Negating Defensive Fighting Penalty?

[gothtaku]

Hey all,

I'm building a Swashbuckler/Fighter with the Deadly Defense Feat, which requires me to fight defensivly to gain +1d6 damage (not a bad trade off, honestly.)

I was wondering if there was a way to lessen the -4 for Defensive Fighting. According the feat I can take combat expertise and take a -2 instead, but is there anything else to lessen the penalty?

 

[moritheil]

I can't think of anything off hand that specifically mitigates that penalty. You're probably best off just trying to ensure that you have a decent bonus to hit (which as a fighter/swashbuckler you should) and taking enough ranks in Tumble to qualify for the synergy bonus while you're doing all that defensive fighting.