Whip Enhancement (Feats and Items)

[TempusCCK]

I think the whip has great flavor, but the PHB and other references I've checked so far have nothing in the way of enhancing the whips dismal base performance. In light of that, I present to you:


Whip Mastery [General]

Your control and mastery of the whip allows you to perform amazing acts of agility and cunning.

Prerequisites

Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whip)

Base attack bonus +4

Benefit

You can use a whip to grapple or grab objects at a distance, allowing you to make a dexterity-based grapple check on any inanimate object against a DC of 0 + size modifier of the object. Once you have a hold on the object, you can make a separate attack roll to throw it to any area (including yourself) or at any opponent within 2 times the reach of the whip. You can only grapple and throw or move items that you’d be able to do so with one hand. Treat this thrown attack as a standard action that incurs no penalties to the attack roll. You can make a thrown attack as an attack of opportunity, but they are not subject to the effects of the Combat Reflexes Feat.

You also incur no Attacks of Opportunity for using a whip in melee.

This also grants you a +4 bonus to any trip, grapple or disarm rolls you make when using a whip.

You may also use a whip to enhance your Climb or Jump checks, assuming there is something for the whip to attach to such as a tree limb, pole, bar, rafter Ect. Ect.


Special

A fighter may choose Whip Mastery as one of his fighter bonus feats.





Whip Enhancements:

Hook: This is a small metal hook, or a series of arrayed hooks, that attach to the end of a whip, adding a +2 bonus to all grapple, trip, disarm, Climb and Jump checks made when using a whip. Price: 10 GP

Blade: This is a small blade that attaches to the end of a whip and allows you to deal lethal slashing damage on damage rolls made when using a whip. It also allows you to deal damage to creatures with an armor bonus of +1 or any creature with natural armor. Price: 10 GP

Blade, Large: This is a larger blade that attaches to the end of a whip, and allows you to deal 1D6 damage when making attacks when using a whip, because of the size, however, you incur a -1 penalty to attacks rolls, trip, disarm, or grapple checks made with the whip. Price: 15 GP


Obviously, I would like a critique, and I would like to know if something similar to this already exists and I may have overlooked it. Either way, enjoy.

[Proven_Paradox]

Whip Mastery seems to roll what should be several feats into one. I'd call it over-powered myself. Consider splitting it into two or three seperate feats, I think.

By adding a large blade to the whip, you essentially get a small slashing spiked chain with a reach of 15 feet for 15 GP extra. The spiked chain as written strikes me as crazy over-powered already; that extra 5 foot reach is a bit much I'd say.

I also think the hook is a bit much. +2 to everything you're going to use a whip for anyway for 10 GP? That usually costs a feat. I mean, it makes logical sense, but I think it's unbalancing.

Not sure what to say about the blade... I can see some major cheese happening with that, especially once we get into large races. In the hands of a medium or smaller creature I wouldn't have much of a problem with it. It's a ranged attack with a limit of 15' and no ammunition: I'd say the range limitation is worth the unlimited uses...

[TempusCCK]

I considered breaking the feat into a smaller chain of feats, but I modeled it more after things like Improved Bull Rush and Improved Disarm, which give you X-advantage, plus some kind of modifier when doing it.

Like, you don't provoke attacks of opportunties when using a bull rush, and you also gain a +4 bonus to the strength check, which is pretty much the same as I did, but I added an extra attack along with it, an extra attack, I might add, that doesn't really do a whole lot of damage considering the types of things you'd be throwing.

As far as the blades and the hooks go, the regular sized blade is a mere D3 damage, whereas the large blade is like throwing a dagger ontop of it, and I figured that the -1 to the rolls and checks would act as sort of a counter balance-wise. Maybe it should be a little more?

As far as it being a spike chain knock-off, it doesn't nearly do as much damage, but I felt that giving it even a small bit of damage ability would make it more appealing practically for people would would enjoy the flavor for it.

The ranged attack is limited by the objects you have available to you, and the fact that this whip is extremely low damage, so even if you can hit everything within 15 feet, you'll still be hard set to really do any hurting with the whip.

The purpose of the enhancement items, including the hook, is to make the weapon more useful, and something as small as a +2 for 15 GP may seem big to you, because to the player it is supposed to, but on average, how much does a mere plus 2 really come into play? Very rarely is it going to make or break an attack. Like I said, just there for flavor.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to here them, and please don't think I'm being overly aggressive in defending my work with this big-ass post, I just wanted you all to see my thought process in coming up with the system.

[Proven_Paradox]

You're explaining the reasonings behind what you did, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Anyway, something with 15' reach in addition to 1d6 lethal damage and the tripping/disarming stuff--even with a -1 to attack rolls--strikes me as unbalancing. Maybe if you made it so that the large blade rendered the whip unable to trip/disarm/grapple and all that cool stuff at range, and that equipping/removing the blade was a full-round (or maybe standard) action? That way you choose between damage and battlefield control.

As far as "how much does a mere plus 2 really come into play?" I say quite a lot. +2 to attack rolls and damage costs 8,000 GP on most weapons, last time I checked. Tripping and disarmming, when used properly, can be a devistating tactic, and +2 to that is just huge, especially for a mere 10 GP with no penalties at all.


As for the feat, I think you should split it into two. One that removes the attack of opportunity and the +4 to checks, and one that gives you the cool throw-the-items around utility. I could see a lot of cool uses for that. Maybe it wouldn't be optimized, but it's be flavorful as hell.

[Caduceus]

My worst nightmare. I have a player who was allowed by another DM (one of the other players in my group -- we take turns DMing) to have whip+weapon combinations. Ever since he keeps asking if he can have a whip-dagger and a whip-sap whenever he's creating a character. Every once in a while he throws in the whip-mace.

2d4 nonlethal for the whip-sap

2d4 lethal for the whip-dagger (basically a spiked chain with limitations)

2d6 lethal for the whip-mace

And all at 15 ft range. A DM's worst nightmare.

[Ceiling009]

Actually, in earlier books, in 3.0, the Lasher has these as class abilities... and the most i've seen a whip do in 3.0 is about 1d6 lethal, cause a nagaika is a basically a whip that does lethal damage. Generally, I think magical bows with a sound sniper ranger would be more powerful overall...But I would probably split that one large feat into maybe 2 smaller feats, and make it like a feat line for whips, which aren't often used I think.

[knightsaline]

how about a ball made of different substances to improve its performance. heres what I think should go on the end of the whip;
garlic (for those belmont wannabies)
adamantite (Hardness? I see no hardness!)
silver (kill the lycanthrope)
a kitten (turn the whip into a slashing weapon)
fireball (just because it looks good)

[TempusCCK]

2d4 nonlethal for the whip-sap

2d4 lethal for the whip-dagger (basically a spiked chain with limitations)

2d6 lethal for the whip-mace

And all at 15 ft range. A DM's worst nightmare.

Way too much damage for what I was looking for, exactly because I didn't want it to be a big-range version of the spiked chain. I wanted to increase it's usefullness because I believe there is alot of potential for flavor there.

And yes, I believe that the additions and changing of the whip enhancement items would probably take some doing, probably as a full round action, meaning you can either enhance your trip/disarm/whatever, or you could deal ranged damage, one or the other. Maybe I could add some additional balance by giving a negative to the attack roll with the hook attached?

I really really don't want to break it into two feats because logically the benefits here come from the same ability that this feat is granting, and I think that maybe sometimes with our Home-brewed things on GITP we get caught up in alot of feat-chains, that limit our versatility a little much, but an argument could be made either way with that.


how about a ball made of different substances to improve its performance. heres what I think should go on the end of the whip;
garlic (for those belmont wannabies)
adamantite (Hardness? I see no hardness!)
silver (kill the lycanthrope)
a kitten (turn the whip into a slashing weapon)
fireball (just because it looks good)

I also thought about something like that, involving alot of magical/alchemical substances and what have you, but I didn't really get a chance to elaborate on it anymore, those are some pretty good stepping stones to work off of though.

[Fawsto]

1 word: Lasher

1 book: Sword and Fist

Hmmm... at most, whips deals 1d6 points of damage (dagger whip) without strenght that CAN't be added, unless you pay an extra fee for the proper increment.

[ArmorArmadillo]

One and a half words: 3.5
Sword and Fist is a 3.0 rulebook.

As for the whip, it's not made to be a powerful weapon, more of a tricky tactic to work at extreme range.

I like the feat, but it does need to be broken up.

Whip Basics: Don't provoke at close range; deal lethal or non-lethal damage with whip.

Whip Focus: Trip or disarm with a whip; +4 bonus on opposed checks.

Whip Mastery: Whip damage increases by one category.

Whip Supremacy: Whenever you hit with a whip, you immediately may attempt grapple with it; gain whip damage as constrict.

A fighter fully focused on whip can get all these feats pretty easily; so it's not a huge problem.

[TempusCCK]

One and a half words: 3.5
Sword and Fist is a 3.0 rulebook.

As for the whip, it's not made to be a powerful weapon, more of a tricky tactic to work at extreme range.

I like the feat, but it does need to be broken up.

Whip Basics: Don't provoke at close range; deal lethal or non-lethal damage with whip.

Whip Focus: Trip or disarm with a whip; +4 bonus on opposed checks.

Whip Mastery: Whip damage increases by one category.

Whip Supremacy: Whenever you hit with a whip, you immediately may attempt grapple with it; gain whip damage as constrict.

A fighter fully focused on whip can get all these feats pretty easily; so it's not a huge problem.

For this to work I think Whip Basics and Whip Focus would need to be combined into one feat, because like I mentioned before, things like Improved Bullrush take away the Attack of Opportunity and give you an enhancement bonus, the blade additions were meant to make the damage lethal, as well as a little more, and then you could do something like Improved Whip Mastery to get in the grapple attack, but I don't really know about constrict damage, doesn't really make alot of sense unless your whip is under an Animate Rope spell or something.

That's how it'd have to be done to make it a series of feats.