Shield Charge & Improved Trip

[Umbranar]

Hi there,

I have the idea of making a shieldbashing warblade.
Feats I have chosen are Shield Charge & Improved trip and I wander how do work together.
With Shield Charge I can make a trip attempt vs an opponent I have hit with my shield as part of a charge.
Improved Trip says: "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."

Does this mean that I can charge, attack with shield and deal damage, trip my opponent and Immediately make another attack when hes down?

[Curmudgeon]

Pretty much. You charge at your opponent and hit them with the shield. You make an unarmed Trip attempt and it doesn't provoke. If you're successful, you trip them and then get to hit them again (presumably with your shield, because your follow-up attack will provoke if you don't have Improved Unarmed Strike).

[pyrese]

Fairly certain that you could do this with sword and board. Tripping may be an unarmed melee attack, but that doesn't mean it has to be with your hands. Unarmed attacks are with any part of your body. Sweep the leg!

[Ellowryn]

Generally, yes you can combine Shield Charge and Improved Trip. However there is debate weather you actually can by RAW because the trip special action is supposed to be performed in place of a melee attack, hence why the text of Improved Trip states "as if you hadn’t used your attack for the trip attempt". And with Shield charge you are not giving up your attack to make a trip attempt, but rather getting a trip attempt as a special addon to the use of the feat.

Long story short, if you actually plan to run the character in a game ask your DM. Most sane DM's will say yes, but it always is better to ask just in case.

[Umbranar]

Yeah my DM would allow this.
He did the same with combat brute, shock troop, knockdown hill giants :smalltongue: (which posed little threat to my Dwarven battle cleric).

Thanks for the advice y`all.