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So, the Pathfinder system fixed a lot of issues with the 3.5 game, but one thing that got grandfathered in hard was Feat Taxes. Feat Taxes are feats that you are essentially required to take. They do not boost your character's growth in any way, they only remove or limit arbitrary penalties imposed on your character to make sure that anyone who tries to do what you do without the feat sucks at it. In actuality, what this accomplishes is it discourages feat-starved classes from trying alternate weapon styles, or if they decide to use those styles, it costs them precious feat slots that could be used to otherwise actually improve the character.
So, this fix is going to involve two things:
1) Removing or altering the arbitrary penalties
2) Changing or removing the feat taxes
3) Profit
Let's get started then!
Problem: If you are an archer at 1st level, you are useless because you eat a giant -4 penalty for firing into melee (AKA, every shot in the fight beyond the first round), and you can't even take the feat tax to get around it at 1st level unless you are human or a fighter because it requires a feat to qualify for it! Not only that, but a warrior who has a bow as his backup weapon is pretty useless with it unless he only pulls it out for flying enemies. A penalty inflicted for using a weapon should not equal or exceed the non-proficiency penalty, period.
System Changes: The -4 penalty for firing into melee is removed. It is assumed that the character's Dexterity score and Base Attack Bonus reflect his ability to aim difficult shots well enough without requiring a feat for it. (The penalties for soft cover remain)
Feat Changes:
Point Blank Shot: This feat is removed.
Precise Shot:
This feat's prerequisites are changed to: Dex 19, Basic Archery, Base Attack +11
This feat's benefits are changed to: Your ranged attacks ignore the AC bonus granted to targets by anything less than total cover, and the miss chance granted to targets by anything less than total concealment. Total cover and total concealment provide their normal benefits against your ranged attacks.
Improved Precise Shot: This feat is removed and is replaced by the new Precise Shot feat.
New Feat: Basic Archery (Combat, Ranger)
Prerequisites: Dex 13
Benefit: When using a ranged weapon you are proficient with, you gain a +1 bonus on damage rolls while you are within 30 feet of your target. This bonus increases by +1 for each 4 BAB you have, to a maximum of +6 at +20 BAB. You also get a +1 bonus to your attack rolls if you are further than 30 feet away. This bonus increases by +1 for each 4 points of BAB you have, to a maximum of +6 at +20 BAB.
Special: The Basic Archery feat replaces the Point Blank Shot feat in all archer feat prerequisites.
Justification: In addition to the Precise Shot feat being a tax, the Point Blank Shot feat is...bland. It's weak, and it doesn't make sense that it's a gateway for all the other archery feats (including Far Shot), when it's designed to pigeon-hole you into a certain style of fighting. The new feat scales better and gives you leave to either play a high-risk, high-reward point blank archer, or an accurate and deadly sniper, at all levels of the game.
Problem: Where do I even begin? The feat exists, to start. It does nothing except lower (not even remove) arbitrarily assigned penalties. It forces you to only use light weapons in your off-hand despite there being plenty of warriors in lore who dual-wielded longswords or battleaxes or whatever they wanted. You are forced to spend 5-7 points in your Dexterity score to qualify for it, which basically turns Weapon Finesse into an additional feat tax for you, and the Strength penalty to your off-hand means that even if you somehow manage to escape ALL the other pesky restrictions, you're forced to take ANOTHER feat tax (Double Slice) to use your ability scores as you're supposed to, all for a weapon style that is completely reliant on multiple dice rolls (more chances for natural 1s), penalties, and full attack actions. And DR destroys you.
System Changes: Using a weapon in each hand inflicts a -2 penalty on all your attack rolls for the round. As a standard action or at the end of a charge, you may make a single attack with each weapon at your highest attack bonus. As part of a full attack, you get an attack with each weapon for each attack that your base attack bonus allows, at the attack bonus allowed (So a level 20 fighter with 2 weapons gets 8 attacks at +18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3/+3, after the penalties for fighting with two weapons are assigned). There is no additional penalty for wielding a one-handed weapon in your off-hand, but you cannot wield a two-handed weapon in one hand. You apply your full Strength bonus/penalty to damage rolls with both weapons.
Feat Changes:
Two-Weapon Fighting: This feat is removed.
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting: This feat is removed.
Greater Two-Weapon Fighting: This feat is removed.
Double Slice: This feat is removed.
New Feat: Two-Weapon Style (Combat, Ranger)
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +1
Benefit: When fighting with a weapon in each hand, each successful attack against a creature gives you a +1 competence bonus to your attack rolls against that creature for the rest of the round. This bonus stacks with itself and does not apply to any attacks of opportunity you make before your next turn.
Special: This feat replaces the Two-Weapon Fighting feat in all prerequisites.
New Feat: Two-Weapon Savagery (Combat, Ranger)
Prerequisites: Base Attack +1, Two-Weapon Style, Str 15
Benefit: When you damage a creature with two different slashing and/or piercing melee weapons in the same round, that creature takes additional bleed damage equal to your Base Attack Bonus. This damage does not stack with itself.
New Feat: Two-Weapon Pounce (Combat, Ranger)
Prerequisites: Base Attack +6, Two-Weapon Style
Benefit: At the end of a charge, if you are wielding a weapon in each hand, you may make a full round attack.
New Feat: Twin Weapon Focus (Combat, Ranger)
Prerequisites: Base Attack +1, Two-Weapon Style
Benefit: If you are wielding a weapon in each hand and they are the same type of weapon (two handaxes, two daggers, two longswords, etc), you gain a +1 bonus to your attack and damage rolls with each of them. This bonus increases by +1 per 6 BAB you have, to a maximum of +4 at +18 BAB.
Special: If you are a fighter who wields the same type of weapon in each hand, and that weapon is one of your Weapon Training groups, this feat instead doubles your Weapon Training bonus for that weapon (but doesn't give any additional benefits).
Justification: Some of these changes might seem a bit overpowered, but non-Sneak Attack two-weapon users need the buff to compete with two-handed users. Besides, you have to remember that these guys have TWICE the expenses monetarily, they have to spend twice as much gold to keep both their weapons relevant and special. No reason to tax them any further than that in my opinion.
Problem: I actually like the combat maneuver feats. Yes, you can't make a combat maneuver check without one without provoking an attack of opportunity, AND if you get damaged during the AoO you automatically fail, but I still feel like the combat maneuver system works well. The only issue I have with them is the feat tax before you get to the Improved X line.
System Changes: Just a small one here: You still provoke an attack of opportunity for attempting a combat maneuver check without the associated feat, but you don't automatically fail the check if you take damage from the attack of opportunity. (You still fail if your roll is too low though).
Feat Changes: This is a global one so I'm going to just type it out instead of naming every Improved X feat. All Improved X feats have the Power Attack or Combat Expertise feat removed from their prerequisites. The Strength and Intelligence prerequisites remain.
Justification: This is something I've run into quite often with my players, how they want to just shove a guy one time or steal a guy's weapon. It makes sense thematically, nothing wrong with trying it out, but they argue there's no need for their characters to have dedicated training and specialize their build around it if they're only going to try it every so often. So let's keep the AoO there as encouragement to take the feats, but let the AoO be punishment enough and not have it also waste their turn if they take damage. As for the feat tax removal, I don't think I should have to spend two feats to do what I want without taking attacks of opportunity. Also, it greatly lessens the feat tax on a maneuver master monk/fighter who want to do EVERYTHING.
Problem: As I'm sure you all are aware, crossbow users are completely overshadowed by bow wielders. For no reason. Really, there is no reason for this. The only "justification" here (besides the mechanics of a real crossbow and not all weapons are created equal, plus crossbows are simple weapons) is that crossbows deal slightly more damage. But the ones that deal more damage take even longer to reload, so you're not getting any real benefit out of it. Now, I understand wanting to weaken crossbows so that wizards and sorcerers don't use them like everyone else, but if you can spend a feat to ignore the mechanical part and load it as fast as a bow, then...shouldn't you just be able to do that anyway? Plus, even if crossbow's deal slightly more damage, composite bows get to add Strength to theirs, and that's not fair.
System Changes: If a character is proficient with all martial weapons or has at least +3 Base Attack Bonus, he can reload a crossbow as a free action. All crossbows (regardless of their type) can be reloaded by any character as a move action. Reloading a crossbow does not provoke an attack of opportunity (though firing one still does).
Feat Changes:
Rapid Reload: This feat is removed.
Crossbow Mastery: This feat is removed.
New Feat: Crossbow Expert (Combat, Ranger)
Prerequisites: Dex 13
Benefit: When wielding a crossbow, you can ignore up to 5 points of your target's Damage Reduction.
New Feat: Aim for the Heart (Combat, Ranger)
Prerequisites: Dex 17, Deadly Aim, Crossbow Expert, Base Attack Bonus +11
Benefit: As a standard action, you can line up the perfect shot and attempt to run your target through with one bolt. You fire one shot at your highest attack bonus, and if you hit, you deal additional damage equal to triple your Dexterity modifier and ignore all of your target's Damage Reduction.
Justification: It's a common difference between crossbows and bows: crossbows hurt more and bows shoot farther and can use more arrows. Since you can't use the Manyshot feat with a crossbow or make a crossbow composite, I think it's totally fair to have the crossbow wielder be able to fire a single deadly bolt that deals more guaranteed damage than all of his attacks of the round would do if he rolled a bunch of dice.
Problem: When I say the word "rogue" or "ninja", a lot of things probably pop into your mind. Each class is open to its own flavor of course, there can be honorable rogues and urban rangers and ronin samurai, but still...one trope that deserves recognition is the deadly thief who sneaks up on you in a dark alley, stabs you from behind and leaves you for dead while he walks away whistling and carrying your coin purse. The assassin prestige class requires levels of rogue or ninja to get in, so you can see that rogue is, at some basic level, about stealth and Sneak Attack. Right? I hope no one yells at me and tells me rogues are secretly all about finding traps and having high Skill Points and trolling enemy sorcerers with Evasion. o.O
This one is actually not as well known, but rogues as they are now can't Sneak Attack a creature with concealment unless they have the Shadow Strike feat. This means that a rogue without darkvision who attacks another creature without darkvision in a dark alley (effectively making the rogue invisible, a perfect time to strike) does not get Sneak Attack dice, and only results in one pissed off commoner after you stab him with your dagger for 1d4. The Shadow Strike feat itself doesn't actually do anything, it only nullifies the arbitrary restriction, thus making it a perfect candidate for my feat tax purge.
System Changes: Rogues can Sneak Attack creatures with partial concealment (but not total concealment). They still need to roll for miss chance.
Feat Changes:
Shadow Strike: This feat's benefit is changed to "When you successfully Sneak Attack a creature with concealment while it is denied its Dexterity bonus to its AC, you deal 1 additional Sneak Attack damage per die. (This feat's benefit does not apply if you merely flank a creature with concealment while it retains its Dexterity modifier to its AC).
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Okay, no one's commented so far. :( But that's not important. Let's get some more feat fixes going!
Problem: It's really a combination of things. First of all, humanoids are the only creature type in the entire game that are not automatically proficient with their natural weapons. Argue that an unarmed strike isn't a "natural weapon" all you like, it's a fist and it can hurt just like a cat's claws or a scorpion's sting. Secondly, having to spend a feat to punch someone without provoking an attack of opportunity and deal 1d3 lethal damage while doing so...no. This feat is even worse than the Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat. And if I'm a battle-hardened fighter or a rampaging barbarian and I want to randomly punch someone in the face in the name of Demacia, then I should be able to put down my giant sword and punch them in the face! Also, there are lots of shenanigans involving giving your animal companion Improved Unarmed Strike so that you can take Dragon Style and Feral Combat Style and...ugh. Those feats aren't meant for animal companions, so by removing the possibility of animals to take the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, we can sidestep that whole situation.
System Changes: All humanoids who do not possess other natural weapons (claws, bites, etc) are automatically considered proficient with their unarmed strikes regardless of their character class. A humanoid may deal lethal or nonlethal damage with her unarmed strikes without penalty, and the humanoid's unarmed strike damage is 1d6 for a Medium humanoid and 1d4 for a Small humanoid. If a humanoid is subject to a polymorph effect to a form other than humanoid or an ability that grants her natural weapons without changing her form, she cannot make unarmed strikes for the duration of that effect.
Feat Changes:
Improved Unarmed Strike: This feat is removed from the game.
New Feat: Unarmed Combat Training (Combat)
Prerequisites: Humanoid, Must not possess any natural weapons other than unarmed strike
Benefit: You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your attack rolls with your unarmed strikes.
At 4 BAB or 4th level of monk, you gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes and your unarmed strikes are treated as magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
At 8 BAB or 8th level of monk, you gain a +2 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes.
At 12 BAB or 12th level of monk, you gain a +3 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes and your unarmed strikes are treated as cold iron and silver for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
At 16 BAB or 16th level of monk, you gain a +4 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes and your unarmed strikes are treated as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
At 20 BAB or 20th level of monk you gain a +5 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes and your unarmed strikes are treated as lawful, good, evil, and chaotic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
While using this feat, if you are ever granted the benefits of a spell, rage power, or other ability that gives you natural weapons, or if you are subject to a polymorph effect that changes your form into a type other than humanoid, you lose the benefits of this feat for the duration of that spell or ability. You are still treated as having the feat for the purposes of meeting other feat prerequisites and may use those feats as normal unless they specifically require the use of an unarmed strike.
Special: The Unarmed Combat Training feat replaces the Improved Unarmed Strike feat for all prerequisites. A monk gains Unarmed Combat Training as a bonus feat at first level.
Justification: Huge increase in power, I'm aware, but the idea is that if you take a feat to improve your fighting power as a fighter, your damage won't be completely useless or broken by damage reduction later in the game. Amulet of Mighty Fists is expensive, but still well worth it because you can get abilities added to it and it scales with your gold instead of your level. However, if you're a warrior who uses a +5 vorpal weapon normally, you're not going to have the gold to waste on an Amulet of Mighty Fists, but that shouldn't invalidate the feat you took early on to give yourself a fighting chance with your fists.
I am aware that this change will seem like it's taking away something from the monk, but honestly monks still have Styles, Fury of Blows, Stunning Fist, and improved unarmed strike damage progression. Just because they're the masters of unarmed strikes doesn't mean the rest of the classes have to suck at them.
As far as IUS goes I would remove references to BAB and monk level, and make it hit dice depenant. Enhancement bonuses are procured through acquiring treasure, do I see no reason to lower the bonus based to BAB.
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As far as IUS goes I would remove references to BAB and monk level, and make it hit dice depenant. Enhancement bonuses are procured through acquiring treasure, do I see no reason to lower the bonus based to BAB.
Hmm...good point. Okay, here's the new relevant text of the feat:
Prerequisites: Humanoid, Must not possess any natural weapons other than unarmed strike
Benefit: You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your attack rolls with your unarmed strikes.
At 4 HD, you gain a +1 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes and your unarmed strikes are treated as magic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
At 8 HD, you gain a +2 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes.
At 12 HD, you gain a +3 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes and your unarmed strikes are treated as cold iron and silver for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
At 16 HD, you gain a +4 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes and your unarmed strikes are treated as adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
At 20 HD you gain a +5 enhancement bonus to your attack and damage rolls with your unarmed strikes and your unarmed strikes are treated as lawful, good, evil, and chaotic for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.
While using this feat, if you are ever granted the benefits of a spell, rage power, or other ability that gives you natural weapons, or if you are subject to a polymorph effect that changes your form into a type other than humanoid, you lose the benefits of this feat for the duration of that spell or ability. You are still treated as having the feat for the purposes of meeting other feat prerequisites and may use those feats as normal unless they specifically require the use of an unarmed strike.
Special: The Unarmed Combat Training feat replaces the Improved Unarmed Strike feat for all prerequisites. A monk gains Unarmed Combat Training as a bonus feat at first level.
Why would gaining sharp pointy teeth make you forget how to punch someone?
Also if I was a Tiefling with the maw/claw racial trait I also never learned how to throw a punch?
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Why would gaining sharp pointy teeth make you forget how to punch someone?
Also if I was a Tiefling with the maw/claw racial trait I also never learned how to throw a punch?
Part of the Pathfinder setting rules is that if you have a natural weapon with a certain limb or body part, you cannot have another natural weapon with that body part. See also: making an Eidolon.
So no, if you have claws, you should technically not be allowed to make an unarmed strike with that hand. And since only monks can make unarmed strikes with anything other than their fists, yeah. Okay, here's an update to those rules:
System Changes: All humanoids who do not possess other hand/arm-based natural weapons (claws, pincers, slams) are automatically considered proficient with their unarmed strikes regardless of their character class. A humanoid may deal lethal or nonlethal damage with her unarmed strikes without penalty, and the humanoid's unarmed strike damage is 1d6 for a Medium humanoid and 1d4 for a Small humanoid. If a humanoid is subject to a polymorph effect to a form other than humanoid or an ability that grants her hand-based natural weapons without changing her form, she cannot make unarmed strikes for the duration of that effect.
New Feat: Unarmed Combat Training
Prerequisites: Humanoid, Must not possess any hand-based natural weapons other than unarmed strike
While using this feat, if you are ever granted the benefits of a spell, rage power, or other ability that gives you hand-based natural weapons, or if you are subject to a polymorph effect that changes your form into a type other than humanoid, you lose the benefits of this feat for the duration of that spell or ability. You are still treated as having the feat for the purposes of meeting other feat prerequisites and may use those feats as normal unless they specifically require the use of an unarmed strike.
New text is bolded.
I believe you can have more than one you just can use them at the same time. Meaning you can't claw and punch with the same hand, but nothing is stopping you from having claws and punching someone.
Eidolon is probably specific rather than the general rule. Also unarmed strikes aren't natural weapons in the same sense as claw/bite/slams etc...are. Because you can make iterative attacks with unarmed strikes which you can not do with natural weapons.
So a catfolk can't be a monk because it has claws? Of course I could always be wrong.
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I believe you can have more than one you just can use them at the same time. Meaning you can't claw and punch with the same hand, but nothing is stopping you from having claws and punching someone.
Eidolon is probably specific rather than the general rule. Also unarmed strikes aren't natural weapons in the same sense as claw/bite/slams etc...are. Because you can make iterative attacks with unarmed strikes which you can not do with natural weapons.
So a catfolk can't be a monk because it has claws? Of course I could always be wrong.
That's the thing though. The rules at the moment are unclear. But here are a few true facts:
1) Unarmed strikes are not natural weapons in terms of the iterative rules. But they are still a physical part of a creature's body, which makes them a natural weapon in every other sense. You can take Improved Natural Attack (Unarmed Strike)
2) There is no creature in the entire Bestiary that has multiple types of natural weapons with the same limb.
3) Eidolons have a very specific rule that prevent you from putting multiple natural weapons on the same limb, clearly demonstrating the designer's intentions on how natural weapons interact.
Anyway, part of the thread is system changes. So just consider the system change I implemented my personal clarification of how the rules work for the purposes of simplifying and streamlining the game further.
As to your specific question about catfolk monks, yes, they can be monks. The monk has a specific rule that allows it to make unarmed strikes with any part of its body. Since specific trumps general, the monk is able to ignore the rule about humanoids unable to make unarmed strikes when they have claws (the catfolk just can't make unarmed strikes with her fists. She can make them with her knees, feet, and head like any other monk).
Improved natural attack specifically calls out unarmed strike as not a valid choice.
Choose one of the creature's natural attack forms (not an unarmed strike)
Oh well as its a house rule its up to you. I just think its better to allow someone with claws to still punch if they so wished.
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