Quellian-dyrae
2007-01-15, 09:04 PM
I love D&D. I really do. But some of their rules...really, they just make me wonder. I present some feats to fix a few of these paradoxes.
First, consider the 20th level two-weapon fighter.
Greater Two Weapon Fighting. Paired weapons of speed. Haste. This warrior can attack nine times per round, one and a half attacks per second. Hasted, its speed is 60', allowing it to cover ten feet in a single second.
A fighter who has to move ten feet to get to its foe has taken a move action. It is denied its ability to full attack. It spends one second covering the distance and less than a second making its strike. What is the char doing for those other four seconds?
Mobile Attack [General, Fighter]:
You can attack swiftly even on the move.
Prerequisites: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Combat Reflexes, Base Attack +6 or higher.
Benefit: You may take a full attack action in the same round as a move action. However, every attack you make lowers your speed for the round by 5’, and you cannot make attacks you do not have speed remaining for. You may not make a full attack after taking a double move, charge, or run action. You still provoke attacks of opportunity for this movement.
Mobile Attack, Improved [General, Fighter]:
You are incredibly focused on the attack, even on the move.
Prerequisites: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Combat Reflexes, Mobile Attack, Base Attack +9 or higher.
Benefit: You can make a single move and a full attack in a single full-round action. While doing so, you may move before or after any attack in your attack sequence. You pay 5’ of movement per attack made. For example, a 16th level fighter with two weapons, greater two weapon fighting, and haste, has the following attack routine: +16/+16/+16/+11/+11/+6/+6/+1, and a speed of 60’. It might move ten feet, attack three times (costing fifteen feet of movement), move ten feet to a new foe, attack four more times (20’ of movement), and then move a final five feet.
In other news, unless I'm mistaken, a feint is basically going for an attack, and then pulling back at the last moment when the foe tries to defend, before quickly striking another spot. How does attacking and not completing the attack prevent you from making more than one additional attack? Not to mention the characters who don't have improved feint; anyone else find it odd that they feint, wait six seconds, and then take advantage of the opening...and that there's still an opening to take advantage of?
Fluid Feint [General, Fighter]:
You don’t waste time feinting in combat.
Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint.
Benefit: You may feint in combat at the cost of an attack, rather than as a move action. This allows you to make multiple feints in one round, with each denying the opponent its Dex bonus to AC against the next attack you make. If you feint again before making an attack, the old feint expires. Feints still expire at the end of your next turn. Additionally, any penalty you are taking on your attack rolls as a result of the attack you use for the feint applies to your Bluff check. For example, if an 11th level fighter attacks, feints, and attacks, the feint is made with a -5 penalty on the check, just as the fighter’s second attack would have been.
Fluid Feint, Improved [General, Fighter]:
You don’t have to waste your best openings to make a feint.
Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint, Fluid Feint.
Benefit: When making a fluid feint, you may spend your attacks “out of order”. For example, a level 11 fighter could with a base attack of +11/+6/+1 could spend its +1 attack bonus to feint, and then make an attack at its +11 bonus, denying its foe’s Dexterity bonus to AC. The penalty for the Bluff check for using low attack bonuses still applies, so the fighter would take a -10 penalty on its Bluff check to perform that feint.
My final nit to pick. I can imagine a zombie not caring much if you thrust a skinny little rapier into its heart. But cleaving through its skull with a greatsword seems like a good excuse to deal double damage:
Dire Critical [General, Fighter]:
You measure how “critical” a hit is by how much of the opponent’s body is severed from the rest (or crushed beyond recognition, as suits you).
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Sunder.
Benefit: When you are wielding a melee weapon in both hands, you ignore a creature’s immunity or resistance to critical hits (but not to sneak attacks or other precision-based damage).
Dire Strike [General, Fighter]:
You find it much easier to cut away large portions of the opponent’s body when the opponent is unable to defend effectively.
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Sunder, Dire Critical.
Benefit: When you are wielding a melee weapon in both hands, any “precision-based” damage you deal is no longer precision based; your opponent's inability to defend itself simply offers you an opening to land a more solid blow (rather than one where the enemy dodges or deflects the brunt of an attack). As such, your foe's immunities to critical hits don't apply against this sort of damage.
First, consider the 20th level two-weapon fighter.
Greater Two Weapon Fighting. Paired weapons of speed. Haste. This warrior can attack nine times per round, one and a half attacks per second. Hasted, its speed is 60', allowing it to cover ten feet in a single second.
A fighter who has to move ten feet to get to its foe has taken a move action. It is denied its ability to full attack. It spends one second covering the distance and less than a second making its strike. What is the char doing for those other four seconds?
Mobile Attack [General, Fighter]:
You can attack swiftly even on the move.
Prerequisites: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Combat Reflexes, Base Attack +6 or higher.
Benefit: You may take a full attack action in the same round as a move action. However, every attack you make lowers your speed for the round by 5’, and you cannot make attacks you do not have speed remaining for. You may not make a full attack after taking a double move, charge, or run action. You still provoke attacks of opportunity for this movement.
Mobile Attack, Improved [General, Fighter]:
You are incredibly focused on the attack, even on the move.
Prerequisites: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Combat Reflexes, Mobile Attack, Base Attack +9 or higher.
Benefit: You can make a single move and a full attack in a single full-round action. While doing so, you may move before or after any attack in your attack sequence. You pay 5’ of movement per attack made. For example, a 16th level fighter with two weapons, greater two weapon fighting, and haste, has the following attack routine: +16/+16/+16/+11/+11/+6/+6/+1, and a speed of 60’. It might move ten feet, attack three times (costing fifteen feet of movement), move ten feet to a new foe, attack four more times (20’ of movement), and then move a final five feet.
In other news, unless I'm mistaken, a feint is basically going for an attack, and then pulling back at the last moment when the foe tries to defend, before quickly striking another spot. How does attacking and not completing the attack prevent you from making more than one additional attack? Not to mention the characters who don't have improved feint; anyone else find it odd that they feint, wait six seconds, and then take advantage of the opening...and that there's still an opening to take advantage of?
Fluid Feint [General, Fighter]:
You don’t waste time feinting in combat.
Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint.
Benefit: You may feint in combat at the cost of an attack, rather than as a move action. This allows you to make multiple feints in one round, with each denying the opponent its Dex bonus to AC against the next attack you make. If you feint again before making an attack, the old feint expires. Feints still expire at the end of your next turn. Additionally, any penalty you are taking on your attack rolls as a result of the attack you use for the feint applies to your Bluff check. For example, if an 11th level fighter attacks, feints, and attacks, the feint is made with a -5 penalty on the check, just as the fighter’s second attack would have been.
Fluid Feint, Improved [General, Fighter]:
You don’t have to waste your best openings to make a feint.
Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint, Fluid Feint.
Benefit: When making a fluid feint, you may spend your attacks “out of order”. For example, a level 11 fighter could with a base attack of +11/+6/+1 could spend its +1 attack bonus to feint, and then make an attack at its +11 bonus, denying its foe’s Dexterity bonus to AC. The penalty for the Bluff check for using low attack bonuses still applies, so the fighter would take a -10 penalty on its Bluff check to perform that feint.
My final nit to pick. I can imagine a zombie not caring much if you thrust a skinny little rapier into its heart. But cleaving through its skull with a greatsword seems like a good excuse to deal double damage:
Dire Critical [General, Fighter]:
You measure how “critical” a hit is by how much of the opponent’s body is severed from the rest (or crushed beyond recognition, as suits you).
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Sunder.
Benefit: When you are wielding a melee weapon in both hands, you ignore a creature’s immunity or resistance to critical hits (but not to sneak attacks or other precision-based damage).
Dire Strike [General, Fighter]:
You find it much easier to cut away large portions of the opponent’s body when the opponent is unable to defend effectively.
Prerequisites: Str 13+, Power Attack, Cleave, Improved Sunder, Dire Critical.
Benefit: When you are wielding a melee weapon in both hands, any “precision-based” damage you deal is no longer precision based; your opponent's inability to defend itself simply offers you an opening to land a more solid blow (rather than one where the enemy dodges or deflects the brunt of an attack). As such, your foe's immunities to critical hits don't apply against this sort of damage.