Combat Expertise Workarounds?

[Afgncaap5]

I've got a player who wants to play a master of fighting styles and wants to be a collector of ancient weapons. He went half-orc as a multiclass Fighter/Barbarian. He made Int his dump stat, I asked if he was sure about that since he would be a sort of scholarly figure, and he said it was the only real option.

And for the most part it worked pretty well. The other day, though, the party encountered a group of swashbuckler spies who made easy use of Combat Expertise, Aid Another, and Improved Disarm to nullify most of the party's regular tactics. Now the player is very interested in the Combat Expertise feat, but with an intelligence of 8 and a prerequisite of 13 there isn't much he can do to get it. Looking at various magic items and things, most seem to improve the benefits of Combat Expertise instead of granting the feat outright.

However, he said one of his key concerns was AC more than the feat itself. So, would anyone have any suggestions on things I could suggest to this player to either get Combat Expertise or a boost to AC that works similarly?

[ExLibrisMortis]

Combat Expertise is awarded by the Passive Way monk free of prereqs. It's not a bad two-level dip if you add stuff like chaos monk + Invisible Fist.

[Red Fel]

First off, anyone can fight defensively, taking a -4 to attack to gain +2 to AC. Combat Expertise just increases the range and makes it more variable (lose 1-5 to attack, gain 1-5 to AC).

Second, if the concern is AC and you're willing to let him retrain a class feature, you can switch out his Barbarian Rage for the Whirling Frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ) variant. Whirling Frenzy takes the normal Barbarian Rage (+Str, +Con, +Will, -AC) and replaces it with Whirling Frenzy (+Str, +AC, +Reflex). In addition, a Barbarian in a Whirling Frenzy can take a -2 to all attacks for the round and gain an extra attack at his highest BAB (so, a +16/+11/+6/+1 BAB makes +14/+14/+9/+4/-1).

If you're willing to let him swap, that is.

[Afgncaap5]

First off, anyone can fight defensively, taking a -4 to attack to gain +2 to AC. Combat Expertise just increases the range and makes it more variable (lose 1-5 to attack, gain 1-5 to AC).

Second, if the concern is AC and you're willing to let him retrain a class feature, you can switch out his Barbarian Rage for the Whirling Frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ) variant. Whirling Frenzy takes the normal Barbarian Rage (+Str, +Con, +Will, -AC) and replaces it with Whirling Frenzy (+Str, +AC, +Reflex). In addition, a Barbarian in a Whirling Frenzy can take a -2 to all attacks for the round and gain an extra attack at his highest BAB (so, a +16/+11/+6/+1 BAB makes +14/+14/+9/+4/-1).

If you're willing to let him swap, that is.

I'd already mentioned just Fighting Defensively to him though haven't heard a response back yet. Whirling Frenzy, though, is something I've always meant to look into and may well be exactly the kind of thing he needs. I'd be willing to let him switch; a recent near-death experience (-10 hp, barely saved via Revivify) might provide the physical and psychological shift required to justify something like that without a retraining quest, and it's close enough to the character concept that it's more than justifiable in the name of fun times at the gaming table, I think. Thanks.

[TheIronGolem]

Why not just waive the INT requirement of Combat Expertise and its many children? It's a dumb prerequisite anyway.