More feats (fighting/Wis-related)

[hong]

Okay, enough with Cha

I'm going over the martial artist stuff on my page, and coming up with some new feats for the class. Here's what I've got so far. Comments?


Instinctive Strike

Brawn is nothing compared to the power of the soul. You exemplify this.

Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +8, Weapon Focus, Wis 13+.

Benefit: When using a weapon with which you have Weapon Focus, you may add your Wisdom bonus to your damage rolls in place of your Strength modifier. Unlike your Strength modifier, this bonus to damage is not modified for two-handed melee weapons or off-hand weapons. You do not gain a benefit if the weapon you use does not allow a Strength bonus to damage.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack; each time you take this feat, it applies to a different weapon. You can choose composite bows or unarmed strike as your weapon for the purposes of this feat.


Still Mind

Your inner tranquility aids you in warding off attacks on your psyche.

Prerequisites: Iron Will.

Benefit: You gain a +3 insight bonus to saves against charm and compulsion effects. [Note: this is effectively the monk's still mind; I've upped it to +3 because not everyone gets a good Will save.]


Strike Without Thought

Uniting body and mind with a single purpose, you _know_ where to strike for maximum effect.

Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +12, Instinctive Strike, Iron Will, Power Attack, Still Mind, Weapon Focus, Str 13+, Wis 15+.

Benefit: When using a weapon with which you have Instinctive Strike, your Wisdom bonus and Strength modifier to damage stack.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat, it applies to a different weapon. You may choose composite bows or unarmed strike as your weapon for the purposes of this feat.


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Purify Body

By means of meditative techniques, you can purge your body of toxins and other ill-effects.

Prerequisites: Great Fortitude, Concentration skill.

Benefit: Once per day, as a full-round action you can enter a meditative trance. Any Fortitude saving throws that you would have to make are delayed until the end of your meditation. If you meditate for ten minutes, you receive a +10 competence bonus to these saves. If you meditate for twenty minutes or longer, the competence bonus increases to +15. While in your meditative state, you are effectively helpless but aware of your surroundings. You must meditate for at least ten minutes to gain a bonus to your save, and you can maintain your meditation for up to half an hour per level.

Distractions that could cause you to lose your focus require you to make a Concentration skill check to maintain your meditative state (assuming you want to do so). Maintaining your meditation counts as a 4th level spell for the purposes of figuring the DC of the skill check.

At the DM's option, certain exotic poisons and other attacks may exist that are not affected by this feat.


Strength of Will (Su)

By focusing your ki, you can form a last-ditch defense against mental attacks.

Prerequisites: 4th level, Iron Will, Concentration skill, Con 13+, Wis 13+.

Benefit: If you fail a Will saving throw, you can substitute a Concentration skill check for your failed save. The DC for the skill check is the same as that for the original save, and all modifiers that applied to the save also apply to the skill check (substitute your Wisdom modifier for your Constitution modifier). If your skill check is successful, you are treated as if you had made your save. This feat is a supernatural ability, and may be used up to a number of times per day equal to your level divided by 4.


One Body, One Soul

By tapping into the innermost depths of your being, where the mental and physical become one, you are better able to withstand harsh challenges.

Prerequisites: 8th level, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Purify Body, Strength of Will, Concentration skill, Con 13+, Wis 13+.

Benefit: You can use the higher of your Wisdom and Constitution modifiers for the purposes of calculating your hit point total, and modifying your Fortitude and Will saving throws.


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Resist Elements

Your training has inured you to extremes of heat and cold.

Prerequisites: Base Fortitude save bonus +7, Endurance, Toughness.

Benefit: You gain fire resistance 12 and cold resistance 12.


Iron Skin

Your training has rendered you extraordinarily resistant to physical damage.

Prerequisites: Base Fortitude save bonus +8, Endurance, Toughness.

Benefit: You gain damage reduction 5/–.


It sometimes seems like half the fun of making new feats is thinking up some technobabble handwave for them.

 

[Spenser]

I like the blue feats.
I don't like the red feats.
And that's all.

-Spenser

Edit: Geez, that came out a little more Dr. Seuss-like than I intended. One feat, two feat, red feat, blue feat!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Well, it's quite decent, but I really don't dig the whole "Martial Arts/Shaolin Monk" groove, it's at odds with most fighter concepts, and whilst well-suited to Monks, seems really out of place.

I'd be looking more at precision/reaction/intuition types Feats for Wisdom myself, anticipating enemy actions, thus being able to strike or avoid being struck better, that sort of thing, that all this Zen-ass stuff, which, as I said, doesn't fit with 95% of fighter concepts, or with the mythos of some game settings.

Less mysticism and blatant magic powers, basically, more veternancy, experience, cunning, and so on, that's just my take.

Some things would still be appropriate, like "Still Mind", but would need re-naming, and the red Feats seem just plain inappropriate to most campaigns to me. Not really unbalanced, many fighters will have magic items that do the same or worse, but they just feel really wrong to me.

That said, if you DO have a campaign where Martial Arts is a big thing, this is all great...

 

[Ace32]

I like them all, they seem pretty balanced, and offer quite a good look into the martial arts stuff. I'll probably incorporate these for use with the martial arts class from beyond monks. yay!

 

[Tony Vargas]

OK, here's a WIS-based combat feat with no trace of monkiness about it:


Methodical Attack
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp You can take note of what works well against a non-intelligent enemy and take advantage of it's inability to learn from experience by repeating successful tactics against it.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Prerequisites: WIS 13+, BAB 3+
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Benefits: On the second round that you attack a non-intelligent creature that is incapable of learning from experience (animated dead, constructs, oozes, etc - this may require some judgement from your DM, even oozes may be capable of learning from stimuli), you may use your rolled attack and damage, or the attack and damage you rolled on the pior round, whichever is better. You may only do this if you use the same attack routine (action, feats, modifiers) as on the prior round. You may 'reach back' one round per point of Wisdom bonus you possess, for useable tactics (rolls).

 

[hong]

Well, it's quite decent, but I really don't dig the whole "Martial Arts/Shaolin Monk" groove, it's at odds with most fighter concepts, and whilst well-suited to Monks, seems really out of place.

Yeah, I should have mentioned that these feats are really meant to be used in conjunction with the martial artist class that I whipped up last year. That class is basically a replacement for the monk, with a greater emphasis on weapon fighting and flexibility. And it ditches the horrible separate iterative attack progression for unarmed attacks, which causes no end of problems.

Since the monk tends to have genre problems, this class (and feats) would as well. Still, if your campaign features lots of Zen-ass stuff and mysticism, hey, it would fit right in.

I'd be looking more at precision/reaction/intuition types Feats for Wisdom myself, anticipating enemy actions, thus being able to strike or avoid being struck better, that sort of thing, that all this Zen-ass stuff, which, as I said, doesn't fit with 95% of fighter concepts, or with the mythos of some game settings.

That wouldn't be a bad idea. Personally, I'd tend to make them based on Int, using Expertise as the base feat and working from there. The duelist is an example of what it might look like.


Spenser: were the red feats too powerful, too useless, too bland...?

 

[Al]

Creative as ever, hong (you have far too much time on your hands )

Here's my humble opinion:

Instinctive Strike: Looks fine. In general, hitting is more important than damaging, and since Weapon Finesse substitutes Str for Dex for purposes of hitting, there is no reason why IS cannot substitute Str for Wis for purposes of damaging. Though perhaps it should relate to hitting, as the name implies.

Still Mind: Again, good. Probably not going to be taken by any but those totally paranoid about enchantments, but balanced nevertheless.

Strike Without Thought: No problems here either. Bearing in mind that few characters have very good (+4) Strength AND Wisdom, even at high-level, the incremental damage is probably fine, especially when considering its position at the end of a long feat chain.

Purify Body: Balanced again. Since most parties have the Heal skill, nullifying most of the problem of post-combat secondary poison damage. The only problem with this may be energy draining attacks, but the clause at the end allows DM flexibility on this.

Strength of Will: Too strong. Not only allows a retroactive reroll, but further boosts it by allowing a skill check in place of a save. I can see a lot of fighters taking Cosmpolitan (Concentration) and this feat. Perhaps drop the retroactive reroll and it should be okay.

One Body, One Soul: Strong compared to Mind over Body, but acceptable at the end of a feat chain.

Resist Elements: Overpowered. Compare with the appropriate (and weaker) feat in MotW.

Iron Skin: Same as above- a similar weaker feat exists in MotW, which I believe merely improves (not even grants) DR by 1/-

 

[hong]

Purify Body: Balanced again. Since most parties have the Heal skill, nullifying most of the problem of post-combat secondary poison damage. The only problem with this may be energy draining attacks, but the clause at the end allows DM flexibility on this.

Actually, I had energy drain attacks in mind when rewriting that feat. I don't think there's anything wrong with allowing the benefit in this case. Energy drain is a particularly obnoxious form of attack which annoys a lot of people, because it negates the work you've put into advancing the character, and leaves you behind everyone else. If someone is willing to spend the feats, why not allow the benefit?

Strength of Will: Too strong. Not only allows a retroactive reroll, but further boosts it by allowing a skill check in place of a save. I can see a lot of fighters taking Cosmpolitan (Concentration) and this feat. Perhaps drop the retroactive reroll and it should be okay.

I've redone it somewhat:

Benefit: If you fail a Will saving throw, you can make an immediate Concentration skill check at the same DC. Any luck, insight and competence bonuses that applied to the save also apply to the skill check, subject to the normal stacking rules. If the check is successful, you are treated as if you had made your save. This feat is a supernatural ability, and may be used up to a number of times per day equal to your level divided by 4.


Again, since fighters only have 2 skill points per level, if they want to take yet another feat and max out on Concentration, that's a pretty hefty price to pay.

One Body, One Soul: Strong compared to Mind over Body, but acceptable at the end of a feat chain.

Mind over Body?

Resist Elements: Overpowered. Compare with the appropriate (and weaker) feat in MotW.

Well, given that you have to take two completely useless feats (Endurance and Toughness), plus this version isn't stackable, I don't think it's completely broken. I might reduce it to fire and cold resistance 8 each.

Iron Skin: Same as above- a similar weaker feat exists in MotW, which I believe merely improves (not even grants) DR by 1/-

This one might become DR 5/+2, a supernatural ability.

 

[Spenser]

hong,

None of the feats were bland. I liked their descriptions, too.

I thought the blue feats were nicely balanced, but the red feats were too powerful. I understand that Endurance and Toughness are "useless" feats, but I still think the red feats still went too far.

This is particularly true in the case of Iron Skin. I like the fact that if you invest all your levels in barbarian, you get the unique class ability of damage reduction. I think it's one of the major incentives to go straight barbarian rather than adding a couple barbarian levels for skills, rage, and movement and putting the rest in fighter. Letting your average schmuck fighter have better DR for a mere three feats is just too much.

 

[Al]

Actually, I had energy drain attacks in mind when rewriting that feat. I don't think there's anything wrong with allowing the benefit in this case. Energy drain is a particularly obnoxious form of attack which annoys a lot of people, because it negates the work you've put into advancing the character, and leaves you behind everyone else. If someone is willing to spend the feats, why not allow the benefit?

In which case this is probably too strong. It effectively grants near-immunity to all energy-draining attacks, and nullifies secondary poison damage as a useful kicker.

Benefit: If you fail a Will saving throw, you can make an immediate Concentration skill check at the same DC. Any luck, insight and competence bonuses that applied to the save also apply to the skill check, subject to the normal stacking rules. If the check is successful, you are treated as if you had made your save. This feat is a supernatural ability, and may be used up to a number of times per day equal to your level divided by 4.

Still too powerful. I don't see how it's different from the original, as it still allows a retroactive reroll with a much better modifier.

Again, since fighters only have 2 skill points per level, if they want to take yet another feat and max out on Concentration, that's a pretty hefty price to pay.

Well, seeing as their class skills are generally held to be weak at best, two feats and some skill points to have a very comfortable against your main Achilles' heel (Will saves) doesn't seem that much of a price to pay. For a fighter with about twenty feats by the end, spending two to cover your main weakness seems a good expenditure.

Mind over Body?

FR Feat. Allows Int instead of Con to modify HPs at 1st level only, +1 hp per metamagic feat.