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Shield of Swings (Combat)
A wild frenzy of attacks serves to bolster your defenses.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Power Attack, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: When you take a full-attack action while
wielding a two-handed weapon, you can choose to reduce
the damage by 1/2 to gain a +4 shield bonus to AC and CMD
until the beginning of your next turn. The reduction in
damage applies until the beginning of your next turn.
Does this mean the extra damage you get from a two-handed power attack, or half the TOTAL damage from the attack?
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1/2 damage from the total, or is power attack added AFTER 1/2 damage is calculated?Total damage.
The "benefit" mentions nothing of Power Attack.
I had always assumed it meant your total damage, including power attack and other modifiers. Otherwise if you stacked enough modifiers, it would make the drawbacks negligible, and the feat would become unbalanced.
This is especially apparent when you start picking up bonuses from Power attack, Overhand Chop, Weapon specialization, etc.
Then again, I haven't looked for an official clarification, so i may be wrong.
Total damage (yes, it is a bad feat).
Total damage (yes, it is a bad feat).
Bad as in bad or bad as in good?
I see the feat as quite useful. Gaining +4 AC for a two-handed fighter regardless of if you hit or not could be very handy for a tank-role. Since you are two-handed you normally are not getting a shield bonus so that +4 can be quite nice when tanking a BBEG.
Sure you are not hitting as hard when you use it, but you always have the option to NOT use it.
Bad as in bad. Yes, you have the option to not use it, but when you do, it makes you worse. +4 AC is not worth dealing half damage in nearly any situation.
I would agree with Coriat. I don't think its a very good feat.
Generally I think equipping a shield and going one handed would be the easier way to up your AC and would do more damage, without the cost of a feat.
I'll grant that with some builds going one handed would be problematic...say a crit focused fighter with a lot of feats dedicated to his two handed weapon, where landing hits is more important than overall damage due to critical feats. Or a reach weapon specialist. In such a case I can see how keeping the two handed weapon active is more important, and that Shield of Swings can be useful for upping AC when needed.
But usually for a THW warrior, their best defense is offense. Doing damage as fast as possible. And Shield of Swings greatly reduces the THW warriors damage, thereby meaning the enemy will last longer. There are some situations where this could be meaningful, such as a powerful enemy is nearly dead and just needs a couple more hits to whittle him down, but you want some extra AC to keep alive. But again, probably better just going all out on the guy and trying to take him out in one round. Without spending a feat.
Also, I'd note that shield of swings improves CMD as well, whereas equipping a shield would not, absent having shield specialization, which most two handed fighters would not have.
But if the only concerns are AC and damage, a one handed weapon and a +2 heavy shield (which costs a little over 4000gp, or 2000gp if crafted) will give the same AC and do more damage without having to spend a feat. The only drawbacks are the time it takes to equip the one handed weapon and shield, and the cost of the shield; both of which are temporal and not a static cost like a feat.
So all in all, I think the feat is a poor choice for all but the most dedicated THW builds. And even then I think its a very costly way of upping AC. Frankly I'd rather carry around a tower shield and a longsword for those situations where I need extra AC more than I need to do damage.
Maybe, if you already decide to NOT deal damage, you could combo it with pushing assault.. controlling foues for a round increasing AC, using properly 5 foot step and dealing with them better next round.
Another use could be for a TH build with improved trip. The bonus form Combat Expertise and Shield of Swings alone could be neligible, but maybe combined could mean something if you need for one round to go defensive.
Maybe, if you already decide to NOT deal damage, you could combo it with pushing assault.. controlling foues for a round increasing AC, using properly 5 foot step and dealing with them better next round.
Another use could be for a TH build with improved trip. The bonus form Combat Expertise and Shield of Swings alone could be neligible, but maybe combined could mean something if you need for one round to go defensive.
Yeah thats basically what I was saying. If your build is dependent on using a THW, such as for the cases you describe, the feat could have its uses. This usually means using the THW to impose a status effect (such as with a critical feat) or for making a combat maneuver (such as using a trip weapon) or for using a feat specific to the THW (such as pushing assault).
But then the question is, Is it worth a feat to be able to up your AC by 4 at the expense of damage in those situations? The problem for the THW user is that their primary schtick is dealing lots of damage, and the feat greatly counters that. So in that sense its counter productive to the build, and costs a precious feat as well. And for any build that would make decent use of Shield of Swings, I could probably find a feat I'd want more.
I was thinking to a control build based on a guisarme (as an example).
I could go DPR (is a 2H weapon, after all), control with feats like improved trip and combat patrol.. or, in the case i want to go defensive with Combat Expertise, I would use a further +4 from the feat.
I pointed out pushing assault because of an advantage based on control. One could use stunning assault too (say). You put yourself in a condition to not take so much damage from melee, and force saves anyway.
Just find a way to have the bonus from the feat being something put on the top of a pile of bonuses ;)
Yeah thats probably the best use of the feat. But thats because damage is a secondary concern. I think it is indeed best for a reach weapon, tripping build using combat reflexes, especially if you aren't intending to use the AoO from Greater Trip, instead saving it to make more trip attempts in the round. In such a case you aren't doing any damage at all, so the penalty to damage is nil, while giving a bonus to AC and CMD. For that, I like it.
Could you combine Shield of Swings with the fighting defensively action?
Would this feat fair better in a controlling type combat maneuver oriented fighter build? It seems the damage would not be as much of an issue when getting +4 AC and doing a round of disarms and/or trip.
Maneuver type no, since it only works when you full attack, not when you move around and standard attack/standard maneuver. CMBs that can be done as part of a full attack, yes.
Could you combine Shield of Swings with the fighting defensively action?
Yes. However, note that the penalty to attacks from fighting defensively also applies to CMB.