Action Manuevers: Fall-Over Dodge
Action Maneuvers: Fall-Over Dodge is a short pdf and Pick 'n' Mix product from Gallantry Productions. It's written by David S. Gallant and provides a new combat maneuver to use in both d20 Modern and Fantasy games. As a Pick 'n' Mix' product, it contains only one page of material and is only available from ENWorld Gamestore for $0.49. I received a review copy of this pdf.
Disclaimer: The reviewer is also a d20 freelance writer with recent published material through another publisher. Every effort has been made by the reviewer to ensure that this is an impartial review.
Initial Impressions:
The Pick 'n' Mix license allows publishers to use the license to create short products and publish them. As such, they contain a specific format with the aim to allow prospective buyers to create a uniform folder of small pdfs such as single monsters, magical items and the like. This product consists of one page of material, and another page is devoted to the OGL text and Pick 'n' Mix license text. As a standardized product there's not much to say about the layout, although I will comment on the few minor editing errors I found that should not normally be seen in a product so short. The writing is generally good, although not entirely 'standard' (instead of failing the maneuver, it's referred to as 'Screwing it up').
The Details:
The idea behind the Action Maneuvers series is to present new combat manuevers, akin to Bull Rush or Charge, that can be performed to make combat in Modern and Fantasy games more cinamatic. Combat maneuvers can be performed without any special training, although there is a penalty associated with that which can be alleviated by taking a feat specific to the action maneuver in question. Each maneuver is presented in a standard format which is also briefly detailed in the product.
This particular action maneuver, Fall-Over Dodge, allows a combatent to avoid a blow at all costs. By utilizing the mechanic involved characters can avoid any blows aimed at them by falling over and becoming prone. The mechanics unfortunately does not scale in favor of the character performing the maneuver, particularly at higher levels. And, with the associated penalty for non-proficiency it makes it double hard to pull this off (although conceivably this maneuver was not meant to be easy to pull off). Given the odds against actually pulling this off and the rather specific situations required to use this manuever, it might not be all that useful.
As the product suggests, this is obviously not a maneuver to consider when in melee against opponents with multiple attacks, but it is useful against ranged attacks. Against multiple ranged attacks you still stand a chance of being hit following the maneuver, but at least the +4 AC bonus from being prone alleviates this somewhat. Other additional information is given briefly touching on some scenarios where the use of the maneuver will be useful, such as when a given character needs time to accomplish something and can avoid an attack to gain it.
Conclusions:
The concept of action maneuvers is a good one, and certainly expands on the game. In this instance the mechanic and principle seems simple enough, although not necessarily something that will come up all that often, nor seems to scale well with level. Based on idea, editing errors, and nature and usefullness of content, I'd grade this Pick 'n' Mix product with three and a half stars, rounding down to three stars.
