Interception Fighting Style

[TheDarkKing]

How broken do you all think that the Interception fighting style would be if you were allowed to reduce incoming damage to yourself?

[stoutstien]

Was that way in UA. It makes it stronger but not so much so I would balk at the idea.

[heavyfuel]

It costs your Reaction so it's not super useful against multi-attackers, you have to be seeing the attacker, it doesn't completely negate the damage most of the time.

Honestly, I wouldn't be super opposed to it. My knee-jerk reaction is to lower the dice from d10 to d6 and allow it, but you're probably fine with leaving it at d10.

What I currently do is that Interception allows you to reduce the damage against anyone within your reach, it makes it much better for polearm users since you can be 10ft away from your ally.

[stoutstien]

My current "fix" was to allow it against attacks within 5 ft, including the user, and adjust the scaling so it's more constant in impact as they advance. It reduces the damage by a number of d6s equal to proficiency bonus.

[x3n0n]

How broken do you all think that the Interception fighting style would be if you were allowed to reduce incoming damage to yourself?

I'm assuming it would be pretty broken in the first half of tier 1. 1d10+2 is at least 3 damage prevented and 7.5 on average *per round*, which is ~2/3 of a 1st-level PC's HP.
Like dueling 1x1 with CR 1 monsters as a 1st-level PC kind of broken.

Once you're up around level 3, you're more likely to have another useful reaction, and you're likely to start getting hit more than once a round.
That makes it a great candidate for retraining at your level 4 ASI.

(It's already pretty great if you have two front-liners; both of you can take it and protect the other one.)


That said, I don't think it's more *powerful* than v.human (or Custom Lineage) Heavy Armor Master--just lower opportunity cost: re-trainable fighting style vs permanent (half-Str) feat.

[Granitecosmos]

How broken do you all think that the Interception fighting style would be if you were allowed to reduce incoming damage to yourself?
That depends on how broken you think an infinite HD for a reaction would be, considering this is pretty much exactly that already (although it can't "heal" damage you already suffered), with the limit being it can only target others. I honestly think it's better the way it is, since this way it can serve as a "taunt"; the DM knows you'll be intercepting attacks on your allies so the monster hits you instead. Better taunt than a Barbarian raging and recklessly attacking; for one, it's available at level 1, and for two, rage halves damage so it's not exactly as good of an incentive, even with the advantage.

A full melee party in a T1 game would dominate with this on everyone, that's for sure. It remains useful for the rest of the game, much like the Goliath's Stone of Endurance; especially in a game with no feats!