Such a neat feat, but so bad, and so costly. This is the houserule that I allow for my campaigns to give the more mobile characters a little oomph and make this feat workable.
Vital Strike (Combat)
You make a single attack that deals significantly more damage than normal.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: Once per round when you make an attack, but not while taking a full attack action, you can deal additional damage. Roll the weapon's damage dice for the attack twice and add the result together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit, but are added to the total. When your base attack bonus reaches +11, and every 5 point thereafter, you roll the weapon's damage dice one additional time (to a maximum of four).
Essentially, you're turning 3 feats int one that scales with BAB, right? That seems nice, and as long as i can see, most people in the forums (and i include myself among them) agree with your approach (feats that scale with levels). IMHO, that's the tendency (or at least should be) when designing feats.
TEG, What's your opinion on mixing some of the TWF Feats and the Dodge/Mobility feat? Or at least giving them a bit more utility.
Essentially, you're turning 3 feats int one that scales with BAB, right? That seems nice, and as long as i can see, most people in the forums (and i include myself among them) agree with your approach (feats that scale with levels). IMHO, that's the tendency (or at least should be) when designing feats.
That is pretty much what it does as it's really not worth investing another 2 feats into it but it's great when not given the opportunity to full-attack all the time for those melee characters. Furthermore, with the wording, it allows for Vital Strike + Spring Attack or charge combos, which is part of what I was going for.
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TEG, What's your opinion on mixing some of the TWF Feats and the Dodge/Mobility feat? Or at least giving them a bit more utility.
I've been thinking of houseruling the basic TWF feat chain into one feat and go about it in a similar way as I did with Vital Strike, essentially giving you more attacks as your base attack goes up (to a maximum of three extra attacks at +11). It's mostly wording things elegantly so that you gain these benefits only when your BAB and Dexterity are both at certain levels.
As far as Dodge/Mobility goes, granted a +1 dodge bonus to AC isn't all that impressive, but it is far better than the 3.5 version. If memory serves, I believe that dodge bonuses also apply to your CMD so there's that as well. It would be interesting if Mobility worked off of Dodge to increase the bonus to your AC in a round where you moved more than 5 feet (worded so that you couldn't just teleport or do something else that wasn't using a move action to move and lasted until the beginning of your next turn). Perhaps something akin to the 3.5 Scout's skirmish, minus the damage.
Mobility (Combat)
You are more difficult to hit while moving.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Dodge
Benefit: When you move at least 10 feet in a round, you gain a +2 dodge bonus to your AC until the beginning of your next turn. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses.
Special: Dodge bonuses stack with each other, unlike most types of bonuses.
So instead of getting a +4 dodge bonus against attacks of opportunity, you gain a blanket +2 dodge bonus to your AC while the conditions are met.
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Vital Strike: Standard action, scales with base attacks.
Improved Vital Strike: Lets you replace one melee attack/round with vital strike, so you can now use it with spring attack and it encourages people to take the second one. The exception of course is that you shouldn't be able to use it in a full attack.
Greater Vital Strike: When you use VS as a standard action, it adds modifiers as if you had made that many attacks, essentially an all or nothing hit at the cost of some additional hits.
Two-Weapon Fighting: Grants the actual attacks, scaling with level, but only applies additional modifiers on your first mainhand and offhand attack.
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting: Extends benefits to secondary attacks, reduce dual wield penalties by 2.
Greater Two-Weapon Fighting: Extends benefits to tertiary attacks, grant +2 bonus when fighting with a weapon in each hand.
For sake of argument, modifiers refers to things you tack on to each attack, such as Sneak Attack, extra weapon damage from magic, a ranger's favored enemy bonus, etc.
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So a 20th level Ranger with GVS is going to add his Favored Enemy Bonus 4 times to a single attack? I'm not saying that as a bad thing, I just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly.
Augh. Yeah RAW that's what it would mean. That's the sketchy one. Like, I feel that when you get VS up to that level, you should either be able to drop a fast one, or when you use your standard action to do it, it should provide a pretty solid benefit. But for a Rogue 20, that's +40d6 damage (Avg 140) which isn't too dangerously high or low considering some other classes can pull that off without having to be in melee range with a CR20 creature. I like my ideas, but for GVS someone can obviously make it more balanced.
Feat Stuff
When you say that your version of Vital Strike "scales with base attacks" I am presuming that you mean it increases the amount of damage dice you roll based on that number. That being said, Greater Vital Strike, as you envision it, would allow a character to get the benefits of a full-attack action, at their full base attack bonus, as a standard action. Am I understanding this correctly? That sounds pretty extreme. A 20th level fighter wielding a non-magical greatsword with a measly 20 Strength would be doing 32d6+28 points of damage as a standard action pretty much anytime he could wield his sword. If he was using Power Attack, this would increase to 32d6+100 damage with a -6 penalty to hit unless he took the Furious Focus feat, in which case, why wouldn't he?
Feat StuffWhen you say that your version of Vital Strike "scales with base attacks" I am presuming that you mean it increases the amount of damage dice you roll based on that number. That being said, Greater Vital Strike, as you envision it, would allow a character to get the benefits of a full-attack action, at their full base attack bonus, as a standard action. Am I understanding this correctly? That sounds pretty extreme. A 20th level fighter wielding a non-magical greatsword with a measly 20 Strength would be doing 32d6+28 points of damage as a standard action pretty much anytime he could wield his sword. If he was using Power Attack, this would increase to 32d6+100 damage with a -6 penalty to hit unless he took the Furious Focus feat, in which case, why wouldn't he?
Thankfully Furious Focus doesn't apply to standard actions. But still. :)
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Thankfully Furious Focus doesn't apply to standard actions. But still. :)
Actually, it isn't limited to full-round actions. It just makes it so that you take no PA penalty on your first attack in any round, standard action or not.
Furious Focus (Combat)
Even in the midst of fierce and furious blows, you can find focus in the carnage and your seemingly wild blows strike home.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Power Attack, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: When you are wielding a two-handed weapon or a one-handed weapon with two hands, and using the Power Attack feat, you do not suffer Power Attack’s penalty on melee attack rolls on the first attack you make each turn. You still suffer the penalty on any additional attacks, including attacks of opportunity.
If I were to do something similar to the Vital Strike chain, I would do the following:
(very rough draft)
Improved Vital Strike (Combat)
Prerequisites: Vital Strike, base attack bonus +11
Benefit: When you use the Vital Strike feat, you may double your bonus damage from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses by taking a -5 penalty to your attack roll. This extra damage is not multiplied on a critical hit, but added to the total.
Greater Vital Strike (Combat)
Prerequisites: Improved Vital Strike, Vital Strike, base attack bonus +16
Benefit: When you use the Vital Strike feat, you may triple your bonus damage from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses by taking a -10 penalty to your attack roll. This extra damage is not multiplied on a critical hit, but added to the total.
This allows you to choose how much of a penalty you are willing to take because it explicitly modifies the abilities of Vital Strike when doing so. So, with the full feat chain, you could take a -5 penalty to double those damage bonuses or a -10 penalty to triple them. It is still a pretty powerful feat, especially in the hands of a high level paladin, a rogue that fulfills the requirements for sneak attacking or anyone with the Power Attack feat in conjunction with Furious Focus.
Thoughts, anyone?
Vital Strike, as written and ruled by Paizo, has three (3) major problems I'd like to see corrected:
1. It isn't usable on a charge, with Spring Attack, or with almost anything else you might actually ever want to do;
2. It fails to scale with BAB, instead forcing you to invest in an absurdly long feat chain;
3. It disproportionatelty benefits T-rexes and the like, while penalizing anyone who doesn't use an Anime weapon that's at least 16 feet long.
I use this:
VITAL STRIKE (Combat)
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: As a standard action, or as part of a charge or spring attack, you can make a single attack that deals an additional 2d6 damage. This bonus damage increases to +4d6 if your base attack bonus is +11 or better, and to +6d6 if your base attack bonus is +16 or better. This additional damage applies only to your primary attack, not to any attacks of opportunity you might make that round.
VITAL STRIKE (Combat)
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: As a standard action, or as part of a charge or spring attack, you can make a single attack that deals an additional 2d6 damage. This bonus damage increases to +4d6 if your base attack bonus is +11 or better, and to +6d6 if your base attack bonus is +16 or better. This additional damage applies only to your primary attack, not to any attacks of opportunity you might make that round.
I prefer this version. It's actually worth having with any weapon.
Vital Strike, as written and ruled by Paizo, has three (3) major problems I'd like to see corrected:
1. It isn't usable on a charge, with Spring Attack, or with almost anything else you might actually ever want to do;
2. It fails to scale with BAB, instead forcing you to invest in an absurdly long feat chain;
3. It disproportionatelty benefits T-rexes and the like, while penalizing anyone who doesn't use an Anime weapon that's at least 16 feet long.I use this:
VITAL STRIKE (Combat)
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: As a standard action, or as part of a charge or spring attack, you can make a single attack that deals an additional 2d6 damage. This bonus damage increases to +4d6 if your base attack bonus is +11 or better, and to +6d6 if your base attack bonus is +16 or better. This additional damage applies only to your primary attack, not to any attacks of opportunity you might make that round.
I like this, it's a good solution, makes it useful for more characters and doesn't make monsters with an ungodly high amount of damage dice become beyond vile. I think I shall steal it.