Loki_42
2012-01-04, 03:11 PM
Loki_42’s Core Feat Fixes
Or
That’s right, I’m semi-professional now!
Or
Okay, not really semi-professional, but posting them online is still something, right?
Hey, everybody. So yeah, I decided to post some of the fixes for *mostly* core feats that I’ve taken to using to improve my own game at home. I’m sure some are horribly imbalanced, I set the power level high, because I am steadfastedly opposed to the “Melee can’t have nice things” paradigm that plagues 3.X. That said, I prefer my games at Tier 3. High-op Tier 3, but Tier 3 balance nonetheless. So, with that said, I wouldn’t mind some PEACHing, especially for the one or two brand-new, never before seen feats I am thinking about posting. Like I said, I’ve been steadily incorporating these feats into my games for awhile now, and this is as much a place to codify and store them as it is to get them seen, though I’m looking forward to that too. Some of these will probably be familiar, as I got many ideas from perusing and posting threads.
I will be making use of developer spoilers, a feature I picked up from some of my more favorite homebrewers here.
Improved Combat Style Feats
I’ll be honest here, these were easy to do. With these I’m talking about the feats that improve one of the special actions you can perform in combat, such as Improved Trip and Improved Grapple. Except not those, because I feel like those are at the preferred balance level. I’ve had players take those two, I’ve rarely ever seen people take any of the others, except in rare cases, where even then I felt they were sacrificing power for flavor, something no one should ever do. That said, they were easy fixes, as I borrowed a mechanic from one of their sister feats, one that I feel improves the power immensely. So, with no further ado, I present the Improved Combat Style feats!
Improved Disarm [General]
Prerequisites
Int 13, Combat Expertise.
Benefit
You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when you attempt to disarm an opponent, nor does the opponent have a chance to disarm you. You also gain a +4 bonus on the opposed attack roll you make to disarm your opponent. In addition, if you disarm an opponent in melee combat, you may immediately make an extra attack against the target as if you hadn’t used your attack for the disarm attempt.
Normal
See the normal disarm rules.
Special
A fighter may select Improved Disarm as one of his fighter bonus feats.
A monk may select Improved Disarm as a bonus feat at 6th level, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.
Improved Bull Rush [General]
Prerequisites
Str 13, Power Attack.
Benefit
When you perform a bull rush you do not provoke an attack of opportunity from the defender. You also gain a +4 bonus on the opposed Strength check you make to push back the defender. In addition, if you succeed on the attempt, you may immediately make an extra attack against the target as if you hadn’t used your attack for the bull rush attempt. Though you must follow your opponent to make use of this attack, you may immediately take a free 5 foot step back to your previous location after the damage is done. This does not apply to any other movement you can make in the round.
Special
A fighter may select Improved Bull Rush as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Improved Overrun [General]
Prerequisites
Str 13, Power Attack.
Benefit
When you attempt to overrun an opponent, the target may not choose to avoid you. You also gain a +4 bonus on your Strength check to knock down your opponent. In addition, if you succeed on the attempt, you may immediately make an extra attack against the target as if you hadn’t used your attack for the overrun attempt.
Normal
Without this feat, the target of an overrun can choose to avoid you or to block you.
Special
A fighter may select Improved Overrun as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Improved Sunder [General]
Prerequisites
Str 13, Power Attack.
Benefit
When you strike at an object held or carried by an opponent (such as a weapon or shield), you do not provoke an attack of opportunity.
You also gain a +4 bonus on any attack roll made to attack an object held or carried by another character. In addition, if you succeed on the attempt, you may immediately make an extra attack against the target as if you hadn’t used your attack for the sunder attempt.
Normal
Without this feat, you provoke an attack of opportunity when you strike at an object held or carried by another character.
Special
A fighter may select Improved Sunder as one of his fighter bonus feats.
So there you have it. I admit, I actually haven’t found anyone else suggesting porting over Trips mechanic to the other similar feats yet, but I think it works. They’re all extremely similar anyway, it seems odd that only one has that effect on it. Does this make all builds based on these feats as viable as a tripper build? No, tripper builds have a lot of interconnecting parts to them, but with some work, you can now make you master disarmer, or a sunderer, and have it be not gimping yourself. Well, with sunder, you might still be gimping yourself, but I’ve been using a bit of alternate rules on the sunder front. I see some people recommend something along the lines of “disabling” the weapon instead of outright breaking it, and I worked on that idea. Under my rules, sundering breaks the item beyond use, but in an easy to fix way if you have the time for it. I represent that by making the equipment unusable until you can make a DC 5 Craft check. Functionally easy enough for an idiot to do it, but still causes a hassle in combat. I wanted to do something with feint, I really did, but I just couldn’t figure out anything that would work as an all around fix. The best fix for feint is, in my opinion, an un-errata’d Invisible Blade. Feint isn’t broken as a free action, even less so if you’re spending 5 levels to get it. So yeah, at this point, I have nothing to offer feint, but if anyone has some recommendations, I’d love to hear them.
Multiple Attack Feats
As you can guess from the title, the next group of feats I am tackling are the feats that grant you multiple attacks. These feats really are part of a larger rules fix that I implement to make standard attacks more viable, and movement more prominent: All effects that grant you an extra attack at your highest BAB in a full attack are now pushed over to standard attacks. This improves the usefulness of both feats such as TWF, and of the monk's much aligned Flurry of Blows. In practice it makes the feats work a bit more like Snap Kick, which isn't a bad thing at all.
Two Weapon Fighting [General]
You can fight with a weapon in each hand. You can make extra attacks each round with second weapon.
Prerequisites
Dex 15
Benefit
Your penalties on attack rolls for fighting with two weapons are reduced. The penalty for your primary hand is lessened by two, and the penalty for your off-hand is lessened by 6. In addition, when you reach BAB +6, you gain a second attack with your off-hand, albeit at a -5 penalty. At +11 BAB, you again gain a third off-hand attack, this one at a -10 penalty. These additional off-hand attacks may only be used in a Full Attack.
Normal
If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. When fighting in this way you suffer a -6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a -10 penalty to the attack with your off hand. If your off-hand weapon is light the penalties are reduced by 2 each. (An unarmed strike is always considered light.)
Special
A 2nd-level ranger who has chosen the two-weapon combat style is treated as having Two-Weapon Fighting, even if he does not have the prerequisite for it, but only when he is wearing light or no armor.
A fighter may select Two-Weapon Fighting as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Rapid Shot [General]
Prerequisites
Dex 13, Point Blank Shot.
Benefit
You can get one extra attack per round with a ranged weapon. The attack is at your highest base attack bonus, but each attack you make in that round (the extra one and the normal ones) takes a -2 penalty. You may use this extra attack as either a standard or a full attack.
Special
A fighter may select Rapid Shot as one of his fighter bonus feats.
A 2nd-level ranger who has chosen the archery combat style is treated as having Rapid Shot, even if he does not have the prerequisites for it, but only when he is wearing light or no armor.
So there you have it. As you can see, TWF got boosted quite a bit by rolling it's most basic upgrades into the feat itself. A DM using these fixes should see to it themselves to assign different bonus feats to a TWF ranger's later combat style slots. If I can plug somebody, I enjoy using T.G. Oskar's ranger, found on these boards. If there are any similar ranger fixes that don't grant Improved and Greater TWF as bonus feats, I would consider using those. Just for an overview on how these rules come together, using my full rules fixes, an 8th level monk with Snap Kick and Two Weapon Fighting(ignore that stupid clause about TWF and Unarmed Strikes not working together, it's not gonna break monk) would be able to make, as a standard action, 5 attacks, going +1/+1/+3/+3/-2, and be able to move. Granted, they might not be able to hit much, but it does give skirmishing at least a little love.
again, more to come...
Or
That’s right, I’m semi-professional now!
Or
Okay, not really semi-professional, but posting them online is still something, right?
Hey, everybody. So yeah, I decided to post some of the fixes for *mostly* core feats that I’ve taken to using to improve my own game at home. I’m sure some are horribly imbalanced, I set the power level high, because I am steadfastedly opposed to the “Melee can’t have nice things” paradigm that plagues 3.X. That said, I prefer my games at Tier 3. High-op Tier 3, but Tier 3 balance nonetheless. So, with that said, I wouldn’t mind some PEACHing, especially for the one or two brand-new, never before seen feats I am thinking about posting. Like I said, I’ve been steadily incorporating these feats into my games for awhile now, and this is as much a place to codify and store them as it is to get them seen, though I’m looking forward to that too. Some of these will probably be familiar, as I got many ideas from perusing and posting threads.
I will be making use of developer spoilers, a feature I picked up from some of my more favorite homebrewers here.
Improved Combat Style Feats
I’ll be honest here, these were easy to do. With these I’m talking about the feats that improve one of the special actions you can perform in combat, such as Improved Trip and Improved Grapple. Except not those, because I feel like those are at the preferred balance level. I’ve had players take those two, I’ve rarely ever seen people take any of the others, except in rare cases, where even then I felt they were sacrificing power for flavor, something no one should ever do. That said, they were easy fixes, as I borrowed a mechanic from one of their sister feats, one that I feel improves the power immensely. So, with no further ado, I present the Improved Combat Style feats!
Improved Disarm [General]
Prerequisites
Int 13, Combat Expertise.
Benefit
You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when you attempt to disarm an opponent, nor does the opponent have a chance to disarm you. You also gain a +4 bonus on the opposed attack roll you make to disarm your opponent. In addition, if you disarm an opponent in melee combat, you may immediately make an extra attack against the target as if you hadn’t used your attack for the disarm attempt.
Normal
See the normal disarm rules.
Special
A fighter may select Improved Disarm as one of his fighter bonus feats.
A monk may select Improved Disarm as a bonus feat at 6th level, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.
Improved Bull Rush [General]
Prerequisites
Str 13, Power Attack.
Benefit
When you perform a bull rush you do not provoke an attack of opportunity from the defender. You also gain a +4 bonus on the opposed Strength check you make to push back the defender. In addition, if you succeed on the attempt, you may immediately make an extra attack against the target as if you hadn’t used your attack for the bull rush attempt. Though you must follow your opponent to make use of this attack, you may immediately take a free 5 foot step back to your previous location after the damage is done. This does not apply to any other movement you can make in the round.
Special
A fighter may select Improved Bull Rush as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Improved Overrun [General]
Prerequisites
Str 13, Power Attack.
Benefit
When you attempt to overrun an opponent, the target may not choose to avoid you. You also gain a +4 bonus on your Strength check to knock down your opponent. In addition, if you succeed on the attempt, you may immediately make an extra attack against the target as if you hadn’t used your attack for the overrun attempt.
Normal
Without this feat, the target of an overrun can choose to avoid you or to block you.
Special
A fighter may select Improved Overrun as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Improved Sunder [General]
Prerequisites
Str 13, Power Attack.
Benefit
When you strike at an object held or carried by an opponent (such as a weapon or shield), you do not provoke an attack of opportunity.
You also gain a +4 bonus on any attack roll made to attack an object held or carried by another character. In addition, if you succeed on the attempt, you may immediately make an extra attack against the target as if you hadn’t used your attack for the sunder attempt.
Normal
Without this feat, you provoke an attack of opportunity when you strike at an object held or carried by another character.
Special
A fighter may select Improved Sunder as one of his fighter bonus feats.
So there you have it. I admit, I actually haven’t found anyone else suggesting porting over Trips mechanic to the other similar feats yet, but I think it works. They’re all extremely similar anyway, it seems odd that only one has that effect on it. Does this make all builds based on these feats as viable as a tripper build? No, tripper builds have a lot of interconnecting parts to them, but with some work, you can now make you master disarmer, or a sunderer, and have it be not gimping yourself. Well, with sunder, you might still be gimping yourself, but I’ve been using a bit of alternate rules on the sunder front. I see some people recommend something along the lines of “disabling” the weapon instead of outright breaking it, and I worked on that idea. Under my rules, sundering breaks the item beyond use, but in an easy to fix way if you have the time for it. I represent that by making the equipment unusable until you can make a DC 5 Craft check. Functionally easy enough for an idiot to do it, but still causes a hassle in combat. I wanted to do something with feint, I really did, but I just couldn’t figure out anything that would work as an all around fix. The best fix for feint is, in my opinion, an un-errata’d Invisible Blade. Feint isn’t broken as a free action, even less so if you’re spending 5 levels to get it. So yeah, at this point, I have nothing to offer feint, but if anyone has some recommendations, I’d love to hear them.
Multiple Attack Feats
As you can guess from the title, the next group of feats I am tackling are the feats that grant you multiple attacks. These feats really are part of a larger rules fix that I implement to make standard attacks more viable, and movement more prominent: All effects that grant you an extra attack at your highest BAB in a full attack are now pushed over to standard attacks. This improves the usefulness of both feats such as TWF, and of the monk's much aligned Flurry of Blows. In practice it makes the feats work a bit more like Snap Kick, which isn't a bad thing at all.
Two Weapon Fighting [General]
You can fight with a weapon in each hand. You can make extra attacks each round with second weapon.
Prerequisites
Dex 15
Benefit
Your penalties on attack rolls for fighting with two weapons are reduced. The penalty for your primary hand is lessened by two, and the penalty for your off-hand is lessened by 6. In addition, when you reach BAB +6, you gain a second attack with your off-hand, albeit at a -5 penalty. At +11 BAB, you again gain a third off-hand attack, this one at a -10 penalty. These additional off-hand attacks may only be used in a Full Attack.
Normal
If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. When fighting in this way you suffer a -6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a -10 penalty to the attack with your off hand. If your off-hand weapon is light the penalties are reduced by 2 each. (An unarmed strike is always considered light.)
Special
A 2nd-level ranger who has chosen the two-weapon combat style is treated as having Two-Weapon Fighting, even if he does not have the prerequisite for it, but only when he is wearing light or no armor.
A fighter may select Two-Weapon Fighting as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Rapid Shot [General]
Prerequisites
Dex 13, Point Blank Shot.
Benefit
You can get one extra attack per round with a ranged weapon. The attack is at your highest base attack bonus, but each attack you make in that round (the extra one and the normal ones) takes a -2 penalty. You may use this extra attack as either a standard or a full attack.
Special
A fighter may select Rapid Shot as one of his fighter bonus feats.
A 2nd-level ranger who has chosen the archery combat style is treated as having Rapid Shot, even if he does not have the prerequisites for it, but only when he is wearing light or no armor.
So there you have it. As you can see, TWF got boosted quite a bit by rolling it's most basic upgrades into the feat itself. A DM using these fixes should see to it themselves to assign different bonus feats to a TWF ranger's later combat style slots. If I can plug somebody, I enjoy using T.G. Oskar's ranger, found on these boards. If there are any similar ranger fixes that don't grant Improved and Greater TWF as bonus feats, I would consider using those. Just for an overview on how these rules come together, using my full rules fixes, an 8th level monk with Snap Kick and Two Weapon Fighting(ignore that stupid clause about TWF and Unarmed Strikes not working together, it's not gonna break monk) would be able to make, as a standard action, 5 attacks, going +1/+1/+3/+3/-2, and be able to move. Granted, they might not be able to hit much, but it does give skirmishing at least a little love.
again, more to come...