Parrying Feats from Dragon Magazine

[Marshall]

As a generalization, about the shield, I thought you could, since you can use a shield as a weapon. It seems a little odd, however, that a shield would add to your AC and be capable of parrying outright, from a game mechanics point-of-view. That's just me, though.

Unless you have 'Shield Expert' you cant. Since youre using it to attack you dont get the AC bonus. And if youve already used the AC bonus you cant use it to attack.

Another reason to rate SE a 9 in that poll.....

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Ok, what is shield expert? Is it better than Parrying? Is it balanced?

 

[Ranger REG]

Alariel's post (which you quoted above) does list her Dex as 30.

Oops. My bad.

On another point, I have to disagree. A double weapon, while it gives you the benefit as if you're fighting with two weapons and the off hand is light (i.e., reduced two-weapon fighting penalties), the off-hand end is not considered to be a light weapon for all other purpose.

One should note that in that swashbuckling article, it expands the benefit of using a quarterstaff (i.e., a double weapon) with regards to parry (+2). By your logic, the feat would boost the quarterstaff's parry benefit to +6.

 

[Marshall]

Ok, what is shield expert? Is it better than Parrying? Is it balanced?

Shield Expert [General]
REQ: Base Attack bonus +3, Shield Proficiency
You may make an off-hand attack with your shield while retaining the shield’s AC bonus for that round. Sword and Fist, pg 9.

Good feat.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Maybe it's a good feat, but I did think a shield should be able to parry something (and if you fail to parry, your shield bonus to AC doesn't count).

*shrug*

Is there a limit to what kind of weapon you can parry?

Alariel, how did you get a Dex so high? Did you start with 20?

 

[Alariel]

Well, Alariel was born in 2nd edition, but she was lucky enough to get one 18, which in 2nd edition made her Dex a 19. Once she was pulled out of retirement for 3rd edition, through backwards compatibility, her 18 dex got a boost to 20 because she's an elf. She spent her entire fighting career working on her Dex (all 5 level ability boosts went to Dex, she read a +5 Dex book, and she has a pair of +6 Dex gloves... usually).

Granted, she also has a 12 str (18 with belt +6). Her phenomenal Dex is an extreme trade-off, but she believes it's possible to be a dex-based fighter. She's been pretty successful, too.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Maybe it's a good feat, but I did think a shield should be able to parry something (and if you fail to parry, your shield bonus to AC doesn't count).

*shrug*

If you are going to go and use common sense, I would have to point out that a shield should give you a big bonus to parry, say around +4 or more, over what you could do with a dagger or short sword.

Shields work a little bit if allowed to randomly wander in front of your chest; that's about a +2 to AC. They are excellent on the defense if used actively as an experienced warrior would.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

So what?

Doing this actually gives some benefit to using a dual end weapon like a double sword which otherwise is normally a waste of a feat to gain the ability to use.

No - you're simplifying what it says about double weapons.

"The [two-weapon fighting] penalties apply as if the off-hand weapon were light."

It's not a light weapon; it simply behaves as one for the purposes of calculating TWF penalties.

-Hyp.

 

[Ran]

I would make Parry a combat option, you may use one of your attacks to parry a melee attack made against your character, declaring it in your turn and making it ready... of course that attacking AND readyng a parry would make it full attack...

it would be raised a litle later, making a feat: Improved Parry, that would allow you to use an AoO in place of the common attack, freeing you from the ful attack, but giving the check a penalty... about -2 for the first parry, with cumulative -2 for each following attempt.

 

[Ranger REG]

So what?

Doing this actually gives some benefit to using a dual end weapon like a double sword which otherwise is normally a waste of a feat to gain the ability to use.

Then I strongly suggest you use the d20 Modern version of the Two-Weapon Fighting feat (you get the penalties reduction benefit of both Ambi and TWF in one feat).

You can parry with a double weapon. You just don't get the additional benefit because one end of the weapon is considered a light weapon for the purpose of reducing the two-weapon fighting attack penalties, other than what is given for the quarterstaff in the Dragon's swashbuckling article.