Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Neely 12-25-07, 03:26 PM	Hi all, I'd like to have some feedback on 4 home brewed feats I'd like to implement in a future campaign. FRENZIED NERVES [GENERAL] Prerequisite: base attack bonus +7 Benefit: Twice per day your nerves bulge throughout your entire body, creating a branching, veinous network of ridges on your skin which look familiar to swollen blood vessels. You become super-sensitive to everything around you. In this state your senses, speed and reaction time are dramatically increased (+10 to spot and listen checks, acts as if being subject to the Haste spell and gets a +10 to initiative check). However your hyper-sensitivity makes you much more vulnerable for bright light and loud sounds. (-4 save against blindness/deafness spells, acts as if being subject to Light Sensitivity and takes 50% more damage from sonic attacks.) A fit of frenzied nerves last for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the character’s Constitution modifier. Special: This feat can be taken multiple times, each time stacking the number of times per day you can frenzy. The bonuses don’t stack nor the penalties. A fighter may select Frenzied Nerves as one of his fighter bonus feats. REDUCE EARTH [GENERAL] Being Reworked completely! Prerequisite: Run; base attack bonus +10 Benefit: When charging you may do so as a move action. The distance between you and your opponent has optically shrunk as you appear to move at godlike speed. Also, at base attack bonus +15 your charge speed increases to tipple your base speed and at base attack bonus +20 it becomes quadruple speed. Normal: A character without the Reduce Earth feat charges as a full-round action, moves at double base speed and is restricted to one single attack. Special: This feat can be combined with any standard action feat to complete a full-round action. A fighter may select Reduce Earth as one of his fighter bonus feats. UNARMED WEAPON BLOCK [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Dex 13; Improved Unarmed Strike. Benefit: You must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to perform this feat. Once per round when you would normally be hit with a melee attack, you may deflect it so with your bare hands so that you take no damage from it. You must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. Attempting to deflect melee weapon doesn't count as an action. Melee attacks of creatures 2 sizes larger than your own size cathegory can't be deflected. Special: A fighter may select Unarmed Weapon Block as one of his fighter bonus feats. ZANTETSU [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Str 13; Power Attack; Weapon Focus (any slashing weapon). Benefit: As a full-round action, it lets you make a single attack against an object and cut through it as if it has no hardness at all. Special: This feat only applies to the slashing weapon you have taken the Weapon Focus feat for. A fighter may select Zantetsu as one of his fighter bonus feats. edit: changes in the feat are marked in red.
HalfSlime 12-26-07, 09:04 AM	The first one sounds good, but the rest seem unbalanced. Reduce earth could be unbalanced since it allows you to make a charging attack as a move action, AND THEN another attack at your full BAB. You should look at having Powerful charge [general] (from ECS) as a prerequisite feat. The way Unarmed weapon block is worded, you can block any type of weapon. It makes Deflect arrows pointless since they both have the same prerequisites. I'd change this to only block melee attacks. Zantetsu would probably be more balanced if it also required Improved sunder [general] as a prerequisite feat. However, it may also be a bit underpowered since it only affects non-magical equipment. This would only make the feat good at lower levels since most later encounters are bound to have some sort of magical equipment. Perhaps ignore 5 points of hardness instead when using this feat against magical equipment.
Neely 12-26-07, 12:34 PM	Thank you HalfSlime, Each of these four are still in their first draw, I expected them to be still unbalanced. It's also my first attempt ever in creating new feats. Reduce Earth has already been a very hard one to get the idea in my mind formulated into game mechanic. I tried to make it not too complex. This idea of the feat is that your charge becomes almost as fast as lightning. I figured if you charge faster (move faster) that you have more time to attack, hence the move-action instead of full-round action. This would let the charger use power-attack, or a dual wielder use both swords to attack with for instance. I realise that this would be a very powerful feat, that is why I put a req of BaB +10. Maybe I could restrict the usage of it to a couple of times per day only? I didn't initially put it there since I thought that one doesn't use charge that much, I could be wrong of course. I looked into spirit of the Powerful Charge feat and found it different in idea from what I want to accomplish with this feat. Thus I would rather not have it as a prereq. The Unarmed Weapon block is indeed a mis formulation. Indeed I meant it for melee weapons only. Since I saw it a completion to the Deflect Arrows feat. Zantetsu would indeed have little use in later stages of the character when being confronted to magical weapons, but feats like Toughness are also feats only useful at low level (especially for sorc/wiz). This feat however could also be used against Steel doors, or steel bars or anything steel within the campaign, regardless from high level or low level. So think it's not completely useless on high levels.
Dog_O_War 12-26-07, 01:02 PM	Thank you HalfSlime, Each of these four are still in their first draw, I expected them to be still unbalanced. It's also my first attempt ever in creating new feats. Reduce Earth has already been a very hard one to get the idea in my mind formulated into game mechanic. I tried to make it not too complex. This idea of the feat is that your charge becomes almost as fast as lightning. I figured if you charge faster (move faster) that you have more time to attack, hence the move-action instead of full-round action. This would let the charger use power-attack, or a dual wielder use both swords to attack with for instance. Actually, charge already allows for power attack, and even with this feat you can't attack with two weapons. What you want here is a full attack on a charge. There are abilities like this already; maybe to better emulate this lightning charge you should write down what you want or picture the ability to do here in this thread, and let a posting critique occur. I realise that this would be a very powerful feat, that is why I put a req of BaB +10. It is powerful, but not in the way you intended. As a charge that is a move-action, you can perform two per round (your basic move action and your standard action that can be used for anything a move can be). Then there are abilities that modifiy charge further; pounce allows a full attack on a charge, and spring attack allows for a character to continue to move after a charge. You could charge the same person twice with these abilities, gaining two full attack actions; with power attack and two-weapon fighting you would have up to 8 attacks that round. This one REALLY needs some work. The Unarmed Weapon block is indeed a mis formulation. Indeed I meant it for melee weapons only. Since I saw it a completion to the Deflect Arrows feat. This again is very powerful, as it works within counter-attack range; basically deflect arrows offers no chance to counter-attack (unless you had a certain feat chain which might still be 3.0), but with this one you can charge in, sacrifice your AC with various feats and never fear a single powerful attack simply because you can make a relatively easy reflex save. Multiple ranged attacks are easier to achive than melee, and this severely hampers it (melee) even more. The idea behind it is good though, and there are already a couple of feats/abilities that emulate it. Zantetsu would indeed have little use in later stages of the character when being confronted to magical weapons, but feats like Toughness are also feats only useful at low level (especially for sorc/wiz). This feat however could also be used against Steel doors, or steel bars or anything steel within the campaign, regardless from high level or low level. So think it's not completely useless on high levels. This feat is really a redundant one, unless time is of the essence. Basically if a player is sunder-focused, he will succeed. If he is cutting through doors, then he'll have enough time that this feat won't matter. My suggestion here is to have it emulate the skill iajuitsu from Oriental Adventures, Allowing a full-round action strike for extra damage. Your BAB would be your "skill bonus" covered by strength as a stat bonus (or dex if you're using a weapon that weapon finesse can be applied to, as well as the weapon finesse feat). This gives a pretty good limitor so a person can't really exploit the skill, and gives the full BAB guys something special.
RobbyPants 12-27-07, 11:41 AM	As mentioend, I would reword Reduce Earth so that you can take a full attack at the end of a charge, which is still a full action. A move action charge still leaves a standard action open for all sorts of other things. As mentioned, you could take another attack at your full BAB. A good gish could even charge and cast a spell. This is a bit too much, even with the BAB prereq. I agree that Improved Sunder seems like a logical prereq for Zantetsu. I was going to say that you could reword it to ignore any hardless of 15 or less, but then it would stop working against magical weapons. Now, does it only work against steel, or will it work against softer materials as well?
UAMDB 12-27-07, 02:55 PM	Maybe this is just me being dense, but what does may block one melee attack mean. Does it mean I can ignore one melee attak around, basicly once a round giving myself an unhittable AC after I have already been hit? As written there is no mechanic as to how the feat works. I read it as once a round I go "nope you miss after all cause I block it." Sorry you wasted that crit. That would be a give first level feat for any fighter/monk. When looking at a feat to see if it is balanced, I ask myself "Regradless of character concept, should every character take this feat?" If the answer is yes then it might be overpowered.
Grizzled Gryphon 12-27-07, 03:28 PM	Suggestions are in Red. (I changed your previous correction back to black :) )Hi all, I'd like to have some feedback on 4 home brewed feats I'd like to implement in a future campaign. FRENZIED NERVES [GENERAL] Prerequisite: base attack bonus +5 Benefit: Twice per day your nerves bulge throughout your entire body, creating a branching, veinous network of ridges on your skin which look familiar to swollen blood vessels. You become super-sensitive to everything around you. In this state your senses, speed and reaction time are dramatically increased (+20 to spot and listen checks, acts as if being subject to the Haste spell and gets a +20 to initiative check). However your hyper-sensitivity makes you much more vulnerable for bright light and loud sounds. (-2 save against blindness/deafness spells, acts as if being subject to Light Sensitivity and takes 50% more damage from sonic attacks.) A fit of frenzied nerves last for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the character’s Constitution modifier. Special: This feat can be taken multiple times, each time stacking the number of times per day you can frenzy. The bonuses don’t stack nor the penalties. A fighter may select Frenzied Nerves as one of his fighter bonus feats. The negatives to this do not warrant the amazing bonuses or the extremely low level this is allowed. At fifth level, you will be able to spot and hear almost anything, you WILL go first in combat, AND you get Haste? Way overpowered. Give them a +4 bonus to spot, listen, and Init. checks, and have them take a -4 to saves vs. blindness/deafness spells and Sonic attacks. Make your above stats here a 15th level or better Greater Frenzied Nerves. REDUCE EARTH [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Run; base attack bonus +10 Benefit: When charging you may do so as a move action. The distance between you and your opponent has optically shrunk as you appear to move at godlike speed. Also, at base attack bonus +15 your charge speed increases to tipple your base speed and at base attack bonus +20 it becomes quadruple speed. Normal: A character without the Reduce Earth feat charges as a full-round action, moves at double base speed and is restricted to one single attack. Special: This feat can be combined with any standard action feat to complete a full-round action. A fighter may select Reduce Earth as one of his fighter bonus feats. Even with this feat, you are still restricted to a single attack. You only get ititerative attacks on a Full Attack Action, not a Standard Action. So, if you intended for this to allow a full attack on a charge, you will have to add that in. Bear in mind, you can gain full attacks on a charge without this feat, at lower level, and without having to take Run as a feat. So this feat would be rather sub optimal. Sure, the extra charge speed is good, but not really good enough. UNARMED WEAPON BLOCK [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Dex 13; Improved Unarmed Strike. Benefit: You must have both hands free (holding nothing) to perform this feat. Once per round you’re able to block a melee weapon with your bare hands. Special: A fighter may select Unarmed Weapon Block as one of his fighter bonus feats. Go further with this. Do you get to pick which attack, or is it the first one? Do you have to pick the attack you block before the attack roll is made? Or do you get to use it on one you know is going to hit? If you do block an attack, does extra damage from the attack still apply? For example, you block a sword strike from a Flaming Sword. Would you take the fire damage from that attack? ZANTETSU [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Str 13; Power Attack; Weapon Focus (any slashing weapon). Benefit: When utilizing power attack, it lets you cut through any material forged from steel as if it the material has no hardness at all. This can render any none magical weapon or armor forged from steel completely broken (sundered) when the objects hit points is reduced below 0. Magical items are unaffected by this. Special: This feat only applies to the slashing weapon you have taken the Weapon Focus feat for. A fighter may select Zantetsu as one of his fighter bonus feats. This is very powerful at low levels. I would be very careful with this feat, as giving it out too soon will be bad, but giving it out too late will nerf it into uselessness. If I were you, I would consider figuring out a different mechanic for this feat, as it is kind of odd anyway. Say it gives them a bonus on sundering attempts. One issue is the wording in the effect. Forged from Steel is very specific. It is also rather strange. I can slice through a steel door like butter, but not a stone one? Another possibility is word it like this : As a Full Round Action, you can make a single attack against an object. The Hardness of that object is ignored for this attack. That should balance it out nicely. edit: changes in the feat are marked in red. Hope this helps.
Leress 12-27-07, 11:19 PM	Before I even start... A Charge is a full round action, please read your books people... http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialAttacks.htm#charge Now that is out of the way... Hi all, I'd like to have some feedback on 4 home brewed feats I'd like to implement in a future campaign. Okay. FRENZIED NERVES [GENERAL] Prerequisite: base attack bonus +5 Benefit: Twice per day your nerves bulge throughout your entire body, creating a branching, veinous network of ridges on your skin which look familiar to swollen blood vessels. You become super-sensitive to everything around you. In this state your senses, speed and reaction time are dramatically increased (+20 to spot and listen checks, acts as if being subject to the Haste spell and gets a +20 to initiative check). However your hyper-sensitivity makes you much more vulnerable for bright light and loud sounds. (-2 save against blindness/deafness spells, acts as if being subject to Light Sensitivity and takes 50% more damage from sonic attacks.) A fit of frenzied nerves last for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the character’s Constitution modifier. Special: This feat can be taken multiple times, each time stacking the number of times per day you can frenzy. The bonuses don’t stack nor the penalties. A fighter may select Frenzied Nerves as one of his fighter bonus feats. This is a little much, I would reduce the bonuses to +10 and keep the rest REDUCE EARTH [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Run; base attack bonus +10 Benefit: When charging you may do so as a move action. The distance between you and your opponent has optically shrunk as you appear to move at godlike speed. Also, at base attack bonus +15 your charge speed increases to triple your base speed and at base attack bonus +20 it becomes quadruple speed. Normal: A character without the Reduce Earth feat charges as a full-round action, moves at double base speed and is restricted to one single attack. Special: This feat can be combined with any standard action feat to complete a full-round action. A fighter may select Reduce Earth as one of his fighter bonus feats. All this is just pounce with movement boost...but not, the problem I have with this feat is that you must set a feat on fire to get it. Also you still only get one attack so it really doesn't do much at all.[the bold is a nitpick] UNARMED WEAPON BLOCK [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Dex 13; Improved Unarmed Strike. Benefit: You must have both hands free (holding nothing) to perform this feat. Once per round you’re able to block a melee weapon with your bare hands. Special: A fighter may select Unarmed Weapon Block as one of his fighter bonus feats. This isn't a good feat at all, if you are in melee your AC should be taking a care of not being hit. When enemies get multiple hits this ability is pretty much useless. ZANTETSU [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Str 13; Power Attack; Weapon Focus (any slashing weapon). Benefit: When utilizing power attack, it lets you cut through any material forged from steel as if it the material has no hardness at all. This can render any none magical weapon or armor forged from steel completely broken (sundered) when the objects hit points is reduced below 0. Magical items are unaffected by this. Special: This feat only applies to the slashing weapon you have taken the Weapon Focus feat for. A fighter may select Zantetsu as one of his fighter bonus feats. edit: changes in the feat are marked in red. By the time you get this either enemies will have magical weapons and armor*, natural weapons, or just plain hit you at a distance. You would most likely be able to flat out kill them and just take their stuff. Just take improved disarm and smack the enemy when they try to get their weapon back. *If you DM a jerk he/she would have the enemy use wooden weapons. Overall many of the feats are not really worth getting. The first needs some toning down, and the rest need to be either integrated into existing feats or just beefed up.
Neely 12-30-07, 05:51 AM	Thank you all for the many replies, much appreciation! I've given all your suggentions a very good thought and I've made changes to all four of them. They are edited in my initial post, in red. For Frenzied Nerves, I agree that +20 is indeed to much. I had looked at the spell True Strike that gives you also a bonus of +20 for the next attack. But I forgot to keep in mind that these are 3x +20 and haste. I've reduced the bonus to +10, and upped the required BaB. I like the idea of Greater Frenzied Nervers, thank you. For Reduce Earth I'll try as Dog O War suggest. I'll write down the mental image I have of the feat and see what more experience feat-builder can formulate for it: Reduce Earth, is a tecnique where you mentally shrink the distance between you and your opponent. On the charge your body still moves as it normally moves (same physical stress on your body as you would run normally), but in reality it covers a much greater distance then you normally would as if space and time are no longer bound to each other. Some observers even witnessed grand masters in this technique to completly vanish and appear next to their opponent as a strike of lightning would. (But this last line is not to be intregrated into this feat.) For Unarmed Weapon Block, I will write a more detailed mechanic down, based on what Deflect Arrows say. I don't fully understand what some mean with their featback on this feat: Leress, AC always takes care of whether you're hit or not, melee or ranged alike. I can't see why it's wrong to apply the same mechanic of Deflect Arrows (ranged attack) on melee attacks. This also questions UAMDB's remark. Gryphon, it's a valid remark you make on the extra damage, like the flaming ability on weapons. I can't answer you that, instead, I will return you the question: how is this ruled with Deflect Arrows? Dog O War, I think I understand where you're going at, but I'm lost with the counter-attack thing you mention. Could you also tell which feats/abilites allow something alike. I look into them then. For Zantetsu, I'll go for the suggestion of Gryphon, and let it cut through the hardness of any object, regardless of material. However, why use a full-round action for it? Could you explain this to me?
Leress 12-31-07, 03:59 AM	For Unarmed Weapon Block, I will write a more detailed mechanic down, based on what Deflect Arrows say. I don't fully understand what some mean with their featback on this feat: Leress, AC always takes care of whether you're hit or not, melee or ranged alike. I can't see why it's wrong to apply the same mechanic of Deflect Arrows (ranged attack) on melee attacks. This also questions UAMDB's remark. Deflect arrow isn't a good feat, also you need both hands free. So a shield is out of the question to use with this. Having a feat that does just that isn't a very good way to make a feat.
Neely 12-31-07, 04:15 AM	Deflect arrow isn't a good feat, also you need both hands free. So a shield is out of the question to use with this. Having a feat that does just that isn't a very good way to make a feat. If the feat Deflect Arrows isn't a good feat I wonder why it's concidered a core-feat by the publishers written down in the PHB. That must be a personal opinion. I don't see how having both hands free is a point to dislike this feat. It is a feat that is focused on unarmed combat, meaning you don't have anything at hand. If you would be a shield wielder I'm sure you'd be investing in different feats.
Leress 12-31-07, 04:12 PM	If the feat Deflect Arrows isn't a good feat I wonder why it's concidered a core-feat by the publishers written down in the PHB. That must be a personal opinion. *points at Toughness feat* I don't see how having both hands free is a point to dislike this feat. It is a feat that is focused on unarmed combat, meaning you don't have anything at hand. If you would be a shield wielder I'm sure you'd be investing in different feats. Unarmed combat is more than just your hands. Having a shield will increase you AC and narrow the number of times that you may need to use the feat. If the enemy is get three hit off of you and your ac only prevents one then the enemy still get damage off of you. You can also have stuff in your hands when you use Unarmed combat (like potions or torches)
Neely 12-31-07, 04:49 PM	*points at Toughness feat* Unarmed combat is more than just your hands. Having a shield will increase you AC and narrow the number of times that you may need to use the feat. If the enemy is get three hit off of you and your ac only prevents one then the enemy still get damage off of you. You can also have stuff in your hands when you use Unarmed combat (like potions or torches) I tend to think too much of monks when the term of unarmed combat comes by. It didn't occur to me that one could strap a shield to its arm and still use its other hand unarmed (like to perform Deflect Arrows). I know everyone plays d&d differently, and every one has there own tone they set on their games. I just see the usefulness in feats like Deflect Arrows, and the one I created, in the fact that even when you are caught unarmed--like a tavern brawl, a jail brake out or skinny dipping in a lake--that you have a much better chance to survive a messy situation where you have no weapons or shield/armor at your disposal. This is kind of the idea I had with this feat. So I'm still wondering if my feat Unarmed Weapon Block is acceptable in compare with Deflect Arrows. Or should I allow to block with one free hand instead of two? Regardless from the fact one might like or dislike this feat. If this feat gets a good consensus here on the boards. I was planning to equip a series of NPC's with this feat in a future campaign.
Leress 01-01-08, 07:56 PM	I tend to think too much of monks when the term of unarmed combat comes by. It didn't occur to me that one could strap a shield to its arm and still use its other hand unarmed (like to perform Deflect Arrows). Most people do. I know everyone plays d&d differently, and every one has there own tone they set on their games. I just see the usefulness in feats like Deflect Arrows, and the one I created, in the fact that even when you are caught unarmed--like a tavern brawl, a jail brake out or skinny dipping in a lake--that you have a much better chance to survive a messy situation where you have no weapons or shield/armor at your disposal. Think about it like this then, in a bare knuckle fight does a person need two hands to deflect the hit? This is kind of the idea I had with this feat. I get where the idea came from (a "blade grasp" of sorts), it just that making a feat that mimics a specific action is not good for design. It needs to be more general, which in turn makes it more versatile. So I'm still wondering if my feat Unarmed Weapon Block is acceptable in compare with Deflect Arrows. Or should I allow to block with one free hand instead of two? Regardless from the fact one might like or dislike this feat. Make it one hand free. If this feat gets a good consensus here on the boards. I was planning to equip a series of NPC's with this feat in a future campaign. My main gripe was that it was very limiting if you need two hands free, with it only needing one hand it is on par with Deflect Arrows.
Neely 01-02-08, 06:08 AM	Thanks Leress, You are right in a bare knuckle fight you don't need two hands to deflect a blow.
natzero 01-02-08, 08:57 PM	UNARMED WEAPON BLOCK [GENERAL] Prerequisite: Dex 13; Improved Unarmed Strike. Benefit: You must have at least one hand free (holding nothing) to perform this feat. Once per round when you would normally be hit with a melee attack, you may deflect it so with your bare hands so that you take no damage from it. You must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. Attempting to deflect melee weapon doesn't count as an action. Melee attacks of creatures 2 sizes larger than your own size cathegory can't be deflected. Special: A fighter may select Unarmed Weapon Block as one of his fighter bonus feats. Ok i personally think this could be overpowered in a way and underpowered at the same time. Ok first off id think that just being able to block one attack per round is overpowered. Id say this personally: Prereq: 13 dex, str. Imp unarmed strike BAB +3 Benefit: Once per round you can block adn incoming melee attack that you see coming. As long as you have at least one arm free and are not flanked by the enemy attacking you have 3 special combat options. 1. You can make a str check against the damage of the attack. If you win the roll the attack fails and the opponent is thrown off-balance until the start of your next turn. This denies them there dex to AC (aka flat-footed) 2. You can make an opposed str or dex check (which ever is higher) vs weapon damage. If you win you can immediatly start and win a grapple check. The opponent on there next turn can start an opposed check to stop the grapple. 3. You can make an opposed str or dex check vs weapon damage. If you win the attack fails and the opponent drops his/her melee weapon. lemme know what you all think
Leress 01-02-08, 09:33 PM	Prereq: 13 dex, str. Imp unarmed strike BAB +3 Benefit: Once per round you can block adn incoming melee attack that you see coming. As long as you have at least one arm free and are not flanked by the enemy attacking you have 3 special combat options. 1. You can make a str check against the damage of the attack. If you win the roll the attack fails and the opponent is thrown off-balance until the start of your next turn. This denies them there dex to AC (aka flat-footed) 2. You can make an opposed str or dex check (which ever is higher) vs weapon damage. If you win you can immediatly start and win a grapple check. The opponent on there next turn can start an opposed check to stop the grapple. 3. You can make an opposed str or dex check vs weapon damage. If you win the attack fails and the opponent drops his/her melee weapon. lemme know what you all think Weapon damage would greatly be beyond Strength and Dexterity checks and you would lose nearly every time.
Neely 01-03-08, 03:51 AM	Ok i personally think this could be overpowered in a way and underpowered at the same time. Ok first off id think that just being able to block one attack per round is overpowered. Id say this personally: Prereq: 13 dex, str. Imp unarmed strike BAB +3 Benefit: Once per round you can block adn incoming melee attack that you see coming. As long as you have at least one arm free and are not flanked by the enemy attacking you have 3 special combat options. 1. You can make a str check against the damage of the attack. If you win the roll the attack fails and the opponent is thrown off-balance until the start of your next turn. This denies them there dex to AC (aka flat-footed) 2. You can make an opposed str or dex check (which ever is higher) vs weapon damage. If you win you can immediatly start and win a grapple check. The opponent on there next turn can start an opposed check to stop the grapple. 3. You can make an opposed str or dex check vs weapon damage. If you win the attack fails and the opponent drops his/her melee weapon. lemme know what you all think Natzero, please explain why you think negating 1 melee attack/round is overpowered and negating 1 ranged attack/round is just fine? Also "You must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed" in my feat discription is the same wording as "adn incoming melee attack that you see coming". I won't drag any more mechanics in this feat. The people I play with tend to enjoy straight forward passive feats more than complex feats where you have to make extra die rolls. Still thanks for your contribution.
natzero 01-03-08, 10:31 AM	i dont think negating one is overpowered, i think doing it with no strings attached is. Hmm lemme see he hit my for 12 10 13 and 27 illl block the big one i dont feel like takin that hit. Anytime someone crits you, you would just negate it. I feel like a roll is required. Weapon damage would greatly be beyond Strength and Dexterity checks and you would lose nearly every time. This isnt so true. At lvl 3 liek a said lets say your fighter has 18 str. You average hit with a greatsword is (2d6) + 6 13 dmg (3.5 each d6) Your str check would be a 13. You only need to roll a 9 to beat it. Now against an ogre. its a harde roll. 2d8 +7 avg roll of 16 to beat him. Makes sense he is bigger and stronger than you. Plus for even in game not to mention mechanics how did that human just brush the titan's hammer away. I imagine certain abilities like Stability (dwarves) could apply to your roll. Its just an idea, and one i think isnt to overpowered as a feat. Perhaps you could add BAB to roll. This is a bottom floor idea.
Yaeri 01-17-08, 06:22 PM	Greetings. ;) I'll start with the good stuff, continue with the bad and end with the ugly. ***Warning: this is going to be long, as I'll try to be as complete as possible*** REDUCE EARTH The way you describe this feat sounds almost supernatural, more the kind of stuff I associate with epic. I think the name of the feat sounds strange. I'd go more in the direction of rapid charge or lightning charge (yeah I know). It seems you want something more poetic than that, but at the moment I feel it sounds a bit wonky. What I imagined this feat to do, after I read its name and started to read its mechanics, was that, while you charge at the enemy, you -through supernatural means- make the patch of ground between you and your opponent shrink so you bridge the distance faster. Subjective nitpickings aside, I like this feat's intentions and its mechanics. Nothing fits better than run as a prerequisite. Nothing wrong with the speed part. Getting an extra standard action against most enemies could be pretty powerful though. There needs to be only 10 feet between you and your enemy, so unless you start combat right next to your enemy or it's a flyer, you'll be able to charge. To be safe I'd stick with a full round action for a charge but let the feat give you one extra attack at full BaB at the end of your charge. ZANTETSU I personally prefer very large bonuses over infinites. Infinites always let you do strange things. In this instance, you could cut through a wall of diamond. Improved sunder seems like a fitting prerequisite. It could be a combat ender against equipment-using opponents (weapons/shields/wands/...) even if they're magical. Neither improved sunder nor this imbalance seem what you're aiming for. You give cutting through iron bars as an example. If you reword the feat so that you can only use it on unattended objects, this problem is solved. Also, I think one of the prerequisites should be that you're riding a six-legged horse. ;) FRENZIED NERVES I have issues with this one. The drawbacks are nearly a non-issue, so I will be ignoring them in the equation. Light sensitivity was something like -1 on attacks in bright daylight? Haste gives you +1 to hit so that already evens out. A small penalty against blindness deafness: I estimate that in an entire campaign, on average this may be used once against any given character. The chance that it happens right when you're frenzying your nerves... 2 in 3, (read further). And then a 50% vulnerability to damage dealing spells with a sonic descriptor. These will be almost equally rare. I've never seen one used personally. Maybe that's because I have to hear it. :rimshot: So that aside, over to the benefits. Let's get +1 to reflex and +1 to dodge AC from haste out of the way to compensate for these minor drawbacks. Twice per day, for a number of rounds long enough to last a fight, you get +10 initiative, +1 attack at highest BaB in a full round and +30 speed. On average you're supposed to have about 3 encounters per day. This seems on average to be true for our games. So you'll be able to benefit from this during two thirds of your encounters. It is at the moment unclear how this feat is activated and how it deals with initiative. Is it a standard action? A swift mental action? If it's the former, is it your intention that your order in the initiative changes after the combat has started, your turn has come up and you activated this feat? And that it changes again when the duration of the feat ends? The bonus to spot and listen part I have no problems with. UNARMED WEAPON BLOCK This seems to me an epic feat. I think you should altogether ditch this one. I don't think it's salvagable. Being able to shrug off one melee attack per round, always -barring huge creatures and up- is way too powerful. And yes, I think the deflect arrows feat is almost fine. I think it could use some check to see if you succeed at deflecting the arrow. Natzero, please explain why you think negating 1 melee attack/round is overpowered and negating 1 ranged attack/round is just fine? It seems this question really needs to be adressed. Saying: "Ah there's this thing in the books for A, so it's fine to use this on B." is the best start for any mechanic, but you can't stop there. It is only valid if A and B are equal. The second step is to investigate how A and B are alike and how they differ. Negating a melee attack each round and negating a ranged attack each round differ greatly. I'll name three reasons, one minor two major, why deflecting a melee attack per round is far more potent than deflecting a ranged attack. 1) A minor issue: number of attacks. You can deflect only one attack per round. A ranged fighter character using rapid shot and/or manyshot makes more attacks per round or per standard action. If you stop one of those attacks, then that's a smaller percentage of the attacks. But the melee fighter has two weapon fighting, I hear you say. A and B again. Manyshot and rapid shot are staple feats for any character focussing in ranged combat. They're a given for them. As good as every character focussing in ranged attacks will have this extra attack per full attack or these extra attacks per standard action. Two weapon fighting is but one of several styles of melee combat. Sword/shield and two-handed weapon are two others, so I'd say that at the most 1/3 of melee opponents (who use equipment!!!) will have this extra attack. When your opponent has fewer attacks, being able to ignore one of them is a bigger issue than when he has more. 2) First major issue: Damage. How much damage do you deal with a ranged attack? How much do you deal with a melee attack? Which one would you like to stop? I'll skip calculations and comparisons and say that melee attacks will on average do double or more damage than a ranged missile attack. Deflecting a melee attack, deflects on average far more damage than deflecting a ranged attack. 3) Next major issue, the biggest of them all: Frequency With your feat, you'll be able to deflect an attack every round in most of the combats. Deflect arrows may be of use once in 10 encounters or so. Aside from very few exceptions no abberations, animals, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, magical beasts, oozes, plant creatures, undead, vermin and to a lesser extent outsiders use ranged missile attacks. And I say missile because you can't deflect say an arrowhawks ranged lightning attack. Of those who can use ranged projectile attacks (humanoids, monstrous humanoids, giants and some outsiders) I'm betting more will use melee attacks than ranged attacks. I don't think I'm exagerrating when I say the ratio is 1 to 10. Deflect arrows comes up every now and then with a few creature types. Deflect melee weapon will in these encounters come up at least equally often AND in most of the other possible encounters that involve large creatures or smaller. I think in most combat situations, unless all other 3 of your party members are hanging back, you'll be able to go toe to toe with a single opponent. (If there are more opponents one or two of your other party members can hold them off for a while. But try preventing a group of ranged attackers from all targetting you.) You'll then be able to reduce to zero one of his attacks every round. This will probably vary to equalling 33%, 50% or 100% of all damage you would have received. It's epic.