Feat Related House Rules In My Campaigns

[WhimsyTheFae]

I just thought that I would post the two house rules that I use in all my campaigns. Feel free to criticize/comment.

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WEAPON FINESSE

According to page 102 of the PHB, if you take the Weapon Finesse feat, you gain the ability to use your Dexterity bonus on melee attacks with a select group of weapons (as opposed to using your Strength bonus).

Problem: This feat seems to penalize characters with a high Dexterity and a low Strength. First, the odds are that a high Strength character will choose a class with a good Base Attack bonus progression, while the high Dexterity character will be more likely to take a class with a lower Base Attack bonus progression (this gives the already higher attack bonus character even more of a bonus). Second, a character with a high Dexterity and a low Strength should have compensated by training to use weapons that complimented his Dexterity, though the rules do not reflect that (a high Strength character is not forced to take a feat to take advantage of this, but a high Dexterity character is). Third, weapon finesse does not do anything to increase the damage dealt, only to increase the hit probability (so, for the price of a feat, the high Dexterity character can only lessen the gap between he and the high Strength character - but, it could be argued that this is offset be the fact that Dexterity is used in Armor Class, Initiative, and Reflex Saves).

Solution: All characters are assumed to have the benefits of the Weapon Finesse feat, as outlined in the PHB. Characters who spend a feat (or feats) on the Weapon Finesse feat may choose a weapon not listed in the description and use their Dexterity bonus on attack rolls.

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TOTAL DEFENSE & COMBAT EXPERTISE

According to page 142 of the PHB, you can defend yourself as a standard action and gain a +4 bonus to your AC for 1 round. The PHB also states that this action cannot be combined with fighting defensively or with the benefit of the Combat Expertise feat (since both of those require you to declare an attack or full attack). You also can’t make attacks of opportunity while using total defense.

Problem: Once a character with the Combat Expertise feat reaches a +4 or +5 Base Attack (the Combat Expertise feat can convert a Base Attack of up to +5 to AC). At this point, fighting defensively can grant the same or greater bonus to AC as total defense AND allow the character to make an attack (or attacks).

Solution: A character with the Combat Expertise feat gains a bonus to AC equal to his Base Attack (up to +5) plus 4.

 

[JimAde]

I like 'em. I've seen a few people grant Weapon Finesse to everyone (reasoning that it's the nature of the weapon, not just the user). I like your idea of expanding on that.

Cool.

 

[genshou]

I don't know if it's been converted to 3.5, but Oriental Adventures (among some other books) has a feat called Superior Expertise, which removes the cap for using the Expertise feat.

As for Weapon Finesse, it makes more sense not to have it as a feat. Not having as high of a damage rating is penalty enough.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

I don't know if it's been converted to 3.5, but Oriental Adventures (among some other books) has a feat called Superior Expertise, which removes the cap for using the Expertise feat.

My ruling on Combat Expertise has less to do with the cap and more to do with the fact that after a character has a +5 Base Attack it no longer makes sense to use the full defense option. With full defense, the character cannot attack and gains a +4 to AC. With defensive fighting, the character gains up to +5 to AC (or more with Superior Expertise) and can still attack.

I figured that a person going on the total defensive should be more effective in defending himself than if he continued to attack. So, what we end up with is (the idea being to give a character with Combat Expertise a reason to go full defense, and allow said defense to be better than a character without the feat):

No Combat Expertise Feat -

Fighting Defensively: -4 to hit, +2 to AC
Total Defense: no attacks, +4 to AC

With Combat Expertise (BA +1) -

Fighting Defensively: -1 to hit, +1 to AC (or -4 to hit, +2 to AC)
Total Defense: no attacks, +5 to AC

With Combat Expertise (BA +2) -

Fighting Defensively: up to -2 to hit, +2 to AC
Total Defense: no attacks, +6 to AC

...

With Combat Expertise (BA +5) -

Fighting Defensively: up to -5 to hit, +5 to AC
Total Defense: no attacks, +9 to AC

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

As for Weapon Finesse, it makes more sense not to have it as a feat. Not having as high of a damage rating is penalty enough.

I agree, except that I like the idea of having a feat that allows a character to use dexterity in non-finesse style weapons. I picture some of the "samurai" flicks (and other movies) in which some of the characters would use polearms with much "finesse".

Feats, in my opinion, should allow a character to do a "little extra" (and they mostly do). I do not think that using a rapier with dexterity should count as a "little extra". I do, however, think that using a scythe (or greatsword, greataxe, halberd, etc.) with dexterity would be considered a "little extra". I also do not think that this hurts game balance in any way.

 

[genshou]

My ruling on Combat Expertise has less to do with the cap and more to do with the fact that after a character has a +5 Base Attack it no longer makes sense to use the full defense option. With full defense, the character cannot attack and gains a +4 to AC. With defensive fighting, the character gains up to +5 to AC (or more with Superior Expertise) and can still attack.

My apologies for misunderstanding.

The canon version of total defense has only one option once your BaB reaches +4–you can use it without taking an attack action, allowing you to move twice your speed in a round. Other than that, it's useless. I like how your idea fixes that.

Would total defense peak at +9, or would it continue to increase for a character with the Superior Expertise feat?

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

My apologies for misunderstanding.

The canon version of total defense has only one option once your BaB reaches +4–you can use it without taking an attack action, allowing you to move twice your speed in a round. Other than that, it's useless. I like how your idea fixes that.

Would total defense peak at +9, or would it continue to increase for a character with the Superior Expertise feat?

I would allow it to continue to increase. Superior Combat Expertise is already allowing very high level characters to attain a very high AC and still attack, so +4 additional points in lieu of any attacks does not appear to be unbalancing.