So I know it got nerfed pretty hard, but when I look it up in the SRD I see the old version, and when I do a forum search I get dumped into an endless back-and-forth on why it needed to be done and why it should never have been done.
Can someone explain to me or point me in the direction of something that will outline exactly how the trhee Crane Style feats work now?
The paizo PRD has the correct version.
This is what I'm looking at.
Crane Wing* Benefit: Once per round, when fighting defensively with at least one hand free, you can designate one melee
attack being made against you before the roll is made.
You receive a +4 dodge bonus to AC against that attack.
If you using the total defense action instead, you can
deflect one melee attack that would normally hit you.
An attack so deflected deals no damage and has no other
effect (instead treat it as a miss). You do not expend an
action when using this feat, but you must be aware of the
attack and not flat-footed. OFFICIAL ERRATA.
E2.Crane Riposte* Update: Page 93, in the Crane Riposte feat, in the benefits paragraph, change the second sentence to read as follows: Whenever you are fighting defensively, and you use Crane Wing to add a dodge bonus against one attack, that attack provokes an attack of opportunity from you if it misses. In addition, when you deflect an attack using Crane Wing while taking the total defense action, you may make an attack of opportunity against that opponent (even though you could not normally do so while taking the total defense action). OFFICIAL ERRATA.
Crane Wing* Benefit: Once per round, when fighting defensively with at least one hand free, you can designate one melee
attack being made against you before the roll is made.
You receive a +4 dodge bonus to AC against that attack.
If you using the total defense action instead, you can
deflect one melee attack that would normally hit you.
An attack so deflected deals no damage and has no other
effect (instead treat it as a miss). You do not expend an
action when using this feat, but you must be aware of the
attack and not flat-footed. OFFICIAL ERRATA.
E2.Crane Riposte* Update: Page 93, in the Crane Riposte feat, in the benefits paragraph, change the second sentence to read as follows: Whenever you are fighting defensively, and you use Crane Wing to add a dodge bonus against one attack, that attack provokes an attack of opportunity from you if it misses. In addition, when you deflect an attack using Crane Wing while taking the total defense action, you may make an attack of opportunity against that opponent (even though you could not normally do so while taking the total defense action). OFFICIAL ERRATA.
Okay, so shorthand version - if the character is fighting defensively and has all three feats, he still gets a +3 bonus to AC (+4 if you include Acrobatics, +5 if you include the pre-requisite Dodge feat) all for a total of -1 to their attacks. Additionally, the +4 to AC against one attack per round replaces the auto-miss, and the Riposte kicks in if that particular attack fails.
So basically they nerfed the 'auto-miss' to a +4 dodge bonus instead, and everything else is pretty much the same?