So I've finally had a chance to look at Ultimate Combat and the Variant Rules chapter. When reading over the Called Shots section it occurred to me...
Pathfinder pg. 68, Sneak Attack: "she can strike a vital spot for extra damage".
Ultimate Combat pg. 193, Making Called Shots: "A called shot is aimed at a particular part of the body (aka vital spot), in the hope of gaining extra effect from the attack".
In the base rules Rogues are essentially doing more sneak attack damage because they're making called shots to vitals. As everyone seems to agree that Rogues are underpowered and fluff wise these are the same thing why not work these together a bit?
I don't know how it would effect things balance wise but when using the Called Shots rules how about giving Rogues a bonus to called shots equal to their Sneak Attack level? ie. a +10d6 sneak attack would also get a +10 BAB when making called shots.
It would make Rogues masters of the precision strike. Which is really what they should be in my opinion. No idea if that would be too powerful though? I'm not good at calculating such things. : /
So I've finally had a chance to look at Ultimate Combat and the Variant Rules chapter. When reading over the Called Shots section it occurred to me...
Pathfinder pg. 68, Sneak Attack: "she can strike a vital spot for extra damage".
Ultimate Combat pg. 193, Making Called Shots: "A called shot is aimed at a particular part of the body (aka vital spot), in the hope of gaining extra effect from the attack".In the base rules Rogues are essentially doing more sneak attack damage because they're making called shots to vitals. As everyone seems to agree that Rogues are underpowered and fluff wise these are the same thing why not work these together a bit?
I don't know how it would effect things balance wise but when using the Called Shots rules how about giving Rogues a bonus to called shots equal to their Sneak Attack level? ie. a +10d6 sneak attack would also get a +10 BAB when making called shots.
It would make Rogues masters of the precision strike. Which is really what they should be in my opinion. No idea if that would be too powerful though? I'm not good at calculating such things. : /
It's an interesting idea and while I'm not able to do any number running at the moment, +10 /seems/ awefully high. I think the highest AC diff given is a +10. I'd be more likely to give them the monk bonus on flurry, i.e. "For the purpose of called shots, the rogue's base attack bonus from his rogue class levels is equal to his rogue level."
Again, this is off the cuff - not in a position to do the math at the moment.=)
It's an interesting idea and while I'm not able to do any number running at the moment, +10 /seems/ awefully high. I think the highest AC diff given is a +10. I'd be more likely to give them the monk bonus on flurry, i.e. "For the purpose of called shots, the rogue's base attack bonus from his rogue class levels is equal to his rogue level."
Again, this is off the cuff - not in a position to do the math at the moment.=)
Oh I wouldn't have though of the BAB = level idea. hmmm Going that route they'd only be as good as Fighters at doing called shots. Which might be balance but I thought they'd be better at it as precision strike specialists.
My line of thought was at 20th level a Rogue would have +15 for regular attacks and +25 for called shots versus a Fighters straight +20. That way they'd be as far ahead of Fighter on called as they are behind them on regular. I dunno there seems to be some sort of symmetry there. /shrug