Unbalanced: Dodge feat just +1 to ac?

[Graf]

Basically what the title says... I'm starting a lower magic game where the party warriors won't be able to wear armor much of the time. I'm considering allowing dodge to give a +1 dodge bonus to AC.
Not really thinking about making a big chain of dodge feats or anything, just looking for ways to give people some more flexibility.

Obviously this probably occured to people at WotC and they decided to make it only affect one person....

Thoughts?

 

[Darklone]

There should be several houserules floating around this one...

Quintessential fighter has an Improved Dodge feat with +1 to AC against any number of attackers (prerequs, something like Dodge and Lightning Reflexes).

There are several feats out there that give a +1 increase to AC, but a dodge bonus is stronger since it applies to touch attacks too while most of these feats increase your armour or natural armour bonus...

 

[Fenes 2]

I don't think it would be unbalancing. You could rule that it only works if the character is wearing no (perhaps light armor).

 

[smetzger]

Thoughts?

This should be in the House Rules forum

 

[Darklone]

If you want to use real low magic rules... you'll have to houserule a lot more...

 

[MadScientist]

I think assigning a flat +1 AC for the dodge feat isn't unbalancing at all(and it is easier). I've thought about doing the same thing in my games as well and they are not even low magic.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

a varient dodge I saw in some d20 book maybe spycraft? Was +2 to ac vs a single foe or +1 to ac vs everyone. hat i liked, it actually made this a balanced feat IMO.

 

[Deset Gled]

There have been times when I've been playing that the group does this simply because they don't want to have to worry about what enemy to apply the +1 to every round. It hasn't made any noticeable difference yet.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Compare to Inertial Armor and Improved Inertial Armor.

Inertial is +4 armor AC, Improved increases the bonus by 2.

Dodge is +1 dodge AC against one target.

But, dodge bonuses stack with everything, the prerequisites are easier (no need for psionic ability), it works against touch attacks, and it's the first step in a great Feat chain. It's a good enough Feat that I've taken it without intending to follow the full chain, too. If it was changed to give the bonus against all enemies, it'd be strong enough that I'd probably take it with all characters sooner or later.

If you wanted a setting where there was no Spring Attack/Whirlwind Attack, then increasing the bonus (to either +2 vs one target, or +1 vs all) would be fine, but in the core 3E setting it just doesn't need it IMO.

 

[Darklone]

Comparing Dodge to Inertial Armour or similar feats is a bit weak since Dodge helps against touch attacks too... Only dex and deflection bonuses do that.