Glancing blow

A Glancing blow is an additional hit caused with a two-handed weapon. Glancing blows initially have lower chances of hitting and do significantly less damage than ordinary attacks, but they can hit multiple enemies.

Glancing blows are an inherent property of all two-handed weapons, including quarter-staffs. No Feats or Enhancements are required to enable them, though some make them better.

Basic mechanics
One free glancing blow attack is made automatically against all enemies in a wide arc in front of your character on the first and fourth swing (if you have a fourth swing) of your attack sequence. You must be stationary. It is possible -- in fact, common -- to get both a glancing and a normal attack against your main target. These are rolled separately.

Glancing blow attack rolls use all your normal attack modifiers plus a -5 penalty. Their damage is a varying fraction of your base weapon damage that depends on your Base Attack Bonus:1 This damage has a minimum of 1. However Damage Reduction applies against it normally, and can reduce the damage to zero. Glancing blows ordinarily do not cause any bonus damage or special attack or weapon effects, but will do at some percentage if you take any of the Two-Handed Fighting feat line, Kensai or Berserker Enhancements.

Glancing blow damage, frequency, chance to hit, mobility, and chance of applying special effects can be increased by the Two-Handed Fighting feat line and by some Fighter and Barbarian enhancements.

1 reference: April 2008 forum post


 * All of the above numbers and formula are unverified and only based on player conjecture. To date there has no been no developer verification or hard testing to confirm these figures.