whirlwind attack: one roll or multiple rolls

[Moon-Lancer]

When making a whirlwind attack, does one role the a single attack that applies to all targets, or does one get multiple attacks, but a single attack for each target.

 

[Hypersmurf]

"... make one melee attack at your full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach."

If there are three orphans, and I give each orphan one apple, how many apples did I give away?

-Hyp.

 

[geosapient]

"... make one melee attack at your full base attack bonus against each opponent within reach."

If there are three orphans, and I give each orphan one apple, how many apples did I give away?

-Hyp.

But if you had a single bag with three apples (one for each orphan) how many bags did you give to the orphans?

Is it one attack and you compare that one result against everything or one attack per opponent?

I would say one attack that is compared to each opponent.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Think of it from a gaming point of view - roll a 20 followed by a 20 and you crit everything around you - do you think that would work? Similarly, how sad it would be to roll low and miss everything!

(nb in Star Wars SE a whirlwind attack uses the 'area attack' mechanic, and so you do make one attack roll compared to all defences to see who gets hurt)

It has never occurred to me to handle D&D whirlwind attack in any other way than to make a separate attack roll against all the eligible targets.

Cheers

 

[castro3nw]

But if you had a single bag with three apples (one for each orphan) how many bags did you give to the orphans?

Are you giving each orphan a bag? Each orphan gets an apple and each opponent gets an attack roll.

 

[Particle_Man]

1) As far as the rules go, I'm with the Smurf. You roll the d20 separately for every target within reach.

2) I have seen people houserule it as one d20 roll only for the whirlwind, for speed of play.

3) Star Wars Saga Edition is AWESOME! Just thought I would add that, since it was mentioned above.

 

[Goolpsy]

But if you had a single bag with three apples (one for each orphan) how many bags did you give to the orphans?

Is it one attack and you compare that one result against everything or one attack per opponent?

I would say one attack that is compared to each opponent.

Easy to answer... the apples were to the orphans.. not the bags.. Hence no Bag's were giving the orphans... but the apples were

 

[ThirdWizard]

If there are three orphans, and I give hurl at each orphan one apple, how many apples did I give away attack rolls did I make?

Even better.

 

[geosapient]

Think of it from a gaming point of view - roll a 20 followed by a 20 and you crit everything around you - do you think that would work? Similarly, how sad it would be to roll low and miss everything!

Cheers

I would have thought that the critical mechanic for this would be like multi-shot (can't remember if this is the actual feat name). You use one attack roll for every arrow that's fired and if the roll is critical then only the first arrow does critical damage.

The only real difference is that now you're hitting (or missing) multiple targets so the first one in the attack should be designated.

And thinking back on all of the martial arts movies that I've seen I can't think of any where when a person did an attack against everyone around them (in one fluid motion) they either hit everyone or everyone took a step back and avoided the attack.

I think this is the effect that the writers were basing this feat off of. Single attack (one fluid motion) against each opponent (everyone has a chance of being hit or not) around the attacker.

 

[Caliban]

When making a whirlwind attack, does one role the a single attack that applies to all targets, or does one get multiple attacks, but a single attack for each target.

The generally accepted interpretation is a seperate attack roll for each target. I've never seen it played any other way.

[Edited because I forget I was posting in the Nitpickers Forum. ]