Immediate Action issues

[Darwin]

Hi Playgrounders

I am currently playing an Ardent character with a bodyguard theme in our 3.5 campaign. He does his job by the use of 2 abilities:

1. The Guardian Mantle's ability lets him expend PF as an Immediate Action to absorb damage from 1 melee attack for an adjacent ally.

2. A houserule allows any character with the Shield Specialization feat to make an active block (1d20+AC-10) as an Immediate Action against a melee or ranged attack for an adjacent ally.

Now here's the issue, at some point, I'd like him to be able to use both those abilities in the same round. The mechanics of Immediate Actions doesn't let me pull this off. Is there any way to grant additional Immediate Actions? (bar RKV, I'm not going down that road.)

If not, is there anything I should consider before making the houseruled Shield Specialization ability a free action, instead of immediate? I'm not the DM right now, as we're taking rounds doing that, but I am the leading authority on house rules and can change them if I so desire. But I'd rather not if I can avoid it.

In addition, is there any items out there that grants Combat Reflexes, or just additional attacks of opportunity with no action requirement?

[Forged Fury]

I think you may have hit on the best solution from your second question: tie the houseruled Shield Block feature to a new use of AoOs. AoOs are essentially immediate actions that don't count as immediate actions. It also provides both a cap and a strategic component to the use of the Shield Block action (Do I block the attack or do I need to save my AoO in case the cleric in front of me decides to cast?). Granted, with that specific example, most spellcasters are going to be able to Cast Defensively automatically fairly quickly. But it helps at lower levels when there is more equity anyway.

I really don't think you want to make it a free action.

[Darwin]

Keying it to AoO sounds like a solid plan. That might be what I'll end up doing. We have another houserule in place that deals with Defensive Casting, so I wouldn't worry about that :smallwink:

[Bakkan]

Serpent Armor from the Magic Item Compendium grants the benefits of Combat Reflexes.