Perhaps this feat needs to be approached from a different angle.
The 3.5 version was rarely used in my experience, by myself and my players. There is a lot of overlap with fighting defensively, and it was not much better in actual practice in my experience. It was necessary to take for feats such as Improved trip and Improved Disarm however, and so was actually taken, but rarely used.
The Pathfinder Beta version on the other hand is a worse trade-off:
1) The bonus is dependent on the user's Int bonus. As so many have stated, most warriors simply won't have that high of an Int, so it really has little benefit to those who it (I presume) is intended for. In this case, Jason, I really think you are trying to get too much out of the Intelligence ability as it related to combat. I'd leave Intelligence for skill points, languages, etc. and keep it out of combat relevant abilities.
2) It has lost any variability that it did have in 3.5. In fact the smarter you are, the better you can defend yourself, but the worse you become at attacking! Again, having the choice varying how defensive you want to be would make more sense.
3) It has no relation at all to subsequent feats in the feat chain, or it's name for that matter. (This was the case in 3.5 as well)
4) It still has overlap with fighting defensively, while at the same time not being the better option as in 3.5. In fact if you have a realy high Int bonus, but only want to increase your AC by +2, you're better off just fighting defensively.
But as I initially stated, I think this feat needs to take a new direction.
Why not just make Combat Expertise negate all attacks of opportunity when you perform any combat maneuver? That way it relates to the subsequent feats in the tree. In turn, those feats (Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, etc.) simply grant the +2 to the relevant maneuver, and then at a higher BAB (say +11) grant +4? This would bring those feats in keeping with the intent of +2 to combat maneuvers at low levels (at low levels at least) and make martial characters slightly better at higher levels which is also what is trying to be achieved.
I still like the Feat being tied to Intelligence as a prerequisite only because it makes for more interesting choice at character creation. But that is as far as it should go.
In regards to combat expertise performing its original function of trading attack bonus for AC, make a new feat that addresses that.
I'm pretty sure ll this remains backwards compatible by the way.
What do you think?
Defensive Fighting, Improved (Combat)
Prerequisite: BAB +1
Benefit: Instead of the normal bonuses and penalties for fighting defensively, you may instead choose to subtract 1 from your attack rolls and add 1 as a dodge bonus to your AC. If you are holding a light, heavy, or tower shield -- but not a buckler -- your dodge bonus to AC is +2 instead of +1; this bonus does not apply for animated shields, shield spells, rings of force shield or other shield effects.
For every 2 points of your BAB, you may choose to take an additional -1 penalty to attack rolls in exchange for an additional +1 dodge bonus to AC (+2 with a shield), to a maximum -11 to attack and +11 (or +22) AC at BAB +20.
Normal: Fighting defensively applies a static -4 penalty to attacks in exchange for a +2 dodge bonus to AC.
This rewrite of Combat Expertise has the following features:
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Defensive Fighting, Improved (Combat)
Prerequisite: BAB +1
Benefit: Instead of the normal bonuses and penalties for fighting defensively, you may instead choose to subtract 1 from your attack rolls and add 1 as a dodge bonus to your AC. If you are holding a light, heavy, or tower shield -- but not a buckler -- your dodge bonus to AC is +2 instead of +1; this bonus does not apply for animated shields, shield spells, rings of force shield or other shield effects.
For every 2 points of your BAB, you may choose to take an additional -1 penalty to attack rolls in exchange for an additional +1 dodge bonus to AC (+2 with a shield), to a maximum -11 to attack and +11 (or +22) AC at BAB +20.
Normal: Fighting defensively applies a static -4 penalty to attacks in exchange for a +2 dodge bonus to AC.This rewrite of Combat Expertise has the following features:
Elimination of fighter-punative Int prerequisite and scaling;
References existing similar mechanic instead of creating a bizarre new rules subset;
Scales with BAB, so the greatest benefits go to the better combatants, and so that it stays relevant at higher levels;
Mirrors Power Attack's +1/+2 bonus, as Epic Meepo points out; in this case, it's of greater benefit to "real" (as opposed to animated) sword-and-shield combatants instead of THW combatants.
I really, really like this Kirth!
Jason, have you taken a look at this? this has serious potential methinks... :)
What Kirth wrote
I guess I'm wondering what would happen with all the feats that Combat Expertise is a prerequisite for.
Improved Defensive Fighting seems way different in tone and character than things like Improved Trip, Improved Feint, Improved Disarm, and Whirlwind Attack.
Also realize that the Combat Expertise -- Improved Feint route is the path toward glory for many rogues.
I like the idea, it just needs more work if it is truly going to replace Combat Expertise (which really does need help).
CJ