[Feats] BOOONNNGGGG!

[Rolaran]

The dark cleric seemed to have the monk cornered in a blocked off corridor. As he approached, the monk drew back a fist, ready for the strike. However, the cleric merely chuckled.

"Oh, it's too late for that, fool. Your friends are busy fighting my... companions. They won't be here in time to save your skin."

The monk flung his fists forward in a barrage that could have reduced the cleric to a pulp. But the blows glanced off his black iron breastplate.

"All you're doing is hurting your hands. You'd better stop." He held up a talisman made of scorched bone. "After all, I want my zombies to have a good strong grip."

Suddenly, the monk pulled his arm back. He brought a mighty blow forward, hitting the cleric's chest armor dead center with a resounding "BONG!"

The cleric grinned for a moment. "Excellent effort! I almost felt that. Really, is thaat tthee onnlllyy thinnngg yoouuu cannn doooo..."

The cleric's voice broke off. He suddenly felt strangely wobbly, and the world seemed to be shaking around him. The monk struck again, and he began to feel an intense vibration around him. His sword slipped from his hand. He could barely make out the monks face as it swam before him, but he seemed to be smirking...

Then the monk swung out a foot. The cleric felt himself falling over, helpless to do anything. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the monk leaping over him, off to rescue his friends...



Resonating Blow

Prerequisites: Str 13, Dex 13, Power Attack or Improved Unarmed Strike

As an attack action, if you are using a bludgeoning weapon, you may strike a resonating blow. You take a -3 penalty on your attack roll, but the opponent is denied AC from his armor (but retains shield or natural armor bonuses, if any).

If the attack hits, you deal half normal damage, but the opponent must make a Fortitude save (DC=(5 times the opponent's current Armor Check Penalty)). Failing by 1-9 leaves the opponent Sickened for 1d4 rounds, failing by 10-19 leaves the opponent Nauseated for 1d4 rounds, and failing by 20 or more leaves the opponent Stunned for 1d4 rounds (the opponent takes only the most severe of these effects). Also, if the opponent fails his save, he takes 1d4 nonlethal damage per round of Sickening, Nausea or Stunning. Normally, a foe under the effects of a successful Resonating blow will be unaffected by another.

Continuous Resonation

Prerequisites: Str 13, Dex 13, Power Attack or Improved Unarmed Strike, Resonating Blow

You may strike an opponent with a Resonating Blow before the first one has worn off. Doing so requires the opponent to make a new save (same DC as for a Resonating Blow), or add 1d4 to the number of rounds the current effect will persist. In addition, if the new save is bad enough that it would cause a worse effect than the current one, change to that effect.

Fighters may take either of these as bonus feats.



How these feats work is that the user of the feat hits in such a way as to set the opponent's armor vibrating jarringly, distracting and maybe even incapacitating him. It works best, naturally, on characters with heavier armor, because the vibrations are more severe for, say, a breastplate than a hide armor. Basically, it's really going to tick off the guy who thinks he's sitting pretty in full plate. Fighters and Monks can take it for an unexpected edge in combat, or maybe you're playing a Druid with a taste for irony (How do you like your fancy metal suit now?). What do you think?

[Fax Celestis]

A few things:
A better way to say it is "the target is denied their armor bonus to AC, but retains their shield bonus (if any)."
You should probably annotate that these feats are only usable against opponents wearing armor.
If I fail my save by 22, does that mean sickened, nauseated, and dazed? Or just one? Clarify either way.

Beyond that, that's pretty cool.

[Rolaran]

Thanks for the advice! I'll change the bit about shields, and to clarify, you only suffer one of the effects. As for the bit about only attacking people with armor, as it stands you can try to resonate a person with no armor, but all you're accomplishing is guaranteeing that you do less damage, so it's kind of pointless.

[Fax Celestis]

The crunchy bits of the feat make no mention of your opponent being required to wear armor, so as it stands it works against both.

I suppose it works as-is, being able to resonate unarmored creatures doesn't sound too bad.

[Lord Iames Osari]

That's what quivering palm is for.

[Peregrine]

The crunchy bits of the feat make no mention of your opponent being required to wear armor, so as it stands it works against both.
Yes, but it has a DC 0 save. Though I suppose that you still fail that on a natural 1...

[fangthane]

Resonating Blow should require a minimum BAB of +3 since it requires an offsetting -3 be taken to the attack roll (similar to Power Attack, you shouldn't be able to take a penalty greater than your bonus)

Other than that, interesting looking stuff. I'd tend to give the monk some kind of progression on the DC though; perhaps add the monk's strength or constitution ability modifier to the DC, or half his level, or something? It just strikes me that while this'll be pretty nifty at level 5, it loses some punch at 15 (especially with reduced ACP due to mithral, etc at that level)

[Triaxx]

I like the idea, but if it impacts on a shield, the effect is rather nullified. There should be a chance for it to affect a shield. Instead of being nauseated, cause a -3 to hit bonus for 1d4 rounds, for a failure of 10-19. It's less effective against casters, but if you're up against a fighter at close range, any bonus is helpful.