Horde Breaker (Melee)

Horde Breaker (Melee) is a Hunter Ranger class action. It allows them to deal damage an additional nearby target.

Description

Target two creatures standing close to each other. Deal Weapon Damage⁠⁠Physical to the first creature and open up the second for a follow-up attack.

Properties

Cost

 Action

Damage

Normal weapon damage

Details

 Attack roll

 AoE: 2 m / 7 ft (Radius)

 Recharge: Per turn

Condition: Horde Breaker

 Horde Breaker

Duration: 1 turn

• Creature is open to a follow-up attack.

How to learn

Classes:

• Class level 3: Hunter

Notes

• The additional attack can be against any creature in  AoE: 2 m / 7 ft (Radius) around the target of this ability. Every creature in the area receives  Horde Breaker condition, even if the attack misses, marking them as eligible for the follow up attack. The Hunter can then use a Horde Breaker Follow-Up to make an attack against any of these creatures as a Free Action, even if the starting attack misses.
• The follow-up attack can be either a  Horde Breaker Follow-Up (Melee) or a  Horde Breaker Follow-Up (Ranged), no matter if starting with a different weapon type (e.g. a ranged horde breaker attack can be followed by a free melee attack against a nearby enemy). Using either of the follow-ups expires the condition in other creatures.
• To make use of Horde Breaker more regularly, the Ranger can use abilities repositioning enemies closer to each other, without costing a whole Action:
  •  Shove
  • Weapon abilities, like  Sorrowful Lash cantrip,  Pushing Attack (Titanstring Bow), and  Grand Slam
  • Class abilities, like  Enraged Throw,  Pushing Attack (Melee) manoeuvre,  Mobile Flourish (Melee),  Flurry of Blows: Push, and  Boot of the Giants

Bugs

• Some abilities/gear expected to affect the original Horde Breaker target might instead trigger to a random creature in the Horde Breaker zone. Apparently the game uses some kind of alphabetical order for targets in the Horde Breaker AoE to decide who will be affected. This is known to happen with  Sneak Attack,  Ability Drain,  Divine Strike: Weapon, and  Luck of the Far Realms.
• As Horde Breaker adds  Horde Breaker conditions to targets, gear requiring the application of a condition will always be activated, no matter the weapon in use. This is the case for  Diadem of Arcane Synergy and  Coldbrim Hat.  Boots of Stormy Clamour triggers twice, and can trigger even more if the action activates certain other abilities such as  Mortal Reminder and  Radiant Shockwave. Like the above, Stormy Clamour and Coldbrim Hat can add conditions to unexpected characters.
• Despite looking like a single-target attack, Horde Breaker actually rolls invisible attacks (i.e. not displayed in the combat log) vs all enemies in the AoE, and the game then evaluates their results (hit, miss, critical hit). Most the time these attack rolls do nothing, as most game abilities require damage to trigger secondary effects, but there are a subset of weapons and abilities that do not require damage to be activated - for these, Horde Breaker will behave like an Area of Effect application.
• Weapons forcing enemies to roll saving throws when hit by Horde Breaker's "invisible attack":  Vision of the Absolute ( Blinded),  Bow of the Banshee ( Frightened),  Sussur Greatsword ( Silenced),  Staff of the Ram ( Stunned, limited to 1 enemy/turn),  Twisted Oak Crook ( Entangled) and  The Baneful ( Bane, if bound) are weapons which force all enemies in Horde Breaker area to roll a saving throw to avoid receiving a condition.
  • In opposition to above, an Horde Breaker AoE attack using  The Watcher's Guide adds  True Strike to all enemies which the invisible attack *missed*.
  • This behaviour may be undesirable, for example,  Unseen Menace loses  Invisible Weapon, thus losing  Advantage on  Attack rolls, if invisible attacks *missed*. Since more attack rolls are made, the chance of losing this condition is greater than when horde breaker is not used.
• Some weapons are capable of dealing actual damage to multiple characters during an Horde Breaker attack for extra value, as any damaged character can be affected by other effects, e.g. coatings.
  • All targets in the area of effect:  Rat Bat,  Shortsword of First Blood, and weapons with  Prepare action (the last two do not work in Honour Mode)
  • Up to two extra targets:  Duellist's Prerogative (via Withering Cut reaction)
  • One additional target: weapons with  Tenacity action
  •  Valiant Damage and  Divine Smite abilities are also capable to make Horde Breaker user to damage additional targets in the same action with any weapon, or can be combined with the weapons above.
• There are abilities also capable of triggering per character in the Horde Breaker AoE, depending on the result of the 'invisible attack roll':
  • any result:  Bladesong Healing Charge,  Aspect of the Beast: Wolverine,  Mobile, and  Fancy Footwork
  • on hit:  Perilous Stakes,  Inquisitor's Might, and  Hexblade's Curse
  • on critical:  Mortal Reminder and  Great Weapon Master: Bonus Attack
• Due to a conditional requirement check bug, Horde Breaker may not be usable on the next turn immediately following a turn in which it was used.