How does Overrun work with a Charge?

[Returnip]

Ok, so the reason I ask this is because I never had a player use Overrun as part of a Charge in a game, so I've never had to consider how to apply the rules. Sooo I started googling and fell into the rabbit hole of "how does Overrun work" discussions without finding any conclusive answers.

I'll outline how I interpret the rules and I hope that you can point out if I'm wrong.

The evidence (PHB):
"Charging is a special full-round action that allows you to move up to twice your speed and attack during the action."

"Attacking on a Charge: After moving, you may make a single melee attack."

"A charging character gets a +2 bonus on the Strength check made to bull rush or overrun an opponent."

"You can attempt an overrun as a standard action taken during your move, or as part of a charge. (In general, you cannot take a standard action during a move; this is an exception.)"

"If he avoids you, he doesn’t suffer any ill effect. If you were attempting the overrun as part of a charge, you may keep moving."

"If you succeed in knocking your opponent prone, you can continue your movement as normal."

Just Overrunning an opponent seems simple enough. As does Charging.

Now to the dilemma of combining the two. Let's assume opponent A and opponent B are in front of a character in a line so that A is in the way of B from the point of view of the character. I see two different possible scenarios:

1. I designate opponent A as my target as per the Charge rules and if target A avoids me I can continue moving and attack opponent B with my Charge attack (the rules doesn't specify that I have to use the single melee attack against the target of my Charge, but only that I get to make a single melee attack at the end of the Charge). True or false?

2. I designate opponent A as my target as per the Charge rules and if target A blocks me we resolve the Overrun with Charge modifiers and all and if I win I knock A prone and then I get to continue moving and get to attack B with my single melee attack that I get as part of the Charge. True or false?

Grateful for any help in deciphering this.

[Gruftzwerg]

It doesn't work at all. Have a look into the PHB ERRATA:


Overrun
Player's Handbook, page 157
It’s not possible to overrun as part of a charge.
Delete “or as part of a charge” from the first sentence of
the first paragraph.
In the “Step 3” paragraph, delete the sentence that refers
to making the overrun as part of a charge.

[Returnip]

It doesn't work at all. Have a look into the PHB ERRATA:

Holy hell, that was driving me nuts! And I didn't think to look in the errata. Thanks a lot.

Follow-up question:

I'm assuming I can also not make an attack after a regular move since the Overrun consumes the standard action, correct?

[Gruftzwerg]

Holy hell, that was driving me nuts! And I didn't think to look in the errata. Thanks a lot.

Follow-up question:

I'm assuming I can also not make an attack after a regular move since the Overrun consumes the standard action, correct?

Yeah, you assumption is true. Normally when you use Overrun you don't have any actions left for "normal" attacks.

You would need some kind of "free action" attack to do this. There are some spells like "Cloud of Knifes" that can give you a free action attack.


Other option would be a Belt of Battle which can give you some limited extra actions per day.

[Darg]

Ok, so the reason I ask this is because I never had a player use Overrun as part of a Charge in a game, so I've never had to consider how to apply the rules. Sooo I started googling and fell into the rabbit hole of "how does Overrun work" discussions without finding any conclusive answers.

I'll outline how I interpret the rules and I hope that you can point out if I'm wrong.

The evidence (PHB):
"Charging is a special full-round action that allows you to move up to twice your speed and attack during the action."

"Attacking on a Charge: After moving, you may make a single melee attack."

"A charging character gets a +2 bonus on the Strength check made to bull rush or overrun an opponent."

"You can attempt an overrun as a standard action taken during your move, or as part of a charge. (In general, you cannot take a standard action during a move; this is an exception.)"

"If he avoids you, he doesn’t suffer any ill effect. If you were attempting the overrun as part of a charge, you may keep moving."

"If you succeed in knocking your opponent prone, you can continue your movement as normal."

Just Overrunning an opponent seems simple enough. As does Charging.

Now to the dilemma of combining the two. Let's assume opponent A and opponent B are in front of a character in a line so that A is in the way of B from the point of view of the character. I see two different possible scenarios:

1. I designate opponent A as my target as per the Charge rules and if target A avoids me I can continue moving and attack opponent B with my Charge attack (the rules doesn't specify that I have to use the single melee attack against the target of my Charge, but only that I get to make a single melee attack at the end of the Charge). True or false?

2. I designate opponent A as my target as per the Charge rules and if target A blocks me we resolve the Overrun with Charge modifiers and all and if I win I knock A prone and then I get to continue moving and get to attack B with my single melee attack that I get as part of the Charge. True or false?

Grateful for any help in deciphering this.

In 3.0 you'd overrun a target on the path to your charge target as you could only overrun as part of a charge. 3.5 release retained that rule, but the errata removed it.