doomwh said:
I'm playing the new swashbuckler class and I decided to take some feats from the swasbuckling adventures. I took unarmored fighting proficiency. This feats gives you a bonus to you ac if your not wearing armor. However it doesn't state what type of bonus it is. Any one familier with with this feat have an opinion on this? Deflection,armor , dodge what do you think? Thank for your thoughts.
I've been running a Swashbuckling Adventures campign, and personally rules that it gives a dodge bonus. As written, the feat gives an Armor bonus, which doesn't make sense, because then it still has an effect if the character is caught flat-footed.
One thing I'd be careful of. Those feats are designed for a low-magic world, where there has to be a way to simulate the fighter who doesn't wear armor, but relies on movement to avoid blows and such...as character levels go up, so does the armor bonus...otherwise you'd have 20th lvl fighters with +30/+25/+20/+15 for their attacks, hitting each other with ACs around 14....so hits with every attack. But IMO, the feat isn't as balanced if your character can also get rings of protection, bracers of armor, etc.
But, on the other hand, a 20th lvl fighter in +5 full plate armor is getting +13 to his AC already, which is basically the same as a swashbuckler who has spent two feats on unarmored defense. The fighter got to spend those feats on something else. So maybe if you leave it as an armor bonus, then it doesn't stack with Bracers of Armor? Or make it a dodge bonus that can't be used if the PC wears armor. But then you could get a PC with the feat and gets a +13 to AC at lvl 20, who also wears Bracers of Armor +8 or something.
I haven't tried using them in a normal game....in my campaign, there are no +1 swords or armor or anything....Theah doesn't really have them. I find the feats self-balancing in that game. I'm sure there's a way to make them work in a regular game....I'm just not sure, as I haven't really tried. As written, the D20 rules make playing a Swashbuckler almost impossible, as without depending on a bunch of rings, bracers etc. there's no way to get skill in defending oneself without wearing armor.
Banshee
