Review these feats for me

[Knightfall]

Looking for some feedback on these feats. Newest modifications are in dark orange. - KF72

New Feats

Greater Multiweapon Defense [General]
Prerequisites: Dex 19, Improved Two-Weapon Defense, Multiweapon Defense, Multiweapon Fighting, three or more hands, base attack bonus +11.
Benefit: When wielding two or more weapons (not including natural weapons), you gain a +2 shield bonus to your AC for each addition weapon after the primary weapon (rounded down). Thus, a character wielding three weapons would have a total shield bonus of +4. This bonus cannot exceed the character's Dexterity Modifier. Thus, a multi-armed character with a Dexterity of 19 cannot have a shield bonus higher than +4.
When you are fighting defensively or using the total defense action, this shield bonus increases to +4 for each additional weapon after the primary. Thus, the same character as above would have a total shield bonus of +12 when fighting defensively. This bonus cannot exceed twice the character's Dexterity Modifier. Thus, a multi-armed character with a Dexterity of 19 cannot have a shield bonus higher than +8 when fighting defensively.
Special: This feat replaces the Greater Two-Weapon Defense feat (D&D Complete Warrior) for creatures with more than two arms.
A fighter may select Greater Multiweapon Defense as one of his fighter bonus feats (see page 38, PHB v.3.5).

Greater Multiweapon Fighting [General]
Prerequisites: Dex 19, Improved Multiweapon Fighting, Multiweapon Fighting, base attack bonus +11.
Benefit: In addition to the standard single extra attack the character gets with his offhand weapons, he gains a second attack with each offhand weapon, though at a -5 penalty.
Normal: See Two-Weapon Fighting, page 160 of the Player’s Handbook v.3.5.

Improved Multiweapon Defense [General]
Prerequisites: Dex 17, Multiweapon Defense, Multiweapon Fighting, three or more hands, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: When wielding two or more weapons (not including natural weapons), you gain a +1 shield bonus to your AC for each addition weapon after the primary weapon. Thus, a character wielding three weapons would have a total shield bonus of +2. This bonus cannot exceed the character's Dexterity Modifier. Thus, a multi-armed character with a Dexterity of 17 cannot have a shield bonus higher than +3.
When you are fighting defensively or using the total defense action, this shield bonus increases to +2 for each additional weapon after the primary. Thus, the same character as above would have a total shield bonus of +4 when fighting defensively. This bonus cannot exceed twice the character's Dexterity Modifier. Thus, a multi-armed character with a Dexterity of 17 cannot have a shield bonus higher than +6 when fighting defensively.
Special: This feat replaces the Improved Two-Weapon Defense feat (D&D Complete Warrior) for creatures with more than two arms.
A fighter may select Improved Multiweapon Defense as one of his fighter bonus feats (see page 38, PHB v.3.5).

Multiweapon Defense [General]
Prerequisites: Dex 15, Multiweapon Fighting, three or more hands
Benefit: When wielding two or more weapons (not including natural weapons), you gain a +1 shield bonus to your AC. This bonus cannot exceed the character's Dexterity Modifier. Thus, a multi-armed character with a Dexterity of 15 cannot have a shield bonus higher than +2.
When you are fighting defensively or using the total defense action, this shield bonus increases to +2. This bonus cannot exceed twice the character's Dexterity Modifier. Thus, a multi-armed character with a Dexterity of 15 cannot have a shield bonus higher than +4 when fighting defensively.
Special: This feat replaces the Two-Weapon Defense feat for creatures with more than two arms.
A fighter may select Multiweapon Defense as one of his fighter bonus feats (see page 38, PHB v.3.5).

Revised Feat from Legends & Lairs Mytic Races

Improved Multiweapon Fighting [General]
Prerequisites: Dex 17, Multiweapon Fighting, three or more hands, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: The character's penalties for fighting with multiple weapons are reduced by 2 with both primary hand and off hands.
Normal: See Two-Weapon Fighting, page 160 of the Player’s Handbook v.3.5.
Special: The effects of Improved Multiweapon Fighting stack with Multiweapon Fighting. Thus, a character's penalties are reduced by 4 with the primary hand and by 8 with off hands with both feats combined.
A fighter may select Improved Multiweapon Fighting as one of his fighter bonus feats (see page 38, PHB v.3.5).

 

[DanMcS]

Should have sorted them by order of precedence instead of alphabetical, made it a bit hard to parse.

At first glance, "Benefit: When wielding two or more weapons (not including natural weapons or unarmed strikes)," seems over-defined. I suppose you're wanting to exclude multiarmed critters with claws? I don't see why- this is a serious feat investment, and could just as easily be interpreted as "slashing about with claws to keep attackers back" as it could be "parrying with secondary weapons".

I would also allow multiarmed monks to benefit from this, which you explicitly exclude.

The only ones I would disallow would be multiarmed critters with no natural slam attacks or something, really.

There's a lack of progression from "multiweapon fighting" to "improved" to "greater"- the BAB requirement goes from none to +9 to +11. It should either be none to +6 to +11 like the normal two-weapon progression, or else +9 and +14 to keep the 5 point gap.

 

[Knightfall]

At first glance, "Benefit: When wielding two or more weapons (not including natural weapons or unarmed strikes)," seems over-defined. I suppose you're wanting to exclude multiarmed critters with claws? I don't see why- this is a serious feat investment, and could just as easily be interpreted as "slashing about with claws to keep attackers back" as it could be "parrying with secondary weapons".

I'll take out the unarmed strikes part, but this feat is designed to work with manufactured weapons, not with natural attacks, IMC.

I would also allow multiarmed monks to benefit from this, which you explicitly exclude.

I think allowing multiarmed monks is ok. Thanks.

There's a lack of progression from "multiweapon fighting" to "improved" to "greater"- the BAB requirement goes from none to +9 to +11. It should either be none to +6 to +11 like the normal two-weapon progression, or else +9 and +14 to keep the 5 point gap.

Ok, I'll fix that. Thanks.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

First, there's a small typo that needs to be addressed:

Greater Multiweapon Defense [General]
Prerequisites: Dex 19, Improved Two-Weapon Defense, Multiweapon Defense, Multiweapon Fighting, three or more hands, base attack bonus +11.
Benefit: When wielding two or more weapons (not including natural weapons), you gain a +2 shield bonus to your AC for each addition weapon after the primary weapon (rounded down). Thus, a character wielding three weapons would have a total shield bonus of +6.

By my count, a character (like an athach) wielding three weapons would only get a +4 bonus since he doesn't get to count the primary weapon. A character would need to wield four weapons to get the +6 bonus.

All told, I like the concept but I believe the execution needs a little bit of work--specifically, you need to evaluate exactly how these would work with the various multiweapon fighting creatures. To select the most obvious example, consider how these woudl affect a marilith.

Mariliths have a LOT of feats to play with so Greater Multiweapon defense would be a gimme. +10 to AC whenever they attack. If they attack defensively, +22 to AC (including the fighting defensively bonus). That adds up really quickly. While it wouldn't quite boost the marilith to unhittable numbers, it would come pretty close if she fought defensively.

So, I think there are several things you need to do to balance these:
1. Cap the bonus. These feats are too good for creatures with very large numbers of arms (like the marilith). A flat bonus of +4 or +6 would be very powerful for a feat (compare it to dodge, combat expertise, or improved natural armor) but would not entirely break when something with more arms comes along.
2. Remove the fighting defensively benefit. (Unless you also houserule that to shields, in which case it might be reasonable). There's no reason that fighting defensively with a feat should give you an additional +12 bonus to AC when taking a bigger penalty with combat expertise would only yield a +5 bonus to AC.

 

[Knightfall]

First, there's a small typo that needs to be addressed:

By my count, a character (like an athach) wielding three weapons would only get a +4 bonus since he doesn't get to count the primary weapon. A character would need to wield four weapons to get the +6 bonus.

Whoops, missed that.

All told, I like the concept but I believe the execution needs a little bit of work--specifically, you need to evaluate exactly how these would work with the various multiweapon fighting creatures. To select the most obvious example, consider how these woudl affect a marilith.

Mariliths have a LOT of feats to play with so Greater Multiweapon defense would be a gimme. +10 to AC whenever they attack. If they attack defensively, +22 to AC (including the fighting defensively bonus). That adds up really quickly. While it wouldn't quite boost the marilith to unhittable numbers, it would come pretty close if she fought defensively.

Hmm, hadn't considered that aspect.

So, I think there are several things you need to do to balance these:
1. Cap the bonus. These feats are too good for creatures with very large numbers of arms (like the marilith). A flat bonus of +4 or +6 would be very powerful for a feat (compare it to dodge, combat expertise, or improved natural armor) but would not entirely break when something with more arms comes along.

Ok, here's my solution: This bonus cannot exceed the character's Dexterity Modifier. Thus, a multi-armed character with a Dexterity of 15 cannot have a shield bonus higher than +2.

2. Remove the fighting defensively benefit. (Unless you also houserule that to shields, in which case it might be reasonable). There's no reason that fighting defensively with a feat should give you an additional +12 bonus to AC when taking a bigger penalty with combat expertise would only yield a +5 bonus to AC.

Me, I'm going to keep it and say the following. This bonus cannot exceed twice the character's Dexterity Modifier. Thus, a multi-armed character with a Dexterity of 15 cannot have a shield bonus higher than +4 when fighting defensively.

And these would scale up for the higher Dexterity Score requirements for Improved and Greater. I'll post the changes in a bit.

Cheers!

KF72