
William Pall |

Hate to do this, but I'm trying to find a feat in one of my multitude of books, and I can't remember the name of it, only a vague recollection of what it does.
Basic concept is similar to Power Attack, but instead of being a ToHit/Damage exchange it is a AC/ToHit exchange . . . meaning that I can voluntarily reduce my AC in order to raise my attack bonus. Essentially, opening yourself up to be hit for the benefit of making the hit.
Anyone know what feat I'm talking about or where it's hiding form me?

Elephant |

Hate to do this, but I'm trying to find a feat in one of my multitude of books, and I can't remember the name of it, only a vague recollection of what it does.
Basic concept is similar to Power Attack, but instead of being a ToHit/Damage exchange it is a AC/ToHit exchange . . . meaning that I can voluntarily reduce my AC in order to raise my attack bonus. Essentially, opening yourself up to be hit for the benefit of making the hit.
Anyone know what feat I'm talking about or where it's hiding form me?
Sounds like one of the tactical feats from Complete Warrior. Shock Trooper, maybe?

William Pall |

I recall people discussing a feat that exchanged damage for more attack bonus, but I don't remember this feat.
Still not quite what I'm looking for.
That sounds like something a rogue type class would use, giving up on damage from the hit to ensure the hit. I say Rogue's cause they've got the sneak attack damage as an additional amount, or possibly just using the attack to deliver poison or such.
Elephant |

Elephant wrote:Sounds like one of the tactical feats from Complete Warrior. Shock Trooper, maybe?Just looked, and Shock trooper is the opposite of what I'd be going for . . . giving up Attack Bonus to increase AC.
Wait, are you looking to give up attack bonus to get a higher AC (Combat Expertise), or give up AC to get an attack bonus (charging or Reckless Offense, perhaps)?

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There is also Karmic Strike (Complete Warrior), very similar to Robilar's Gambit, but still no bonus to hit.
Mark of Cania grants +1 bonuses every time you miss in exchange for -1 AC (but you can't control when you get it) (Fiendish Codex II).
Inlindl School (Drow of the Underdark) lets you give up your shield bonus to AC for +1/2 that bonus on attacks with Finesse weapons.
If I had to pick one though, I think you might mean Reckless Charge(Miniatures Handbook), which changes the benefits of charging from +2/-2 to +4/-4.
Other than that, it must have been a 3pp. Unless it was from Tome of Magic, or Magic of Incarnum, or Ghostwalk.

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Actually I think it is Shock Trooper. Under Heedless Charge
If you make a Charge that ends in an attack that uses Power Attack (at least a –5 to your attack roll), you may transfer part or all of the attack roll penalty to your AC as a penalty. This is in
additional to the –2 AC due to the Charge.
Of course you have to charge to take advantage of it. Still your penality is taken from AC and not your attack roll.

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Or you could, uh, just make one yourself and as long as you and your DM agree it's balanced enough for you, use that?
I try so hard to encourage my players to come up with feats for their characters, but they always shy away. I don't have an explanation, but I suspect it is the push of "Wizards material only".
-X AC to gain +X to melee attacks for one round (where X equals your BAB to a maximum of 5) sounds reasonable, as it is the reverse of Combat Expertise.

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Pete Apple wrote:Or you could, uh, just make one yourself and as long as you and your DM agree it's balanced enough for you, use that?I try so hard to encourage my players to come up with feats for their characters, but they always shy away. I don't have an explanation, but I suspect it is the push of "Wizards material only".
-X AC to gain +X to melee attacks for one round (where X equals your BAB to a maximum of 5) sounds reasonable, as it is the reverse of Combat Expertise.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Open yourself up in order to get a better shot. You could write that feat up right now.
You could also go with with "advanced combat expertise" (with combat expertise as the pre-req) which allows you to go max 5 in either direction if you wanted to limit it a bit further.

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Jal Dorak wrote:Pete Apple wrote:Or you could, uh, just make one yourself and as long as you and your DM agree it's balanced enough for you, use that?I try so hard to encourage my players to come up with feats for their characters, but they always shy away. I don't have an explanation, but I suspect it is the push of "Wizards material only".
-X AC to gain +X to melee attacks for one round (where X equals your BAB to a maximum of 5) sounds reasonable, as it is the reverse of Combat Expertise.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Open yourself up in order to get a better shot. You could write that feat up right now.
You could also go with with "advanced combat expertise" (with combat expertise as the pre-req) which allows you to go max 5 in either direction if you wanted to limit it a bit further.
I am wondering about the ability prerequisite though. Str doesn't work, as it isn't just about swinging for the fences. Int makes it seem a little too tactical than you might want. Probably a toss-up between Int and Dex (since it involves AC). Maybe just make Dodge a prerequisite?

Vigil RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16 |

Actually, I think it was a feat that granted a new bardic music ability that allowed someone under the effect of the song to lower armor class to raise attack. I can't find it now, but I'm certain that's what it was.
I used it in an Eberron game to make a group of hobgoblin fighters (and a bard) a really tough fight. I combined the song with power attack, to lower armor class (which was low anyway, so it didn't matter) to raise damage without hurting accuracy.

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Actually, I think it was a feat that granted a new bardic music ability that allowed someone under the effect of the song to lower armor class to raise attack. I can't find it now, but I'm certain that's what it was.
I used it in an Eberron game to make a group of hobgoblin fighters (and a bard) a really tough fight. I combined the song with power attack, to lower armor class (which was low anyway, so it didn't matter) to raise damage without hurting accuracy.
Hmm, so it could have been an Eberron-specific feat? It is definitely not from an "official" generic book. If it was from Eberron, I am of no further use.

William Pall |

Thanks for all the help and advice with either tracking down the feat or brainstorming idea's for a homebrew feat.
As far as pre-req's and such, if it were to work for this character, it'd probably be best to have Power Attack. I could also see changing it so instead of bumping up the Attack Bonus, it just modifies Power attack to take from AC instead of Attack, since I would only be using it in conjunction with "power attack"ed attacks. Yeah, the lower AC would mean I'd take more damage, but at 45 hp at 3rd level, 51 when raging, I think I've got some to spare.

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Thanks for all the help and advice with either tracking down the feat or brainstorming idea's for a homebrew feat.
As far as pre-req's and such, if it were to work for this character, it'd probably be best to have Power Attack. I could also see changing it so instead of bumping up the Attack Bonus, it just modifies Power attack to take from AC instead of Attack, since I would only be using it in conjunction with "power attack"ed attacks. Yeah, the lower AC would mean I'd take more damage, but at 45 hp at 3rd level, 51 when raging, I think I've got some to spare.
Yeah, at a certain point the Barbarian doesn't care what their AC is, especially if you have Reckless Rage and light armor (theoretically looking at less than 10 after raging).
Have you considered making it a Rage ability? I don't know if you are using PRPG, but that could be another solution: a Rage ability that modifies Power Attack as you suggest, and uses up an extra round of rage?

William Pall |

The DM is running it as a mix of PRPG and original 3.5. We get the extra hit points for favored class, but I'm also stuck using the old rage rules as opposed to using rage points. It's made me be more careful when I rage here at the early levels because I've only got one rage per day.
Yeah, I know I could take extra rage, but my first two feats (yes, I'm a human) were Monkey Grip and Weapon Focus: Earthbreaker. Having a Large sized warhammer as my weapon is a lot of fun. It means while raging my damage is 3d6+7.
My third level feat was Improved Toughness, but the group talked me into changing it mid-session to Power Attack (with the DM's approval), and so I'm just wanting to find every means available now to bump up my Attack Bonus right now.
I have the character and session notes posted on my blog at My d20.

Scol |
It's not feat but look at War chanter's(compleate warrior) ability called
Inspire Recklessness (Su): A War chanter of 3rd level
or higher with 12 or more ranks in any Perform skill can use
her song or poetics to inspire an often dangerous, but very
effective, ferocity in one of her allies within 60 feet (or in
himself). The effect lasts for as long as the ally hears the war
chanter sing and for 5 rounds thereafter. An affected ally (or
the war chanter herself) is inspired to recklessness, gaining
the ability to decrease her Armor Class by a number less than
or equal to her base attack bonus and add the same number to
her melee attack rolls as a morale bonus.
I think it's what you are searching for