Gr7mm Bobb
2017-12-12, 04:27 PM
In my time of playing 3.x and PF I have often found that the phrase "there's a feat for that" can be applied, for better of for worse. As it stands, I finally found a situation where that is not the case at all outside of limited variant rules or feats that "kinda" align with my goals before falling short or derailing. As it stands, my DM is opposed to including the 3.0 skill of Iaijutsu Focus (from Oriental Adventures), which was totally chill because it was cheese-stickery waiting to happen. I have already scoured a lot of guides and such over the years and my attempts to create an "iconic swordsman" have been hindered by some basic things. Two major details I am aiming for with my build goals are as follows; I want the character to be able to hide from attacks behind his sword, and I want him do be able to ends fights with a single sword stroke consistently. The second goal isn't me asking for munckinizing or anything, just to have the visual imagery of one cut.
As it stands, I currently intend on going full 20 using the Magus class with the Bladebound and Kensai archetypes. And for the most part those two factors bump me towards my goal very nicely.
In terms of the first goal, I have found the Cut From the Air feat tree from the Weapon Master’s Handbook Player Companion and intend on using the Martial Focus feat to meet the prereq's. To save you guys on some reading, the short of it is this: So long as they can see it coming and are wielding their weapon of choice, the character can use an AoO to make an attack roll to prevent a ranged attack from hitting them or someone else in their reach. Eventually letting the PC cut even spells and boulders from the air, which is super friggen sweet imo. - The dilemma? After hours of repeatedly searching and rifling through books, I have yet to find the melee version of this feat path/idea. They closest that I've come is through the Flamboyant Arcana. The huge problem with that is that only it functions as an immediate action, not as an AoO. So I would like to design a feat that acts as a melee version of Cut From the Air (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/weapon-mastery-feats/cut-from-the-air-weapon-mastery/).
The next hurdle is probably less problematic then the first. Damage is not a concern at the moment as I intent on using flat mods that multiply with crits to cover a lot of that mileage. I am pretty certain it is by design, but I am merely trying to recreate the numerical effect of the Clustered Shots feat that ranged weapon users get access to. The Vital strike tree is super neat because it's a standard action to use, but really disappointing in terms of returns on that investment on top of being feat intensive with a class who has limited feats to begin with (at least its not a sorcerer concept). It is only slightly more acceptable with the use of its Mythic version, but again feat intensive and the mythic add-on makes it moreso. I have seen one other feat that behaves like this called pummeling blows. So from here I would like to state the request to design a homebrew feat that allows me to cram all of my attack rolls for a turn at a single target and count it as a single strike mechanically and thematically. (since i'm looking for a melee parry mechanic, I'm unsure as to whether or not each "attempted strike" should be able to be parried, or the single final "strike" (Maybe making it a specialized Full-Attack). There is probably less headache if each one was allowed to be parried off before the final result is deduced and would allow for more counter play.) The one strike to drop goal is to be able to drop an average fighter of equal or lesser level, nothing too ridiculous.
Still need to run Mercurial Strike and Improved Combat Reflexes (Dragon Magazine) by the GM and see how he feels about it.
The rest of the build is a toss up of metamagics and metamagic reductions and a janky Ao) styled builds with Rolibars Gambit/Karmic Strike and Stormgaurd Warrior (proficient with andoli dueling sword, DM gave the additional proficiency of longswords because of chosen weapon.)
Side note, its probably going to be a major "NOPE!" but I have my eyes on the 3rd party feats Focused Attack and Savage Critical.
Anyway, My goal is mechanics and not so much minmaxing damage when it comes to this homebrew. To my knowledge the Gm isn't using a massive damage rule, so I fear less personal abuse of massive damage strikes. I aim to be fantastically ridiculous, but acceptably so.
As it stands, I currently intend on going full 20 using the Magus class with the Bladebound and Kensai archetypes. And for the most part those two factors bump me towards my goal very nicely.
In terms of the first goal, I have found the Cut From the Air feat tree from the Weapon Master’s Handbook Player Companion and intend on using the Martial Focus feat to meet the prereq's. To save you guys on some reading, the short of it is this: So long as they can see it coming and are wielding their weapon of choice, the character can use an AoO to make an attack roll to prevent a ranged attack from hitting them or someone else in their reach. Eventually letting the PC cut even spells and boulders from the air, which is super friggen sweet imo. - The dilemma? After hours of repeatedly searching and rifling through books, I have yet to find the melee version of this feat path/idea. They closest that I've come is through the Flamboyant Arcana. The huge problem with that is that only it functions as an immediate action, not as an AoO. So I would like to design a feat that acts as a melee version of Cut From the Air (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/weapon-mastery-feats/cut-from-the-air-weapon-mastery/).
The next hurdle is probably less problematic then the first. Damage is not a concern at the moment as I intent on using flat mods that multiply with crits to cover a lot of that mileage. I am pretty certain it is by design, but I am merely trying to recreate the numerical effect of the Clustered Shots feat that ranged weapon users get access to. The Vital strike tree is super neat because it's a standard action to use, but really disappointing in terms of returns on that investment on top of being feat intensive with a class who has limited feats to begin with (at least its not a sorcerer concept). It is only slightly more acceptable with the use of its Mythic version, but again feat intensive and the mythic add-on makes it moreso. I have seen one other feat that behaves like this called pummeling blows. So from here I would like to state the request to design a homebrew feat that allows me to cram all of my attack rolls for a turn at a single target and count it as a single strike mechanically and thematically. (since i'm looking for a melee parry mechanic, I'm unsure as to whether or not each "attempted strike" should be able to be parried, or the single final "strike" (Maybe making it a specialized Full-Attack). There is probably less headache if each one was allowed to be parried off before the final result is deduced and would allow for more counter play.) The one strike to drop goal is to be able to drop an average fighter of equal or lesser level, nothing too ridiculous.
Still need to run Mercurial Strike and Improved Combat Reflexes (Dragon Magazine) by the GM and see how he feels about it.
The rest of the build is a toss up of metamagics and metamagic reductions and a janky Ao) styled builds with Rolibars Gambit/Karmic Strike and Stormgaurd Warrior (proficient with andoli dueling sword, DM gave the additional proficiency of longswords because of chosen weapon.)
Side note, its probably going to be a major "NOPE!" but I have my eyes on the 3rd party feats Focused Attack and Savage Critical.
Anyway, My goal is mechanics and not so much minmaxing damage when it comes to this homebrew. To my knowledge the Gm isn't using a massive damage rule, so I fear less personal abuse of massive damage strikes. I aim to be fantastically ridiculous, but acceptably so.