How powerful is this?

[Lord Ruby34]

1) Parry (Tier I)
Prereqs: BAB +1, Combat Reflexes
Benefit: When an enemy makes a melee attack against you, you can try to block the attack by making an attack roll with any melee weapon you are holding. If you are using a one handed weapon and a buckler or nothing in the other hand, you gain a +2 bonus on this roll. Use the higher of your AC or your attack roll as your effective AC against the attack. The bonus increases by +1 for every feat that has Parry as a prerequisite. This is considered an attack of opportunity.

How powerful is this feat, both in a normal campaign, and then in a ToB style campaign? I think this is really powerful, but am I overreacting?

[Aegis013]

Should this be in the homebrew forum?

I don't think there are any feats that have this homebrew feat as a pre-req, so that component isn't going to do anything.

In a normal campaign it's strong but not overwhelmingly so. It's a good protection option for a tripper build or something against something that they can't trip, but trip is a better option against trip-able foes.

As far as overall power, it's pretty good, but it's certainly not over powered. ToB's closest equivalent is probably Wall of Blades, which is an immediate action, roll an attack vs their attack, if you win their attack misses.

It still doesn't beat some of the best feats available, such as Power Attack, or for AoO builds, Karmic Strike/Robilar's Gambit, or for area denial builds, Stand Still or Knockdown.

[Ardantis]

Generally, for excitement (and balance) offensive rolls tend to be higher than defensive ones. This rewards attacking over defending, and keeps battles from becoming stagnant.

I had a 3.0 Pirate sourcebook which I really love, but which is terribly broken, which uses a lot of Parry mechanics like the one described. It completely erodes combat, as you'll have an epic duel between two master swordsmen who cannot ever possibly land a hit on each other ever in a million years.

Great in theory, abysmal for gameplay in practice.

[Lord Ruby34]

Should this be in the homebrew forum?


That would be because I didn't make this. :smalltongue:

[limejuicepowder]

It's pretty good, though definitely not unbalancing. What balances it out is the AoO choke point: characters that would take this feat easily, like trippers (since they already take combat reflexes), need their AoO to trip. Thus they must chose between trip or parry. For that reason, I would think most trippers wouldn't bother with it.

Characters like chargers that wouldn't normally take combat reflexes must invest 2 feats to get the ability. However, it would prove to be a significant boon to them, especially after dumping their AC to shock-trooper.

[Daer]

in neverwinter nights there was skill to parry. It was stance where you couldn't attack but when enemy made attack on you you tried parry it (skill check vs attack roll ) and if you got 10 higher than attacker you got counterattack.

http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Parry

can't say how well it works in pnp though.

[Lord Ruby34]

It's pretty good, though definitely not unbalancing. What balances it out is the AoO choke point: characters that would take this feat easily, like trippers (since they already take combat reflexes), need their AoO to trip. Thus they must chose between trip or parry. For that reason, I would think most trippers wouldn't bother with it.

Characters like chargers that wouldn't normally take combat reflexes must invest 2 feats to get the ability. However, it would prove to be a significant boon to them, especially after dumping their AC to shock-trooper.

What about say, Warblades or Crusaders that can now just sit there and dodge everything? Is it too powerful when used like that, or am I seeing something dangerous when there's nothing there?

[nedz]

Parrying is normally abstracted away into AC.
There is the optional rule where you roll a d20 for defence instead of the standard 10 base for AC.

As to this feat:
I'm disappointed that shields don't feature in this feat description since parrying is what they do.

As to your question: no I don't think it is overpowered, but there is no substitute for experience. Try it out first with some mook boss level NPC. See if the players like having all of their attacks blocked and take a group decision.

[Gwendol]

Like two weapon defence? Those feats/class abilities tend to be underwhelming. Fighting defensively is also in line with this, but again not usually an option to consider.

[Flickerdart]

Why in the world would you be better at parrying with an empty off-hand as opposed to, oh, a parrying dagger?

[Lord Ruby34]

Why in the world would you be better at parrying with an empty off-hand as opposed to, oh, a parrying dagger?

I can only imagine that they wanted to include options for one handed fighters, and screw logic while they're at it.

[Octopus Jack]

I had a similar rule for a subsystem I created a couple years ago that seemed to work and go down well. Parrying could be done once/turn and you elected to parry when an enemy no more than one size category different to you announces an attack. It's your attack roll vs theirs with them gaining minor bonuses to damage depending on how much your parry fails if you are unsuccessful.

One of the five main classes in the subsystem was an expert on melee combat so utilised parrying to a large extent.

I also wrote a block mechanic but I have no memory of the details, will have to dig out my old notes and writings at some point.

[sonofzeal]

Why in the world would you be better at parrying with an empty off-hand as opposed to, oh, a parrying dagger?
Actually, from personal experience, a parrying dagger doesn't really contribute much. Fighting sword-arm forward, like a fencer, makes it relatively easy to keep yourself out of harm's way of attacks coming from that direction - far more so than if you're actually attempting to fight with two weapons. Not that a parrying dagger is a liability necessarily, worst-case-scenario you can just ignore the dagger in your off-hand and fight in the one-sword manner, but I think a flexible DM could work with that.

Either way, I'm not going to protest out of some incentive to einhand. It's classy, and Rule of Cool applies.



...but yeah, the feat's ridiculous, since it's a free action a potentially huge number of times per turn. Take out the AoO bit and make it a flat once-per-turn, and it'd be more reasonable.

[Seharvepernfan]

Heh, I bet that somebody cribbed this off the parry feat from my houserules. It's very similar, but simpler.

[Flickerdart]

Actually, from personal experience, a parrying dagger doesn't really contribute much. Fighting sword-arm forward, like a fencer, makes it relatively easy to keep yourself out of harm's way of attacks coming from that direction - far more so than if you're actually attempting to fight with two weapons.
That works fine when you're fencing one on one, but when there's a guy in front of you and another guy to your right (which is not even a flanking position) that dagger's probably going to come in handy.

[Blackhawk748]

honestly im reminded of the Parry feat from Sorcery and Steam which worked liked this except that you can only do it once a round