Making Weapon Specialization Worth It

[Human Paragon 3]

Weapon focus and weapon specialization suck and are almost ever worth it to take. The pathetic fact that they require fighter levels make them even worse. Really, the suckitude of fighter-only feats is a slap in the face to fighter as a class, and the fighter class is a slap in the face to fighter feats. It's just sad.

With this in mind, I have decided to take a crack at updating the weapon focus line. I took a little inspiration from AD&D 2e to get there.

Disclaimer: This is not a fighter fix. I am not claiming the feats address the problems with the fighter class. The goal is to 1) make these feats worth taking. 2) If you take the feats, it should make your character seem like a master of their chosen weapon.


Weapon Focus: Increase the bonus to +1 to hit and +2 to damage.

Weapon Specialization: Increase bonus to +2 to hit and +1 to damage (stacks with weapon focus, for +3/+3 total. (needs Fighter Level 2)

Greater Weapon Focus: You get an extra attack at your highest BAB during your full attack routine. (needs fighter level 4)

Greater Weapon Specialzation: A further +1/+1 (giving you +4/+4 total). In addition, you get your weapon speciazation bonus to all combat manuever made with the weapon (trip, dissarm, feint, sunder etc.) (Needs Fighter Level 8)

Weapon Mastery: Increase bonus to +6/+6. You cannot be disarmed and your weapon cannot be sundered, except by a fighter of your level or higher with Weapon Mastery. (Needs Fighter Level 10)

Weapon Grand Mastery: Increase bonus to +8/+8. Whenever you use Power Attack with your chosen weapon and take -5 penalty or greater, you ignore DR and hardness. Whenever you use combat expertise with your chosen weapon, and take a penalty of -5 or higher, you may resolve your attack as a touch attack. (requires combat expertise OR power attack and fighter level 12).

[Spiryt]

Looks pretty neat, and useful to all kinds of fighter.

Can't say much about balance that late in the night.... But extra attack at highest bonus at level 4 may be a bit too much.

Touch attack CE as well - it basically can mean that you don't sacrifice anything at all - cause drop of the target effective AC will out match this - 5 easily. Which seems a bit wonky in the end.

[Seerow]

Honestly, if you outright scrapped the first two feats, and just used the second two, I'd say you have a half-decent fix.

Weapon Grand Mastery in particular is nasty if you have both Power Attack and Combat Expertise. Combat Expertise for 5, Power Attack for full, and ignore DR/Hardness, and make all touch attacks. That's practically gish quality attacking.


Basically, the latter feats are all in the right place: Moderate levels of fighter required, and a useful bonus in addition to the hit/damage bonuses. The first two feats requiring only Fighter level 2 and being just hit/damage... are barely any better than the already crappy weapon spec feats. I'd also remind you +hit is generally more valuable than +damage, so your +hit value should probably be a bit lower than your damage value.

So I'd take what you have and basically go:

Weapon Focus: You gain +1 to hit and +2 to damage, and get an extra attack at your highest BAB during your full attack routine. (needs fighter level 4)

Weapon Specialzation: A further +1/+2 (giving you +2/+4 total). In addition, you get your weapon speciazation bonus to all combat manuever made with the weapon (trip, dissarm, feint, sunder etc.) (Needs Fighter Level 8)

Weapon Mastery: Increase bonus to +3/+6. You cannot be disarmed and your weapon cannot be sundered, except by a fighter of your level or higher with Weapon Mastery. (Needs Fighter Level 10)

Weapon Grand Mastery: Increase bonus to +4/+8. Whenever you use Power Attack with your chosen weapon and take -5 penalty or greater, you ignore DR and hardness. Whenever you use combat expertise with your chosen weapon, and take a penalty of -5 or higher, you may resolve your attack as a touch attack. (requires combat expertise OR power attack and fighter level 12).



Then add on at the end, Weapon Supremacy, modified slightly from PHB2


Weapon Supremacy: You gain a +1 to AC. Increase bonus to hit/damage to +6/+10. You can wield your weapon while grappling, and without first making a grapple check. In this situation you may make a standard action attack or full attack as normal. When you take a full attack action, you can apply a +5 bonus to any single attack after your first strike. You may also choose to take 10 on a single attack roll once per round. (requires Fighter level 18)

[Curious]

You may also wish to take a leaf from Pathfinders book and have weapon specialization apply to categories of weapons, such as all bladed slashing weapons or all axes, so the feats are more generally applicable.

[Human Paragon 3]

I don't get that Supremacy feat. +1 to AC is meaningless at level 18, and are people really dying to make attacks in a grapple?

I am also working on a series of feats that give melee characters something to do with their swift, immediate and move actions, and soliciting ideas for such. My main thought is to make a series of tactical feats with three swift/immediate/move abilities.

[Seerow]

I don't get that Supremacy feat. +1 to AC is meaningless at level 18, and are people really dying to make attacks in a grapple?

The big benefit is the +5 to hit on one attack and take 10 on another. The ability to use your weapon in a grapple is a nice benefit (and yes, sometimes people are dying to do so. Particularly in the case of a very big monster trying to eat you. Being able to keep swinging as normal with your greatsword rather than switching to a dagger and make grapple checks against a colossal creature isn't gamebreaking, but nice). The +1 AC was just a carryover from the PHB2 feat, I agree it doesn't make a huge difference, but it's also one of those things that says "Well why not"

The main point though was to just scrap the lower level feats that do nothing but add +damage. You can remove supremacy, move it downward, switch it with something else, I don't care.

[Human Paragon 3]

Ah, I get it now. I actually missed the taking 10 on the first read through somehow. That is worthwhile, for sure.

By the way, thank you for the reply. I will likely incorporate your notes into my homebrew. I think--by the way--that my reply came off a bit terse, as if I was dismissing your entire, thoughtful post with a flippant rejoinder, which wasn't my intention at all. I was honestly curious, and I'm glad I asked the question, since your answer pointed out what I obviously missed the first time.

I would most likely strip out the AC bonus, or increase it to match the attack bonus (a precedent set in the previous feats in the line), and make the ability to attack in a grapple a separate feat.