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Message: <blockquote data-quote="genshou" data-source="post: 2276086" data-attributes="member: 13164">This is the parrying method I developed for my Forgotten Realms campaign.  See what you think of it.All characters receive a “parry” bonus to Armor Class based on their experience at avoiding blows even when unarmored.  A parry bonus is a special type of bonus that represents a character’s use of their melee weapon, combined with combat training, to deflect blows that would otherwise strike them.  A parry bonus is not the same as the use of the Fight Defensively or Total Defense actions, nor the Expertise feat.  Parry bonuses represent a character’s ability to defend above and beyond the bonuses provided by these options, and the bonus applies any time the character has not lost his/her Dexterity bonus to AC.  The bonus is used to allow a 20th-level wizard with even a humble dagger to deflect blows much better than a peasant conscript would, without factoring the use of feats or armor.  Unarmed characters (including monks fighting with unarmed strikes, characters using gauntlets or ward cestas, characters using only ranged weaponry, and characters with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat) receive only half the calculated parry bonus as a dodge bonus instead.  You may also elect, at the beginning of your turn, to gain the unarmed bonus when wielding a melee weapon, in order to avoid your weapon being damaged as it is used to block an attacker.  This choice lasts until the beginning of your next turn.    Parry bonus for a character is determined in the following manner: 2 + half the character’s Base Attack Bonus.  Some classes may gain additional increases to their parry bonus, as listed a few paragraphs below.    If you are wielding more than one melee weapon and a missed attack roll indicates your weapon was struck, roll to see which weapon was struck, giving each weapon an equal chance to be damaged.When a character using their parry bonus is attacked, first determine the result of the attack roll without the parry bonus.  If the roll indicates a successful hit, but adding the parry bonus would indicate a miss, the attack is blocked by the defender's weapon.  The attacker gains an immediate free attack against the defender's weapon using the Strike a Weapon rules, with no attack of opportunity (you may have struck the foe's weapon as they parried, but you may not have hit it in a way that would allow for damage).  In this system, characters wielding weapons are much better at defending themselves (and it meshes well with d20 System rules), but at the same time, you risk having your weapon broken when you elect for the full defensive bonus.The following ability applies to members of certain classes:Improved Parry: While Barbarians, Clerics, Druids, Fighters, and Paladins frequently depend on medium or heavy armor for survival; Monks rely on an almost supernatural sense of danger; and Sorcerers and Wizards focus on getting the heck out of dodge whenever threatened; Bards, Rangers, and Rogues must engage in melee, and often without the protection of strong armor or metaphysical senses.  Characters who have levels in at least one of these three classes (or certain prestige classes, ask me about any specific class) have a parrying bonus +1 higher than normal.  This extra bonus is not halved for unarmed dodge as the normal bonus is.  For unarmed characters, this means that the character’s Base Attack Bonus is halved and then the Improved Parry bonus is added on afterward.  Thus, a 1st-level Bard would have a +3 parry bonus when armed (rather than the normal +2), and a +2 bonus when unarmed (rather than the normal +1 or the +1.5 if you incorrectly halve the Improved Parry bonus).    Precise Parry: When a character’s total levels in classes that grant Improved Parry reaches 11, the bonus provided by the ability increases to +3 instead of +1.The following feat allows for expanded parrying ability:Exceptional Parry [General]You have mastered the use of a weapon to deflect another’s attack.    Prerequisites: Precise Parry or Duelist level 7+, Dodge, Mobility    Benefit: When you fight with a weapon, you may select one opponent at the beginning of your turn, as per the Dodge feat.  You must also select a weapon you are wielding that round with which you are proficient.  You gain a +3 parry bonus against all attacks from this opponent until your next turn.  Additionally, once per round per +2 bonus to Dexterity (minimum once), you may make an opposed attack roll against an opponent’s melee weapon attack roll (including unarmed attacks but not touch attacks or grappling) that successfully hit your character.  If you succeed, the attack instead strikes the weapon you chose to use with this ability.  The attacker gains an immediate free attack to strike your weapon, at the same attack bonus as the attack which provoked this free attack.  You do not gain an attack of opportunity against the opponent, but otherwise the normal rules for striking a weapon apply.    Special: The benefits of this feat only apply if a character is using a weapon to parry.  A character who is unarmed (or who chooses to parry as if unarmed in order to avoid damage to their weapon) cannot use this feat, and if a character loses or otherwise quits using their chosen weapon before their next turn while using this feat, they immediately lose the benefits provided.    This feat may be selected as a Fighter bonus feat.</blockquote>

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