Is this a viable use of the Crane Style (and its relevant feats)?

[Darksol the Painbringer]

Self-explanatory question.

The Situation:

We are a Party of 6; we are at 5th level, and I am currently a Human Mobile Fighter (Tank) for our party. We have a Half-Ogre Invulnerable Rager Barbarian (also a tank), an Admixture-specialist Elf Wizard, an Elven Bow Ranger, (now) a Human Musket Master Gunslinger, and a Drow Witch. Our GM allows us access to pretty much all 3.x+ books we have at our disposal, and (some) third party stuff (at his approval, of course).

For my character's set-up, I am using a Greatsword along with a Buckler (yes, we houseruled that I can use them with conjunction, but suffer penalties as normal). I have a modified Improved Buckler Defense feat, which allows me to use the Buckler for AC even while using my other hand for two handed or off-hand weapons. I do suffer a -1, but I am digressing.

When I first made this character, I was trying to find a "Riposte" system (that allows me to deflect an attack while at the same time counter-attack). I looked around and found Ultimate Combat's Style Feats, and studied the Crane Style feat. While I do have Dodge as a Feat, the requirement for Improved Unarmed Strike is pretty lame, and turned me away at first; but I do get a lot of Bonus feats (especially since we include Anti-Feats), and I think getting Improved Unarmed Strike wouldn't be a complete waste of a feat (especially with this idea I have cooked up).

Then when I further studied the feat, to use the extra abilities that come with the feat itself, it says I have to have an open hand to do so; I realized that I used a two-handed weapon, and that using a two-hander would make me unable to use the Style Feat's extra abilities. But I recently came across a possible way to bypass this problem...

With this last fight, the DM brought up that I can put a two-handed weapon (such as a Bow or a Polearm) to one hand as a free action. I also know that a Free Action can occur at any given point during your turn.

Let's say I eventually manage to acquire all of the feats of the Crane Style (and their pre-reqs) at some point, and I were to use my Full Attack Option (or a Vital Strike Option, both would be considered Standard Actions at some point; also, since I plan to go down the line of Vital Strike feats and its correlatory feats). At the end of my round, would I be able to put my Greatsword into one hand as a free action, leaving one hand open at the end of my turn to deflect an attack?

Would I also be able to counter-attack upon a successful deflection with my Crane Riposte? If not, could there be a trait, feat, race trait (we get 13 base, plus an additional one per level), or some other option that could allow me to do this? Some answers and/or clarification/options would be appreciated, and thanks in advance!

[Darksol the Painbringer]

Bump.

Again, some answers and/or clarification/options would be appreciated.

[Skylancer4]

Counter attack with the weapon? No. With your fist? Yes. The weapon would be in "held" status, not "wielded" until your next round when you have access to a free action to put your free hand back on it.

[Protoman]

Most people two-hand attack while fighting defensively and then go one-hand at end of their turn to benefit from crane wing/riposte during opponents' turn.

[Gatespiper]

As a GM I would say you would be able to put your Greatsword into one-hand as a free action. Using a full-attack still allows you to use the 5-foot step as well as 1 or 2 free actions. There are also reasonable limits on what you can do as free actions and it is up to the discretion of the GM. As for the counter-attack, I'm not sure, I'd have to double check the book for that.

[SteelDraco]

You also wouldn't be able to make an AoO with the sword. You'd threaten with your unarmed strike, though.

My GM and I had a similar conversation regarding the action to switch a bastard sword between one and two hands. We concluded it was a free action you could do once per turn, which I always found reasonable - it meant you had to plan ahead a bit.

[Skylancer4]

RAW it can happen more than once per your turn in the round, otherwise anyone using ammunition would be completely unable to make multiple attacks.

[Michael Sayre]

As noted by others here, while your weapon is held, it is not being wielded and so does not threaten for the purposes of making opportunity attacks. However, your Unarmed Strike does threaten. I suppose you could argue that you could shift the free hand to wield the Two-hander as a free action, but I'm inclined to say no on that one. Attacks of opportunity are called out as immediately resolving and interrupting the normal flow of actions, which I would take to mean you can only attack with a weapon that is actually wielded at the time the attack is provoked.

[Skylancer4]

Speaking is a free action that can be used at any time, generally free actions have to be on your turn as per the rules in the CRB.

[Darksol the Painbringer]

Thanks for the feedback; it really helps that I have finally found a formula that will allow me to work with the style feat while at the same time maintaining my flavor and be able to swing my sword. Unfortunately, I can't exactly attack with my sword upon a successful deflection, but I could always attempt to perform something like a Disarm or Trip attempt, which wouldn't be a bad idea to do either (can spend a feat to get the Improved versions, so no AOO from that). The Riposte would only be effective against creatures with 5' reach anyway.

I think I could come up with a Feat/Trait that would allow me to wield a held weapon as an Immediate Action in place of a Free Action (Immediates function like Swifts, except I can do it at any point during the round), and run it by my GM to see how he would view it (maybe call it Improved Combat Reflexes or Improved Quick Draw).

It would help out a lot as a Fighter Tank to be able to bump my AC (using the Fighting Defensively action) even more and use the Crane Style deflection as another line of defense should my AC somehow fail me. (Plus it'll help me deal damage and with using Attacks of Opportunity.)

I might not be able to use it until later, but it's fine for right now. Here's my current (and projected) feat path (check the math if you can please):

Human: Improved Buckler Defense
1st: Shield Focus (Buckler)
FB (Fighter Bonus) 1st: Power Attack
FB 2nd: Dodge
Anti 2nd*: Combat Reflexes
3rd: Furious Focus
FB 4th: Shield Specialization (Buckler)
5th: Bodyguard
Anti 5th*: ??? (I completely forget which feat this is)
====
FB 6th: Vital Strike
7th: Improved Unarmed Strike
FB 8th: Greater Shield Focus
Anti 8th*: Crane Style
9th: Devastating Strike
FB 10th: Crane Wing
11th: Improved Vital Strike
Anti 11th: Crane Riposte

*:

Anti-Feats are penalties you inflict on your character in order to obtain extra Feats. Anti-Feats have the strength of Traits in their penalties. In order to obtain extra Feats, a character may in turn claim 2 Anti-Feats in order to gain one extra Feat. Here is some additional information regarding anti-feats and their examples/guidelines.

For our group, we houserule that you may create/select only one Anti-Feat per level, and that when you select an Anti-Feat for two consecutive levels, you gain one additional feat. To help reduce the "abuse" of this system, our GM ruled that after selecting 2 Anti-Feats to gain a single feat, the PC cannot start to pick an Anti-Feat the level after the second Anti-Feat is selected. For example, if you select Anti-Feats for Levels 1 and 2, you cannot select Anti-Feats again until 4th level.

I cannot wait to propose this to my GM...