D&D 3E/3.5 Deflect Arrow in 3.5

[MarauderX]

How? Barring magic, arrows follow a predictable path. They don't turn corners or change direction unexpectedly...

-Hyp.

Power of the bow, curve of the arrow, wind speed/direction, all sorts of stuff can make deflecting an arrow tougher. Think about hitting a baseball; that's pretty easy, right? Just ask anyone batting against Randy Johnson and they will tell you how it isn't.

Anyway, I don't like the automatic deflection either, and even 3E was pretty powerful with a static DC. I instead incorporated a DC=the attack roll minus 5, sorta like Grappling Block out of OA, and made Catch Arrow to DC=the attack roll. Grappling Block turns a hit into a miss AND disarming an opponent, and why not have a similar system for ranged attacks?

Not that I'm complaining too much as I do play a 3.0 Monk that will most likely be switching to 3.5 soon, but in any campaign I am running I will use the above to take away some of the power of the feat.

 

[DreamChaser]

Gads, I hate all-or-nothing mechanics. So, Diana, a 30th level epic archer with ludicrous bonuses to attack and damage, shoots Fred, a 1st level neophyte monk, and... nothing. Not to mention that it makes the machine-gun archer schtick even more of a good thing.

So, Diana, the epic archer fires the kajillion arrows she can fire in a round at Fred and he being 2nd level (the monk's minimum for the feat) manages to deflect one before being nailed to the wall by the other kajillion-1.

It is a once per round thing, SFAIR

DC

 

[Tellerve]

I think they simplified it because it didn't come up all that often. I haven't exclusively played monks. But when I did I by luck or whatever, didn't have many arrows or bolts or whatever coming at me. I agree it seems a bit odd to just automatically do it, but it is just one arrow/bolt/whatever per round. As was pointed out the kajillion -1 would hit and pincushion the monk.

Tellerve

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Which is why Combat Reflexes is almost inevitably the better choice.

 

[mmu1]

How? Barring magic, arrows follow a predictable path. They don't turn corners or change direction unexpectedly...

-Hyp.

If you want to go down that path, there should be massive penalties to hit a moving target, and it should be possible to ready an action to start moving (or tumbling) when someone shoots at you, becoming almost impossible to hit. You should also start modeling the time it takes an arrow to cover a distance, making archery useless for hitting a man-sized target beyond the very short range.

When real world physics interfere with playability, it's the physics you ignore.

 

[Number47]

You know, there are an awful lot of feats out there to make TWF, THF, sword and board fighting all very attractive and deadly. There is precious little for one-weapon or no-weapon fighting. I think this feat is of an appropriate power in relation to two-weapon fighting or rapid shot. Making it any weaker, especially for a feat with requirements, is to make the open-hand style completely useless for anything that isn't a monk. Because of the reactive nature of the feat and the types of bad guys in the monster manual, it would seem to still be pretty weak with the 3.5 auto succeed.

Imagine that you took the feat with the nerfs proposed. Oh, boy, after a month of playing my character, I now get a chance to use a feat! Oops, I failed! Sure, there may be situations where the auto-succeed seems unrealistic. As always, it's a game. Auto-hit on a twenty is also unrealistic, but anything else is needlessly, hopelessly complex.

 

[Camarath]

So, Diana, the epic archer fires the kajillion arrows she can fire in a round at Fred and he being 2nd level (the monk's minimum for the feat) manages to deflect one before being nailed to the wall by the other kajillion-1.

It is a once per round thing, SFAIR

DC

What about my Epic Monk with Infinite Deflection and Reflect Arrows? What will Diana do about him?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

What about my Epic Monk with Infinite Deflection and Reflect Arrows? What will Diana do about him?

I already thought about that. While the change isn't so bad in the core rules, we have some work cut out for us in the epic section. Infinite Deflection should be changed so it has some limit after all (and the name needs to be changed, of course). Perhabs one for every X points of BAB/EAB or it's tied to your Dexterity, or you have to give up one of your attacks in the next round for every additional arrow you deflect.

As for Reflect Arrows: the deflection is automatic, but it doesn't automatically hit.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

Gads, I hate all-or-nothing mechanics. So, Diana, a 30th level epic archer with ludicrous bonuses to attack and damage, shoots Fred, a 1st level neophyte monk, and... nothing. Not to mention that it makes the machine-gun archer schtick even more of a good thing.

1) Fred would not have Deflect Arrows at 1st level. That's a bonus feat for monks at 2nd level. (Unless he actually spent a slot on it ... in which case, Fred's player is a little loopy.) Minor quibble; I know what you meant.

2) And what does Diana do? She loads another arrow and shoots again. Since she has multiple attacks, she likely will hit Fred, since Deflect Arrows only works once a round and Fred has an AC or something like 15. Heck, even a 6th level archer would gain a second attack. No, let me amend that. A 1st level human (or fighter of any race) could have Rapid Shot (as could a 2nd level level ranger of any race). Fred, Mnk2, meet Ethel, Rgr2.

 

[ThirdWizard]

At first I didn't like it, but I don't think its too powerful after second thought. It mostly annoys me that a large chunk of resources go down the tube if you're using magial arrows, but then again who's using magical arrows in 3.5?