Melee Evasion from PHB II

[drakesbane]

I'm a little confused as to the usefulness of this feat from the PHB II. It reads fairly straightforward; against one attack in a round, your AC is equal to your BAB plus the result of a d20. It seems in many cases, though, your AC will wind up worse than it actually is. For example, if a 1st level fighter used this feat, his AC would be anywhere from 2 to 21.
Furthermore, should this figure include the bonus for fighting defensively and the dodge bonus?
I like a lot of the feats from the PHB II, but this one leases me saying, "Huh?"
Anyone have any suggestions on how to make this feat work or is it best ignored?
Thanks,
Drakesbane

 

[Slaved]

Maybe if your touch armor class is really, really low? Even then it does not look that useful though.

Its wording is a little weird as well. Use your highest base attack bonus? Do you have more than one?

Maybe it went through a few revisions and wound up being mostly useless with bad wording? It has some tough prerequisites too.

 

[hong]

At high levels, AC typically fails to keep pace with attack bonus. You can have fighters and barbs with AC 30 and attack bonus +35.

That said, I don't have the book in front of me but if it's just BAB + d20 the feat doesn't sound worth it. Now if it was BAB + (usual attack bonuses) + d20, that would be cool.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

It might be worth it in a lower-magic game, where the DM can throw low-to-mid challenge foes at high level players. Even then, though, its still not as good an option as using Combat Expertise, or its big brother, Superior Expertise. (Printed in Oriental Adventures, and Complete Warrior, IIRC) As a DM who has run several lower magic games, I recommend those two feats to everyone. Everyone.
Melee Evasion is pretty sub par at 20th level compared to superior expertise; AC ~30 vs AC X+20. (X probably being ~30 already)

 

[Cabral]

If I were to revise it, I would have it subsitute BAB for armor bonus against one attack as an immediate action. More predictable and great for lightly armored combantants (Especially monks).

If you want your skill with your weapon (weapon focus) to further improve your parry (melee evasion), shift the attack bonus from weapon focus to AC via Combat Expertise.

As written, the feat is too erratic for my tastes.

 

[Stalker0]

The only thing is helps you with is touch attacks...otherwise its complete garbage.

 

[jasin]

As an aside, why are there so many feats that require Combat Expertise, but then only work if you're fighting defensively or using total defense?

(Or is the general consensus that Combat Expertise is a separate thing from fighting defensively wrong? (Or is my perception that the general consensus is such wrong?))

 

[SlagMortar]

Fighting defensively can be combined with combat expertise.

Edit: If you need rules quotes (and it would be a good idea for you to need them), instead of my out of the blue assertions, look at total defense. It says total defense can not be combined with fighting defensively or combat expertise because those require you to take the attack action. That suggests that when you attack with combat expertise you can also use fighting defensively because both require an attack action. I don't believe there is a hard and fast rule that either allows or forbids the combination.

The "Normal" section of combat expertise could be read to imply that they can not be combined, but I do not think that is the intended reading.

 

[jasin]

I know the reasons pro and con, I just find it annoying that they keep making feats that require Combat Expertise but also require you to use total defense (which is like stupid/feat-poor man's Combat Expertise).

It's easy enough to implicitly house rule "or take at least a -4 penalty using Combat Expertise" after every occurence of "you must fight defensively", of course.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Edit: If you need rules quotes (and it would be a good idea for you to need them), instead of my out of the blue assertions, look at total defense.

Far better to check the PHB, rather than the SRD, in this case - there's a parenthetic comment missing from the SRD entry for Fighting Defensively which states "This bonus stacks with the bonus from the Combat Expertise feat".

-Hyp.