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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 7279223" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>My standard house rule question: What, specifically, are you trying to achieve here?</p><p></p><p>It looks like the goal is to tweak the AC rules so that:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Everyone has an incentive to invest in Dex, even heavy armor wearers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Having a long weapon improves your melee defense.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Defense naturally improves with level.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't mess up the current game balance too much.</li> </ul><p>These all seem like reasonable goals, but holy cow, this is a Rube Goldberg way of achieving them. Here's a simpler approach, subject to fine-tuning via playtesting:</p><p></p><p>When you're hit by a melee attack, if you're wielding a melee weapon, you can use your reaction to deflect it. Make a DC 12 Dexterity check with proficiency. If you succeed, add +1 to your AC against that attack if your weapon is light; +2 if it's neither light nor heavy; or +3 if it's heavy.</p><p></p><p>You can't use this ability again until you take an action to reset your stance, or until you score a critical hit in melee.</p><p></p><p><em>My reasoning: Assuming you aren't going to waste a whole combat round recharging, you'll get to use this once per combat, maybe twice if you use it and then happen to crit. Because you use it after seeing the attack roll, you'll always use it when it can change a hit to a miss; thus, having a bigger weapon doesn't mean you deflect more attacks, but it does give you more control over when to use it. A light weapon wielder pretty much has to deflect any time they get the chance, where a heavy weapon wielder can afford to say "No, I'll eat the hit from the kobold and hold my deflect for the ogre."</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I chose DC 12 because the highest bonus you can have on the Dex check is 11; thus you always benefit from investing in Dex and gaining levels, but the check is easy enough that it does not massively favor the Dex fighter over the Str fighter.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 7279223, member: 58197"] My standard house rule question: What, specifically, are you trying to achieve here? It looks like the goal is to tweak the AC rules so that: [LIST] [*]Everyone has an incentive to invest in Dex, even heavy armor wearers. [*]Having a long weapon improves your melee defense. [*]Defense naturally improves with level. [*]Don't mess up the current game balance too much. [/LIST] These all seem like reasonable goals, but holy cow, this is a Rube Goldberg way of achieving them. Here's a simpler approach, subject to fine-tuning via playtesting: When you're hit by a melee attack, if you're wielding a melee weapon, you can use your reaction to deflect it. Make a DC 12 Dexterity check with proficiency. If you succeed, add +1 to your AC against that attack if your weapon is light; +2 if it's neither light nor heavy; or +3 if it's heavy. You can't use this ability again until you take an action to reset your stance, or until you score a critical hit in melee. [I]My reasoning: Assuming you aren't going to waste a whole combat round recharging, you'll get to use this once per combat, maybe twice if you use it and then happen to crit. Because you use it after seeing the attack roll, you'll always use it when it can change a hit to a miss; thus, having a bigger weapon doesn't mean you deflect more attacks, but it does give you more control over when to use it. A light weapon wielder pretty much has to deflect any time they get the chance, where a heavy weapon wielder can afford to say "No, I'll eat the hit from the kobold and hold my deflect for the ogre." I chose DC 12 because the highest bonus you can have on the Dex check is 11; thus you always benefit from investing in Dex and gaining levels, but the check is easy enough that it does not massively favor the Dex fighter over the Str fighter.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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