Hello to everybody.
Inspired by the recent discussions on the ACG and about the upcoming Pathfinder Unchained, I wanted to show here some homebrewed rules that I use in the campaigns I GM for, and ask for a forum opinion.
Please note, I'm not proposing these solutions as universally worthy ones, and so I'm not asking here if these are the solutions to all Pathfinder woes and should be adopted by all the world or something similar.
They're simply more suited to my personal taste.
Only, even if these rules have been well received in my own groups and did not have caused any particular noticeable imbalance in my game, I've only few groups, and even the most munchkin players of mine are better at parsing online guides than actual number-crunching.
So, I would like opinions from a more wast group of players about corner-cases and unforeseen consequences of these modifications.
And maybe some suggestions about other similar modifications that could be suited to my tables.
Also, maybe some other players could enjoy these rules and find some ideas they may like...
Agile combat
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13Benefit: With a light weapon, or a one or two handed handed piercing or slashing weapon made for a creature of your size category, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls. If you carry a shield or a medium or heavy armor, their armor check penalty applies to your attack rolls. Any strength modifier penalty is still applied to the attack roll. Using one handed weapons with this feat require a minimum strength of 13, and using 2 handed weapons with this feat require a minimum strength of 15. Increase or decrease the strength requirements by 2 for each size step difference from medium. Any weapon one handed or 2 handed wielded with Agile combat is considered a one handed light weapon exclusively for calculating any type damage bonuses (for example, not for off-handed use or two weapon attack penalties).
Special: Natural weapons are considered light weapons.
Personal note: the desired effect is extending the range of weapons that you should logically be able to use with dexterity, while avoiding strength dumping and min maxing, and in a thematically appropriate way for the idea of “agile combatant”.
Note that leaving reach weapons inside this was a conscious decision, to reflect the style of combat that it's possible to see in some eastern martial arts with lances.
Scientific fencing
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Agile combat, Profession (soldier or other appropriate martial profession) 2 ranks.Benefit: When wielding a weapon usable with Agile combat, you can use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on melee attack and damage rolls. If you carry a shield or a medium or heavy armor, their armor check penalty applies to your damage rolls. Any strength modifier penalty is also applied to the damage roll. Using one handed weapons with this feat require a minimum strength of 13, and using 2 handed weapons with this feat require a minimum strength of 15. Increase or decrease the strength requirements by 2 for each size step difference from medium.
Personal note: as per the previous feat, plus you've to wait a bit and invest in the feat tax to keep things balanced. The inclusion of 2-handed weapons is compensated by the fact that they receive only 1x Strength.
Shorten grip
Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Martial weapons proficencyBenefit: When wielding a pole arm with reach that you are proficient with, you may at will treat the weapon as if it did not have reach. The weapon is unwieldy when used in this fashion and you consider it an improvised club-like weapon when attacking an opponent you normally could not.
Normal: Reach weapons cannot be used against adjacent foes.
Personal note: Referring to previous dex-based feats, as the shortened polearm is considered club-like (and improvised...), it does means that when using it shortened it can't benefit from them.
Vital strike
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6.Benefit: When you are doing a single melee or ranged attack in a round, your attack deals additional damage. Roll the weapon’s damage dice for the attack twice and add the results together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit, but are added to the total. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.
Personal note: consider this wording extended also to the rest of the chain.
Almost everybody agree that Vital strike as it is is quite underpowered. At the same time, I feel that the combat balance is too rewarding to immobile combatants and not enough to mobile ones. This is my first attempt to deal with it... now you can combine it with Spring attacks and Charges, plus some other maneuvers and abilities.
Also note that this wording helps with Mythic Vital Strike abuse, where having more than one standard actions in a round means being able to deliver more terribly damaging Mythic Vital Strikes...
All types of crossbows are made with a particular Strength bonus rating. The crossbow deliver extra damage related to this Strength bonus rating, indipendently from the user Strength. If your Strength bonus is less or more than the Strength bonus rating of the crossbow, reloading it's going to take longer or shorter in proportion to the difference between your Strength bonus and the crossbow Strength bonus rating. For each bonus point of difference, the reloading time shift from the crossbow default reloading time (after applying all relevant feats and class features) one step in the following table:
- Free action
- Swift action
- Move Action
- Standard action
- Full-round action
- 1 round
- 2 rounds
- 3 rounds
- ...
(Addition from the new Bolt Ace: the reloading time of “not an action” should not be accessible by using crossbows with lower strength rating, but should remain a Bolt Ace exclusive, I think)
The default crossbow is rated for a Strength bonus rating of +0. Each point of additional Strength bonus granted by the crossbow adds 100 gp to its base cost. A crossbow rated for less than +0 does not reduce its base price.
Wand Holster
Price: 1gp Weigth: 1lbA belt attachment that can holster a single wand or rod.
Special: if you have the Quick draw feat you can draw the wand or rod as if it was a normal weapon.
To benefit from this effect you may not wear more than one of these holsters in a specific location, and it can't be worn near other sheated weapons (i.e. if you wear one on the left side of your belt, you can't wear another on that side, and you can't also keep a sword sheated there).Note: an holstered wand is in clear view of anybody observing you.
Wand of cantrips
When creating a wand with a cantrip, a caster can choose to create it with infinite charges for 2x the normal wand price.
Martial Monk
The Monk have a full-bab progression even when not using flurry of blows.
Capsule Extract discovery (Ex)
Prerequisite: Alchemist 10, Infusion discoveryYou can create a very concentrated rapid-acting infusion as a solid capsule.
This capsule is easy to conceal, so you've +10 to your Sleight of Hand checks to conceal, palm or otherwise manipulate it.
Retrieving and ingesting such an extract from a pouch or similar container is a move action.
Ingesting such an extract while having it already in hand is a Swift action.
The capsule is water-soluble and will be wasted if it does get wet.
It can be dissolved in a glass of pure water to recreate a standard extract, but if dissolved in other beverages will be ruined and wasted.
Creating a capsule extract does consume an extract slot 3 levels higher than the equivalent normal extract, but the spell effective level does not change.Personal note: I will extend this discovery to the ones accessible to the new Investigator class.
Pinned Coup de Grace
If you manage to pin an adversary while holding a one-handed piercing or slashing weapon, in the following round you can attempt a grapple combat maneuver check at -10 to deliver a coup de grace with that weapon as a full-round action.
If you need to also extract the weapon first, you need to be able to do so while using at least one hand to maintain a grapple, and the grapple combat maneuver check to be able to deliver the coup de grace is at -20.
If this maneuver fails the adversary receive a free attempt to break the grapple at +8 bonus.Personal note: used rarely, but it gave me a couple of nice hostage situations different to replicate otherwise. Leaving one handed ranged weapons like guns and light/hand crossbows was a conscious decision.
I like the first two generic dex to hit and dex to damage. Personally I wouldn't allow 2 handed but I don't think that would be a problem mechanically.
I don't like Shorten Grip though, I would think that anyone would be able to use a reach weapon against an adjacent foe as an improvised club like weapon already. No logical reason they wouldn't be able to and the rules for an improvised weapon seem entirely appropriate for such an attack.
Like the changes to Vital Strike, I have always house ruled that same thing.
Since flurry of blows uses full BAB, if would be better to not reference that.
I think your feats are personal preference, and not necessarily better than existing rules. Before implementing them in a game, discuss them with your gaming group to find out their opinions.
The list that ranks the "speed" of each action makes sense to those of us who already understand it. For those who do not, your write up will require additional explanation.
I like your feats however i think it shouldnt work on two handed, or at least make it so it doesnt add 1.5 so not to destroy strengh niche
Vital strike is cool
Shorten grip is unecesary, there already a similar a little bit more balanced feat.
Well, about the 1,5x strength, Agile combat does state that the weapon is always considered a light weapon for damage bonuses, so even if wielded with 2 hands would not receive 1,5x strength.
I'd like to know about the shorten grip feat alternate feat, I seem to have missed it (I know that there was one in 3,5 that gave a simple -2 to hit, but, well, I wanted to be more conservative in the feats I do introduce).
Since flurry of blows uses full BAB, if would be better to not reference that.
I think your feats are personal preference, and not necessarily better than existing rules. Before implementing them in a game, discuss them with your gaming group to find out their opinions.
The list that ranks the "speed" of each action makes sense to those of us who already understand it. For those who do not, your write up will require additional explanation.
Obviously these feats are my own personal preference, I stated so myself in my introduction to them. What I'm interested is in making sure they're not significantly worse than standard game, by being exploitable, redundant or something! :p
Anyway I'll try to rewrite the two you pointed out in a more clear way.
Even if at my table I'm obviously always available to explain them to my own players, in the spirit of making them usable by other interested parties some editing would still be useful.
Please also consider that I'm not a native English speaker, so some things could seem well written to me while instead being badly worded.
I don't like Shorten Grip though, I would think that anyone would be able to use a reach weapon against an adjacent foe as an improvised club like weapon already. No logical reason they wouldn't be able to and the rules for an improvised weapon seem entirely appropriate for such an attack.
Mmh, I did not read the normal improvised weapon rules in this way, but I desired to do so, hence this feat... maybe I'll take your suggestion and simply use it as the "normal" rule, I'll think about it.
Mmh, I did not read the normal improvised weapon rules in this way, but I desired to do so, hence this feat... maybe I'll take your suggestion and simply use it as the "normal" rule, I'll think about it.
I don't like Shorten Grip though, I would think that anyone would be able to use a reach weapon against an adjacent foe as an improvised club like weapon already. No logical reason they wouldn't be able to and the rules for an improvised weapon seem entirely appropriate for such an attack.
Well here is how I would interpret it.
From PRD:Improvised Weapons: Sometimes objects not crafted to be weapons nonetheless see use in combat. Because such objects are not designed for this use, any creature that uses an improvised weapon in combat is considered to be nonproficient with it and takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls made with that object. To determine the size category and appropriate damage for an improvised weapon, compare its relative size and damage potential to the weapon list to find a reasonable match. An improvised weapon scores a threat on a natural roll of 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. An improvised thrown weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.
So the haft of a glaive is definitely not designed to be used as a weapon but if someone is too close your going to want to hit them with it so it's an improvised weapon. If a character without this feat wanted to hit someone with the haft of their glaive would you tell them that it is physically impossible? I would say that you can do it but since it's not a real weapon improvised weapon rules apply.
I would use the 3.5 feat
As a swift action, you can choose to lose the benefit of wielding any reach weapon other than a spiked chain or a whip. In return, you can use that weapon to threaten and attack spaces adjacent to you. With another swift action, you can give up this feat's benefit in order to regain the use of your weapon's superior reach.
The character is proficient with the weapon, deals it's normal damage, and retains the benefits of weapon focus like feats. If you think that is too powerful you could add a -2 penalty to attack rolls but I don't think that is necessary since the character burned a feat to get this ability.