A change to mobility

[Stalker0]

I think mobility is a very crappy feat. Its benefit is not that great, and actually get negated most of the time by the next feat up...spring attack. So here's my idea

Mobility
You gain a +4 to AC against all attacks of oppurtunity.

In addition, when fighting defensively, going total defense, and/or using combat expertise of 3 or more, your bonus from the dodge feat increases from +1 to +2.

 

[Nyaricus]

Fo the first part (the +4) it's too powerful IMO. Howzabout +2? That seems more reasonable, IMO.

For the latter part, I wouldn't mess with it - that's the domain of the feat Combat Expertise, and has nothing to do with AoOs, like Mobility does.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Personally, getting a +4 Dodge bonus against movement-provoked AoO's isn't all that crappy.

And anyway, Mobility isn't negated by Spring Attack. It only prevents the AoO from your target, not from any other creature's threatened squares you pass through. So it's really easy to rush up through all the cannon-fodder via the Mobility bonus, and get a smack in on the BBEG without him smacking you back via Spring Attack.

Also, since there is a movement requirement of 5' before and after the attack, there's a good chance you will provoke and AoO in a tight combat. For example, if your character is flanked, flanker A is probably going to get a swipe at you if you spring attack flanker B. That +4 AC still comes in handy.

 

[Stalker0]

Personally, getting a +4 Dodge bonus against movement-provoked AoO's isn't all that crappy.

Its still a feat though....a feat!!! I mean sure its a nice benefit, when it comes up. But in general, people try to eliminate movement based AOOs whenever they can so its limited that way. Also, the normal people who take mobility (the agile light fighters) have tumble anyway, which negate movement AOOs. And third, while a +4 is a nice benefit, your still taking an AOO, so its certainly not automatic.

From my experience, mobility just doesn't come up that often.

 

[NilesB]

How about:

MOBILITY [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Dodge.
Benefit: You get a +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against attacks of opportunity caused when you move out of or within a threatened area. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses. Dodge bonuses stack with each other, unlike most types of bonuses.
Also when using the tumble skill to move without provoking attacks of opportunity, you may move at full speed.

Normal: A character using the tumble skill to move without provoking attacks of opportunity moves at half speed.

Special: A fighter may select Mobility as one of his fighter bonus feats.

The real trouble I see with mobility is that characters that want it also learn to tumble making it redundant.

 

[starwed]

The real trouble I see with mobility is that characters that want it also learn to tumble making it redundant.

Well, a lot of people think tumbling is too easy in any case. So how about simply raising the tumbling DC's by 10, and having Mobility grant a +10 bonus on such tumbling checks, rather than a bonus to AC...

(Of course, this then screws those few heavily armored types who wanted to take Mobility, but you could just provide a seperate feat for them.)

 

[pawsplay]

It's great for advancing on monsters with reach, like, say, hydras.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

The real trouble I see with mobility is that characters that want it also learn to tumble making it redundant.

How broken would it be to say... change the feat so that it allows the character to use Tumble w/o costing double movement either:

a) Completely replacing the existing benefit?
or
b) In addition to the current benefit?

And, I don't think the Tumble DC's are too low at all. DC 15 to move around enemies requires some investment (and little -> no armor check pen.) to work reliably often, as failure means losing the movement AND eating an AoO. DC 25 to go through the enemy requires a great deal of ranks, and as you get to the levels where you can put in these ranks, you face enemies that take up larger and larger areas, meaning that unless you have >30 ft. movement, you're probably forced to risk the DC 25 if you want to 'do" anything that round. Also, don't forget the penalties for things like uneven surfaces.

I think the DCs for Tumble are fine as is. I wish skills like DD, search (trap finding), and Open Lock didn't have such ridiculously high DCs, not that other skills are "upped" to equal them. To me, the only effect this has is to make the checks not even worth trying at low levels, and at high levels, you look back at all those skill points you dumped into a skill and think, "wow, it sure would have been nice if I could have used some of those skill points on quirky stuff like Know: Religion that don't really have much use for my character, but would have made him more interesting than 'The guy who does this one thing REALLY well'. "

 

[NilesB]

I already picked B as not everyone who would learn it is an apropriate character for tumbling. I wouldn't want non-tumbler to have to eat a completly dead feat after dodge to get to the money feats of the tree.

SotS those skill's DCs are set with the expectation that you are going to be able to take 20, I agree they make a bad baseline to set tumble to.

 

[Infiniti2000]

My change to Mobility is:

Mobility

Rule: In addition to the normal effects, Mobility grants a +4 synergy bonus to Tumble checks when avoiding attacks of opportunity.

Change: Without this synergy, mobility is pretty much irrelevant once you get a decent Tumble check.