'wait, wait, attack' fighting style?

[dvvega]

You could also look at the Psionics feats. There is a feat called Deep Impact (I think) that allows you to Touch Attack for an attack roll.

This is very manga-like.

Apart from that ... your wait wait wait attack guy is really just a Fighter.

Wait wait wait = going total defensive with combat expertise or something similiar
Attack = goes with the full attack option

What you're looking for, I guess, is a way to up the damage/attack on the round you do attack.

For some reason I seem to remember in the old 2nd edition Psionics system there was a Kinetic psionic power that let you store up damage you took and send it back on your next attack.

 

[Scion]

I need a feat (or combination of feats) that allows him to emulate a particularly historically inaccurate method of swordsmanship often seen in samurai movies or anime.

Awesome evil guy feats: I don't like these kinds of things. If the character were, say, the chosen one of an evil deity, maybe it could be explained away, but this guy is just a badass who carries a sword.

I am confused, I think that the comment in your later post that I quoted was to me, but I could be wrong. The one I posted I made sure to make that any character could have. Anything that one of your badguys has your pc's should be able to get with enough work, so any proposed feats, spells, abilties should be somewhat balanced with that in mind. Not always completely, but very very close.

Hope you find what you are looking for though If you come up with something good be sure to post it here.

 

[rkanodia]

I am confused, I think that the comment in your later post that I quoted was to me, but I could be wrong. The one I posted I made sure to make that any character could have. Anything that one of your badguys has your pc's should be able to get with enough work, so any proposed feats, spells, abilties should be somewhat balanced with that in mind. Not always completely, but very very close.

Hope you find what you are looking for though If you come up with something good be sure to post it here.

Scion, I was addressing Derf. He suggested the 'awesome evil guy' feat. A feat chain accessible to the PCs (should they become interested after (hopefully) having their butts kicked) would be fine.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

New feat by Ed Hastings aka Killer Shrike

Deft Blow [Fighting Style]
You are able to strike a single accurate blow.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus or Weapon Finesse (chosen weapon), Base Attack +8
Benefit: The practitioner of this type of style is skilled at making a single deadly strike with their weapon. The practitioner may opt to make a single melee attack as a full action that has a tripled critical threat range and inflicts triple damage if a critical is scored. This is not usable in conjunction with the Improved Critical Feat. If a weapon already causes triple critical damage then it inflicts quadruple instead, etc.


New Feat by Ed Hastings aka Killer Shrike

Multiple Level Attack [Fighting Style]
You are skilled at forcing your opponent into positions that leave them vulnerable to your attacks.
Prerequisite: Base Attack +6, Power Attack
Benefit: The practitioner of this type of style may merge his top two melee attack bonuses into a single melee attack with a bonus equal to the sum of the two separate attacks. This is a full-round action and only 2 attacks may be merged thus. Effectively the practitioner ‘fakes’ one or more attacks to create an opening for another. The merged attack bonus only applies to the multiple level attack itself and then reverts to the practitioners highest normal base attack immediately. Example: Dearl the Mighty has an attack bonus of +14/+9 with his mighty greatsword. His current opponent is proving well defended, so on his next initiative Dearl announces that he is making a multiple-level attack. Rather than making his normal 2 melee attacks at +14/+9 he makes a single melee attack at +23; if Dearl killed his opponent with his multiple level attack and Cleaved thru to another opponent, he would attack using his normal highest base attack of +14.




God, that thread was awesome.

 

[Eccles]

Alternatively, make the villain a rogue, and give him the Quick Draw and Flick of the Wrist feats.

The first time he draws his weapon in combat, he can apply his full sneak attack damage to his opponent.

That and a bunch of feinting with his weapon sheathed, then sneak attacking with a quick draw in the next round.

 

[Centaur]

One of the basic Class books (either 'Sword & Fist' or 'Masters of the Wild') has a Feat in it called Power Critical. Essentialy it allows someone to once per day declare their next blow to be a critical. Combine this with a potion or item that grants true Stike and the power attack feat and you could have a truely awsome damage potential.

I am playing a fighter in a game right now who just got the Power critical feat. He uses a Mecurial Great sword out of the arms and Equipment guide and is carrying around 3 potions of True Stike. His sword is +2 and he has a 22 strength. In the three rounds leading up to starting a fight with something big, does the following.

round 1: Drink potion of Enlarge
round 2: drink potion of Bulls Strength
round 3: drink potion of true strike
round 4: charge.

He then uses his entire BAB towards his Power attack and achives a stupid amount of damage. 2D6 base +13 from str (two handed) +2 WS +2 Enhancement to sword +24 from Power attack and his attack bonus for that one blow is still +32 so he is virtualy guaranteed to hit. take into account the x4 critical from the sword and his average damage from that one blow is:

8D6 + 164 = 192 on average.

I know it's not what you asked for, but it achieves almost the same result.

 

[Vaxalon]

Of course, if you were watching this guy guzzling one potion after another, what would YOU do? I know I'd run away, and regroup for a counterattack ten minutes later.

 

[rkanodia]

Hmm, thanks for the second wave of replies. I think I might have an idea for exactly what it is I'm looking for.

Gather the Storm: You focus your energy inwards during a battle, storing it for a spectacular display of power.
Prerequisite: No idea, help me out a little?
Benefit: During a full-round defense action, you may choose to gather the storm. This fills you with ki energy which you may release by attacking; on the round when you release your energy (a free action), every melee attack you make has its damage multiplier increased by one. You may gather the storm multiple times before attacking, stacking up as many storms as you like, but you must release all of them at the same time, thus increasing the multiplier of your melee attacks for that round by the number of times you gathered the storm before striking. Gathering the storm is a supernatural ability and is overtly aggressive.
Drawback: At the end of any action, if you are holding at least one storm, you must suceed a Concentration check (DC = last round's DC + number of storms, starting with DC 1) or all of the charges dissipate uselessly and you become fatigued for a number of rounds equal to the number you failed the check by.

How does that sound? Note that, by itself, gathering the storm doesn't improve your damage/round output; in fact, since the benefit is a multiplier and not a fixed number of damage, it actually reduces your average damage slightly by giving you fewer opportunities for critical hits. The NPC who is going to be using this technique is going to be a 4th-level fighter, in a game not high on min-maxing and 'magic Walmart' item purchasing. His actions will probably go something like:
Round 1: Gather the storm.
Round 2: Gather the storm.
Round 3: Improved Feint + Chink in the Armor against one PC
Round 4: Release the storm.

I have to go now, I'll run the math on it later. But I think there are cases where it will definitely be beneficial in terms of damage/round. And of course, he also gets the defense bonus of total defense for the first two rounds of it.

Comments/suggestions? Please rip it apart. If you can remove breakability and/or simplify the situation, I'll be grateful!

 

[clark411]

As a feat for any class that allows an automatic threat 1/day (Kensai for example) this is a powerful feat. It's a good feat for those with a focus on getting threats and crits... but for the majority it's rather underpowered. Basically, you're sacrificing entire turns, repeatedly probably, for the 5% or 10% chance of getting a critical. As for the drawback, it's a good measure to prevent people from walking around all day with Storms active- more of a limitation than anything.

Now, that may be exactly what you want. If however, you want a feat that will allow for delay = more damage, I'd look to something that didn't depend upon crits, but instead guaranteed a boost. Sacrificing entire rounds is a Huge Deal for most characters, and for someone to do it, has to be a little more guaranteed of being effective to me.

 

[rkanodia]

Clark411, I said that the damage multiplier of the 'release' attacks should be increased, not the critical multiplier. That is to say, if your weapon has 20/x3 critical, and you've been charging for three rounds, your longsword will do
1d8 x (1 <base> + 3 <gathering the storm>) = 4d8 damage for a regular hit, or
1d8 x (1 <base> + 3 <gathering the storm> + 2 <critical>) = 6d8 damage on a confirmed critical.

As for the drawback, I guess you're right, it's more a limitation than a drawback. I was just trying to reduce the breakability of the feat.

Anyway, while the method I had listed is much more a guaranteed bonus than a chance for an uber-critical, you are still correct in that it does not increase the damage per round of a character, at least not by itself; for characters with damage sources that aren't affected by multipliers (flaming weapons, sneak attack, etc), it actually hurts quite a bit. What I was thinking, though, is that feats such as Improved Feint and Chink in the Armor often seem ineffective because of the time investment they require to improve the chances to hit on a single blow; if that single blow can count for more, however, the total effect might be significant.

Hmm. I just ran some numbers, and it turns out that the case is 'yes, but only for low-level characters'. The problem is that Improved Feint and Chink in the Armor only work for a single attack; as soon as the attacker has multiple attacks during a full-round attack action, the whole thing goes to hell, except for outlier cases where the target's AC is high compared to the attack bonus, and comprised largely of dex/dodge/armor/natural bonuses.

I guess it'll need some more work after all. Maybe I'll get it solved tomorrow...