Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dannar 10-01-07, 12:57 PM	Improve Attacks of Opportunity [General] You are specially trained in combat, and you know all the tricks an opponent would use against you. Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +12, Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise, Power Attack. Benefits: You may make an attack of opportunity against attacks that normally would not provoke one due to another feat, and against foes who are attempting to tumble through your threatened squares. (Examples of feats include Improved Disarm, Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike (Excepting Monks), Improved Trip, Improved Sunder, etc...) You take a -5 penalty to your highest attack bonus on any such attacks of opportunity. Normal: A character without this feat does not normally get attacks of opportunities against foes with these abilities. Special: A Fighter may select improved attacks of opportunity as a bonus feat.
Someone 10-01-07, 01:15 PM	An interesting arms race sort of feat. But I don't think the prereqs are quite right, and the mechanics are a little clunky. While Combat Reflexes makes perfect sense, and Combat Expertise is okay (its a prereq for Whirlwind Attack of all things), Power Attack doesn't make sense. This feat is just too different from any of the other PA feats. The "AoO something you could originally AoO but now can't" is a nice idea for a feat, but the AoO at -5 wouldn't be the way I'd do it. Maybe limit this feat to once a round, despite Combat Reflexes being a prereq. Also, instead of just negating Tumble checks, how about forcing the Tumble check to be at the DC for going through your space, even when going around.
Anguish2 10-01-07, 01:48 PM	While an amusing thought, the biggest problem with this is probably one of layering. What I mean is that if we go too far down this pattern of one-upsmanship, we'll lose clarity. Now if I write a feat that I feel should trump this one, I have to specifically name it? That all being said, Close Quarters Fighting already lets you make an AoO against grapplers, so there is precedent. I've even taken it when I've gotten tired of things with Improved Grab eating my fighters. Now, what might be a fair house-rule is to say "if two opponents both have Improved <whatever>, an AoO is once again granted to the defender". Sure they guy with Improved Trip is good at making his move subtle, but the defender who's also a tripper gets to see it coming. Just an idea. Greater Improved Grapple - you REALLY don't provoke AoO when grappling, even from folks with IAoO Greater Improved Attacks of Opportunity - you still get to make AoO on people who have Greater <featname> or less Penultimately Improved Grapple - you don't provoke AoO when grappling against even people who've invested two feats specifically to still hit you Penultimately Improved Attacks of Opportunity - you get to make people with four feats unhappy Ultimately Improved Grapple - boy are they going to be surprised!
Dannar 10-01-07, 03:28 PM	An interesting arms race sort of feat. But I don't think the prereqs are quite right, and the mechanics are a little clunky. While Combat Reflexes makes perfect sense, and Combat Expertise is okay (its a prereq for Whirlwind Attack of all things), Power Attack doesn't make sense. This feat is just too different from any of the other PA feats. Combat Expertise is the lead in to Improved Feint, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip. Power Attack is the lead in to Improved Bull Rush, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder. The idea behind having a penalty to the actual attack is to prevent an arms race. You know how to do these attacks yourself, and can recognize them when they are coming, but unless you've got an insane attack bonus, Your still probably not going to beat someone who's focused in an area, unless you get lucky. The idea is to provide a little bit of balance against some of the things a fighter feat tree can do, without taking away the advantage of that actual feat tree. Originally I had the penalty at -10, but I thought it was too severe considering that all the Improved's give like, a +4 bonus to the attack on top of avoiding attacks of opportunity.