Fizban
2010-07-01, 06:56 AM
These two things don't have anything to do with each other, but they're interesting and I was wondering what everyone thought of them.
Deadly Defense is a feat in Complete Scoundrel that gives you an extra d6 of damage when fighting defensively or using enough Combat Expertise. I think it's a pretty nifty idea and it works on anything, but the associated penalty and fact that you can't increase it makes me sad.
Edit: since it's a tweak it's not really something for the homebrew forum I think, but how about this for adding some kick to Deadly Defense: you gain +1d6/-2 with combat expertise. So DD by itself lets you fight defensively for -4/+2/+1d6. DD+ Expertise gives you -2/+2/+1d6 with option of -4/+4/+2d6. DD+Expertise+ Improved Combat Expertise lets you expertise away as much attack bonus as you want, and keep gaining damage as you do so. The return is +1.75/-1 on average for damage, which is pretty good compared to two handed power attack, and you gain extra AC in exchange for the extra feat cost.
The Fatemaker is an odd prestige class from the Planar Handbook. It requires some social skills and a skill focus in one of them to enter, and has a 1/3 sneak attack progression with 4th level spellcasting. At first glance it seems like it's meant to be a sort of jack of all trades, but when you actually read all the abilities it's more of a jack of no trades. It requires social skills to enter, but does not improve them. It continues sneak attack, but is not concerned with stealth. It gains spellcasting, but does so from a horribly restricted list. I could swear that someone decided: "hey, my rogue would have liked casting these spells", and so made a class with a spell list of only those exact spells without considering what other spells might have been useful. The only class abilities aside from sneak attack and spellcasting are a 1-2/day bonus on one roll, and a +1-2 bonus on rolls for adjacent allies. The fluff is some vague notions of seizing power for yourself on the basis that if you can take it you deserve it, except some of them think that means they should be charitable, and somehow this manifests in the capstone ability of Righteous Might 1/day. The whole class confuses me. It seems like it could have been another Chameleon or Factotum, except it failed in every single way.
Deadly Defense is a feat in Complete Scoundrel that gives you an extra d6 of damage when fighting defensively or using enough Combat Expertise. I think it's a pretty nifty idea and it works on anything, but the associated penalty and fact that you can't increase it makes me sad.
Edit: since it's a tweak it's not really something for the homebrew forum I think, but how about this for adding some kick to Deadly Defense: you gain +1d6/-2 with combat expertise. So DD by itself lets you fight defensively for -4/+2/+1d6. DD+ Expertise gives you -2/+2/+1d6 with option of -4/+4/+2d6. DD+Expertise+ Improved Combat Expertise lets you expertise away as much attack bonus as you want, and keep gaining damage as you do so. The return is +1.75/-1 on average for damage, which is pretty good compared to two handed power attack, and you gain extra AC in exchange for the extra feat cost.
The Fatemaker is an odd prestige class from the Planar Handbook. It requires some social skills and a skill focus in one of them to enter, and has a 1/3 sneak attack progression with 4th level spellcasting. At first glance it seems like it's meant to be a sort of jack of all trades, but when you actually read all the abilities it's more of a jack of no trades. It requires social skills to enter, but does not improve them. It continues sneak attack, but is not concerned with stealth. It gains spellcasting, but does so from a horribly restricted list. I could swear that someone decided: "hey, my rogue would have liked casting these spells", and so made a class with a spell list of only those exact spells without considering what other spells might have been useful. The only class abilities aside from sneak attack and spellcasting are a 1-2/day bonus on one roll, and a +1-2 bonus on rolls for adjacent allies. The fluff is some vague notions of seizing power for yourself on the basis that if you can take it you deserve it, except some of them think that means they should be charitable, and somehow this manifests in the capstone ability of Righteous Might 1/day. The whole class confuses me. It seems like it could have been another Chameleon or Factotum, except it failed in every single way.