'wait, wait, attack' fighting style?

[rkanodia]

Perhaps the combo would be a feat that allows you to make Sense Motive rolls to study the combat style of your opponents to identify a weakness. Perhaps the DC could be increased by an opponents bluff check? Then it isn't an assured improvement.

Sounds like you want to make a Reverse Feint feat. Although I like Gather the Storm a lot, you make exactly the correct point: without some other way of getting a significant boost to attack (and getting it for an entire round if you have multiple attacks), there's no real point to it. And significant, full-round attack bonuses aren't easy to come by for non-casters. Thus, I made Concentration Attack do everything in just one hit. A warrior with Concentration Attack might fight this way:

Round 1: Begin focusing. Use (from Beyond Monks) Analyze Opponent, if you have it. Otherwise, full defense, aid another, or self-buffing.
Round 2: Full-round defense, aid another, or self-buffing.
Round 3: If you have Improved Feint and Chink in the Armor, use both of them. Otherwise, just do a feint.
Round 4: Concentration Attack. If all goes well, this attack ignores Dex and dodge bonuses to AC (feint), halves natural and armor bonuses to AC (Chink in the Armor), and gets +1 on the attack roll.

 

[BSF]

OK, how about a feat that builds on Gather the Storm. We will call it Eye of the Hurricane.

Eye of the Hurricane
Prerequisites: Wis 13+, Sense Motive 5 ranks, Gather The Storm (And whatever Prerequisites are used for Gather the Storm)
You study your opponent's fighting maneuvers to learn the most effective way to break through his defenses.

Benefit:
When using a Full-Defense action, you may make a Sense-Motive check versus your opponents BAB to gain a +1 circumstance bonus To-Hit on your next attack. If your opponent has 5 ranks in Bluff, your Sense Motive DC is increased by +2.

-----
Query: Since this works off of Sense Motive, is it too difficult to achieve the requirements for most characters?

Related query: If you assume fighter types would look at this feat, is it too difficult to counter the BAB progression of other fighters?

Concerns: I _think_ circumstance bonuses are stackable. If so, this allows you to stack your Eye of the Hurricane bonuses indefinitely. Is this broken?

Thoughts: I think it is important that you need to use the full-defense action to use the feat. This implies you are in combat and worried about being hit. This seems to fit the flavor of the desired result. Does this accomplish that? Is there a better way to accomplish the correct flavor?

 

[BSF]

More commentary:

I think Gather the Storm is cool. It allows you to unleash heavy damage at the expense of some attacks. Eye of the Hurricane is supposed to reflect the honing of that focus into a single, vicious attack. One extremely precise strike that cuts through your defenses and hurts.

Perhaps the effect should be changed so that it provides a bonus on all attacks on the round in which you unleash it?

Perhaps the bonus should be scaled to a stackable +2/round? Coupled with a Power Attack, this could be even more brutal.


Rd 1 - Full defense with Gather the Storm and Eye of the Hurricane (Sense Motive check for a +2)
Rd 2 - Full defense with Gather the Storm and Eye of the Hurricane (Sense Motive check for a +4 total bonus)
Rd 3 - Full defense with Gather the Storm and Eye of the Hurricane (Sense Motive check for a +6 total bonus)
Rd 4 - Unleash the storm - Attack with a +6 to hit and 4d8 damage with a long sword.

 

[rkanodia]

Certainly I think +1 to your next attack, or even a whole round of attacks, is too weak. A feat like this is highly comparable to weapon focus; let's look at what conditions let them come into play.

Weapon focus: whenever you wield the specified weapon.
Eye of the hurricane: on the round immediately after a full defense, if you succeed a Sense Motive check against the opponent's BAB.

Another feat to notice is Defensive Strike from Oriental Adventures; it does not require a Sense Motive check, but your opponent must make (and miss) a melee attack against you during your total defense. However, the bonus to attack from Defensive Strike is a whopping +4.

Also, for this to work against other fighters, you will pretty much need cosmopolitan(sense motive) and a heavy skill investment. If your DM doesn't allow the cosmopolitan feat, well you're in a heap of trouble. A feat that requires large amounts of investment (a feat and skill points that the character is unlikely to take otherwise) should be substantially stronger than a normal feat.

As for what is fair, that's tough to say. Personally, I think +2 attack/round with no Sense Motive check required (although the feat could still require 5 ranks of Sense Motive or so) is not unbalancing. But what do I know; for some reason, a lot of mechanics in D&D seem to give very little benefit in exchange for the most valuable commodity of all (time), even if you've spent a feat, burned a spell slot, etc. for them.

 

[BSF]

Hmm, good points there. A +4 if your opponent misses you is pretty tasty. OK, maybe I am being too conservative.

What if we changed it so it requires 4 ranks of Sense Motive and every round you study your opponent you gain a +2 bonus to hit and a +1 to AC. Would that make it more worthwhile?

 

[handforged]

Here is my rewording of the two feats. I have included some prerequisites, that I think are fair for a power like this. I also think that a sixth level fighter with this feat chain will do some major damage.

Gather the Storm:
You focus your energy inwards during a battle, storing it for a spectacular display of power.
Prerequisites: Wisdom 13+, Alertness, BAB +3 or higher
Benefit: As part of any Total Defense action, you may choose to gather the storm. 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. As a free action, you may unleash all of your held storms. This causes all attacks made within that round (including attacks of opportunity) have their potential damage multiplied by the number of storms you have gathered plus one. Gathering the storm is a supernatural ability and is overtly aggressive.
Special: You may only gather the storm once for each point of base attack bonus you possess before unleashing the storms.
Special: At the end of any action other than using the Gathering the Storm feat or a single movement, 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.

Eye of the Hurricane
Prerequisites: Wis 13+, Sense Motive skill, Gather The Storm, Alertness, BAB +6 or higher
Benefit: As part of any Total Defense action, you may study one opponent. This hostile action gives you a +1 circumstance bonus to AC, and a +2 circumstance bonus to hit against that opponent during the round in which you next attack that opponent(this includes all attacks made against this opponent during the round including attacks of opportunity).
Special: This feat may be used consecutively and the bonuses stack for as many rounds as you have points of base attack bonus.
Special: Attacking an opponent other than the one designated during the Total Defense action forfeits all bonuses.


Take a level six fighter. If he only waits for three rounds, during which he can still move because Total Defense is a standard action, he will be attacking at +12/+7, damage will be x4 for the weapon, and he has an additional +3 to AC against the opponent he is attacking. None of this includes Str or magic bonuses.

~hf

 

[Darklone]

These are no houserules... but using the feats Know your Enemy, Patience (both Kalamar Players Guide) and the relevant fighting styles knowledge skill check together with Defensive Throw from complete warrior is exactly what you are looking for.

 

[rkanodia]

These are no houserules... but using the feats Know your Enemy, Patience (both Kalamar Players Guide) and the relevant fighting styles knowledge skill check together with Defensive Throw from complete warrior is exactly what you are looking for.

Mind posting? I don't have that book.

 

[Darklone]

Patience: Wis 13+ prerequ.
If you delay till you´re the last in that round, you´ll get +2 to attack and damage against one opponent (once, it´s a bad trick against recurring villains).

Know your Enemy: Wis 13+, Patience are the prerequs.
You have to observe your opponent 3 rounds in battle... then you get a +2 against him... There are some more restrictions. If you have the appropriate skill and make the check, you´ll get a +3 instead of the +2.

KPG has several nice military skills... four of them (tactics, strategics, logistics, basic training). They need different amounts of time, but if you make the checks you´ll have a bunch of level 1 warriors with a +6 to hit or AC... I drift of. Knowledge Fighting styles allows you e.g. to find out whether your opponent has certain feats or not.

Defensive Throw: You fight in Total defense and gain a +4 to hit against an opponent who missed you when you attack him next round... or so. It´s in Complete Warrior.

 

[Morgenstern]

Hmm. I've got a moment, let me try my hand at this.

Opportune Moment
You have the patience to wait for the perfect moment to strike...
Prerequisites: Base Attack bonus +4 or better, Combat Expertise, Power Attack
Benefit: While taking the full defense action, as a free action you may target one opponent you threaten with a readied melee weapon and roll 1d6. The result of this roll is added to the damage of your next melee attack against this opponent. This damage is aplied after any multipliers for a critical hit. This bonus is cumulative with itself, but may not exceed twice your base attack bonus. Any time you take damage, this bonus is reduced by an equal amount. You lose this bonus after your first attack on this opponent, successful or not, if you target a different opponent with this feat, or if you lose line of sight to your current target.

Sudden Death
Prerequisites: Base Attack bonus +6 or better, Opportune Moment
Benefit: When using the Opportune moment feat, you roll 1d6+1 when targeting an opponent. Further, the maximum bonus you may add to an attack with the Opportune Moment feat is equal to your base attack bonus x3.

Play with Your Food
Prerequisites: Base Attack bonus +8 or better, Opportune Moment
Benefit: Once per attack when attacking an opponent you have targeted with the Opportune Moment feat, you may reduce the additional damage bonus by 10 points to also inflict 2 points of temporary ability damage to the ability of your choice if the attack is successful. This cannot reduce the target's ability score to less than 3, and does not affect creatures immune to critical hits. This damage is recovered at the rate of 1 point per day.

This should taste good for taunting BBEGs, and has some promise for PCs who like style or taking captives . By rolling the damage when you save it rather than when it's delivered, you can tell how much wammy you've built up. The cap is similar to the existing cap on power attack (2x your BAB with a two handed weapon) so it scales with the user. With successful hits reducing the stored damage, your wizard buddy droping a lightning bolt on him will put a crimp in his style. And finally, the readied weapon and in threatening range insures this feat is acutally used in combat, not studying from behind a wall of minons, or staring at you over dinner before the fight actually breaks out. It IS phrased so you could load up on one opponent, hit someone else a few times along the way (good for swatting annoyances) and still deliver on your target. Because it only affect the very first attack on your target, you have lots of incentive not to screw around on that one hit. Curiously this makes it a good feat for weapon and shield types (who have not been getting the love the way two-handed weapon [3.5 Power Attack] and two-weapon [3.5 Wwo-weapon Fighting] fighters have been...).

Hope this meets your needs, I think I'll go add something along these lines to the next villian book for Spycraft .