Dodge didn't change?

[ForceUser]

Not seeing how this change breaks the feel or the gameplay:
Dodge - +1 dodge bonus to AC against all attacks. Any situation where you lose your Dex modifier to your AC you also lose this Dodge bonus.

Blanket bonus to combat stat with situation where it would not apply - very similar to PBS or Weapon Finesse.

- Ma'at

A feat that gives you a persistent +1 dodge bonus to AC is probably too good. Whereas a feat like Weapon Focus only applies when you attack with a specific mundane weapon, this version of Dodge would apply to every attack roll made against you, and generally speaking the PCs get attacked more often than they attack back in martial combat. For instance, if my DM house-ruled Dodge like that it would quickly become a must-have for everyone in my group, especially spellcasters with their traditonally lower ACs. Not to mention, if its a must-have for players it is also a must-have for NPCs, which will then affect the PCs by making it harder to hit their foes. In previous editions of the game, AC was finite; it could only get so good. But now it is open-ended, which makes the stacking of AC-bonuses much more game-affecting. Speaking as a DM, I dislike any feat, skill, power, spell or magic item that is so good that it is considered a must-have by a majority of the player group. In my group, that's what your version of Dodge would be.

 

[MadScientist]

ForceUser IME even the house ruled version is far from a must-have feat. Sure it may be a good benefit for mages but they have precious few feats to spend and Craft Wonderous items (for cheap bracers, amulets of natural armor, etc.) is probably much more worth while over a characters career for boosting their AC than even this HRed dodge.

As you already know from my earlier post I disagree that PC's get attacked signifcantly more often than they attack.

 

[ForceUser]

ForceUser IME even the house ruled version is far from a must-have feat. Sure it may be a good benefit for mages but they have precious few feats to spend and Craft Wonderous items (for cheap bracers, amulets of natural armor, etc.) is probably much more worth while over a characters career for boosting their AC than even this HRed dodge.

As you already know from my earlier post I disagree that PC's get attacked signifcantly more often than they attack.

I have a bunch of math geniuses in my group, including a statisician, and having seen him run the numbers I can tell you that however uninspiring it may seem, good old core-rules Dodge is a fantastic feat for reducing damage taken over the course of a campaign.

 

[MadScientist]

I have a bunch of math geniuses in my group, including a statisician, and having seen him run the numbers I can tell you that however uninspiring it may seem, good old core-rules Dodge is a fantastic feat for reducing damage taken over the course of a campaign.

I have to admit I haven't looked at it that closely. How does it compare to WF or PBS for increasing damage inflicted over the course of a campaign? It just seems that in general the designers of the core rules valued a +1 Atk and +1 AC pretty equally in other parts of the game.

If you assume that half of the value of a +1 weapon is in the atk bonus and the other half is in the damage bonus, it works out his way for magic weapons and armor. Spells are a little all over the place as far as this is concerned though (Magic vestmant and GMW scale the same, but there seem to be more AC boosting spells out there than atk boosters). There aslo seem to be less stackable atk bonuses out there than AC bonuses, in terms of magic items. I haven't done an extensive survey, so I guess I could be wrong on some of these things.....

 

[Anubis the Doomseer]

I have a bunch of math geniuses in my group, including a statisician, and having seen him run the numbers I can tell you that however uninspiring it may seem, good old core-rules Dodge is a fantastic feat for reducing damage taken over the course of a campaign.

Well, I don't have a bunch of math geniuses pounding out dry stats, but we do have at least two of us trained in stats, we prefer the flat +1 to AC, and even then it's almost never chosen as a feat (except by agile/no-armor types or those looking for the rest of the tree). So despite cries of it being too good I don't have the problem.

Seeing as how they just made a huge rule-abuse with Trip attacks and standing from prone I don't think balance was that huge an issue with the Hasbro development team.

- Ma'at