Dodge Modification

[wilypueo]

In my campaign, I have decided to make a modification to the feat Dodge. Refer to PHB 3.5 p 93. The first paragraph under Benefit should read instead "You receive a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class against the first attack made against you each round." The rest of the feat description is unchanged. I believe this change will make the feat more beneficial for low level characters and less beneficial for mid to high level characters. The purpose of this change is mainly for ease of use, i.e. one less thing to decide upon/keep track of during combat.

Does anyone see any problem with this modification?

 

[Korak]

In my campaign, I have decided to make a modification to the feat Dodge. Refer to PHB 3.5 p 93. The first paragraph under Benefit should read instead "You receive a +1 dodge bonus to Armor Class against the first attack made against you each round." The rest of the feat description is unchanged. I believe this change will make the feat more beneficial for low level characters and less beneficial for mid to high level characters. The purpose of this change is mainly for ease of use, i.e. one less thing to decide upon/keep track of during combat.

Does anyone see any problem with this modification?

Many of the later feats with dodge as a prerequisite specifically refer to the characters designated dodge target. Be prepared to modify these as well.

 

[Artoomis]

Many of the later feats with dodge as a prerequisite specifically refer to the characters designated dodge target. Be prepared to modify these as well.

Right - that includes several very interesting feats from Complete Warrior.

 

[wilypueo]

Many of the later feats with dodge as a prerequisite specifically refer to the characters designated dodge target. Be prepared to modify these as well.

Are any of these feats in the PHB 3.5? I don't see any that would need alteration, i.e. Mobility (and Spring Attack), Shot on the Run, Whirlwind Attack. Generally, I do not allow feats outside of the PHB for PCs, so I am not worried about having to rework non-PHB feats.

 

[Grayhawk]

If you don't want to beef up Dodge and just give it a +1 dodge bonus to AC (as I have), I think that your change is good. It weakens the feat a bit, but - like you said - it makes it simpler to use.

 

[The Souljourner]

You're making a very weak feat even weaker. Why bother? Personally I think making it a flat out +1 dodge bonus to AC makes it at least a half decent feat, if still not one you would likely take unless you needed it to qualify for something else.

Those feats he was talking about are in the Complete Warrior. If you don't allow them, it's not a problem.

I still think it's no big deal to keep track of who is dodging who, since I rarely see more than one or maybe two people in a party take dodge.

-The Souljourner

 

[Hypersmurf]

Moved to House Rules.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

 

[DarkMaster]

You're making a very weak feat even weaker. Why bother? Personally I think making it a flat out +1 dodge bonus to AC makes it at least a half decent feat, if still not one you would likely take unless you needed it to qualify for something else.

Those feats he was talking about are in the Complete Warrior. If you don't allow them, it's not a problem.

I still think it's no big deal to keep track of who is dodging who, since I rarely see more than one or maybe two people in a party take dodge.

-The Souljourner

Even if you allow them, I ask my players when they want to use such a feat to tell me who will be impacted by their feat or they cannot use it. The first time I saw dodge I housed rule right away flat +1 otherwise it is too much of a mess.

 

[Grayhawk]

You're making a very weak feat even weaker. Why bother?

The Souljourner's right; forget what I said above. If you really want it to just apply to the first attack each round, it propably wouldn't be unbalanced to up the bonus to +2.

But I still feel the best Dodge variant is granting a flat +1 dodge bonus.

 

[wilypueo]

The Souljourner's right; forget what I said above. If you really want it to just apply to the first attack each round, it propably wouldn't be unbalanced to up the bonus to +2.

But I still feel the best Dodge variant is granting a flat +1 dodge bonus.

The main reason I don't want to give a flat +1 dodge bonus is because of the amount of stacking that happens with that particular bonus. I think moving up the bonus to +2 for the first attack in a round sounds reasonable though.