[Grim Tales] New feat balance help

[Mavnn]

Firstly: Grim Tales - it's good, go buy it, well done Wulf.

It's not quite Hero (my system of choice), but the ease of access to new players, low-magic feel, flexibility of character generation and the flawless integration of the vast sea of d20 material available for free means that this time limited GM with a bunch of (currently) non-gamer players will be using it for his next campaign.

Now that's out of the way :

It's All in the Wrist [FAST]

Benefit: Treat a medium weapon with a d6 damage dice as if it were light. Among other things, this allows the weapon to be used with the 'Weapon Finesse' feat and reduces the penalties for two weapon fighting with the chosen weapon in the off hand.​

Would people consider the above feat balanced? It's primarily designed to allow the use of Weapon Finesse with weapons like scimitars and rapiers, but it does also give the boost to two weapon fighting.

It also makes the assumption that low damage dice, high crit. range/effect weapons are generally quite light and agile, but I couldn't think of any more useful 'generic' measure of wether a weapon is suitable for the feat or not.

If people think it's over powered, how would you go about nerfing it? The most obvious choice for me would be to add a prerequisite of either BAB +1 (or more?) or 'Weapon Focus' for the chosen weapon, but that might not address whatever concerns you have.

Comments welcome.

 

[GlassJaw]

Seems fine to me, even in a non-GT game. I would add Weapon Focus and Weapon Finesse as req's.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Should be fine. I'd keep the requirements simply at 'Weapon Finesse' (maybe add Weapon Focus is you wanted this to be a rare thing). If someone with a +0 BAB wants to dual wield, let them. Heck, encourage them.

This is presuming you will still require the use of an action point to confirm criticals. This keeps the minor increase in potential crits from becoming a problem.

 

[Mavnn]

Hmm... the problem with using Finesse as the req. is that in theory you can't get Finesse for the chosen weapon until after you've selected this feat.

Which would mean (in effect) that you'd have to take 3 feats to wield one of these weapons with Finesse (1. Finesse with a light weapon, 2. It's all in the Wrist, 3. Finesse with selected weapon). Seems a bit harsh.

I'm thinking I'll probably go with the Weapon Focus as req. route.

I've also realised while considering this that both WF and WF () require +1 BAB anyway, so that wouldn't be a terribly meaningful extra requirement.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Which would mean (in effect) that you'd have to take 3 feats to wield one of these weapons with Finesse (1. Finesse with a light weapon, 2. It's all in the Wrist, 3. Finesse with selected weapon). Seems a bit harsh.

Ah. Couldn't remember whether GT used 3.0 or 3.5 rules for weapon finesse. If you are using 'WF applies to all finesseable weapons' then I don't think it is an inappropriate pre-req. If you are playing 'WF applies to a specific weapon' then yes, it would be silly

I'm thinking I'll probably go with the Weapon Focus as req. route.

That still puts it in a three-feat chain: Weapon Focus (scimitar), Weapon Finesse (Scimitar), All-in-the-wrist (Scimitar). Four, if you add TWF.

To me, making GT Weapon Finesse match 3.5 makes more sense (regardless of the pre-req for AinW).

I've also realised while considering this that both WF and WF () require +1 BAB anyway, so that wouldn't be a terribly meaningful extra requirement.

Yeah, I house-ruled that one to remove the BAB requirement ages ago. I'm of the firm opinion that if someone wants to take a feat to let them do something they will still suck at, more power to them.