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Catch Off-Guard (Combat)
Foes are surprised by your skilled use of unorthodox and improvised weapons.
Benefit: You do not suffer any penalties for using an improvised melee weapon. Unarmed opponents are flat-footed against any attacks you make with an improvised melee weapon.
Normal: You take a –4 penalty on attack rolls made with an improvised weapon.
Does the "Unarmed opponents are flat-footed against any attacks you make with an improvised melee weapon." not make this feat too powerful?
A rogue using a table leg instead of a club automaticlly gets his Sneak Attack damage versus an unarmed foe.
Natural weapons, however, mean you're always considered "armed".
Natural weapons, however, mean you're always considered "armed".Does this mean that Catch off-Guard cannot be used against a monk ?
Same mechanic as Attacks of Opertunity against Unarmed foes who attack. Anything that makes you count as armed protects you from Catch Off-Guard.
That includes natural attacks and Improved Unarmed strike.
It seems that it should mostly apply in two situations. At the beginning of combat, when an opponent hasn't acted, they will sometimes be unarmed. Their first action is likely to be "draw a weapon", at which point the feat is no longer an issue. However, since they haven't acted yet, they are already flat-footed, so it won't matter. It does cause problems for characters whose first round of action is draw and drink a potion.
The other, more dangerous, situation is wizards and sorcerers and, to a lesser degree, other non-melee oriented spell casters. A wizard is likely to spend the entire battle unarmed, since he doesn't need a weapon for his spell casting. Consequently, if a rogue does get close to him, he's likely to be sent flat footed by this feat.
Overall, it seems strong but highly situational. It's only useful against humanoids (since monsters will be armed with their natural weapons) and then only some of the time.
It's not RAW, but I'd also houserule it to be that you only get the feat if you are fighting someone that doesn't know how dangerous you are with a beer stein.
I mean, if you've already hit me in the head with that stein once and I'm blinking blood out of my eye, I'm not going to make the mistake of assuming you aren't hitting me hard with it. And, my buddy next to me is wiping my blood off his face from the splatter, so he's not being fooled either.
It's not the RAW, but it is the spirit of the feat. You literally surprise deck someone with something they didn't consider to be a weapon, once they know that kazoo is dangerous for more than just an audible assault on their ears, they aren't going to be surprised the second time you shove it up their nose.
Would that make disarm at least a bit more viable?
Hmm, I could see a drunken master type monk using this feat and disarm as well. Imagine, disarm an opponent and then smack him with your jug of wine in the face. ;)
BTW, natural attacks are unarmed attacks. Thus with Catch off-guard, you can sneak attack a Tarrasque each round with your trusty broken bottle :-)
Incorrect. Natural Attacks are natural attacks, unarmed attacks are only done by humanoids without natural weapons. The only case that is different is the Monk which explicitly states that their unarmed attacks count as both manufactured weaponry and natural attacks.