Armor Tweaks (and minor Fighter mod)

[Sir Brennen]

My homebrew campaign takes place in an tropical area were most heavy armors do not exist, with the exceptions of splint mail and possibly a variant on Great Armor (from Oriental Adventures). Chain mail likewise doesn't typically exist (the elves might know how to make it, but when one mentions 'elven chain' in my world, it's really just the normal stuff.)

However, I'm aware that AC typically lags behind Modified Attack Bonus enough as it is. So, I've made a few changes to the rules related to armor and defense to help keep things on par with a 'normal' campaign.

Padded Armor can be stacked with any other armor (except for itself) for an added +1 AC, but at with an additional -1 Armor Check Penalty.

Dodge: Anyone can dodge, as described in the PHB feat, selecting one opponent in combat to gain a +1 AC bonus. This is merely a combat option, and does not count as a virtual feat. The Dodge feat itself is replaced by Improved Dodge (see below.) Any references to the Dodge feat as a prerequisite for other feats, prestige classes, etc are replaced with Improved Dodge.

IMPROVED DODGE [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Dex 13.
Benefit: You receive a +1 dodge bonus against all opponents. Optionally, during your action, you may instead designate an single opponent and receive a +2 dodge bonus to Armor Class against attacks from that opponent. You can select a new opponent on any action, or change back to dodging against all opponents at the +1 bonus.
A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses. Also, dodge bonuses stack with each other, unlike most other types of bonuses.
Special: A fighter may select Improved Dodge as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Comments on the above are welcome, but what I'm really looking for input on another change I'm thinking of making for the fighter specifically.

Now, most fighters won't be able to afford heavy armor at first level anyway, so I'm thinking of delaying Heavy Armor Prof. until second level, and making it an option. 1st level gives a fighter a chance to learn a little more about defense, at second level he improves this aspect of his fighting by selecting a defensive feat (his offense is already handled with the level increase) which fits his style. His normal 2nd level bonus feat is delayed until 3rd level (filling in that 'dead' level), and everything from 4th level on progresses as normal. Like so:

Ftr Level      Special
1st            Bonus Feat
2nd            Defensive Feat
3rd            Bonus Feat
4th            Bonus Feat

Defensive Feats can be selected from the following: Heavy Armor Prof., Armor Focus (Light), Armor Focus (Medium), Armor Focus (Heavy), Shield Focus, Two-Weapon Defense, Improved Buckler Defense.

Of course, the fighter has to meet any preqs for these (sometimes requiring a little planning of first level feats.) The various Focus feats are from third party books, though I've run across different versions (one gives +1 AC, another simply reduces Armor Check Penalty by one and increase Max Dex by one. Not sure which is more balanced.)

Any thoughts on this? Also, any other suggestions on defensive feats? I'm really looking for those which are not 'base', especially if they are common prereqs for Prestige Classes or feat chains. Or do the few listed here seem like enough?

 

[Sadrik]

A simpler solution may be to just half all BAB's so you will have a +10, +7 and +5 BAB at 20th level. Half all the monsters BAB too. THat way armor will still be good and you wont have to add all the bonus feats and modifications to armor etc.

If 1/2 BAB is too low then you can go with a 3/4 BAB (+15, +10 and +7 at 20th). It solves your issue right their with very little tweaking.

 

[Sir Brennen]

That may be simpler, but also much more sweeping of a change. Also, then anything which increases your Attack Bonus (Strength, Feats, Magic) all be come much more important, as they become a higher percentage of the BAB.

I'm just looking to tweak a few little things, not change a core feature of all classes and creatures... also, the Defensive Feat for fighters is meant to allow the class to have even a little more flexibility, and distinguish two fighter from each other a little more...

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Hmm first comments:

Making Dodge an option for everyone--it's a pain to track which target a character is dodging. Do you really want everyone to have to do it? I think you'd do much better to just replace the dodge feat with your variant.

Improved Dodge: By the wording, I think this would stack with your dodge combat option. Granting a +3 bonus to AC against a single opponent will put a pretty serious damper on your ability to make an effective single opponent encounter and you want to be able to do that every now and then.

Changing the dodge target on "any action" is probably not the wording you want. On every opponent's action, I could designate them as my dodge target thereby gaining +2 against everyone. Even during my turn, I would be tempted to change opponents multiple times in order to gain the bonus against multiple foes if, for instance, I provoked three AoOs for movement. If combined with feats like Elusive Target that build off of Dodge, this would be even worse. Simply using the PHB wording "change your dodge target as a free action once during your turn" is both clearer and less open to abuse. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

On the feat in general, I think it's a good and reasonably balanced feat that just needs the semantic changes. The +2 bonus is an interesting addition to the +1 all around version of dodge and the +1 all around version is nice because it lets players who don't want to mess with changing their dodge target gain a benefit from the feat.

Padded armor change: Not a bad idea. This is actually enough to make the AC available without heavy armor equal the available AC through heavy armor:

Studded leather + dex=total bonus +8
Chain Shirt + dex= total bonus +8
Breastplate + dex= total bonus +8
Fullplate + dex= total bonus +9

As you can see, adding padded to studded leather, the chain shirt, or the breastplate is enough for them to pull even with the total bonus offered by fullplate.

One question though: does masterwork padded also impose an additional armor check penalty?

On changing heavy armor to an option for fighters: who would take it and why would they take it?
1. You don't have much heavy armor in your world--especially not worthwhile heavy armor. (Splint is only a stopgap armor for characters who can't afford fullplate and don't have a dex bonus--everyone else wears a breastplate or chain shirt (banded if they have a +1 dex) even if they eventually want to get fullplate).
2. The defensive bonus available through heavy armor proficiency is less than that available through other feats--even for a character with no dex bonus.
For instance, a 10 dex character faced with the choice between splint mail or breastplate/chain mail and the improved dodge feat listed above gets the same AC by taking Improved Dodge, but the option to get another point of AC when he's only facing a single opponent. (And the dodge AC counts against touch attacks). I imagine that shield focus and the other possibilities are similarly better deals than heavy armor proficiency. Without fullplate--which offers the defensive benefits of 18 dex+a chain shirt even if you don't have any dexterity and offers better benefits if you have any dex bonus at all--heavy armor proficiency isn't worthwhile.

It's not really an option if it's a bad deal for nearly every imaginable character....