Whip feat to threaten - does 5-ft. or 15-ft. make more sense?

[RangerWickett]

I'm designing a series of feats to let you threaten the area around you with a whip. What makes more sense, logically?

a) The first feat lets you threaten 15 ft. away, and each feat thereafter brings it 5 ft. closer.

b) The first feat lets you threaten 5 ft. away, and each feat thereafter moves it 5 ft. further, to a maximum of 15 ft.

 

[Bront]

A

Have you ever personaly used a whip? It's much harder to use close to you than it is farther away from you.

Besides, it's treated like a ranged weapon as far as using it causing AoO, so 5' usage is dangerous. And nothing is more complicated than an AoO that causes an AoO.

Edit: I'd suggest this. Feat A gives you threatening in 10-15' range, and feat B lets you threaten the 5' and removes the AoO.

 

[RangerWickett]

I was planning to do A, because yeah, I have used a whip once or twice (poorly). But I wanted to know if that seemed counter intuitive.

 

[Piratecat]

It does. It's also more powerful than a 5' AoO, because you threaten a heck of a lot more squares while standing safely out of melee range.

Remember the lasher? I've found the class to be decently blanced, and its special abilities allows AoO's within 5'.

 

[ceratitis]

i've been thinking about using the whi as well so i've collected so stuff about it for inspiration. dont know about balance issues but here goes:

The whip
Try combining using a whip and the Use Rope skill: instant 15' rope that can be untied from what it's anchored to with a flick of the wrist.

Whip + Animal Handling: Animals learn tricks faster.
Whip + Climb: More Indy goodness
Whip instead of Disable Device: Set traps off from long range.
Whip + Heal: Can be used for a tournequet in dire straits.
Whip + Intimidate: +2 to +4 circumstance bonus. That snap is scary!
Whip + Perform: Sigfried and Roy!
Whip + Ride: Get the most out of the hitched horses.
Whip + Jump: ever play Bionic Commando?

Last but not least; if you're starving, you can eat it!
If you want to be good with a whip, go for the lasher class.

Of course for the disarming thing you could have a feat whip disarm and improved disarm

The first one makes it medium, and the second makes it large for purposes of disarming.
For the trip bit, just use a rogue with a few levels in fighter. Your off hand attack is given to the whip to make the trip, you then get a second attack with that whip (assuming you succeed) against a prone opponent (no Dex) so all of the subsequent attacks are Sneak Attack allowed!! Dangerous even with out the fighter levels to boost BAB and get extra attacks. Nasty way to make a rogue a nice front line damage dealer.

Spectral Whip

A spectral whip does no damage, but allows touch spells of level 4 or lower to be delivered with a successful ranged touch attack. Additionally, the user of the Spectral Whip gets the benefit of the point blank shot and precise shot feats while using it. Finally, the user can determine the conditions of nearby creatures as if using the Deathwatch spell.
Prerequisite spells: Spectral Hand (for the touch spells). True Strike (for the feats), Deathwatch (duh!)
Especially useful for healing front line fighters.

Whip Master [General]:
Prerequisite: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whip), Weapon Focus (Whip), Combat Expertise, Either Improved Disarm or Improved Trip
Benefits: Ignores Cover (Whip only) and avoids provoking an attack of opportunity with whip.
Normal: Using a whip provokes an AoO just as if it were a ranged weapon.
Special: A fighter may select Whip Master as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Whip Maestro [General]:
Prerequisite: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whip), Weapon Focus (Whip), Combat Expertise, Either Improved Disarm or Improved Trip, Whip Master
Benefits: Threatens with a whip just as any other melee weapon. Also, the whip is an extension of the wielder's hand - he can use it basically as he would he own hand, but not for wielding another weapon. This ability is also limited to grasping items, pulling levers, pushing buttons, and the like, but not for fine motor skill manipulations, like writing, for example. Common sense must prevail is adjudicating this use of the whip. He could, for example, when using the whip to disarm a sword wielder, ending up with the sword in the whip's grasp and then drop it anywhere within the whip's 15' reach or transfer it to his other hand, all in one action.
Normal: A whip does not threaten any opponents.
Special: A fighter may select Whip Maestro as one of his fighter bonus feats.
• Whip Master [Pulp] you can do things with a whip other's can't. Prerequisites: Proficiency with whip. Benefit: You threaten the area you can strike into with a whip (allowing you to make whip-based attacks of opportunity, including trip attacks). You act as though you had the Improved Disarm and Improved Trip feats when using a whip, and can make grapple checks with your whip to pin a target. Additionally, you may use your whip like a 1-fingered hand if you make a successful attack. For example, if you hit the AC of a control panel, door knob, or candle, you can treat that object as though you were standing next to it and hand a hand with just one finger (flip a switch on the panel, open the door, snuff out or pick up the candle). Normal: Whips don't threaten the area around them in the most current d20 System rules. The other stuff you can't do with a whip under any d20 System rules.

hope this helps. will you post your conclusions?
Z

 

[RangerWickett]

I think I'm going to have 1 feat let you AoO at 5 ft., and the next at 10 and 15 ft. That way you spend two feats to get a weapon that's basically a spiked chain, only it does d3 instead of 2d4, and has 5 extra feet of reach.

 

[Piratecat]

Seems reasonable to me!