RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Hammer Mastery (Combat)
You are well-trained in the use of heavy bludgeoning weapons. Select a non-light bludgeoning weapon other than a shield for which you have selected the Weapon Focus feat. This feat only applies to that weapon.
Prerequisites: Weapon Focus, Fighter level 2nd
Benefit: Your blows are so fierce that even a glancing blow can rattle an enemy inside his armor. Attacks with your chosen weapon ignore an amount of the target's armor bonus to AC equal to half your fighter level.
Improved Hammer Mastery (Combat)
Your heavy hammerfalls are too fierce to be stopped by mere metal.
Prerequisites: Hammer Mastery, Fighter level 5th
Benefit: Whenever you make an attack with your chosen weapon and miss by 5 or less, you smash through the target's defenses; if the target is wielding a shield, roll damage as though your attack had hit and apply it to the target's shield (applying hardness as normal). If the target is not using a shield, instead apply this damage to their armor. If the target is using neither armor nor shield, this feat has no effect.
Hammer Arc (Combat)
The momentum of your mighty swings can crash through multiple opponents.
Prerequisites: Improved Hammer Mastery, Fighter level 7th
Benefit: You can swing your chosen weapon in an arc, striking at all enemies in its path. When you use this feat, choose three squares within your reach; each chosen square must border at least one other selected square (not counting diagonals). As a standard action, you can make one attack against each enemy in those squares, rolling separately for each target. At fighter level 13th, 16th, and 19th, increase the number of squares you can select by 1.
Hammer Slam (Combat)
The weight of your blows sends enemies staggering back.
Prerequisites: Improved Hammer Mastery, Fighter level 9th
Benefit: Whenever an attack with your chosen weapon either scores a critical hit or rolls maximum damage on the weapon damage dice, you can choose to knock the target back. The target is subjected to a bull rush maneuver, treating your critical confirmation roll (or attack roll, if the triggering attack was not a critical hit) as your combat maneuver check. This ability does not provoke attacks of opportunity, nor does it require its own action. Successfully pushing a foe with this ability does not allow you to follow them as a normal bull rush would.
Heavy Swat (Combat)
Prerequisites: Hammer Slam, Fighter level level 12th
Benefit: Whenever you push a foe at least 10 feet with your Hammer Slam feat, that foe is also knocked prone.
Rattle the Cage (Combat)
Prerequisites: Heavy Swat, Fighter level 16th
Benefit: Whenever you knock an enemy prone with Heavy Swat, that creature is stunned for 1 round.
Beat the Bolt (Combat)
Prerequisites: Heavy Swat, Fighter level 14th
Benefit: You can deflect magic with a swing of your hammer. As a readied action, you can swing your selected weapon at a spell, spell-like ability or supernatural ability that targets you or includes you in its area. This functions much like using dispel magic to counterspell, using your fighter level as your caster level for the dispel check. This check also gains your bonus from Weapon Focus and (if applicable) Greater Weapon Focus, as well as any enhancement bonus your weapon possesses. This even works against magical effects that normally cannot be counterspelled. If successful, you swat the magic away, leaving you unaffected. In the case of an area effect, your space is no longer considered part of the area.
Should your dispel check result in a natural 20, a targeted effect is sent back at its caster, much like a spell turning effect.
I like them.
How about one that smashes the ground such that it creates difficult terrain around your target?
Oof. Improved Hammer Mastery is going to be brutally destructive, as shields and armor don't have nearly as many hit points as a normal target after a few levels, so your character will be smashing a shield or armor each swing, and broken armor is pretty darned hindering, as I remember.
I'd specify Hammer Slam only needed the weapon's dice to roll max damage, not any other dice rolled (like sneak attack or energy damage on the weapon). Otherwise getting extra dice of damage, which is usually good, makes the ability way less likely to work.
I'm not sure what Beat the Bolt has to do with hammers; it's more of a general magic deflection ability that a sword should be able to do too, in my opinion.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Oof. Improved Hammer Mastery is going to be brutally destructive, as shields and armor don't have nearly as many hit points as a normal target after a few levels, so your character will be smashing a shield or armor each swing, and broken armor is pretty darned hindering, as I remember.
On any given attack (assuming you're even attacking an armored/shielded foe, rather than a caster, monk, or monster) there's a 25% chance of that feat triggering.
Steel shields have hardness 10. Light shields have 10HP, heavy have 20HP, and both get +10HP for every point of enhancement bonus. So at 5th level (when you can get the feat), a two-handed Power Attacker is dealing 1dX+12(ish) damage. After subtracting hardness, you're dealing probably less than 10 damage, so it'll take a couple hits to give a heavy steel shield the broken condition. Which means something like 8 attacks on average.
Later on, at say 12th level, your damage is at probably +22 or so. Let's call your average damage 30, for simplicity's sake. A 12th level NPC shield user probably has a +1 heavy shield, so hardness 12 and 30HP. So one near miss gives it the broken condition, the second destroys it. Probably.
The broken condition halves the AC bonus, rounding down. So if you're 12th level and miss a shielded foe by 5 or less, they get -1 AC.
Still worried? ;)
I'd specify Hammer Slam only needed the weapon's dice to roll max damage, not any other dice rolled (like sneak attack or energy damage on the weapon). Otherwise getting extra dice of damage, which is usually good, makes the ability way less likely to work.
Whoops, good point.
I'm not sure what Beat the Bolt has to do with hammers; it's more of a general magic deflection ability that a sword should be able to do too, in my opinion.
In the Swordsmanship feats I linked, I went a different direction on the defense. With that already in place, I figured the weapons closest to baseball bats should be the ones batting magic around. :)
Fair point on the Improved Hammber Mastery. I didn't realize the hardness and HP were that high for shields. It's actually best against high-armor targets that don't carry shields, as then you can break, say, plate mail for a significant increase in armor check penalty and -4 AC. But that's going to require several hits as well.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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Fair point on the Improved Hammber Mastery. I didn't realize the hardness and HP were that high for shields. It's actually best against high-armor targets that don't carry shields, as then you can break, say, plate mail for a significant increase in armor check penalty and -4 AC. But that's going to require several hits as well.
Armor has an awful lot of HP, though. IIRC, it's 5 x armor bonus. So a breastplate has 30HP (+10 for each enhancement bonus). And being steel, it too has hardness 10.
Man, now I feel like I've just made a bad feat. :(
These are kinda neat. Just out of curiosity, did you get inspiration from any particular place or did you just make them up whole cloth?
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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These are kinda neat. Just out of curiosity, did you get inspiration from any particular place or did you just make them up whole cloth?
Well, I started with the Swordsmanship feats that I linked in the OP. Those were inspired partially from TV, and partially from "What should a fighter be able to do that's as beyond-the-mundane as a caster?". Once I'd done those, I decided for variety/completeness' sake I should try some bludgeoning feats, and made these from scratch. Next I'm working on some piercing feats.
Stop!
Hammer time!
How about one that smashes the ground such that it creates difficult terrain around your target?Thought about it, but I think such an ability already exists somewhere.
Ground Breaker (Ex): Once per rage, the barbarian can attack the floor around her as a standard action. This attack automatically hits and deals damage normally. If the barbarian manages to deal more damage than the floor's hardness, the space she occupies and all of the squares adjacent to her become difficult terrain. Creatures in these squares, except the barbarian, must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be knocked prone. A barbarian must be at least 6th level to select this rage power.
These are kinda neat. Just out of curiosity, did you get inspiration from any particular place or did you just make them up whole cloth?Well, I started with the Swordsmanship feats that I linked in the OP. Those were inspired partially from TV, and partially from "What should a fighter be able to do that's as beyond-the-mundane as a caster?". Once I'd done those, I decided for variety/completeness' sake I should try some bludgeoning feats, and made these from scratch. Next I'm working on some piercing feats.
OK. I was just wondering because they seem very similar to hammer warrior skills from Guild Wars and Secret World. I guess that's more because it's a common idea of how bludgeoning weapons should act. I think Paizo would be well served to introduce a fighter only feat line for slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing weapon groups. These are a step in the right direction, I like em.