TallerSpine
2017-10-15, 09:04 AM
This is more of a thought experiment, and just wanted the community's opinion. My player has a flying animal companion that he uses as a mount. I allow retraining of feats, so given enough time and a good Handle Animal check, a druid can retrain feats that the companion started with. So, his Warbeast Dire Bat companion now has the following feats:
Improved Maneuverability
Power Attack
Improved Bull Rush
Shock Trooper
He brought up an interesting point. Once his Animal Companion gets to have 16 skill points, if he retrains all of the companion's skill points into Jump, he would have 8 ranks. Along with Power Attack, he would qualify for Leap Attack. Can a creature with flight "jump"? Does that even make sense? If one were to say that "jumping" in flight does make sense (especially for a creature with perfect maneuverability), how would that affect when the creature "dives"?
Right now, his bat knows the trick "Obliterate!" Basically, he flies directly overhead a bad guy, then does a dive. He doubles his damage on the dive, and it nearly always hits. (Shock Trooper allows him to attack with full attack bonus while power attacking for full, +2 from charge, +1 from having higher ground = a very high to-hit bonus. And if the creature does not spot something directly overhead while in combat, all the better (bonus for attacking when hidden).)
My take: By RAW, I do not see anything that suggests that Jumping is reserved for units making contact with the ground. The mechanics for jumping seem to work just as easily for a creature that is flying. If it uses it's wings to provide a strong burst upwards, it can get a "jump"-type effect. Under normal circumstances, it would probably never come up. It only comes up in this one specific instance where a feat is involved. So, the rules don't seem to be much help. I said that regardless of what the mechanics for jumping may be, logically, jumping clearly requires contact with the ground.
Anyway, I was just wondering if there was anything RAW, not just logic, that would prohibit a flying creature from using Leap Attack during a dive.
Improved Maneuverability
Power Attack
Improved Bull Rush
Shock Trooper
He brought up an interesting point. Once his Animal Companion gets to have 16 skill points, if he retrains all of the companion's skill points into Jump, he would have 8 ranks. Along with Power Attack, he would qualify for Leap Attack. Can a creature with flight "jump"? Does that even make sense? If one were to say that "jumping" in flight does make sense (especially for a creature with perfect maneuverability), how would that affect when the creature "dives"?
Right now, his bat knows the trick "Obliterate!" Basically, he flies directly overhead a bad guy, then does a dive. He doubles his damage on the dive, and it nearly always hits. (Shock Trooper allows him to attack with full attack bonus while power attacking for full, +2 from charge, +1 from having higher ground = a very high to-hit bonus. And if the creature does not spot something directly overhead while in combat, all the better (bonus for attacking when hidden).)
My take: By RAW, I do not see anything that suggests that Jumping is reserved for units making contact with the ground. The mechanics for jumping seem to work just as easily for a creature that is flying. If it uses it's wings to provide a strong burst upwards, it can get a "jump"-type effect. Under normal circumstances, it would probably never come up. It only comes up in this one specific instance where a feat is involved. So, the rules don't seem to be much help. I said that regardless of what the mechanics for jumping may be, logically, jumping clearly requires contact with the ground.
Anyway, I was just wondering if there was anything RAW, not just logic, that would prohibit a flying creature from using Leap Attack during a dive.