Armor Class Feats

[evilbob]

Exactly. A fighter has feats to burn, and a pure-damage driven fighter wielding a two-handed weapon with low Int (and little intention of multi-classing or PrCing) starts to run out of "must-haves" pretty quickly. Another character probably wouldn't find most of these attractive, since a couple thousand gold can nab you an item that's better. But hey - options, not restrictions, and all that.

I'm actually starting to wonder if the 2-handed feats are really that far-fetched. I mean, two-weapon fighters have tons of neat shield-inducing feats to choose from, right? They don't do extra damage, but they do have tons of attacks... Then again, there's a 1 or 2 feat prereq built into those feats, and a 2-hander (must...not...make...joke...) can essentially just pick up a big sword and go.

 

[Trainz]

It'd be fun if I wasn't the only one giving you feedback though, mm ?

I personally wouldn't use those feats, but they are interesting enough for me to see how they evolve in your thread.

I'm allergic to non-WotC feats, but I have no qualms creating an alternate paladin.

Go figure...

 

[Tessarael]

Improved Dodge
Prereq: Dodge
Benefit: Your dodge bonus from the dodge feat is extended to all foes, all the time. You still lose this bonus when you would normally lose your dodge bonus.
Normal: You may choose only one enemy against which to apply your dodge bonus.

I would just make Dodge apply to all foes. That is the House Rule my DM uses. It simplifies combat - you don't have to state which opponent it applies to, you have only one AC. Besides Dodge as it is in the 3.5 PHB is weaker than offensive abilities like Weapon Focus (sure it only applies to one weapon, but offense is better than defense, and you can use that +1 to attack for +2 damage with Power Attack).

Other than that, the rest of the feats look balanced. I like Armor Focus (Light/Medium/or Heavy) as it is more than one armor - otherwise your players get screwed when they say want to switch from Studded Leather to a Mithril Chain Shirt.

Just my thoughts ...

 

[CCamfield]

I thought it interesting that your armour focus feats - the one where you pick a category for your bonus - are EXACTLY the same as some feats in AEG's Mercenaries.

If your intention is to give two-handed weapon characters some defensive options, then I like your Two-Handed Weapon Defense feats the best. It makes sense that the larger reach from a greatsword or similar could be used to improve your AC. Although, I have to admit it makes more sense in melee than it would at range.

 

[evilbob]

I thought it interesting that your armour focus feats - the one where you pick a category for your bonus - are EXACTLY the same as some feats in AEG's Mercenaries.

Really? I've never heard of that book, but as this is a fairly obvious idea, I'm sure others have already thought of it first. If anyone out there has published this already, I'm not trying to claim credit!

The Two-Handed Defense options I'm still a little shakey on, just because the equivalent two-weapon defense feats actually have more feats as prereqs. There really needs to be something else to make that a little more even.

 

[brehobit]

One idea we've been tossing around. Very useful when fighting one bad guy. A bit ugly if there are others about....

Duelling
requires BAB +4, dodge, weapon finesse, prof with rapier or saber
When wearing light, medium or no armor, weilding rapier or saber, having an off hand holding either no weapon or a light weapon, and not using that off-hand this round your dodge bonus becomes +6. However you get a -4 AC penalty against attacks from other sources.

 

[evilbob]

What about coming at this from an entirely new angle?

Thick Skin
Prereq: Toughness, base Fort. save +8, Con 15
Benefit: You gain +1 natural armor.

 

[Trainz]

What about coming at this from an entirely new angle?

Thick Skin
Prereq: Toughness, base Fort. save +8, Con 15
Benefit: You gain +1 natural armor.

Yeah well, you're still not giving an edge to the two-hander with regards to other combat styles (which was your original argument)...

There's a feat in the Monster Manual called Improved Natural Armor. Prerequisites: Con 13, Natural Armor. It improves natural armor by 1, can be picked multiple times.

Your PC would only have to select a monster race that has at least 1 point of natural armor, and you're set. Is there a race that has 1 point of Nat armor at LA 0 or 1 ?

What's also interesting is that a very common protection item called the Amulet of Natural Armor gives an enhancement bonus to natural armor, meaning that it stacks with any base natural armor that you might already have.

I DM a solo game for a friend of mine on Thursdays, and he plays a Minotaur (with 3 cohorts). He's only a 6 hit dice monster (he's chipping away his 2 LA's as per the UA before going fighter), and has little to no magic items. His base natural armor is 5, meaning that when he'll get a plushtwo or plushfour amulet, it'll go straight to his AC. Sweet, since he uses a huge spiked chain (4 squares reach).

If you think I'm a munchkin, look at my avatar.

 

[evilbob]

Again: two-handers were just the reason I started down this path, not the main point behind it. Ignoring what kind of weapon someone uses, does the feat look balanced? I was also thinking about the fact that once someone got any natural armor, they could use that MM feat to beef it up - so it had better have some serious prereqs.

Aside: Yeah, I think I remember you saying something about having 3 cohorts before, and I still don't know how that works...

 

[Trainz]

Aside: Yeah, I think I remember you saying something about having 3 cohorts before, and I still don't know how that works...

It's awesome. It's a solo game, so one player is basically managing four characters. Of course, he plays the fighter and gets the brunt of it, but with multiple foes, I sometimes direct a critter or two towards the cohorts. That's when he goes "Oh sht oh SHT OH SHT !"

Strategically, it's also more optimal, because he doesn't have to talk to other players to work out strategies, or convince one to cast this instead of that... it's like playing a chess game, where you know what you want to do with all your pieces. Of course, this only works with a player that is very comfortable with the rules.

So far we had a blast. Last game, I had his Sorceror 4th cohort in an owlbear's grapple. You should have seen all the AoO's he suffered to leave the melee he was in to go help out the sorc. Hilarious.

Tomorrow night we play part 2. I created a Githzerai lair with a bunch of fighters, rogues, and sorceror giths. A gith's Spell Res is low, but for his cohorts (that are of course lower than the EL), it should be interesting. I've been thinking about this game all week !

I've prepared this campaign quite in advance. Like I said, for tomorrow night it's a 14 room dungeon, but the next one (that I finished preparing yesterday) is an 80 room dungeon complex. Enough game material for 3 to 5 game session. But delving goes faster in solo adventuring, for the reasons mentioned above.

I'm a geek, what can I say.