New Combat Feats

[Shirt Guy John]

I've created these two feats more as flavor feats than power feats, but I'd like to get any feedback possible on whether or not they'll work out in game.

Improved Parry [General]
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You are more adept at using a weapon to deflect blows.

Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +3, Combat Reflexes, Expertise, Weapon Focus, Int 13+
Benefits: When you wield a melee weapon with which you have the Weapon Focus feat, you gain a +1 parry* bonus to your armor class against all melee attacks made against you by a chosen opponent while you still receive you dexterity bonus to AC. If you are in a situation where you would normally be denied your dexterity bonus to AC, you are also denied this parry bonus. If you choose to fight defensively, your bonus to AC increases to +2 (still a parry bonus). If you choose to perform the all-out defense action, your bonus from this feat increases to +3 for as long as you maintain the all-out defense action. It is a free action to designate the foe affected by this feat, and you can change the affected enemy once on each one of your turns.
Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his bonus feats.

Supreme Parry [General]
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You can deflect blows with ease with a weapon.

Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +9, Combat Reflexes, Expertise, Improved Parry, Weapon Focus, Int 15+
Benefits: So long as you wield a weapon with which you possess the Weapon Focus feat and you retain your dexterity bonus to AC you gain a +1 parry* bonus to AC against all melee attacks made by any foe. This bonus stacks with that of Improved Parry, although the bonus from Supreme Parry applies to all foes in general, while Improved Parry still only provides a bonus against its one chosen foe. If you are in a situation where you would normally be denied your dexterity bonus to AC, you are also denied this parry bonus.
Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his bonus feats.

*arry is a new type of bonus to AC. A parry bonus typically applies to your AC when attacked with a melee weapon. Touch attacks ignore a parry bonus to AC. A parry bonus is lost if the subject does not retain his dexterity bonus to AC. If a parry bonus to AC comes from a source that gives rules other than those presented here, use those rules that are contained within the source instead.

 

[comrade raoul]

They seem vaguely underpowered right now. I think they'd be balanced if you doubled all of the bonuses, although that might put them over the edge.

 

[trentonjoe]

Other than the fact they are harder to qualify for then alot of PrC's, I think they are pretty neat.

There was a list of parrying feats in a dragon magazine (301ish) recently. You might want to check those out.

 

[Shirt Guy John]

Version 1.1

Yeah, they did seem a bit underpowered compared to the requirements (well, the Improved Parry feat did, not so much Supreme Parry, because it provides a blanket bonus to AC). Here's the modified versions of the feats, plus the third feat in the general grouping:

Version 1.1 Feats
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Improved Parry [General]
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You are more adept at using a weapon to deflect blows.

Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +3, Combat Reflexes, Expertise, Weapon Focus, Int 13+
Benefits: When you wield a melee weapon with which you have the Weapon Focus feat, you gain a +2 parry* bonus to your armor class against all melee attacks made against you by a chosen opponent while you still receive you dexterity bonus to AC. If you are in a situation where you would normally be denied your dexterity bonus to AC, you are also denied this parry bonus. If you choose to fight defensively, your bonus to AC increases to +3 (still a parry bonus). If you choose to perform the all-out defense action, your bonus from this feat increases to +4 for as long as you maintain the all-out defense action. It is a free action to designate the foe affected by this feat, and you can change the affected enemy once on each one of your turns.
Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his bonus feats.

Supreme Parry [General]
===============================
You can deflect blows with ease with a weapon.

Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +9, Combat Reflexes, Expertise, Improved Parry, Weapon Focus, Int 13+
Benefits: So long as you wield a weapon with which you possess the Weapon Focus feat and you retain your dexterity bonus to AC you gain a +1 parry* bonus to AC against all melee attacks made by any foe. This bonus stacks with that of Improved Parry, although the bonus from Supreme Parry applies to all foes in general, while Improved Parry still only provides a bonus against its one chosen foe. If you are in a situation where you would normally be denied your dexterity bonus to AC, you are also denied this parry bonus.
Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his bonus feats.

Reposte [General]
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You can exploit the openning when your opponent misses you in melee.

Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +9, Combat Reflexes, Expertise, Improved Parry, Weapon Focus, Int 13+
Benefits: Once per day, when an opponent who is the subject of the Improved Parry feat makes an unsucessful melee attack against you you may make a free attack against the opponent imediately using your full base attack bonus. For this attack the opponent is considered flat-footed and is denied his dexterity bonus to AC if any. The opponent must have missed his actual attack roll, not missed because of concealment effects. If either you or the opponent has cover in respect to the other, you cannot take this free attack.
Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his bonus feats.

Changes to the first two feats are in bold (there're very few changes).

 

[Shirt Guy John]

Any final thoughts? I've tried to think of a few more feats to add to the list, but as of yet I've stalled out, so I'll worry about it later. I think the feats add some flavor for some character concepts - especially a warrior duelist (not the prestige class, but someone who actually participates in one-on-one duels) - would do very well with the Improved Parry feat and the Reposte feat. As for the feats from the dragon magazine, while I have never had the chance to read them (I couldn't find the issue with them in it), from what I've heard they seem unbalanced and/or overcomplicated. I tried to stick to more basic rules with mine, to keep things simple and understandable.

 

[Drawmack]

you should make them type fighter then you don't need you little special line.

Also what happens if someone takes one of these feats twice?

I don't know it's an AC bonus that will stack with all current bonus's. I've had 14th level fighters with an ac of 25, this woul dmake it 27.

I'm not a big fan of huge AC bonus's though.

 

[Corlon]

I think there should be a rule against parrying when you have weapons that are one size category larger than you and no parrying for some weapons.

I imagine it'd be hard to parry with a greatsword or greataxe, and I think it'd also be hard to parry with...I can't think of a small weapon that's hard to parry with right now, but there are probably some.

 

[Shirt Guy John]

you should make them type fighter then you don't need you little special line.

I've never heard of that, and I like keeping the feat types singular, so I think I'll stick with what I've got. Where is that used, anyways?

Also what happens if someone takes one of these feats twice?

Well, like every other feat that doesn't say that you can take it more than once in its "Special" line, it's implied (well, I thought it was) that you cannot take the feat multiple times.

I don't know it's an AC bonus that will stack with all current bonus's. I've had 14th level fighters with an ac of 25, this would make it 27.

That... doesn't seem very high at all to me. 25 at 14th level? Tell me, what's the average bonus to attack of combat-opponent's at that level? More than +15? I think it might be... that would be the bonus of the worst warrior I could make, so yeah, what's the problem there?

I'm not a big fan of huge AC bonus's though.

Well, this is the most limited bonus to AC that I could make. Essentially dodge, but only against melee attacks, and only available through feats that have pretty hefty requirements. I'd like to hear what would make you dislike these feats, beyond disliking new bonuses to AC.

I think there should be a rule against parrying when you have weapons that are one size category larger than you and no parrying for some weapons.

I imagine it'd be hard to parry with a greatsword or greataxe, and I think it'd also be hard to parry with...I can't think of a small weapon that's hard to parry with right now, but there are probably some.

Yeah, I wanted to leave out weapon-specific notes at first, but you've got a ton of good points. However for the sake of coolness I'd be willing to throw out a little bit of realism and make it work the same way for everyone with any weapon.

If I did add realistic elements, I'd just say you can only use it with a weapon that is your size or one step smaller. I was also considering what would happen when using two weapons, but I figured that was covered by the "Off-Hand Parry" feat by Wizards (which would be modified to add another Parry bonus to AC, instead of an unnamed bonus).