Knight vs Trip Build

[wllcstr]

First of all, hi all.

Well, I working on a very popular build for a character, using Knight Bulwark, Trip and AoO.

But I really dislike flavorless characters, and my question is, from the flavor point of view.
The Knight has a code, that don't let him hit a flat-footed foe, and say more "Instead, you allow your foe to ready himself before attacking". So, if I trip a foe with a AoO, I'll think is right me and my party just SPANK it while he's prone?

I know a prone character or NPC are not flat-footed, but it's NOT READY for the battle too..

So, what do you think about this dilemma.

[Zaq]

The glib solution is just to say that if you don't want to trip, don't trip. If you're more interested in playing an honor-driven knight than you are in making someone who can handle melee lockdown, then don't build for something you aren't willing to employ, and the problem will solve itself.

That said, if you do want to trip and your question is about how to claim a justification for it, you never strike someone before you've announced that you intend to fight them, because that isn't honorable and sporting. That's entirely different from not striking someone who has chosen to engage with you and who happens to then find themselves dealing with the consequences of engaging with you. (You might not attack someone who's prone for reasons other than you tripping them, but if you told them that you were going to fight them and they engage, you're reasonably justified in doing what you said you were going to do.)

You could even bark at them to surrender the first time (or even the second and third times) you knock them down. If they do indeed surrender, then treat them like an honorable knight treats a surrendered foe. If they defy your offer and continue to fight you, well, then they're still an active threat to you and your sworn allies, and engaging foes with honor is not the same thing as unilaterally choosing to stop fighting and suffer attacks from a dangerous threat who has chosen for the combat to still be going.