[FEAT]Springboad Step or How to get 5 more feet away free!

[Leopold]

My point was, not even elder gold dragons can take more than a 5 ft. and most of those feats are good anyway. and i think there's a reason nothing has more than a 5 ft it seems like it breaks the ideas of dnd AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH DEX.

and there is only one AoO per round. Only one cleave per attack with cleave, only shoot bows at a distance, only one way to charge an opponent, and only one way to cast a spell..

the points of feats are like amendments to the constitution. They bend the rules but do not break them. That's the whole point in them. if you can say there is ONLY one rule in there that is NEVER bent by a feat, skill, spell, item, Class I will be shocked.

This feat doesn't break any rule, you still only get one 5' step (in this case 10 or more) free. We are just ENLARGING the amount you can take nothing more.

Consider this a MAXIMIZED free movement feat .

 

[Romotre]

please believe me, i know what feats are AND what they do. however, i still think you need some restriction on it. seems to me this feat can unbalance things. or let me play in a game with you...i'll use a spiked chain, and have this feat. please?

 

[Leopold]

please believe me, i know what feats are AND what they do. however, i still think you need some restriction on it. seems to me this feat can unbalance things. or let me play in a game with you...i'll use a spiked chain, and have this feat. please?

any time and let me have a giant with a long spear...equilibirum for everything....

 

[Romotre]

ok, 10 ft step toward him, full attack. and as i've said before this is unbalanced against 5 ft reach enemies, which are most of the enemies I encounter.

 

[Leopold]

ok, 10 ft step toward him, full attack. and as i've said before this is unbalanced against 5 ft reach enemies, which are most of the enemies I encounter.

of course it is meant for higher PC's that have sufficent access to higher feats and higher scores. The higher up you go the more enemies you encounter with reach and teleportation. If this were a first level feat it would be incredibly unbalanced. Since this requires at least a level 9 character to obtian that would allow sufficent time to have enemies that:

1. Have reach (giants, chimera, devils, demons)
2. Use reach weapons
3. Can teleport or blink
4. Don't need to get into combat to attack you (dragons, basiliks, etc.)

Does this make the feat inefective? Gods no! but if you are just doing a one on one with a fighter and someone with this feat, the fighter would simply sunder or disarm the person with reach and then you are sol on your reach weapon.

I am looking for ways to tweak the feat. It is balanced as far as requirements and extreme situations where the feat is unbalanced are difficult to come by. So far I have seen one example where even if you had this feat you attack and then leap back and you need to have the enemy move to attack you. I can do the same thing with a ring of blinking, a teleport spell, or other ability but this is more like training than an ability.

 

[FANGO]

Level 9? I can do it in 5, easy.

Halfling Fighter4/Rogue1
Start with 20 dex, 10+ int
Get Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack as fighter bonus feats, Run as level 1 feat, and whatever else you like at level 3. Put your bonus stat point into dex, making it 21 at level 4.
Max ranks in jump and tumble for a level 4 fighter are 7 and 3.5, respectively. Put 7 ranks in jump, and 6 points (making 3 ranks) into tumble. You still have 1 skill point to spend as you choose. Then get your fifth level in rogue, making your max ranks in either skill 8 each, and put 1 rank into jump and 5 into tumble. You still have 2 skill points to spend as you choose.

 

[Leopold]

Level 9? I can do it in 5, easy.

Halfling Fighter4/Rogue1
Start with 20 dex, 10+ int
Get Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack as fighter bonus feats, Run as level 1 feat, and whatever else you like at level 3. Put your bonus stat point into dex, making it 21 at level 4.
Max ranks in jump and tumble for a level 4 fighter are 7 and 3.5, respectively. Put 7 ranks in jump, and 6 points (making 3 ranks) into tumble. You still have 1 skill point to spend as you choose. Then get your fifth level in rogue, making your max ranks in either skill 8 each, and put 1 rank into jump and 5 into tumble. You still have 2 skill points to spend as you choose.

thank you for that analysis, that is EXACTLY what i am looking for. Perhaps up the dex a bit by 2 to 23? Rank of 10 in tumble and jump? I want to make this more of a higher level feat rather than one for lower levels.

 

[Anabstercorian]

I think the Dex requirements are easily high enough. I'd increase the rank requirements.

 

[Leopold]

I think the Dex requirements are easily high enough. I'd increase the rank requirements.

10 in jump and 10 in tumble?

 

[FANGO]

I should add that I don't necessarily think this feat is a very good idea either. It's basically giving someone the advantages of pounce and spring attack at the same time, and also as it is worded it could be abused to allow two five foot steps rather than one 10 foot step, which would add significantly more flexibility to the feat (not to mention the stacking...if you had 20 feet worth of 5 foot steps a round, you could very easily make a character who is unstoppable by any mundane means without a massively large amount of reach). There should probably be a lot of other restrictions put on it, like having to make a tumble check vs a certain DC...

Actually, that makes me think of something. In OA there are variant rules for massive tumble checks, and under these rules you are allowed to make a 10-foot "5-foot step" with a tumble check DC 40. So really, this feat isn't necessary. Perhaps you could still make it into a feat, if you like, but cosidering that DC 40 is still hard to make under core rules only (with the max tumble check for a 20th level halfling rogue with all possible magical help, maxed dex, skill focus, and maxed tumble being +38...and don't forget that under core rules that is the ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM), so without using OA PrCs that give bonuses to tumble, you're going to have a hard time always making that check, so I'm hesitant to think that a feat that allows automatic success on something like that is a good idea (remember that spring attack is the culmination of a 3 feat chain, and yet only allows someone to bypass something that can be done with a tumble check DC 15, which can be made by pretty much anyone and can be made 100% of the time as early as 5th level or so for someone who has maxed it out).

So yeah, in summary, I think that there should be heavier restrictions on the use of this feat...perhaps not many more prerequisites (Dex 21+ is already plenty...the highest prereq score I've ever seen is wis 19+ for blindsight 5 foot radius), but more restrictions or something would be good.