italianranma
First Post
I've been doing all sorts of home-brew for this upcoming Eberron campaign I'm going to DM with my peeps. Let me give you a little background on what I want to accomplish. First off my buddies and I are huge fans of the tactical feats and weapon styles from Complete Warrior. What we like about them is that they expand the combat options of your character, and once you have one you tend to make combat more interesting by doing all sorts of crazy moves. Right along with that I wanted to come up with something that would be like that. At the same time, there are some regular feats that I think just don't mesh well with what feats are supposed to do, or that are kinda silly. For example Defensive Strike from CW requires Combat Expertise for a feat, but when you use the feat you need to take a Full-Defense. Why require Combat Expertise as a pre-req when it's incompatable with the feat.
So I thought of stances as a way to incorporate those wacky feats that I think are a little strange. I'm looking for a little feedback here. My goals are this: I want these feats to be a little more powerful than other feats with pre-reqs since you can only take advantage of one at a time. But I don't want them to be too powerful. Second, if you can add on to these, please be my guest.
STANCES AND STYLES
Stances and styles are like normal feats: your character may take one as long as he/she meets the prerequisites. Unlike most feats, styles and stances have restrictions on what kind of weapons, feats, or movement you can use while the feat is activated. Styles and stances usually require some sort of activation, but you may bypass this activation cost by spending 1 Action Point. You may voluntarily end the style or stance as a free action, but you can only do so on your turn, and not during the same round that you began it. You may only gain the benefits from one style or stance at a time.
HIGH GUARD
Prerequisites: Str 13, Dex 13, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Power Attack
Style notes: The philosophy behind this style is to place your weapon in a position where it can make a swift and brutal attack while inviting your enemy close enough to you to deliver it. First the practitioner raises his weapon over his head exposing the majority of his body to attack. Then any one who attacks the practitioner and misses is subject to an attack of opportunity.
Restrictions: No shields; must be holding one or two-handed non-reach weapon. Cannot combine with Combat Expertise. You must be standing and able to move freely. If your weapon is dropped, or you are tripped or otherwise immobilized the stance ends.
Activation: A standard action that does not provoke and attack of opportunity
Benefits: Any combatant that misses you in melee combat provokes an attack of opportunity. You gain a +4 bonus to your opposed attack roll vs. any Disarm or Sunder attempts directed at your weapon. While using this stance, you take a -4 penalty to Defense.
BOW-LEGGED DEFENSE
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Int 13, Combat Expertise, Dodge, BAB +5
Style notes: Practitioners of this style believe in cleverly outmaneuvering their opponents, luring them to attack, and then striking them when they overextend themselves
Restrictions: Must be able to stand and move freely
Activation: You must use your Combat Expertise feat subtracting 5 from your BAB. You gain defense from this as normal. This stance ends if you don’t use your Combat Expertise feat to subtract at least 5 from your BAB (therefore you must continue to attack things).
Benefits: Whenever someone misses you in melee combat, the next attack you make against them (if made before the end of the following round) has a +4 bonus to the attack roll. Even if you end the use of this stance during your next turn, you still get the bonus to your attack roll. An ‘attack’ in this case means any attack option such as disarm, or sunder etc.
So I thought of stances as a way to incorporate those wacky feats that I think are a little strange. I'm looking for a little feedback here. My goals are this: I want these feats to be a little more powerful than other feats with pre-reqs since you can only take advantage of one at a time. But I don't want them to be too powerful. Second, if you can add on to these, please be my guest.
STANCES AND STYLES
Stances and styles are like normal feats: your character may take one as long as he/she meets the prerequisites. Unlike most feats, styles and stances have restrictions on what kind of weapons, feats, or movement you can use while the feat is activated. Styles and stances usually require some sort of activation, but you may bypass this activation cost by spending 1 Action Point. You may voluntarily end the style or stance as a free action, but you can only do so on your turn, and not during the same round that you began it. You may only gain the benefits from one style or stance at a time.
HIGH GUARD
Prerequisites: Str 13, Dex 13, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Power Attack
Style notes: The philosophy behind this style is to place your weapon in a position where it can make a swift and brutal attack while inviting your enemy close enough to you to deliver it. First the practitioner raises his weapon over his head exposing the majority of his body to attack. Then any one who attacks the practitioner and misses is subject to an attack of opportunity.
Restrictions: No shields; must be holding one or two-handed non-reach weapon. Cannot combine with Combat Expertise. You must be standing and able to move freely. If your weapon is dropped, or you are tripped or otherwise immobilized the stance ends.
Activation: A standard action that does not provoke and attack of opportunity
Benefits: Any combatant that misses you in melee combat provokes an attack of opportunity. You gain a +4 bonus to your opposed attack roll vs. any Disarm or Sunder attempts directed at your weapon. While using this stance, you take a -4 penalty to Defense.
BOW-LEGGED DEFENSE
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Int 13, Combat Expertise, Dodge, BAB +5
Style notes: Practitioners of this style believe in cleverly outmaneuvering their opponents, luring them to attack, and then striking them when they overextend themselves
Restrictions: Must be able to stand and move freely
Activation: You must use your Combat Expertise feat subtracting 5 from your BAB. You gain defense from this as normal. This stance ends if you don’t use your Combat Expertise feat to subtract at least 5 from your BAB (therefore you must continue to attack things).
Benefits: Whenever someone misses you in melee combat, the next attack you make against them (if made before the end of the following round) has a +4 bonus to the attack roll. Even if you end the use of this stance during your next turn, you still get the bonus to your attack roll. An ‘attack’ in this case means any attack option such as disarm, or sunder etc.
