Sensing a Feat, how?

[Enceladus]

How would you try to figure out what feat an NPC or combatant may be using against you?

 

[WattsHumphrey]

In all technicality, there isn't a good way IC unless they do something you can't do (cleave) or something you'd have massive penalties to doing (twf/ambidex).

OOC, it depends on how long the GM's taking calculating their move

 

[Enceladus]

I thought I read that there was a set of skills that was used or something.

 

[shilsen]

There's no given system. Some feats might be obvious if used successfully (Cleave, Improved Trip) . Also, as a DM I usually provide a little clue in the descriptions, but not too much. For example, I might say, "As he attacks, you notice that he seems to be holding back, concentrating on not leaving himself open to a counterattack". The NPC could be using Expertise, or could just be fighting defensively. Or "he seems to be swinging a little recklessly" (Power Attack?).

 

[fba827]

How would you try to figure out what feat an NPC or combatant may be using against you?

As already suggested, in my view, it comes down to description of the action taken in the first place. (Since, from my perspective, feat names (like spell names) are pretty much only a contrived convience so that people can easily reference things when it is really the effect that matters and two people could know the same thing by different names if they learned them from different places ... sorry, i'm rambling).

anyway, by description of the action that takes place.

some alternate options:
* sense motive - for those that want to intuitivly understand/guess how/what the person is doing. Though, this does not work well for the sheer fact that sense motive is not a fighter class skill and fighters would be the most apt to want to understand what a combatant is using against them. I.e. I see how he side steps so he can continue his clean slice through to the next opponent (cleave).


* knowledge (combat / warfare -- whatever it's called). it's Int based so draws on the knowledge that the fighter would already know. though, it has the draw back of being one of those knowledge skills that the dm needs to incorporate and add to the fighter skill list (since knowledge skills, like profession and craft, could be anything so it is sometimes over looked for lack of concrete defintion/application). I.e. The way he moves is much like the the Shoa-lin warriors of the High Mountains. That percision and grace as he sweeps his foot to knockdown the opponents and keep himself out of harms way... (improved trip)

 

[Enceladus]

Thanks "fba827" that actually helps a lot. What DC's would you give? The standard 15?

 

[fba827]

Thanks "fba827" that actually helps a lot. What DC's would you give? The standard 15?

Well, I always liked scaling DCs as it keeps people from just going up to some minimal number and not worrying about it after that... BUT, for the sake of simplicity ... DC 15 works as a good base.

If you want to get slightly more advanced beyond that ...

If you go the Sense Motive direction, then feats with subtle effects should be more difficult (point blank shot) than a feat that has a more obvious effect (cleave). (say DC 17 and DC 15 respectively).

Alternatively, if you use the Knowledge (combat/warfare) way, I would even be inclined to make the feats that are "rare" be a higher DC. For example, if the feats out of Sword and Fist are in your game, since they are not as frequent as the ones out of the core PHB, then perhaps DC 17 for feats from a non-core source book by virtue of them being slightly rarer (and therefore more difficult to know about in past knowledge).

Again, if you just want to keep this as absolute simple as possible and only want one single DC number, then DC 15 should be fine.

 

[Enceladus]

I was thinking of starting at 15 or even lower depending on the feat, then adding as the feats go up in level. Say you need 3 or more prereqs for a feat, that should count for something when factoring in the DC level I would think.

 

[Darklone]

I usually tell my newbies which feat the opponent is using... cuz they don't know them all...

 

[Deset Gled]

Quintessential Fighter has a section in it allowing characters to spend XP to gain additional special abilities, all of which are linked to a specific fighting style (many to organizations). In that section, they detail ways for fighters to tell if they can recognize the school of fighting their opponent uses. I don't remember the rules for it offhand (and don't own the book), but I imagine they could be changed for use with general feats as well.