Has anyone used the parry feats from DR#301?

[Max Caysey]

I was looking at the Parry feats in Dragon Magazine #301, which seems like an interesting addition to combat. I have never tried them on an actual character, but I'm considering on my new and shiny gish...

But before I do, I wanted to know if anyone here has any experience using them? Can't remember reading about anyone using them, so I thought I would ask! I'm wondering specifically is they slow down combat a lot? Or perhaps they only look good on paper...

Any comments, advise or anecdotes pertaining to the parry feat line would be great at this point!


Cheers!

[Gruftzwerg]

Imho the feats aren't worth the cost.

Maybe for some niche tank builds (with the feat to parry for your teammates).

Or when you know that most enemies will use weapons, you could combo Combat Brute with Crushing Defense. CD gives free Sunder attempts on a successful parry and CB gives free attack after successfully sundering (like Cleave for items). The problem that I see is, after so much investment into defensive feats, your dmg will be low and as such sundering a weapon in a single attack may be impossible here.

And about your concern that it might drag combat into unnecessary length:
time for extra parry rolls + extra time to take enemies down due to low dmg build

So yeah, it will slow combat down to a degree. It's like the old saying: "Offense is the best Defense." A dead enemy is the best defense you can have. dead enemy > parry

That being said, tank builds can still be a lot of fun to play, especially in more mundane campaigns. In the end, it all boils down to the setting and your other party members if it fits well or not.

[Doctor Despair]

On the other hand, it does offer a unique opportunity to actually have a retort when someone says "Parry this, you filthy casual."

[Saintheart]

Parrying does give you an excuse to carry a light weapon, since it automatically gets you a +4 on the attack roll. It might not be a bad anti-crit or anti-natural 20 device, since by RAW the parry attempt is made after the attack roll result is known but before damage is 'assigned'. Then it becomes a question of whether your DM says you can't beat a natural 20 or whether the target result is the opponent's attack bonus plus 20.

It might be another use for a Gnomish Quickrazor in particular, since drawing the razor's a free action and you're otherwise not considered armed with it, i.e. maybe your DM might allow you tppull the quickrazor for the parry thus pulling a +4 on the attempt and your attack bonus otherwise unimpeded. Maybe.

EDIT: Also, if you're going to use Parry rules, you might as well consider the Main-gauche out of the same Dragon 301 issue, since you get a free +2 untyped to Parry attempts. It's basically just an unthrowable dagger otherwise.

[Max Caysey]

Incidentally, my plan was indeed to use a light weapon... However, that also leaves me open to disarming, which is mitigatable though. Initially I thought I might take Improved Disarm also... not only to try and mitigate the risk of me being disarmed, but also to gain access to the disarming maneuver. I like having other things to do than just swing a blade in melee... (primarily the thought behind taking parry to begin with). However wielding a light weapon means I'm never going to excel in it... thus again decreasing its utility.

I also wonder how much action the parry feat will see. Considering my fairly high defenses already, I'm not certain it would see much utilization. Mirror Image, Displacement etc., plus fairly high AC makes my gish pretty tanky as is... Do I need to further increase that? I just don't know. Sure it could be used to negate a crit (depending on my DMs interpretation, as pointed out), or a slam/bite from certain nasty monsters, which indeed would be great, but we don't exclusively fight these and knowing my DM, he could very well just choose to attack vulnerable party members, with debilitating attacks, knowing I'll negate it... again further reducing its utility... But, I actually really like the idea, and while I understand that dodges and parries are written in as an idea of what AC represents, I like the idea that you can actively negate an attack as an action...

At this point I just don't know how it'll play out... Its cool on paper, but it might suck ingame...


Keep thoughts and comments coming... any further insights will be much appreciated!