Ardantis
2014-02-27, 11:06 AM
Turtle Dart
Races of Stone, pg. 145
Style
You have mastered the style of fighting with a short sword while wearing extremely heavy armor and carrying a large shield.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (shortsword), Exotic Armor Proficiency (battle plate or mountain plate), Exotic Shield Proficiency (extreme shield) or Tower Shield Proficiency
Benefit
To gain the benefit of this feat, you must be wearing exotic heavy armor and carrying an extreme shield or a tower shield. When using this style, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving away from any creature that you attack with your short sword in the same round.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS FEAT?
It is clearly meant for Dwarven Fighters, as fighters may swap Tower Shield Proficiency for Exotic Shield Proficiency (extreme shield) and Dwarves may take Dwarven Armor Proficiency as a fighter bonus feat, giving them proficiency with both battle and mountain plate (as well as several others including interlocking plate, which also functions for the use of this feat).
It is available at level 1 for Human or Strongheart Halfling Fighters (go go racial bonus feat) and 2nd level for Dwarven Fighters (including access to several other exotic armors), when you are able to afford neither battle nor mountain (nor interlocking) plate by WBL.
Flavor-wise, the idea of a heavily-armored dwarven dragoon hearkens back to the idea of a golden age of dwarfdom, in which great mountain halls were defended by legions of heavily-armored Dwarf hoplites clad in mail mined and forged in the depths of their subterranean kingdom. It feels very Lord of the Rings.
And, I suppose, an army of mobile, hard-to-pin-down and impossible to hurt metal midgets is what this feat tries to evoke.
The shortsword requirement baffles me, though. It doesn't strike me as a particularly dwarven weapon (more elven or gnomish, really) and there are no specialty racial dwarven shortswords of which I am aware.
Now, mechanically speaking, this feat is a total trainwreck.
The Dwarven Armor Proficiency feat is subpar, although if you were in a Dwarven or underground campaign it would give you access to interesting and appropriate armor choices at different levels of wealth. Still, most of the time, a few extra points of AC is not worth a feat (unless you're in a low-magic setting without access to good magic armor and AC-boosting spells).
Non-dwarves need to take the exotic proficiency for either battle or mountain plate, which is a total waste (and may not be available in your campaign, in the case of mountain plate at least). Total waste.
Fighters have the Tower Shield Proficiency (and can trade out for extreme shield if they so care), but this means either take an entirely needless feat or take a level of Fighter (which is worse? ha).
Finally, Weapon Focus (shortsword) is a waste of everyone's time and money. A +1 bonus to hit for a feat is NOT WORTH IT. Additionally, shortswords are not the right weapon! 1d6 damage die aside, are you going to use this light weapon to take advantage of dual-wielding (wait shield) or Weapon Finesse (wait dwarf fighter in full plate)? OH YEAH AND NOW YOU CAN'T POWER ATTACK BECAUSE IT IS A LIGHT WEAPON.
So then if we rush this feat we're locked into a subpar sword'n'board style which we can only use in armor we can't afford with a light weapon and we CAN'T POWER ATTACK.
So what do we get for all this?
"When using this style, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving away from any creature that you attack with your short sword in the same round."
So let me get this straight- if we attack an enemy with our shortsword (standard action only!), we get to move away from that enemy without provoking in the same round (your move action!)
Oh dear.
So now our fighting style not only promotes the use of sword'n'board (low damage), light weapons (no power attack), it also necessitates standard action attacks (not full attack actions)?
We might as well be halflings.
But seriously, between feat taxes, flavor issues (which are BIG), and mechanical fails (which are even bigger), I imagine any realm of dwarves which promotes the use of this feat to be full of heavily armored, high-dexterity COWARDS!
JUST TAKE MOBILITY FOR CRIPES' SAKE!
GAH!!
Races of Stone, pg. 145
Style
You have mastered the style of fighting with a short sword while wearing extremely heavy armor and carrying a large shield.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (shortsword), Exotic Armor Proficiency (battle plate or mountain plate), Exotic Shield Proficiency (extreme shield) or Tower Shield Proficiency
Benefit
To gain the benefit of this feat, you must be wearing exotic heavy armor and carrying an extreme shield or a tower shield. When using this style, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving away from any creature that you attack with your short sword in the same round.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS FEAT?
It is clearly meant for Dwarven Fighters, as fighters may swap Tower Shield Proficiency for Exotic Shield Proficiency (extreme shield) and Dwarves may take Dwarven Armor Proficiency as a fighter bonus feat, giving them proficiency with both battle and mountain plate (as well as several others including interlocking plate, which also functions for the use of this feat).
It is available at level 1 for Human or Strongheart Halfling Fighters (go go racial bonus feat) and 2nd level for Dwarven Fighters (including access to several other exotic armors), when you are able to afford neither battle nor mountain (nor interlocking) plate by WBL.
Flavor-wise, the idea of a heavily-armored dwarven dragoon hearkens back to the idea of a golden age of dwarfdom, in which great mountain halls were defended by legions of heavily-armored Dwarf hoplites clad in mail mined and forged in the depths of their subterranean kingdom. It feels very Lord of the Rings.
And, I suppose, an army of mobile, hard-to-pin-down and impossible to hurt metal midgets is what this feat tries to evoke.
The shortsword requirement baffles me, though. It doesn't strike me as a particularly dwarven weapon (more elven or gnomish, really) and there are no specialty racial dwarven shortswords of which I am aware.
Now, mechanically speaking, this feat is a total trainwreck.
The Dwarven Armor Proficiency feat is subpar, although if you were in a Dwarven or underground campaign it would give you access to interesting and appropriate armor choices at different levels of wealth. Still, most of the time, a few extra points of AC is not worth a feat (unless you're in a low-magic setting without access to good magic armor and AC-boosting spells).
Non-dwarves need to take the exotic proficiency for either battle or mountain plate, which is a total waste (and may not be available in your campaign, in the case of mountain plate at least). Total waste.
Fighters have the Tower Shield Proficiency (and can trade out for extreme shield if they so care), but this means either take an entirely needless feat or take a level of Fighter (which is worse? ha).
Finally, Weapon Focus (shortsword) is a waste of everyone's time and money. A +1 bonus to hit for a feat is NOT WORTH IT. Additionally, shortswords are not the right weapon! 1d6 damage die aside, are you going to use this light weapon to take advantage of dual-wielding (wait shield) or Weapon Finesse (wait dwarf fighter in full plate)? OH YEAH AND NOW YOU CAN'T POWER ATTACK BECAUSE IT IS A LIGHT WEAPON.
So then if we rush this feat we're locked into a subpar sword'n'board style which we can only use in armor we can't afford with a light weapon and we CAN'T POWER ATTACK.
So what do we get for all this?
"When using this style, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity for moving away from any creature that you attack with your short sword in the same round."
So let me get this straight- if we attack an enemy with our shortsword (standard action only!), we get to move away from that enemy without provoking in the same round (your move action!)
Oh dear.
So now our fighting style not only promotes the use of sword'n'board (low damage), light weapons (no power attack), it also necessitates standard action attacks (not full attack actions)?
We might as well be halflings.
But seriously, between feat taxes, flavor issues (which are BIG), and mechanical fails (which are even bigger), I imagine any realm of dwarves which promotes the use of this feat to be full of heavily armored, high-dexterity COWARDS!
JUST TAKE MOBILITY FOR CRIPES' SAKE!
GAH!!