Epic Combat Expertise...WTF?

[IanB]

LOTS of Epic feats desperately need an errata.

Epic weapon prowess is something like +1 to hit...this is epic? I can take weapon focus as a 1st level char and get the same effect!

Weapon focus applies to only one weapon, and can't be taken more than once.

Epic weapon prowess applies to every attack roll you ever make, and you can take it as many times as you want.

It isn't completely useless.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Wasn't there an Improved Combat Expertise feat somewhere, that allowed up to 10 points to be shifted to AC?

Bye
Thanee

If it exists, this is a fair feat. The main problem comes with huge amounts of shifting BAB to AC. The cap of 10 prevents this.

 

[Egres]

Epic Combat expertise applies the limited dodge bonus to you and an adjacent creature simultaneously. That is why it is a different feat.

What?

Please, elaborate.

 

[Sledge]

p 151 of Complete Warrior:
Epic Combat Expertise [Epic]
You have extraordinary talent at using your combat skill for defense.
Prerequisites: Int 19, Combat Expertise, base attack bonus +21.
Benefit: When you use the attack action of full attack action in melee, you can take a penalty of as much as -5 on your attack rolls and add the same number (+5 or less) as a dodge bonus to your Armor Class and to the Armor Class of an adjacent friendly creature. The changes to attack rolls and Armor Class last until your next action.
The effect of this feat supersedes the effect of the Combat Expertise feat; you can't use both feat simultaneously to gain two dodge bonuses.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Am I missing something?

Simply put, yes.

Epic Combat Expertise
When you use the attack action or full attack action in melee, ...

Improved Combat Expertise
When you use the Combat Expertise feat to improve your Armor Class,...

Improved Combat Expertise makes normal Combat Expertise work better.

Epic Combat Expertise is another option you can take when taking the Attack or Full Attack action. You can stack ECE and CE.

EDIT: And, apparently, they removed that in the new Epic version.

 

[IanB]

Part of the problem here seems to be that people are comparing multiple versions of feats across different game versions.

 

[frankthedm]

Some people feel the unrestricted combat expertise allows a being to push it’s Dodge bonus to AC unfairly high. So high only other beings with the exact same feat can come close to matching it. Plus the character with this feat can push their AC to the point they can only be hit on 20.s by foes that should have been a challenge to the character.

 

[Question]

Weapon focus applies to only one weapon, and can't be taken more than once.

Epic weapon prowess applies to every attack roll you ever make, and you can take it as many times as you want.

It isn't completely useless.

How many fighters do you know use more than 1 weapon type as their main weapon?(Not coutning stuff like using bows for range before melee, etc)

Why would i want to spend a epic feat slot on +1 attack???

 

[Hosweay]

How many fighters do you know use more than 1 weapon type as their main weapon?(Not coutning stuff like using bows for range before melee, etc)

Why would i want to spend a epic feat slot on +1 attack???

Well I know many fighters that have an assortment of weapons that they use to help adapt to the situation, especially to overcome damage reduction. Also, the feat grants an unnamed bonus to all melee attacks. When you've maxed out all other bonus options, which is quite possible in epic levels, that stackable +1 bonus can become the only way to go even higher. I'm not saying that it is the greatest feat of all-time but it might be worth considering for the right character.

 

[glass]

Why would i want to spend a epic feat slot on +1 attack???

IIRC, it's not just +1 attack, it's +1 attack bonus. It adds to your BAB/EAB for things like power attack and epic expertise limits, even allowing it to exceed your HD (which no pre-Epic feat or effect can do, AFAIK).


glass.