I was curious,... if a Battlemaster with the Trip Maneuver used a Giant Slayer Longsword attacked and struck a Hill Giant...., could he activate the Trip Maneuver AND use the effect from the Giant Slayer to have TWO attempts to knock it prone?
The Trip Attack won't work with a Hill Giant, that maneuver requires that the target be size Large or smaller. Hill Giants are size Huge. So the Hill Giant would only need to make the save against the Giant Slayer longsword.
The Giant Slayer property provides in relevant part:
When you hit a giant with it, the giant takes an extra 2d6 damage of the weapon's type and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or fall prone. For the purpose of this weapon, "giant" refers to any creature with the giant type, including ettins and trolls.
The Trip Attack combat maneuver provides:
Trip Attack
When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to knock the target down. You add the superiority die to the attack’s damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you knock the target prone.
Yes, you could do both of these on the same attack (assuming an appropriately-sized target), and they would have to pass both checks! In fact, your DM may allow you to check whether the giant fails the first Giant Slayer check before you decide whether you want to expend a Trip Attack superiority die, order of operations for "when you hit" effects is a little fuzzy and should be generally left to the player's discretion on their turn. In fact, a Fighter/Barbarian (Storm Herald or Totem Warrior) would have other ways to knock a target prone when they hit with a weapon attack, so you might be able to stack even more checks on!
These sorts of situations, where different abilities/items are creating similar effects at the same point in time, fall under the Combining Game Effects rule in the DMG.
Combining Game Effects
Different game features can affect a target at the same time. But when two or more game features have the same name, only the effects of one of them—the most potent one—apply while the durations of the effects overlap. For example, if a target is ignited by a fire elemental’s Fire Form trait, the ongoing fire damage doesn’t increase if the burning target is subjected to that trait again. Game features include spells, class features, feats, racial traits, monster abilities, and magic items. See the related rule in the “Combining Magical Effects” section of chapter 10 in the Player’s Handbook.
While Giant Slayer, Trip Attack, and other abilities may all be asking a target to make a save or be tripped (even if it's the same type of save, like Strength), so long as they have different names they will stack/combine/apply. If you somehow had two different abilities called "Trip Attack" from different sources you couldn't make the giant face two checks, which is why it's a good thing that D&D is (usually) pretty good about not re-using ability and feature names.
Hello again,
(Hope everyone is safe and healthy)
I was curious,... if a Battlemaster with the Trip Maneuver used a Giant Slayer Longsword attacked and struck a Hill Giant...., could he activate the Trip Maneuver AND use the effect from the Giant Slayer to have TWO attempts to knock it prone?
I hope that is easy enough to understand.
Thanks, in advance,
~Mad
The Trip Attack won't work with a Hill Giant, that maneuver requires that the target be size Large or smaller. Hill Giants are size Huge. So the Hill Giant would only need to make the save against the Giant Slayer longsword.
ok, what if it is used against a Troll or Ettin, or something Large that counts as a Giant?
The Giant Slayer property provides in relevant part:
The Trip Attack combat maneuver provides:
Yes, you could do both of these on the same attack (assuming an appropriately-sized target), and they would have to pass both checks! In fact, your DM may allow you to check whether the giant fails the first Giant Slayer check before you decide whether you want to expend a Trip Attack superiority die, order of operations for "when you hit" effects is a little fuzzy and should be generally left to the player's discretion on their turn. In fact, a Fighter/Barbarian (Storm Herald or Totem Warrior) would have other ways to knock a target prone when they hit with a weapon attack, so you might be able to stack even more checks on!
These sorts of situations, where different abilities/items are creating similar effects at the same point in time, fall under the Combining Game Effects rule in the DMG.
While Giant Slayer, Trip Attack, and other abilities may all be asking a target to make a save or be tripped (even if it's the same type of save, like Strength), so long as they have different names they will stack/combine/apply. If you somehow had two different abilities called "Trip Attack" from different sources you couldn't make the giant face two checks, which is why it's a good thing that D&D is (usually) pretty good about not re-using ability and feature names.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
that works as I thought. perfect.
thank you so much
~Mad