White_Drake]

I would really advise against a Tempest. They try to combine two incompatible fighting styles, and don't really do much to fix it. The biggest problem is that the spring attack chain keys off of a specific number of attacks, which can't exceed three. This means that you are going to be wasting attacks if you have a full BAB, even if you are going einhander, combining that with a feat chain to get more attacks (which is sub-optimal for a damage dealer to boot) just compounds the problem. Don't get me wrong, I like both fighting styles, and even built a Tempest once, but it really doesn't work in 3.5.

[Curmudgeon]

Spring Attack is an attack action in the middle of a split move action. If that's a standard action attack then Slashing Flurry applies (though that's one heavy list of prerequisites) to give you a second attack. If you use Bounding Assault with Spring Attack you also get a second attack. Because each of them gives a second attack, not an extra attack, the benefits of these two feats overlap rather than stack. You'll need to pick just one.

Overpowering Attack requires its own full-round action, so it doesn't work with anything else you've listed. And olelia is correct about Speed: that one's useless unless you use a full attack action. If you can find a way to get an extra move action in the round, you could use Spring Attack as a full attack action in the middle of a split move action. That's probably not worth pursuing unless you've got a lot of extra move actions available. A Belt of Battle (Magic Item Compendium) could provide you with 3 extra move actions a day, so with a bunch of Belts you could be set for 3 such uses per encounter. A Tempo Bloodspike (Magic of Eberron, pages 140-141) will also provide an extra move action within 1 hour from the time you inject yourself. So that combination could get you up to 4 full attack Spring Attacks per encounter, and Speed would work then. If you're going the full attack Sneak Attack route then none of the feats which provide a second attack will help you. Two-Weapon Spring Attack also doesn't help here.

One feat you haven't listed that would stack an extra attack is Snap Kick (Tome of Battle, page 32). You can buy the Improved Unarmed Strike prerequisite in the form of Bracers of Striking (Magic of Faerûn) for 1,310 gp. Snap Kick will provide a bonus unarmed attack whenever you make at least 1 melee attack in the round.

[Gavinfoxx]

If you want to make lots and lots of attacks with multiple weapons, and two weapon fighting or multiweapon fighting, abandon the entire spring attack line of feats. Abandon any prestige classes that use those feats or require those feats. Get Pounce, or extra move actions somehow (Spirit Lion Whirling Frenzy Barbarian Dip or Cloistered Cleric dip or both). And you must, must, MUST find a per-attack damage booter! 1 level of rogue or sneak attack fighter and Craven will do.

[Curmudgeon]

If you want to make lots and lots of attacks with multiple weapons, and two weapon fighting or multiweapon fighting, abandon the entire spring attack line of feats. ... Get Pounce, ...
That's only good advice if the sole goal is to get more attacks in favorable circumstances. If the goal is to reliably get multiple attacks and also never end a turn close enough to an enemy for them to make full counterattacks, then it's not such good advice. Pounce requires a charge attack, which has severe limitations: an open direct path to the enemy, and no obstructions or difficult terrain on that path. If the DM provides realistic wilderness terrain (trees, rocks, uneven ground) then charging is only rarely possible, and basing an attack strategy on Pounce will be very disappointing. So Pounce is hit-or-miss rather than reliable for multiple attacks, and requires something else (like Travel Devotion) for getting clear of retaliation.

Your advice about per-attack damage boosts is good, though enabling sneak attack with a Fighter isn't easy.

[Gavinfoxx]

Well, I was assuming they wouldn't want to get clear of retaliation, so they would want to full attack as often as possible, to use all those extra attacks!

[Curmudgeon]

Well, I was assuming they wouldn't want to get clear of retaliation
That strikes me as an odd assumption, considering the choice of Tempest means the character will be wearing light armor at best. :smallconfused:

[Gavinfoxx]

Well, the choice of two weapon fighting means they will want to be swapping full attacks... sooo....

Maybe they shouldn't go tempest??

Sneak Attack Fighter!