I had an idea for something to expand Combat Expertise that draws on some personal experience with martial arts & sword fencing, where when pressed you can either fall back from an attack, yielding ground, or dart inside it to avoid the force of a swing.
How does this sound:
Fancy Footwork
Your dexterous feet help you avoid harm's way when defending yourself.
Pre-requisites: Combat Expertise, Acrobatics 5 ranks.
Benefit: When employing Combat Expertise when attacked, you may take an immediate action to take a five-foot step independent of any other movement you may have taken. Doing so doubles the AC gain of your Combat Expertise against the attacker. If you cannot take a five-foot step because of terrain restrictions, you cannot employ this feat. Once you have made a five foot step as an immediate action, you may not take a five foot step on your own action.
Normal: You can normally only take a five-foot step as part of your action if you have not otherwise moved.
A second 5ft step per round without disadvantages (only with the cost of an immediate action)? Not on my table.
May be it would be ok if you cant do a 5ft step in the round after you performed a fancy footwork (see step up feat).
A second 5ft step per round without disadvantages (only with the cost of an immediate action)? Not on my table.
May be it would be ok if you cant do a 5ft step in the round after you performed a fancy footwork (see step up feat).
Hmm. Missed that! Let me correct it...OK, fixed that! I meant to include it, but somehow missed it. Thanks for spotting that one.
Am I the only one who thinks that CE should give a BONUS to its associated Combat Maneuvers instead of a penalty to all?
As to your feat:
You should add that if taking a 5' step with this feat, you can't take another 5' step on your next turn AND you must reduce 5' from your maximum move.
I think there is another feat or class ability that allowed something like that (Step Up?) and your feat should work that way too.
I agree, that was my intention. So it should read:
Fancy Footwork
Your dexterous feet help you avoid harm's way when defending yourself.
Pre-requisites: Combat Expertise, Acrobatics 5 ranks.
Benefit: When employing Combat Expertise when attacked, you may take an immediate action to take a five-foot step independent of any other movement you may have taken. Doing so doubles the AC gain of your Combat Expertise against the attacker. If you cannot take a five-foot step because of terrain restrictions, you cannot employ this feat. Once you have made a five foot step as an immediate action, you may not take a five foot step during your own action, and must reduce any movement you make by five feet.
Normal: You can normally only take a five-foot step as part of your action if you have not otherwise moved.
I agree with your point about CE and maneuvers, but then you don't have to be using CE to do the maneuver.
Still a bit fuzzy worded but we'll get the point.
True, you don't NEED to use CE for the maneuvers, but WHY is it a prerequisite to take them?
That in mind, and the fact that CE only trades Attack-AC on a 1-on-1 basis, why not give a bonus to all "related" combat maneuvers and feint.
It simply fits the idea and makes the feat AND the maneuvers more interesting.
COMBAT EXPERTISE (Combat) (Revised)
You can increase your defense at the expense of your accuracy.
Prerequisite: Int 13.
Benefit: When fighting defensively (either as a standard action or full-round action) you only suffer a –2 penalty to your attack rolls. In addition, you receive an additional dodge bonus to your AC and your CMD equal to 1/4 your base attack bonus when fighting defensively or taking the Total Defense action. Finally, you receive the same bonus on checks made to feint or when using the dirty trick, disarm, reposition, steal, or trip combat maneuver.
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RIPOSTE (Combat) (New)
You know exactly when to wait and when to strike.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: When you are wielding a light weapon or a one-handed weapon, and using the Combat Expertise feat to fight defensively, you do not suffer the penalty on melee attack rolls on any one attack of your choice each turn. You still suffer the penalty on all other attacks, including attacks of opportunity.
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FANCY FOOTWORK (Combat) (New)
You can close the distance when a foe tries to move away.
Your dexterous feet help you avoid harm's way when defending yourself.
Prerequisite: Int 13, Combat Expertise, Acrobatics 5 ranks.
Benefit: Once per round, when a foe tries to attack you in melee while you are using Combat Expertise, you may take a 5-foot step as an immediate action so long as you end up adjacent to the foe that triggered this ability. If you do so, you may double Combat Expertise's AC and CMD bonus against this foe until the beginning of your next turn, while losing the additional bonuses to any other foe that might attack you during the same turn. If you take this step, you cannot take a 5-foot step during your next turn. If you take an action to move during your next turn, subtract 5 feet from your total movement.
I don't think Combat Expertise needs changing, to be honest. Riposte could be confused with the Duelist ability of the same name. Also, at low level you only have one attack. I would suggest:
DEADLY DEFENCE(Combat) (New)
You know exactly when to wait and when to strike.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: When you are wielding a light weapon or a one-handed weapon, and using the Combat Expertise feat to fight defensively, you do not suffer the penalty on melee attack rolls on your first attack each turn. You still suffer the penalty on all other attacks, including attacks of opportunity.
This makes it function more like Furious Focus, keeping your high attack bonus for one strike.
Also, I'd remove the rule that you must stay adjacent to the foe when you 5' step in Fancy Footwork - the whole idea is that you give up ground to avoid getting hit, and get pushed backward as a result.
In our group I can't remember anyone ever taking Combat Expertise. In my new campaign I began to search a way to make it more used. One of those 3rd party publishers (don't remember which) made one optional rule to total attack, Balanced Attacks, where you make less but more accurate attacks. The idea behind is great, and also in the line with the "smart fighter" thing. So I made this new feat:
BALANCED ATTACK (Combat)
You learned to take your time, attacking with more precision.
Prerequisite: Int 13, Combat Expertise, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: When making a full attack, you can choose to make two attacks at your highest base attack bonus, but taking a -2 penalty in all attacks. At BBA +11 the penalty reduces to -1. At BBA +16 the penalty reduces to 0.
So we have this:
Normal BBA_._._|.Balanced BBA
+6/+1_._._._._._|.+4/+4
+7/+2_._._._._._|.+5/+5
+8/+3_._._._._._|.+6/+6
+9/+4_._._._._._|.+7/+7
+10/+5._._._._._|.+8/+8
+11/+6/+1._._._|.+10/+10
+12/+7/+2._._._|.+11/+11
+13/+8/+3._._._|.+12/+12
+14/+9/+4._._._|.+13/+13
+15/+10/+5._._.|.+14/+14
+16/+11/+6/+1_|.+16/+16
+17/+12/+7/+2_|.+17/+17
+18/+13/+8/+3_|.+18/+18
+19/+14/+9/+4_|.+19/+19
+20/+15/+10/+5|.+20/+20
(wow, tables sucks in this forum)
Credits given to whoever company created the rule. What you think about the feat?
@ Dabbler: The idea of Riposte was, that you could also take an AoO without the penalty, but I guess you are right.
If fancy footwork would allow to step AWAY from an enemy, it must be stated explicitly that this would NOT prevent the attack!
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@ freduncio:
Not so sure about that actually.
I would almost ALWAYS use this feat, but this probably also holds true for Power Attack (which is probably also too powerful)...
Maybe something like:
"When making a full attack, you can shift BAB points from one attack to another. You must regard the following restrictions:
a) If you lower one of your attacks to +0 you forgoe this attack for the round.
b) No attack can have a higher bonus than your unmodified first attack (No +18 instead of +11/+6/+1).
c) No attack can have a higher bonus than the attack before (No +1/+15 - and make a trip instead of the lousy +1 attack)."
EDIT:
Okay, that one is even BETTER than your proposal... :/
Maybe add an additional -2 penalty to all attacks.
Argh, I don't know.
*BackToDrawingBoard*
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I think the main problem is the underlying BAB progression.
Additional attacks are nice, but -5 is probably to big a penalty to make them really worth your while in the first place...
How about:
When making a full attack you may perform additional attacks depending on your BAB:
BAB
+6 - 2 attacks with full BAB
+11 - 2 attacks with full BAB, or 3 attacks with BAB -4
+16 - 2 attacks with full BAB, or 3 attacks with BAB -4, or 4 attacks with BAB -8
EDIT:
This is intended to REPLACE the official rules for iterative attacks, but might also work as feat... maybe...
@ Dabbler: The idea of Riposte was, that you could also take an AoO without the penalty, but I guess you are right.
If fancy footwork would allow to step AWAY from an enemy, it must be stated explicitly that this would NOT prevent the attack!
I gave that a lot of consideration originally, and realised that actually there are very few circumstances under which it wouldn't prevent the attack, or where it would be useful to step away even if it could - if an enemy is full attacking you, he can just 5' step after you (remember, it is his turn). If he has Step Up he can likewise 5' step after you.
If you use this feat to avoid a charge attack, for example, that's all fine and dandy but what can you then do on your turn? You can't 5' step back again, because you have used your step, instead you have to move and that loses you your full attack action. It's a great way of avoiding that fight, but it can't be used to negate the charge and then full-attack the charger.