Just to try it out I made a spiked chain tripping fighter with Improved Trip. Well every time he tries a trip attack, he trips himself. I thought the mods and patches would address this...considering you cannot be tripped yourself as a result of missing with an Improved trip attack. Any help appreciated!
I believe that the way trip attempts work in D&D 3.5 is like this: Trip is a strength contest between the tripper and the trippee. If a character making a trip attempt fails their trip attempt, then their opponent gets to make a free and immediate trip attempt against the character - if the opponent's trip attempt is successful, then the character is tripped. This is why it is a BAD idea to attempt to trip the Behemoth Kingfrog! Modifiers for trip attempts include Strength modifer (I think), size (+4(?) or +8(?) for being a large creature (or enlarged)), +4(?) or +8(?) for stability (i.e. creature is well-grounded (like a frog)), and +4 for having the Improved Trip feat. Hope this helps.
correct, according 3.5 rules: "If you win, you trip the defender. If you lose, the defender may immediately react and make a Strength check opposed by your Dexterity or Strength check to try to trip you. " Though the modifier are a bit odd described in the rules, they seem to get modified for every category smaller or larger compared to medium, but I guess just the difference between you and the opponent does count, e.g. an ogre tripping a halfling would have a modifier of +8, while the same ogre tripping a human only receive a mod of +4 and vice versa. And the defenders 'stable' bonus check is +4 (more than 2 legs...) edit: I only need to learn to read the modifiers are correct, the ogre receives +4 due to being large compared to medium, while the halflings counter-dice is modified by -4. I guess if I try to trip the kingfrog with my halfling warrior (!) ..nevermind ^^
From the SRD: IMPROVED TRIP [GENERAL] Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise. Benefit: You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when you attempt to trip an opponent while you are unarmed. You also gain a +4 bonus on your Strength check to trip your opponent. If you trip an opponent in melee combat, you immediately get a melee attack against that opponent as if you hadn’t used your attack for the trip attempt. Normal: Without this feat, you provoke an attack of opportunity when you attempt to trip an opponent while you are unarmed. Special: At 6th level, a monk may select Improved Trip as a bonus feat, even if she does not have the prerequisites. A fighter may select Improved Trip as one of his fighter bonus feats. So nothing about not being tripped yourself, just a bonus to trip and an immediate attack afterward.
That's only the description of the imp. trip feat... http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Trip the 3.5 rule-description. btw. what's the difference between an unarmed melee touched attack and a melee touched attack (what is the difference in the modifier? quite some time ago, since I played with real dices ...)
