For those that wish to dump their strength and focus on dexterity, the dervish dance feat looks quite enticing for scimitar wielders (especially if it's a keen scimitar to give you a 15-20 crit range). The biggest drawback to this feat is the following caveat:
You cannot use this feat if you are carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand.
To get around this limitation, I wonder if it's possible to wear a weapon as opposed to carrying it? For instance, brass knuckles allow you to deal lethal damage with unarmed attacks. It also says about brass knuckles:
You may hold, but not wield, a weapon or other object in a hand wearing brass knuckles.
This would seem to suggest that you are wearing but not carrying the brass knuckles. This interpretation might also apply to the cestus and spiked gauntlets opening up interesting possibilities for 2 wpn fighting builds.
Am I bending the rules too much with this interpretation? Is it legal? Interested to hear both RAI and RAW interpretions on this.
Improved unarmed strike feat... few levels in Free Hand fighter archetype would be a nice add.
Yes, the Improved unarmed strike feat is a solid and legal choice. What I should have mentioned was that I was looking for ways to avoid spending another feat on top of weapon finesse and dervish dance.
Let's face it. Standard combat builds get it easy - let's just dump into strength, avoid spending any feats and just wear heavy armour.
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Okay. It's utterly ridiculous, but the feat allows you to add dexterity on all melee attacks as long as you wield a scimitar in one hand and nothing in the other.
This would allow a monk to add his dexterity bonus on his unarmed strike damage at the cost of three feats (two feats if he somehow gains the scimitar for free).
This would make Tengus rather good monks. Not only do they get a bonus on dexterity and wisdom, they also gain proficiency with the scimitar and a natural attack that would also benefit from the feat and would make an amulet of mighty fists a bit more useful.
Not really broken, but certainly not RAI.
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To get around this limitation, I wonder if it's possible to wear a weapon as opposed to carrying it? For instance, brass knuckles allow you to deal lethal damage with unarmed attacks. It also says about brass knuckles:
You may hold, but not wield, a weapon or other object in a hand wearing brass knuckles.
This would seem to suggest that you are wearing but not carrying the brass knuckles. This interpretation might also apply to the cestus and spiked gauntlets opening up interesting possibilities for 2 wpn fighting builds.
Am I bending the rules too much with this interpretation? Is it legal? Interested to hear both RAI and RAW interpretions on this.
Hmmm not sure that might be individual DM call. I do know without the Imp. Unarmed strike feat you will provoke AO's. Its a heavy risk for 1d4 + dex damage.
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Improved unarmed strike feat... few levels in Free Hand fighter archetype would be a nice add.Yes, the Improved unarmed strike feat is a solid and legal choice. What I should have mentioned was that I was looking for ways to avoid spending another feat on top of weapon finesse and dervish dance.
Let's face it. Standard combat builds get it easy - let's just dump into strength, avoid spending any feats and just wear heavy armour.
High dex gets you more AC than armor in the long turn. Strength doesn't add to initiative and reflex saves. Stop complaining.
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I agree by the way it reads that you get Dex damage on all your attacks but was that the intention of the feat or just with the scimitar?
<---- does not play devils advocate very often. lol
I'm pretty sure it was intended to only add on the scimitar damage, but as written it's any melee damage. It would also allow to use dexterity on any attack rolls, even if the weapon isn't finessable, although I don't know any non-light weapon that does not require you to hold it.
Honestly, the RAI is not to weasel out of the feat to get extra attacks. Particularly not TWF style where the high Dex requirements are icing on the cake of your many attacks.
I'd argue that a magus can get "extra" attacks in the form of his spellcombat; but I wouldn't condone trickery. The feat (dervish dance) is already good by itself; no need to be sly about it.
High dex gets you more AC than armor in the long turn. Strength doesn't add to initiative and reflex saves. Stop complaining.
Actually that's a good point you raise about initiative and reflex saves that I hadn't considered.
I'm not so sure that your spiked armour is a good suggestion as it represents a separate grapple attack and if you're dumping strength to promote dexterity, it might end badly.
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High dex gets you more AC than armor in the long turn. Strength doesn't add to initiative and reflex saves. Stop complaining.Actually that's a good point you raise about initiative and reflex saves that I hadn't considered.
I'm not so sure that your spiked armour is a good suggestion as it represents a separate grapple attack and if you're dumping strength to promote dexterity, it might end badly.
Armor Spikes: You can have spikes added to your armor, which allow you to deal extra piercing damage (see “spiked armor” on Table: Weapons) on a successful grapple attack. The spikes count as a martial weapon. If you are not proficient with them, you take a –4 penalty on grapple checks when you try to use them. You can also make a regular melee attack (or off-hand attack) with the spikes, and they count as a light weapon in this case. (You can't also make an attack with armor spikes if you have already made an attack with another off-hand weapon, and vice versa.) An enhancement bonus to a suit of armor does not improve the spikes' effectiveness, but the spikes can be made into magic weapons in their own right.
It's incredibly cheesy, but it would also work for a duelist.
It's incredibly cheesy, but it would also work for a duelist.
Those armoured spikes are starting to look more tempting (though it is a cheesy combo). It's a pity the spikes count as a martial weapon for classes such as the rogue. Ofcourse, you could play a Half Elf and use the alternate Ancestral Arms trait to pick up the spikes as a weapon without burning the feat. Hmm.. getting cheesier all the time.
"oh, I know that this certainly is not the RAI but because the wicked witch of the east is gone, us munchkins will apply the RAW by exact word as long as we benefit from that"