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Yakk
2007-12-13, 11:19 AM
Shield Mitigation [Feat]
Prerequisite: Shield Proficiency

Effect: You gain (BaB+Strength Bonus) Shield Mitigation points (but no less than 1).

When you, or your equipment, is hit by an attack while you have a shield equipped, as a free action you may make a dex-based opposed attack roll using the AC of the shield, including any enhancement bonuses, to attempt to mitigate the blow (d20+Dex bonus+BaB+shield AC). You roll this against the already-rolled attack that hit you.

If you win the opposed contest, damage is first applied to your Shield Mitigation points before your HP.

This even works against touch attacks. It does not work if your shield is an Animated shield. It does not work if you attacked with the limb that holds your shield this turn or in your last turn. Any spell or effect that produces shield AC without requiring the dedicated use of a limb is not sufficient to use this feat. Non-HP damage, and any other effects from the attack, applies normally.

You can refresh all of your Shield Mitigation points at the cost of a single full-round action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

This feat may be taken as a Fighter Bonus Feat.

You may not Shield Mitigate while flat-footed.

Normal: You cannot mitigate damage with your shield.

Shield Mitigate Ally [Feat]
Prerequisite: Shield Mitigation

Effect: When an adjacent individual is attacked, you may as a free action use the Shield Mitigation feat against that attack. Only one successful Shield Mitigate may apply to a given attack.

This feat may be taken as a Fighter Bonus Feat.

Normal: You can only Shield Mitigate attacks against yourself.

Improved Shield Mitigation Recovery [Feat]
Prerequisite: Shield Mitigation, BaB +5

Effect: You may refresh up to 5 Shield Mitigate points as a Move Action, or all of them as a Standard Action.

If you have at least +10 BaB, 5 of your Shield Mitigate points refresh at the start of your turn, and you may refresh them all as a Move action. Refreshing your shield mitigation points does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

If you have +20 BaB, 10 of your Shield Mitigate points refresh at the start of your turn instead of 5.

This feat may be taken as a Fighter Bonus Feat.

Normal: It requires a full-round action to refresh your shield mitigate points.

Shield Mitigation Mastery [Feat]
Prerequisite: Shield Mitigation, BaB +5

Effect: If you succeed at a save against a damaging effect, you may apply the damage dealt first to your Shield Mitigation points. (Note: you do not roll a normal Shield Mitigate check: just use your normal save). This only works if your Shield would qualify for Mitigation (ie, you haven't attacked with the limb, etc).

You may Shield Mitigate even when flat-footed.

When your BaB reaches +10, you may add your the Shield AC of your Shield to your Shield Mitigation point total, including any enhancement bonuses.

When your BaB reaches +15 and +20, you gain 5 bonus Shield Mitigation points.

This feat may be taken as a Fighter Bonus Feat.

Normal: You may not Shield Mitigate while flat-footed. Your Shield AC does not increase your Shield Mitigation point pool. You may only Shield Mitigate against normal attacks or touch attacks.

Jack Zander
2007-12-13, 11:25 AM
Interesting...

Strength though? Shouldn't Dexterity be used to block attacks with?

RandomFellow
2007-12-13, 11:53 AM
I agree...Strength should be Dexterity but otherwise a good feat. =)

Yakk
2007-12-13, 11:54 PM
I rather like the feel of soaking the blow with your raw strength.

Instead, what if you have shield mitigation points equal to your BaB+Strength Bonus, and roll Dex to do the actual block? That works nicely...

Rolled that into the feat.

The goal of these feats is to make using a shield as a shield more tempting, but still prevent defense from overwealming offense.

A BaB contest has about a 50-50 chance of winning for the fighter against a similar level opponent: so only half of the attacks get mitigated.

The amount of mitigation is bounded at a medium to low level. A strong blow will blast right through it.

On the other hand, it is relatively "costless" if you do have a shield equipped: you aren't even burning immediate actions.

The main feat scales naturally. Currently, it requires 2 stats to use perfectly, which generates some nice MAD options.

Protecting an ally seems worth a feat, and rolling it into the main feat would make it a bit too much.

Faster recovery for a second feat isn't needed, but it does help. I could just roll this into the main feat, but I decided that the main feat had enough text in it, and scaled well enough by itself, that rolling it into a second (delayed) feat is justified.

Does anyone dislike it? :)

Jack Zander
2007-12-14, 12:35 AM
I like it especially with those changes you just made.

TheOOB
2007-12-14, 01:24 AM
I think it's a good idea. Ultimately there should be a martial discipline that had a lot of shield based manuvers and stances, but this feat is a great way to give shields some meaning in the current system without having to change a whole lot.

I like how the feat scales, one the one hand damage reduction (which this essentially is, only with a roll required) gets less and less useful as you go up in levels, as damage goes up faster then DR, but on the other hand as you go up in level, a single feat should mean less and less for your character(especially for a fighter). It provides a significant boost to survivability at low levels (when a few points here and there means a lot) and still provides a nice boost at high levels when you've (hopefully) allready rounded out your character.

RandomFellow
2007-12-14, 05:53 AM
...

Does anyone dislike it? :)

Now that you added Strength and Dex? Nope.

Consider it nabbed for Erth. =) (Unless you object of course)

Yakk
2007-12-14, 12:27 PM
Yet another tweak.

The Improved version, instead of granting half of your mitigation points back at the start of your turn with a +10 BaB, grants 5 back. This is easier bookkeeping (especially if you forget to do it), and removes wording about "half of the lost" or "half of the total". At +20 BaB it grants 10 back, to help it scale, and to reward "full BaB" classes.

Added a "Shield Mitigation Mastery" feat that extends the ability, allowing it to scale better at higher levels for the cost of an additional feat.

There are 2 feats you can get at L 1 (Mitigation and Ally), and two feats you can get at +5 BaB (Recovery and Mastery). It scales by level, with extra bonuses at +10, +15 and +20 BaB.

I called the 3rd one "Mastery" to discourage further feat-loading of the chain. An epic feat makes sense to cap the chain off...

The feat tree is rather flat.

At +1 BaB with 18 strength, you have 5 Shield Mitigate Points.

At +20 BaB, it becomes:
Str Bonus +30 + Shield AC points
with a +5 tower shield and 30 strength, that's 49 points.

It recovers at a rate of 10 points per round free of charge, or completely if the character consumes a move action.

It involves a single roll against a given attack, and making that roll is usually a "no brainer", so it shouldn't slow down each turn of combat that much.

You can protect your adjacent allies.

You can even soak spell damage if it is touch-attack based or you beat the save against the spell.

icthius
2007-12-14, 01:15 PM
Consider changing strength to constitution. Since you're soaking up damage by bracing your shield against it, it's quite similar to fortitude.

Triaxx
2007-12-14, 07:04 PM
Interesting. I was thinking of a similar idea, except using the shield's AC as DR.

Stycotl
2007-12-15, 06:48 PM
bravo yakk. i like ideas that give meaning to seldom-used mechanics. in the real world, a shield was an amazing advantage. but d&d mechanics have made them subpar to dual-wielding and stuff. good job. aaron out.