D&D 3E/3.5 Is there a Parry in 3.5?

[Pbartender]

If you have iterative attacks and you parry once, is your attack on your following round at the lower bonus? If you parry more than once, are subsequent parries at the lower attack bonus?

Essentially, yes on both counts. You use the attack bonus of the attack which you are giving up.

Imagine a 6th-level fighter with a +2 Strength bonus and Two-Weapon Fighting. He is weilding a longsword in his primary hand, and a shortsword in his off-hand. He has a few options if he chooses to parry.

1. He makes a single parry attempt with his longsword. He makes the opposed Parry check at +8 (as if he made a single attack). The next round he can do one of two things...

First, he could take standard attack action. The attack was used up by the parry attempt, and he has a MEA left.

Second, he could take a full-attack action. His first attack was used up by the parry attempt, so the 'second' attack uses the next iteration, and he can make one attack at +3.

2. As above, but he decides that he'll want to use his off-hand weapon during the next round. He makes a single parry attempt with his longsword. This time, he makes the opposed Parry check at +6 (-2 for Two-Weapon Fighting). The next round, if take a full-attack action, he makes a 'second' attack at +1, and an off-hand attack with the shortsword at +6.

3. Also, if he makes a full-attack action (with or without the off-hand attack), he can make more than one parry, using the apprpriate attack bonuses.

4. The rule doesn't specify one way or the other, but feasibly, if your DM okays it, you could designate specific attacks for the parry. For example, the fighter above could get up to three attacks per round... +6 longsword, +1 longsword, and +6 shortsword. When making the parry attempt, you designate any one of the three attack bonuses as the one you will forgo to make the parry. That attack disappears from the following round.

Be aware that, though I didn't mention it above, there are bonuses and penalties for the size of weapon you use to parry, much like disarming.

With this method, two-weapon fighters can parry more often, more experienced fighters can parry more often and better.

The downside is that the actions of your next round get severly limited once you start parrying.

I assume you meant "Combat Reflexes"?

Yes I did... sorry. I'll fix that.

That's the key, right, that AoOs are (relatively) rarely used? In other words, this house rule would allow something -- a good chance of blocking an attack completely -- for very little -- "those rarely-used AoOs." The rarer AoOs are in a game, the worse this house rule is.

Well, sort of... It's that whole 'something for nothing' thing you mentioned earlier. In games where there are few AoOs, it gives you something to do with them. In games where they are more common occurances, the players simply have to make a more difficult choice... Parry for less damage? Or save it for an possible AoO? It's a defensive vs. offensive question.