I really just love this combat maneuver.
Besides it generally being cooler than trousers full of ice, it really saved the day for the party last Sunday. There were three first level PC's attack by a hideous monster. One swooned in teror, the second was grappled, held and was slowly being gnawed to death by said monster when the third jammed his sword "to the hilt" into the thing, backed off, and shot the occasional arrow into it as the embedded sword slowly did its deadly work. A steady 1d4 damage without DR made a crucial difference in time, killing the monster when the grappled PC was only at -3 instead of dead. And it is just cooler than trousers full of ice.
Besides it generally being cooler than trousers full of ice, it really saved the day for the party last Sunday. There were three first level PC's attack by a hideous monster. One swooned in teror, the second was grappled, held and was slowly being gnawed to death by said monster when the third jammed his sword "to the hilt" into the thing, backed off, and shot the occasional arrow into it as the embedded sword slowly did its deadly work. A steady 1d4 damage without DR made a crucial difference in time, killing the monster when the grappled PC was only at -3 instead of dead. And it is just cooler than trousers full of ice.