Maximum reach?

[Zetapup]

I was looking through the list of stuff (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1068066) and came across the section where it lists ways to increase reach. Most of these stack, and it made me curious what the maximum reach of a creature could be while using a melee weapon (no bloodstorm blade stuff).

The (very rough) idea I have for it right now is an evil incarnate/warblade/umbral disciple/warshaper (maybe with levels of druid to qualify for warshaper) with the feats lunging strike, mark of malbolge, deformity: tall, inhuman reach, deepspawn, and extended reach (plus the various prereqs). If I recall correctly that up to 4 essentia can be invested into an ability at 20th level, that gives us a reach of 5ft (medium size) + 5ft (dancing blade form stance) + 5ft (lunging strike) + 5ft (mark of malbolge) + 5ft (deformity: tall) + 5ft (inhuman reach) + 5ft (extended reach) +5ft (warshaper) +20ft (umbral disciple). Add it together, and you get 60ft reach. Add in larger size categories/a spiked chain and you get a truly ridiculous reach.

Are there any ways this guy's reach could be boosted higher? Any mistakes I made in calculation/etc? What would someone even do with a 60ft+ reach?

[Silva Stormrage]

Well maybe the character could make whirlwind attack somewhat decent? :smalltongue:

[Seerow]

As far as I know you hit all of them. Though some of them aren't threatening reach (like Lunging Strike), and of course increased threatened area is what you really want from your reach.


Are there any ways this guy's reach could be boosted higher? Any mistakes I made in calculation/etc? What would someone even do with a 60ft+ reach?


Well getting up to Colossal (giant size spell or the like) boosts that up to 85ft, and reach weapon doubles that to 190ft.


What do you do with a 190ft reach? Stand in the middle of a football field and kill literally anyone who moves on either end of it.

[The Viscount]

You could always throw in enough knight levels to make all that area difficult terrain, and play with AoOs, though I know it might get messy since several of those only extend your reach on your turn.

Be sure to use a duom if you're using a reach weapon so that you can attack anything in all of your reach.

[Vhaidara]

Be a Diopsid (Dragon Compendium). You get 4 arms.

Use an Awlpike in one pair of arms (Dragon Compendium exotic polearm with x3 reach) and a kusari-gama in the other (DMG light weapon, works like a spiked chain).

Get to colossal and you threaten everything within 255ft of you.

[Flickerdart]

Well maybe the character could make whirlwind attack somewhat decent? :smalltongue:
The reason Whirlwind Attack sucks isn't because you're not hitting enough dudes, but because hitting infinity dudes once is not as good as killing one dude due to how 3.5's HP system is set up - until an enemy is dead, HP damage accomplishes nothing.

With a massive reach, your best bet is to use things that trigger on AoOs, like tripping. My favourite toy on a giant reach-monster is Knockback - enemies charge you, you belt them across the face and send them flying away.

[Seerow]

With a massive reach, your best bet is to use things that trigger on AoOs, like tripping. My favourite toy on a giant reach-monster is Knockback - enemies charge you, you belt them across the face and send them flying away.

Or with other feats: Belt them across the face, send them flying away into another enemy, tripping them both getting you more free attacks smack them again to send them further away, preferably into a wall to deal another bunch of damage.

[Flickerdart]

Or with other feats: Belt them across the face, send them flying away into another enemy, tripping them both getting you more free attacks smack them again to send them further away, preferably into a wall to deal another bunch of damage.
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4c/8e/a1/4c8ea133fad96ada287ff83085cfe85f.jpg

Generally when I'm playing around with huge beefstacks they're NPCs, and hosing melee PCs quite so massively isn't cool. Next time I get to play a massive green rage monster though, I'm probably going to load up on some of those combos.

[Vhaidara]

Oh, and as a side note, you can get a weapon enchanted to be a tripping weapon. It's a +1 equivalent.

How I learned this

Arms and Equipment Guide contains the Axe of Falls, a +2 Returning Throwing Axe of Distance that can be used for tripping. It costs 50,308gp. Take off 308 for the masterwork throwing axe leaves you with 50k, which is the cost of a +5 weapon. +2, Distance, and Returning account for +4, meaning that being able to trip with a weapon is a +1 bonus.

[Zetapup]

Well maybe the character could make whirlwind attack somewhat decent? :smalltongue:

Ooh, that's something to consider. Whirlwind attack/some equivalent + Knock-Down could be decent. It'd only be particularly effective against armies of mooks, but if you go against a lot of those I guess it'd be useful.


As far as I know you hit all of them. Though some of them aren't threatening reach (like Lunging Strike), and of course increased threatened area is what you really want from your reach.

If I were going for general combat usefulness + a focus on reach, I'd probably drop lunging strike since it's really not worth it (full round action for +5ft reach? meh). After that's dropped, everything except dancing blade form and umbral disciple gives the reach bonus even when it isn't your turn, so some sort of AoO/tripper would be very doable.


Well getting up to Colossal (giant size spell or the like) boosts that up to 85ft, and reach weapon doubles that to 190ft.


What do you do with a 190ft reach? Stand in the middle of a football field and kill literally anyone who moves on either end of it.

I can never quite remember how size affects reach, so thanks. That's... wow. It seems kinda like the opposite of an ubercharger: great against lots of low health mooks, eh against single beefy opponents.


You could always throw in enough knight levels to make all that area difficult terrain, and play with AoOs, though I know it might get messy since several of those only extend your reach on your turn.

I believe it's still a 30ft reach even when it isn't your turn. Add in collosal and a reach weapon and you get a very respectable lockdown radius. A knight with standstill would be absolutely deadly.

Alright, so the character would be great with battlefield control/AoO's. It'd also be a decent army killer. Buff damage through size increases and whatnot and the reflex save for standstill would be nearly impossible to succeed on (although there's still nat 20s). Thanks for the replies!

Question: how does reach + standstill interact with flying creatures? Can you lockdown fliers with this? It normally wouldn't come into play, but with a reach of 190ft you'd actually be able to hit fliers.


Edit:

Be a Diopsid (Dragon Compendium). You get 4 arms.

Use an Awlpike in one pair of arms (Dragon Compendium exotic polearm with x3 reach) and a kusari-gama in the other (DMG light weapon, works like a spiked chain).

Get to colossal and you threaten everything within 255ft of you.

Wait, how does that work? Do you get extra reach from multiple reach weapons or is it some sort of diopsid thing? Good job getting 255ft!


Oh, and as a side note, you can get a weapon enchanted to be a tripping weapon. It's a +1 equivalent.

How I learned this

Arms and Equipment Guide contains the Axe of Falls, a +2 Returning Throwing Axe of Distance that can be used for tripping. It costs 50,308gp. Take off 308 for the masterwork throwing axe leaves you with 50k, which is the cost of a +5 weapon. +2, Distance, and Returning account for +4, meaning that being able to trip with a weapon is a +1 bonus.

Hrm, that's helpful. This build is probably going to be very feat starved- all the feats to increase reach plus tripping/AoO add up.

[Seerow]

Question: how does reach + standstill interact with flying creatures? Can you lockdown fliers with this? It normally wouldn't come into play, but with a reach of 190ft you'd actually be able to hit fliers.


Yeah, as far as I can tell stand still works. Bonus points: If they can't over, and you stop them before they move their minimum distance, they'll fall.

Note you can also trip flying creatures with wings, making them fall up to 150ft (note: Creatures at the extreme ends of your reach may not hit the ground). Since if you're using all of this, chances are you're going for a big modifier on tripping/bullrushing, you should have a pretty good shot at it.





The more interesting question: How close does an enemy have to be within your reach for you to say "I bullrush the enemy downwards"?



Wait, how does that work? Do you get extra reach from multiple reach weapons or is it some sort of diopsid thing? Good job getting 255ft!


That's from the Awlpike. It's a weapon out of Dragon Magazine with boosted reach. Diopsid just gives you 4 arms so you can wield two reach weapons (in his case a Kusai-gama and Awlpike. Though I'd stick with a spiked chain as the non-awlpike weapon).

[Vhaidara]

The problem is that your to-hit bonus will be sub-par. I was recommending the Kusari-gama was because it is a light weapon on top of being a reach weapon. That matters if you're going for a trip build (tripping weapons, not Knockdown)

And yeah, most reach weapons give you x2 reach (10ft), but the awlpike gives x3 (15ft)

[Zetapup]

Yeah, as far as I can tell stand still works. Bonus points: If they can't over, and you stop them before they move their minimum distance, they'll fall.

Note you can also trip flying creatures with wings, making them fall up to 150ft (note: Creatures at the extreme ends of your reach may not hit the ground). Since if you're using all of this, chances are you're going for a big modifier on tripping/bullrushing, you should have a pretty good shot at it.





The more interesting question: How close does an enemy have to be within your reach for you to say "I bullrush the enemy downwards"?

You'd prolly have to work out the exact reach you have in a hemisphere shape for all the possible reaches you have (eg, if you aren't using dancing blade form stance or lunging strike, etc). It'd be annoying and take a bit of time, but at least it wouldn't slow down gameplay with "is this enemy in my reach".


That's from the Awlpike. It's a weapon out of Dragon Magazine with boosted reach. Diopsid just gives you 4 arms so you can wield two reach weapons (in his case a Kusai-gama and Awlpike. Though I'd stick with a spiked chain as the non-awlpike weapon).

Ah, thanks

[Deophaun]

A drunken master using a spool of endless rope can have a reach of 500 feet.

[Zetapup]

A drunken master using a spool of endless rope can have a reach of 500 feet.

Hrm, okay, let's see what this adds up to. It's 4 levels of drunken master for the ability to wield long improvised weapons, plus a level or 2 of monk for prereqs, so we have to get rid of the warblade levels or the warshaper levels. Either way, it's only a loss of 5 feet, so no biggie.

So: 500ft (spool) + 30ft (collosal size) + 5ft (lunging strike) + 5ft (mark of malbolge) + 5ft (deformity: tall) + 5ft (inhuman reach) + 5ft (extended reach) +5ft (warshaper) +20ft (umbral disciple) is... 580 feet. Nice.

[Skevvix]

A drunken master using a spool of endless rope can have a reach of 500 feet.

But doesn't threaten close or mid ranges, only the last half of the range IIRC. There was a thread for this, I'll see if I can dig it up.

Edit: Found it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-286758.html)

[Deophaun]

But doesn't threaten close or mid ranges, only the last half of the range IIRC. There was a thread for this, I'll see if I can dig it up.If you're in a position where 500 feet of reach is useful, you probably don't care all that much about creatures closer than 250. If you do, then you have a second spool of endless rope that's only half drawn, so you get 125-250.

[Zetapup]

But doesn't threaten close or mid ranges, only the last half of the range IIRC. There was a thread for this, I'll see if I can dig it up.

If that's the case, you can still go diopsid with spiked chain/whatever in one set of hands and spool of endless rope in the other set. It does have the oddity that spiked chain would only threaten up to 190ft and spool would threaten from 290ft to 580ft (if I'm interpreting this correctly) so there'd be a hundred foot unthreatened zone. I'm not going to comment about using the awlpike instead of a spiked chain because I haven't actually read the weapon description and thus can't give an accurate answer with it.

Edit: Or a spool that isn't fully extended in the other hand(s), yeah

[Vhaidara]

Are Spools of Endless Rope one or two handed weapons? If they're one handed, then go diopsid, have 1 fully unspooled SoER, 1 half unspooled SoER, and 1 Kusari Gama (Actually matters now, because I think it may be usable as a monk weapon). You threaten everything for 500ft.

[Zetapup]

Are Spools of Endless Rope one or two handed weapons? If they're one handed, then go diopsid, have 1 fully unspooled SoER, 1 half unspooled SoER, and 1 Kusari Gama (Actually matters now, because I think it may be usable as a monk weapon). You threaten everything for 500ft.

I don't believe Drunken Master says anything about whether the weapons are twohanded or not. I'd say they're two handed, but I'm not sure where one would find the info for that in the rules. It'd be great if it worked though.

Edit: On page 113 of the player's handbook, it says "To determine the size category and appropriate damage for an improvised weapon, the DM should compare its relative size and damage potential to the weapon list to find a reasonable match". So it'd probably end up being compared to the spiked chain/something similar

[Seerow]

Are Spools of Endless Rope one or two handed weapons? If they're one handed, then go diopsid, have 1 fully unspooled SoER, 1 half unspooled SoER, and 1 Kusari Gama (Actually matters now, because I think it may be usable as a monk weapon). You threaten everything for 500ft.

I was going to complain about multiweapon fighting penalties...


But actually now that I think about it, the penalties for that (or TWF for that matter) don't kick in unless you actually attempt to use the extra weapons for more attacks than normal for a round.

ie a Fighter with +6 BAB can make two attacks, 1 at +6 with a longsword, and 1 at +1 with a shortsword in his offhand. It's only when you try to use the Two Weapon Fighting special attack to get an extra attack at +6 that you take all of the penalties.

What does that mean for our spool of rope user? It means he can easily have all of these different weapons, and use whichever ones are relevant for the reach needed, and not take the massive to-hit penalties as long as you didn't want to make an attack with each weapon at your full BAB on your turn.


Now here's a different question: How much of this can you realistically fit into a Drunken Master build? Sure we can get the spool of rope, and even the Kusai-Gama proficiency (which will get the biggest chunk of the reach). Are we going to be able to fit in the dozen other little +5 bonuses? If you do, will you be capable of doing anything meaningful with your reach, or is your trick "I can reach everyone, but can't do anything about it".


Honestly I tend to think of going beyond 30-60ft of reach a waste of resources just because of how resource intensive it is to get that high. Rather have 30 or 40ft reach and destroy anyone doing anything inside that reach than have 600ft reach and only get to smack people around for a couple dozen damage when they provoke. Though the 600ft reach guy is really awesome from a theoretical standpoint (seriously that's 1.1 million square feet, and in theory can cover about 45,000 5ft squares. You really can kill an entire rather large army on your own with that), practically it's not going to be much more useful than having a reach 1/10th or less of that, and is costing you a ton to get there.

[Vhaidara]

I'm suddenly really tempted to try and make an ubercharger who uses SoER to ubercharge from 500ft.

[Zetapup]

Now here's a different question: How much of this can you realistically fit into a Drunken Master build? Sure we can get the spool of rope, and even the Kusai-Gama proficiency (which will get the biggest chunk of the reach). Are we going to be able to fit in the dozen other little +5 bonuses? If you do, will you be capable of doing anything meaningful with your reach, or is your trick "I can reach everyone, but can't do anything about it".

Let's see... Monk 1/Warblade 4/Incarnate 1/Drunken Master 4/Umbral Disciple 10 (with a ring of evasion to qualify for drunken master. Alternatively, get an essentia pool without taking incarnate and you can get an extra level of monk) gets everything except the warshaper's reach. Lunging strike kinda sucks, so let's drop it. It needs Dodge, Great Fortitude, and Improved Unarmed Strike for drunken master. You can get dodge from the cobra strike monk variant and IUS is free for monk, so you only need to take great fortitude.

Assuming a human with 2 flaws, we can take 10 feats total. Great fortitude is one of them, so only 9 left. I believe the deformity feats can be gotten for free by worshipping an elder evil, so that's deformity: tall and its prereq for free. Inhuman reach, its prereq, deepspawn, and extended reach are 4 feats, so we have 5 left. Mark of malbolge and its prereq are another 2 feats, so we've got 3 left. Assuming you get improved trip from the tripping weapon idea mentioned earlier, we've got some options. Stand still and knock-down are very nice, so we might as well take them. 1 feat left. I'm not quite sure what to take for it, honestly. I suppose you could just change human to diopsid and we would no longer have the extra feat but it'd have the 4 arm thing.

I believe that build has 575ft reach, but feel free to check my math.

I definitely agree that the build's focus on reach limits its options. I'd probably drop mark of malbolge and its prereq for feats that would give extra damage or out of combat options.

[Erik Vale]

Only one feat left?
You've forgotton Whirlwind Attack so you can actually hit everyone in the radius. Dodge is free, so your -1 feat, so 570ft. You can grab ghostly hands from Libre Mortis so you don't need Diopsid + LA Buy off.

This makes a level 20 character, that decimates/destroys low level armies if they get in reach, which for a level 20 is to be expected, if not occasionally requested.

[Deophaun]

This makes a level 20 character, that decimates/destroys low level armies if they get in reach, which for a level 20 is to be expected, if not occasionally requested.
Well, you're better off not going with a SoER Drunken Master if you're taking on armies, for the simple fact that your SoER breaks and becomes useless on a nat 1.

That said, Drunken Master turns out to be a good way to get rid of artifacts. :smallbiggrin:

[Erik Vale]

Wow... Perhaps some trollgut rope instead. Or just buy some reeeealy long ropes instead, like lots of them.

[Zetapup]

Only one feat left?
You've forgotton Whirlwind Attack so you can actually hit everyone in the radius. Dodge is free, so your -1 feat, so 570ft. You can grab ghostly hands from Libre Mortis so you don't need Diopsid + LA Buy off.

This makes a level 20 character, that decimates/destroys low level armies if they get in reach, which for a level 20 is to be expected, if not occasionally requested.

Unfortunately whirlwind attack requires Combat Expertise, Mobility, and Spring Attack in addition to dodge, so it doesn't work out featwise unless you do something cheesy or lose some of the reach feats (I think there's an item that gives mobility? I can't remember it off the top of my head).

It effectively locks down any enemy within 570ft, which is nice. Especially deadly against armies, but usable against anyone unless they have an extremely high reflex save or a method of teleportation.

The drunken master "item breaks on a 1" thing... Wow. That really sucks, especially with the number of attacks this guy is making. I'd talk to the dm about houseruling that, but that depends on your dm. The build still has decent reach (I believe we got it to 255ft) even without the spool and I think it'd actually have enough feats to get whirlwind attack since it wouldn't need to blow feats on drunken master entry, so that might be for the best.

[Svata]

A drunken master using a spool of endless rope can have a reach of 500 feet.

Dammit, I was gonna metion that.

[Vhaidara]

Wait, you could use Martial Monk to get Whirlwind Attack. Trade out your monk bonus feat for any feat from the fighter bonus feat list. Ignores prerequisites.

[Curmudgeon]

Oh, and as a side note, you can get a weapon enchanted to be a tripping weapon. It's a +1 equivalent.
You mean it was available in 3.0 rules. I don't see many DMs allowing that deconstruction of costs and capabilities based on a weapon that's subject to "minor adjustments" before it's usable in any 3.5 game.

[Zetapup]

Wait, you could use Martial Monk to get Whirlwind Attack. Trade out your monk bonus feat for any feat from the fighter bonus feat list. Ignores prerequisites.

I somehow forgot about martial monk. That works nicely. The build's still pretty feat starved, but that helps a lot.

[ericgrau]

I kinda wonder why people don't combine reach, whirlwind attack, shocktrooper, pounce and flight to just go boom, encounter dead. Too many feats/abilities?

[Erik Vale]

I think so. By the time you can do it, the wizards been doing it, or very soon will be.

[Drachasor]

I kinda wonder why people don't combine reach, whirlwind attack, shocktrooper, pounce and flight to just go boom, encounter dead. Too many feats/abilities?

I don't think it would do enough damage. Even if you are using something to get two attacks per person, it is hard to do enough to kill everything with just two attacks. You'll need to be doing over a hundred damage per attack, most likely.

[Curmudgeon]

Wait, you could use Martial Monk to get Whirlwind Attack. Trade out your monk bonus feat for any feat from the fighter bonus feat list. Ignores prerequisites.
No, not in any useful way. The Monk Bonus Feat class feature allows the Monk to ignore prerequisites to select feats, but not to use those feats. It's handy to allow choosing feats in a more convenient order when building a character, but that's about it.

[ericgrau]

I don't think it would do enough damage. Even if you are using something to get two attacks per person, it is hard to do enough to kill everything with just two attacks. You'll need to be doing over a hundred damage per attack, most likely.

What about adding in other charger stuff?

[Segev]

It would be tricky to work into the existing suggested builds, but I would encourage consideration of War Hulk. Not for its +2 Str/level, but for its Massive Swing ability:


Massive Swing (Ex): A 10th-level war hulk can lash out all around himself with a single attack. Massive swing works like mighty swing, except that its effect is not limited to three squares. The war hulk's swing affects all squares he threatens.

Mighty Swing (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a war hulk can make a mighty swing. A mighty swing is like a great swing, except that it is a standard action rather than a full-round action. Thus, the character can move and make a mighty swing or (if he can make multiple attacks) make multiple mighty swings in a single round.

Great Swing (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a war hulk is able to make a great, sweeping swing with a melee weapon. As a full-round action, the war hulk can choose three squares adjacent to one another (he must threaten all of them). His attack applies to all creatures in those squares. Make one attack roll and apply that roll as an attack against each defender. If the war hulk uses a special attack (such as disarm, trip, or sunder), this special attack affects only the first target; the other creatures are attacked normally. Walls and similar obstacles can block a great swing. Start with one square that the war hulk threatens. Each successive square chosen must be adjacent to the previous square and have line of effect from that square. Two squares separated by a wall, for instance, can't be chosen as adjacent squares for a great swing. The war hulk may skip creatures, attacking only those he wants to. For example, if there are three creatures in a row—an enemy, an ally, and another enemy—the war hulk can choose those three squares for the great swing but strike only the two enemies. If a war hulk drops one of his foes with a great swing, he may make a cleave attack normally. However, he may do so only once for every time he swings, even if he drops more than one foe.

TL;DR version: Massive Swing lets him, for each melee attack he makes, target every creature in his Reach. Use a Skillful weapon or have him be subjected to a Divine Power spell (tricky but not impossible) to make sure his BAB is 3/4 or full, and he can get a full attack action against everything within whatever reach you can pump out while still managing 10 levels of War Hulk.

Oh, and of course, he has 20 more strength than he started with before he entered the class.

[Zetapup]

No, not in any useful way. The Monk Bonus Feat class feature allows the Monk to ignore prerequisites to select feats, but not to use those feats. It's handy to allow choosing feats in a more convenient order when building a character, but that's about it.

Fair enough. I find the martial monk ignoring prereqs thing is a little cheesy anyway.


I kinda wonder why people don't combine reach, whirlwind attack, shocktrooper, pounce and flight to just go boom, encounter dead. Too many feats/abilities?

It'd be challenging to fit all that into one build, yeah. Unless you can get whirlwind attack and shocktrooper without their prereqs, that's 8 feats, plus however many you spend on reach increases/being useful outside of combat/whatever else. I suppose there's war hulk for whirlwind attack, but it'd still be pretty feat intensive (then again, what character isn't).


I don't think it would do enough damage. Even if you are using something to get two attacks per person, it is hard to do enough to kill everything with just two attacks. You'll need to be doing over a hundred damage per attack, most likely.

It'd be doable to get that much damage with 60ft+ reach, but that'd require the charging multiplier feats like leap attack, etc. At that point, you start running into the feat intensive problem again. However... Maybe go monk for Decisive Strike (the one that gives you double damage) and use standstill + ridiculous reach to keep people in place while you kill them? The main problem I see with this option is that AoOs are limited by your dex. Any way around that?


It would be tricky to work into the existing suggested builds, but I would encourage consideration of War Hulk. Not for its +2 Str/level, but for its Massive Swing ability:



TL;DR version: Massive Swing lets him, for each melee attack he makes, target every creature in his Reach. Use a Skillful weapon or have him be subjected to a Divine Power spell (tricky but not impossible) to make sure his BAB is 3/4 or full, and he can get a full attack action against everything within whatever reach you can pump out while still managing 10 levels of War Hulk.

Oh, and of course, he has 20 more strength than he started with before he entered the class.

Ooh that would help reduce the feat starvation (whirlwind attack has 4 prereq feats, which usually makes it a bad option since most of the prereqs are just feat taxes). While we're putting skillful on the weapon, can't we also put proficient on a spool of endless rope to eliminate the non prof penalty? (I'm not sure if proficient is an enhancement in 3.5 but it's definitely in the Arms and Equipment Guide). Going into drunken master for improvised weapons profiency kinda sucks because of the "item breaks on a 1" thing. Unfortunately, I think going into war hulk would mean that the build wouldn't be able to go umbral disciple 10 for the extra 20ft reach. Not a big deal if he's using the spool, but still a shame.


I found two spells that can increase this guy's reach even more: stretch weapon (player's handbook 2) and Investiture of the Chain Devil (fiendish codex 2). Stretch weapon lets the caster increase the reach of a weapon they wield by 5ft for one attack (I'm assuming they can wield the weapon, cast the spell, and then give the weapon to the reach guy). It's only one attack, sadly. Investiture of the Chain Devil is much better. +5ft reach for a minute per caster level and some other small benefits. Not bad.

Another nice spell is Beckoning Call (fiendish codex 1). Basically makes opponents come near you/your friend with the spool and thus provoking some AoOs in the process.