Single Weapon Style

[the Jester]

A recent discussion on the merits of two-weapon fighting versus two-handed weapons and the tangent about sword and board fighters made me realize that one of the most suboptimal choices for melee combat is one weapon and a free hand. Well, perhaps that's as it should be; still... what do you think of these?

SINGLE WEAPON STYLE (General, Fighter)
You are trained to fight with a weapon in one hand and an empty hand.
Benefit: When using a one-handed weapon and a free hand, you gain a +1 style bonus to AC.

IMPROVED SINGLE WEAPON STYLE [General, Fighter]
Your skill with a single weapon and an empty hand is amazing.
Prerequisites: Base attack +2, Single Weapon Style
Benefit: When you fight with a weapon in one hand and a free hand, you gain a +1 style bonus on Bluff checks to feint in combat, Intimidate checks to demoralize opponents, opposed disarm checks and attacks of opportunity. You also gain a +2 style bonus to AC (this does not stack with the bonus from Single Weapon Style).

POISED BLOW [General, Fighter]
You are adept at keeping a battle moving while you wield a single weapon in one hand.
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, base attack +5, Improved Single Weapon Style, Single Weapon Style
Benefit: If you have a weapon in one hand and a free hand and all you do in a round is make a single melee attack and then take a normal move, the square that you start in does not count as threatened for purposes of attacks of opportunity (just as if you had only moved for the round).

 

[Darklone]

Hmm. In D&D, wielding just one singlehanded weapon is not suboptimal because spellcasters really like to do it ?

 

[Frostmarrow]

ONE HAND GRAB [General, Fighter]
You put your free hand into good use against your opponent.
Prerequisites: Base attack +3, Single Weapon Style, Improved Unarmed Strike
Benefit: When you fight with a weapon in one hand and a free hand, you can attempt to grab your opponent using your free hand. Make a grapple check. If successful you rob your opponent of the benefits of one of the following: An off-hand weapon, a shield, or a 5-foot step, depending on what you grab hold of. The effect lasts one round after which the opponent can free himself as a free action. When using your free hand to grab an opponent you lose the bonus to AC otherwise associated with SINGLE WEAPON STYLE.

Nah. It needs tweaking.

 

[Darklone]

ONE HAND GRAB [General, Fighter]
You put your free hand into good use against your opponent.
Prerequisites: Base attack +3, Single Weapon Style, Improved Unarmed Strike
Benefit: When you fight with a weapon in one hand and a free hand, you can attempt to grab your opponent using your free hand. Make a grapple check. If successful you rob your opponent of the benefits of one of the following: An off-hand weapon, a shield, or a 5-foot step, depending on what you grab hold of. The effect lasts one round after which the opponent can free himself as a free action. When using your free hand to grab an opponent you lose the bonus to AC otherwise associated with SINGLE WEAPON STYLE.

Nah. It needs tweaking.

Yeah. Add rules about losing your hand.

 

[Darklone]

Ok, enough bad jokes.

What about some duelist Precise Strike similar feat? Extra damage with a single handed weapon?

 

[Dogbrain]

A recent discussion on the merits of two-weapon fighting versus two-handed weapons and the tangent about sword and board fighters made me realize that one of the most suboptimal choices for melee combat is one weapon and a free hand. Well, perhaps that's as it should be; still... what do you think of these?

Actually, there is no major functional difference between "two-weapon" and "sword and board". A shield is a weapon--simply one that is optimized for defense. The problem is that D20 incompetently handles this.

 

[AeroDm]

Hmm. In D&D, wielding just one singlehanded weapon is not suboptimal because spellcasters really like to do it ?

But then most spellcasters don't have feat slots to burn on combat stuff. At least not many...

 

[AeroDm]

Those feats actually seem a little underpowered to me. Wielding a single blade is almost idiotic in dnd because picking up a shield (buckler) or another weapon is quite simple. A single feat or as little as 15 gp.

While I wouldn't go so far as to claim that it would be balanced, granting a single blade wielder a feat that granted them a +2 dodge bonus to AC so long as they had an off-hand doesn't really break anythign at all. If they wanted they could pick up a shield to the same affect, and a darkwood shield has no armor check so that isn't an issue.

People would basically be burning a feat for style, which I think is reasonable to ask and reasonable to give.

 

[FireLance]

Apart from one-handed weapon fighting, each of the other styles have something going for it: two-weapon fighters get a large number of attacks, two-handed wielders can pump out massive amounts of damage per hit, and the weapon and shield style balances the user's offensive and defensive capabilities (although feats like Improved Shield Bash and Improved Buckler Defence pretty much encroach on this).

In order to stand out, a one-handed weapon style needs its own special advantage. I'm thinking it should be along the lines of precision, accuracy and ease of weapon handling. How does this sound:

SINGLE WEAPON STYLE (General)
You can fight with greater skill when you wield a weapon in one hand and nothing in the other hand.
Benefit: When you fight with a weapon in one hand and nothing in the other, your Base Attack Bonus increases by 1.
Special: A fighter may select this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.

This provides a whole host of minor benefits: the character can gain iterative attacks sooner and potentially 5 iterative attacks at 20th level (the last at -20). He can qualify for feats sooner (Spring Attack at 3rd level is a possibility). He can get more advantage from feats that work with BAB such as Combat Expertise (to a point) and Power Attack. On the other hand, he is limited to fighting with a single one-handed or light weapon in order to gain them.

Do you think this feat is balanced?

 

[Sammael]

No feat should increase the BAB. Ever.