PrC Ability - Combat Mastery

[Savage Wombat]

I was thinking the other day that an interesting ability to give to a Prestige Class would be the ability to take 10 on a combat roll.

This would enable a warrior to sacrifice the possibility of a crit to guarantee a successful hit. Furthermore, if he's worked out what his opponent's AC is, he can know exactly how much he can afford to sink into Power Attack and/or Expertise at the time.

This ability would reflect a true mastery of combat technique.

This is, without question, a powerful ability. It doesn't seem unbalanced, though. The question is, then, how powerful is it? At what level should a character be able to take this ability? Should it be available as a high-level feat, or only through a specific prestige class?

Opinions welcome.

 

[Tetsuyama]

I think I'd try making it available at CL 11-14. It seems fairly powerful, but I doubt that a 10 is going to cut it with attacks past the second on most opponents if the user power attacks for very much. The other key is that since the user gives up the ability to crit, at high levels this is only useful with weapons that you can't really get their crit range to be useful (without Power Critical and other feat which are the subject of long debates). Incidentally, would you make Power Crit usable with this? That seems like it has some potential for abuse.

Something I'd worry about a bit more is a combatant who uses Expertise and the improved feat that removes the limit of +5 on the trade between BAB and AC. Then they only bother to make one attack a round, and they get their movement and a pretty good AC. This is particularly nasty to use against lower-AC party members. Hmm.. Imagine a psychic warrior with this ability who wields a spiked chain, is polymorphed into a Troll or Giant, and uses expansion and Reach (from The Mind's Eye). Ick.

Still, I'd *try* going with CL 11-14. Crits start to get powerful around then too, since you can get a reasonable range on a weapon by then, so I wouldn't call being able to take 10 too unbalancing.

 

[SteelDraco]

Well, how often do you want to make it usable? If you can take 10 on every attack roll, no matter what else you're doing in the round, I'd probably consider it an Epic feat, or at least require a level somewhere around 15+.

More likely would either be a set number of uses per day, or requiring a full action to make one attack. I prefer the latter. I wouldn't place the requirements too terribly high for something that allowed only one attack. Something like...

Combat Master [Fighter]
You are very skilled with weapons, to the point that you are able to reduce the effects of chance in your strikes.
Prerequistites: BAB +8, Battle 4 ranks (perhaps Sense Motive if you don't use this skill - it's from Rokugan)
Benefit: As a full-round action, you can perform a single melee attack. This strike is resolved as if you had automatically rolled a natural 10 on the attack roll.

Variations -
-Tie it to a weapon, and require Weapon Focus in that weapon.
-Increase the BAB requirement a bit, and make it a standard action. BAB +10 should be about right. That means poor combatants can't really take it at all, and even fighter-types will have to wait until at least 10th level.

 

[the Jester]

I lean towards making it a prc ability, prolly 10th level.

I think it's extremely powerful- you can essentially maximize your damage or AC with power attack or superior expertise. Also, I'd let it work with power critical as a 10th level prc ability but not as a feat; and if you make it into a feat I'd restrict it to weapons that you have focus in.

I realize there's the drawback of missing out on crits, but a guaranteed hit (unless your enemy has expertise or some other tricks) for tons of damage (+6 from power attack, f'rinstance) is pretty good. Or a guaranteed hit with a +6 AC bonus from expertise effects...

Another point: would it be something that lasts for one attack or for the whole round? If it's only on your first attack of the round, then you roll for the rest, it's potentially even better. If it lasts all round, it ain't so bad. Also, SteelDraco's idea of it using up a full attack is worth considering if you make it a feat, but I wouldn't do it as a 10th level prc ability; I'd leave it discretionary (per attack).

If you end up using it in any way, let us know how it works out!

 

[Technik4]

Neat Idea. I think it should be the culmination of a prc or a fighter-only feat. I also think it should be usable as much as the person wants, it has its uses, but I doubt especially at high levels it will be used all the time. It presents a nice combat option, for the skilled fighter.

I don't think it needs to be nerfed to a full-attack action, what would be the point? A fighter could take like 4 attacks, or 1 that is automatically a 10? Seems extremely weak. I suppose you could make a 2-feat chain, with the first giving you the ability to take 10 on an attack as a standard action (only), the second allowing you to take 10 whenever you want.

Technik

 

[SteelDraco]

I don't think it needs to be nerfed to a full-attack action, what would be the point? A fighter could take like 4 attacks, or 1 that is automatically a 10? Seems extremely weak. I suppose you could make a 2-feat chain, with the first giving you the ability to take 10 on an attack as a standard action (only), the second allowing you to take 10 whenever you want.

How much of a disadvantage it is depends on how low a level you can get it. Keep in mind, only a 20th level fighter-type has four attacks per round, unless he's using two weapons. Sure, giving up three attacks for one certain hit is generally a bad idea, but giving up one isn't. There are two keys to this being a useful ability - knowing your opponent's AC, and being able to hit that number exactly if you roll a 10.

Anyone who pays attention can figure out an opponent's AC within two to three if they listen to combat for a round or so. About five rolls is generally all you need, in my experience. That means the first part's easy. Getting it precisely will help, but as long as you err on the side of caution, you can do all right. The second part (hitting it exactly) requires a few feats to pull off. Power Attack and (Superior) Expertise are the most obvious and useful. Depending on your attack bonus and the opponent, you can get a significant boost in combat ability by judicious use of Combat Mastery and these feats.

It's also extremely useful if you NEED to hit in a round, for whatever reason. Perhaps you want to disrupt a spell, or you know your opponent is on his last legs. You sacrifice an attack or two for the certainty that you will hit, probably gaining a damage or AC bonus in the process. That ain't a bad deal.

After crunching some numbers, I agree that a full action isn't necessary. It's a handy ability, but the band at which it's useful isn't very wide at all. I don't even think it's powerful enough to limit to a standard action, though it seems wrong to let a fighter use it an unlimited number of times per day. If you need a five or less to hit your opponent, you're better off going for a full attack, even if you only get one more. The possibility of a crit or two outweighs the chance you'll miss with one or both attacks. If you need more than a ten to hit, it's flat-out useless. Therefore, it's only good if you need somewhere between a five and a ten to hit. You'll derive a little bonus from it, increasing as you need lower numbers.

So - it's a good ability to have if you face a lot of creatures that you can hit most of the time, or if you ever need to be sure of a hit. I don't think it's powerful enough to be the defining goal-ability of a PrC, or even a feat that puts it at 12th level or above. I'd put it at 8th-9th level, and usable as a free action before any combat roll in a round. I'm not sure how I'd restrict it, but I'd do so - either by requiring some sort of roll to activate the ability (Battle check?), or limiting it to a set number of uses per day. IMO, that puts it at a pretty balanced state.