Brawler bonus combat feats

[pickin_grinnin]

"These bonus feats must be ones that affect or improve her defenses or melee attacks."

Given that all the combat feats affect defenses and melee attacks, which ones can't be picked as "bonus combat feats" by the new brawler hybrid class (assuming all prerequisites are met)?

[Dispari Scuro]

Rapid Shot, Point Blank Shot, stuff like that?

[Rub-Eta]

I'm guessing everything that isn't defensive or melee offencive. Meaning ranged and combat maneuver feats.

[Imbicatus]

Maneuvers feats are valid as maneuvers are melee attacks. It just means no ranged attacks.

[blahpers]

Bodyguard affects an ally's defenses, not the brawler's. That wouldn't qualify.

Undersized Mount.

Step Up.

Siege Commander.

Horse Master.

Haunted Gnome. (That's a combat feat? Huh.)

[gigyas6]

A lot of feats are obviously not affected, but some do seem to be in the grey area. That's a very vague sentence in general, I wonder why it was left like that?

Things a little vague are things like Barroom Brawler, Battle Cry, Blinding Flash (not using metal weapons, but sometimes might), Combat Style Master, Combat Reflexes (This does not improve your melee attacks. It simply lets you make more attacks of opportunity. No flat stat change occurs.), Demon Hunter, and many others. Arguably these can affect melee attack/defense, but arguably also not.

[Kazumetsa_Raijin]

Does this include Styles or Feats that have a Style prerequisite?

[Dolanar]

my opinion on it would be as such: If it does not boost their AC, attack bonus, saves, or other form of defense, it does not qualify.

[gigyas6]

Dolanar wrote:

my opinion on it would be as such: If it does not boost their AC, attack bonus, saves, or other form of defense, it does not qualify.

So "Battle Cry" works, but many Style feats don't?

[pickin_grinnin]

Thanks much, folks. That clarifies it for me quite a bit!

[Rynjin]

Hooray for arbitrary limitations!

[chbgraphicarts]

It does seem to be one of those "up to you and the DM" instances, but it would be nice to have it be clarified a bit more.

I do agree, however, that is sounds like the intent is to exclude things like Point Blank Shot et all that are "ranged only" feats, since the point of a Brawler is to be a melee beatstick.

[Rynjin]

chbgraphicarts wrote:

It does seem to be one of those "up to you and the DM" instances, but it would be nice to have it be clarified a bit more.

I do agree, however, that is sounds like the intent is to exclude things like Point Blank Shot et all that are "ranged only" feats, since the point of a Brawler is to be a melee beatstick.

Fun Fact: The Shield Champion (the ranged based shield throwing archetype) does not have a clause that removes this restriction.

Have fun with all those bonus Feats you can't put toward your actual focus I guess.

The Combat feats Only restriction was bad enough for the Fighter, no reason to pile more silliness on top.

[Don't go into Power Dome A]

You can still take general 'shield' feats with those bonus feats, like the ones needed to qualify for Shield Master at 11. Weapon Focus and Specialization for your shield still qualify as well.