true strike, power Attack, cleave combo question

[wisbill]

hello everyone,
I am playing a 4lvl fighter /3rdlvl wizard charcter with still spell. if i cast true strike on my self and then kill my foe on that strike do i get the +20 bonus on my cleave attack.

true strke has the statement "You're next single attack roll gains +20 insight bonus"

Cleave has the statement "The extra attack is with the same weapon and at the same bonus as the attack that dropped the previous creature"

my friend said I should because it is consider the same attack, however i thought the statement "the same bonus" only ment the base attack.
thank you for you're time

[GawainBS]

I think you're right. True Strike explicitly says the next single attack. Its use of "single" overrides the description of Cleave saying "at the same bonus".

[Siberys]

Balance wise, as a DM I'd say no it doesn't gain the benefit on the cleave roll.

Grammatically however, if you look at it, you would get the bonus. Notice it only says "your next single attack roll" and not "ONLY your next single attack roll." Cleave is part of that single attack roll, and semantically you would get that bonus from true strike from cleave.

[GawainBS]

I believe there was an FAQ about it on Wizards. It made True Strike a "Discharge" spell, clearing up the matter. Goodluck finding anything on that site, though...

[wisbill]

thanks for everyone comment.
i was expecting that answer, but I guess i had to ask becasue the potental for my charcter was huge. Our dm loves to send large amounts of smaller lvl creatures at our group and with cleave, great cleave, power attack, true strike, and my groups clerics bull's strength the gore in each attack would have been a pretty thing to behold.

once again thanks everyone

[GawainBS]

If I were you, I'd look into Wraithstrike. A lot more potential than True Strike... ;-)

[Siberys]

Originally Posted by GawainBS

If I were you, I'd look into Wraithstrike. A lot more potential than True Strike... ;-)

Then again, wraithstrike comes from a splatbook that threw balance out the window.

[GawainBS]

If Wizards are in, I wouldn't care too much about balance anyway. Maybe wisbill likes to play, like so many people, with as much WizardsoftheCoast material as possible. There are so many spells out there, that it gets hard to seperate the good from the bad. As a fellow gish-player (I myself like fighter/wizards as well), I thought that I should share some insights.

[wisbill]

thanks for the suggestions.
i was wondering what book Wraithstrike is in?
my gm will allow sources from about any book as long as it is available to the whole group, however many times the techniques we use come back to bite us in the butt. because if a spell is to powerful it just makes sense that every spell caster that can use it will.
thanks again for the help.

[GawainBS]

It's from Complete Arcane.
Here's a handy link for future reference. Crystal Keep - D&D and d20 System
I fully agree: it's only logical that good things get used often. Adventurers face combat and generally want to face it efficient as possible. Hence, they use the best things they have available.

[wisbill]

thanks for the site it will be very helpful.
wisbill

[GawainBS]

You're welcome. It has some great Prestige Classes for Fighter/Wizards.