New feat for review

[brehobit]

Hi, I'm running what will have a number of light-armor, rapier wielding baddies. Wanted your thoughts on this....


Duelist
You are skilled at fighting one-on-one.

Prerequisites: Must have weapon focus in a light weapon and dodge.

Benefit: When fighting one-handed with a light weapon and with light or no armor, you may take an additional +4 dodge bonus to AC against one opponent. Against all other opponents you are considered flat footed. Note that as this is an intentional case of dropping your guard, feats such as uncanny dodge will not prevent you from being flat footed.

 

[Ferret]

Quite nice, maybe it would be more balanced if you had tio negate Uncanny D for it to work or after 'using' Uncanny Defense it stops woking for a while. Overall quite nice yet balanced(ish).

 

[brehobit]

Quite nice, maybe it would be more balanced if you had tio negate Uncanny D for it to work or after 'using' Uncanny Defense it stops woking for a while. Overall quite nice yet balanced(ish).

Sorry, I'm not entirely certain I understand what you mean by "had to negate Uncanny Defense for it to work"....

Thanks for the feedback. I am worried that this is fairly huge in certain situations (whole party on exactly one bad guy). But the armor and weapon restriction seem to keep it out of most players hands....

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The armor and weapon restrictions are fine--though I'd open it up to rapier-wielders too. The feat would appeal to a lot of duelists, swashbucklers and rogues. However, the "flatfooted against all other foes" bit is the deal-breaker. PCs face multiple foes far too often to take that kind of risk--and its even more of a risk than usual for PCs who would take this feat because they rely heavily on dexterity and dodge bonusses. For NPCs, it's not much good either. The vast majority of their generally brief on-screen lives is spent in combat with a party of PCs. Being less vulnerable to the power attacking fighter doesn't help if you open yourself up to a full round of sneak attacks from the rogue.

I would put a good BAB requirement on it--maybe +6 or +8 and knock the bonus down to either +2 or +3 (since it stacks with dodge, that's still pretty hefty).

 

[brehobit]

The armor and weapon restrictions are fine--though I'd open it up to rapier-wielders too. The feat would appeal to a lot of duelists, swashbucklers and rogues. However, the "flatfooted against all other foes" bit is the deal-breaker. PCs face multiple foes far too often to take that kind of risk--and its even more of a risk than usual for PCs who would take this feat because they rely heavily on dexterity and dodge bonusses. For NPCs, it's not much good either. The vast majority of their generally brief on-screen lives is spent in combat with a party of PCs. Being less vulnerable to the power attacking fighter doesn't help if you open yourself up to a full round of sneak attacks from the rogue.

I would put a good BAB requirement on it--maybe +6 or +8 and knock the bonus down to either +2 or +3 (since it stacks with dodge, that's still pretty hefty).

Thanks for the feedback. I had meant to include rapier wielders, I just forgot the definition of light.

One question. The first paragraph seems to argue that the feat may be too weak for folks to actually use very often. The second seems to argue for reducing the power. I feel a bit torn Seriously, is the arguement that the feat is too power when it works but too rarely useful. I think most feats are both weaker and more generally useful rather than really only occasionally. Is that where you think this should go? Oh, on the BAB thing, I can't do that as it is for a world where there are probably only a dozen warriors with a BAB of +6....

Again, thanks for the feedback!

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Yeah, I'm basically suggesting that you make it slightly weaker and generally more useful. However, thinking about it, there is another possibility (though it too would be balanced in most campaigns by a BAB +6 requirement): make it part of a tactical feat.

The logic behind the tactical feats in Complete Warrior is that they give three related bonusses that are useful in specific situations. So, you might leave it as written, realizing that it will only be useful once every ten sessions or so if that but add a couple other benefits.

Perhaps select one of the following manuevers each round:
1. Defensive Focus (as above)
2. Offensive Focus. You gain a +1 bonus on all of your attack rolls against your dodge target
3. Tactical Awareness. You gain a +2 bonus on all opposed rolls or checks against your dodge target.

For a normal campaign, I would give it prereqs: BAB 6+, Combat Expertise, Dodge, and either Weapon Focus with a finessable weapon or weapon finesse.

Characters would most likely use defensive awareness in a one on one duel or a fight where there is only one dangerous foe and no rogues.

Offensive Awareness would probably be the normal mode characters use--and as a +1 attack bonus that stacks with everything else, it's actually pretty good even though it's only against the dodge target. It's like having Greater Weapon Focus against that one target and it stacks with Greater Weapon Focus if your campaign ever gets a warrior with more than a +6 BAB.

Tactical Awareness would be a favorite of fighters using manuevers like disarm, trip, grapple, sunder, and feint. It might actually be too good in those circumstances (especially grapple and trip) but I'd be willing to give it a shot in a campaign and see how it played out.

 

[brehobit]

Thanks much for the feedback!

Mark

 

[Bryin]

Duelist
You are skilled at fighting one-on-one.

Prerequisites: Must have weapon focus in a light weapon and dodge.

Benefit: When fighting one-handed with a light weapon and with light or no armor, you may take an additional +4 dodge bonus to AC against one opponent. Against all other opponents you are considered flat footed. Note that as this is an intentional case of dropping your guard, feats such as uncanny dodge will not prevent you from being flat footed.

How about a feat called:

multiple enemies
You can attack the same amount of enemies as you have hands.

Prerequisites: two-weapon fighting, dodge

Benefit: pretty much the same