Help Still Needed

I have been asked to rewrite, and critique the following feats for a fellow player, and to balance them out before the game on friday

The first one I present here with my suggested fixes already in place.



Player Suggested Feat

Archer of Prowess
Having already an innate talent with the bow you have dedicated many years to perfecting the art of archery.
Prerequisites: Natural Born Archer, Int 15+
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls made with a bow with which you are proficient. In addition you are able to add your intelligence bonus to your initiative.
My Comments: This feat makes little sense as the two halves of the feat are not incongruous with each other and with the idea of feats in general. Their needs to be a balance of the initiative gains (I.E. it should say::: In addition you are able to choose between your Intelligence and Dexterity bonus which ever is greater for purposes of determining your Initiative)

My Suggested Reworking of this feat

Practiced Archer [General, Fighter]
Having already an innate talent with the bow you have dedicated many years to perfecting the art of archery.
Prerequisites: Paragon of the Bow, Int 15+
Benefit: When you use a bow with which you are proficient you gain an additional +1 bonus to your damage rolls.
Special: This feat may be taken as one of the fighter’s bonus feats provided that he meets the requirements.

As can be seen I removed the offending initiative bonus, and reworked the remainder into something that makes sense (including the new requirements) as there was no quantification of what a natural born archer was, sense he did not propose a feat by that name nor did he give a good idea of what was meant by that.

The Feat from the Prerequisite:

PARAGON OF THE BOW [General, Fighter]
You have an innate natural talent with the use of the bow that manifested itself early in your life.
Prerequisite: Must be taken at 1st level, Dex 15+
Benefits: You gain a +1 bonus to your attack, and damage rolls when using a longbow, shortbow, or a composite longbow, or composite shortbow. In addition you gain a +2 insight bonus to appraise checks, and concentration checks made to aim your shots at specific targets such as a head or weapon.
Special: This feat may be taken after first level provided that the character has the Weapon focus feat for his particular type of bow.

Second feat

Pip the Ace
You are a crack shot, using your sharp mind you are able make precise shots
Prerequisites: Archer of Prowess, Int 18+
Benefit: You add your intelligence bonus to your attack rolls (if any)


I think this one would be the one which could be rewritten to include the Int bonus to Initiative (leaving out Int bonus to attack rolls)

The second one duplicates the Weapon Focus (bow) feat. Depending on whether or not you use weapon groups, it may be more powerful or about equal to Weapon focus.

Don't know about the others. Last one might be a bit unbalanced. an immediate +4 untyped bonus to hit is pretty good.

Here is a second question,

Does anyone have a Called Shot feat string (Called Shot, Improved Called Shot, etc)

The Player wants to introduce specific called shot rules in the way of feats for ranged called shots vs. melee called shots

Paragon and Practiced seem to be simply slightly different versions of Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization...minus the BAB requirements...

Not sure about Paragon's bonus to called shots, I assume you have house rules for that?

Pip the Ace would be better as:
You are a crack shot, using your sharp mind you are able make precise shots
Prerequisites: None
Benefit: You may add either your Dex mod or your Int Mod to hit for ranged attacks.

There are a plethora of other archer type feats out there, including ones that let you ignore cover. Without knowing what the player is looking for its hard to suggest anything.

IMC I use a couple variants, including an excellent pdf on Bows that change their stats based on effective STR, with the high end resulting in bows dealing D12 or better in damage {available in the downloads section of this site Here }and a change in firing rate, limiting bows to only one attack per round but allowing the increase of the threat range...hmm, lost the link the that thread

Anyway...

re: Called shots...

Unless you have something already panned out, called shots are a pain to institute in the game. You have to alter how the HP system works....

I would advise against it basically because any called shot system makes a head shot too worthwhile and I don't like my characters getting decapitated all the time

While called shots are already being used in the game the player wants to make them into a set of lesser negatives (as of this typing they are a negative eight to attacks) He wants the called shot equivelent of a TWF, Ambidexterity feat string.

Improved Called Shot [General, Fighter]
Your skill at making called shots with your ranged weapon far surpasses that of ordinary archers.
Prerequisites: BAB +6, Weapon focus (choosen weapon), Concentration 4 ranks, Int 13+
Benefits: You are able to now take 10 whenever you must make a concentration check to perform a called shot. You also only incur half the normal penalty for making a called shot on a specific target area (I.E -8 is only -4 for making a called shot on a head, or eye) with a weapon for which you have the Weapon Focus feat
Special: A Fighter may take Improved Called Shot as one of his bonus feats provided that he meets the prerequisites of the feat. Creatures lacking a discernable anatomy and thus immune to critical hits, are also immune to the effects of a called shot. This feat may be taken multiple times, each time this feat is taken it must be for another weapon for which your character has the Weapon Focus feat.

Called Shot Mastery [General, Fighter]
Your skill at making called shots is virtually unmatched.
Prerequisites: BAB +8, Improved Called Shot, Called Shot Expertise Int 15+
Benefits: You can now make your single called shot for the round as a standard attack action. In addition you may now ignore any additional penalties for making called shots due to armor.
Special: This feat may be taken as one of the fighter’s bonus feats provided that he meets the prerequisites of the feat.
Notes: This does not allow the character with this feat to bypass armor but rather to bypass any additional bonuses that a victim’s armor class grants them outside of the regular armor bonuses.

Hard to say anything on the called shots feats without full understanding of the HR's in play for called shots.....

However,...


I would prefer Imp Called shot to allow for taking 10 on the concentration check.. this way the character still needs to spend points on the skill...{assuming scaled check DC's}
Change text to clarify that the benefit is usable with on the the weapon for which the character has Weapon Focus at the time of selection, and that you can take the feat multiple times selecting another Weapon Focus {X} to build it upon.


Called shot Expertise? did you miss posting a feat?

Called shot master.. I assume a called shot is normally a full round action...?

Ruinous Called Shot [General, Fighter]
Your called shots are considerably more lethal than normal and have the possibility to kill when performed from the shadows.
Prerequisites: BAB +6, Weapon Focus (any), Ability to sneak attack, Int 15+
Benefits: When ever you threaten a critical hit while making a called shot, on a success full critical hit your weapons damage modifier goes up one place (For example a longsword affected by this feat would be 19-20/x3 rather than its normal x2). In addition 1/day a character with this feat can perform a death attack as per the assassins class ability found on page 180 of the Dungeon Masters Guide. The DC for the save against such an attack is equal to 10+1/2 the damage dealt +2 (to a maximum of 25)
Special: A Fighter may select Ruinous Called Shot as one of his bonus feats provided that he meets the requirements.
Notes: This feat can be taken by anyone who meets the requirements. However, characters without the sneak attack ability (while still able to take this feat) are unable to perform the death attack secondary ability. Creatures which lack discernable anatomy and thus immune to critical hits are immune to the effects of this feat. (Creatures which have a discernable anatomy which would normally be immune to critical hits are still effected by this feat with the exception for those which are also immune to death spells and effects).

Called Shot Expertise [General, Fighter]
Your ability to make called shots is so fluid and practiced that you are able to make them even in the face of danger.
Prerequisites: BAB +4, Weapon focus (any), Int 15+
Benefits: A character with this feat no longer provokes an attack of opportunity from a threatening foe when making a called shot.
Special: A Fighter may select Called Shot Expertise as one of his bonus feats provided that he meets the requirements.

Dire Called Shot [General, Fighter]
For those who possess this ability called shots leave painful and devastating wounds that continue to bleed long after they were dealt.
Prerequisites: Weapon focus (any), Improved Critical, 1nt 16+
Benefits: Whenever a character with this feat chooses to use it and hits with a successful called shot the victim takes 1 point of Constitution damage from blood loss as per the wounding weapon special quality (found on page 226 of the Dungeon Masters Guide). A wound made from such attack continues to bleed dealing an additional 1 point of Hp damage until it is healed by a potion or spell. Simply attempting to heal the wound with a heal check does not affect such a wound. A critical hit does not multiply the Constitution damage. Creatures without a discernable anatomy (or those who also are immune to Critical hits) are immune to the effects of this feat.
Special: A fighter may take Dire Called Shot as one of his bonus feats provided he meets the requirements to do so.
Notes: A character with this feat must declare that he is using this feat prior to making any rolls to attempt his called shot at the beginning of a combat action