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This is the sister-mechanic to a truename ability designed to be used with any spellcaster. That mechanic can be found here. Both mechanics are intended to be easy to implement, and usable by a wide variety of characters.
This mechanic consists of two feats that address a simple problem that is deeply ingrained in Pathfinder's d20 combat system: combats are static, far more so than in the books and movies that inspire us. The Pathfinder rules for full attacks make mobile skirmishes set around interesting scenery and obstacles all but impossible to recreate, and often lead to fights that are, well, boring. This mechanic is an attempt to add movement and variety to combat while keeping the full attack system. It has not yet been playtested, however, and I would welcome your thoughts on it.
I can claim very little credit for these rules. This mechanic is based almost entirely on Ben Erickson's blog article, ‘Thinking on Your Feet: Tactical Movement in Star Wars Sage Edition,’ which was an attempt to solve the very problem I was considering. His article, of course, was written for Star Wars Saga edition, so needed some tweaking and conversion.
Your study of combat has given you the knowledge required to make the most out of your placement on the field. You know how to strike and from just what angle to make the most of your attacks.
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +3, Knowledge (tactics) 3 ranks.
Benefit: Make a DC 15 Knowledge (tactics) check as a move action. If successful, you gain a Maneuver Point, plus 1 for every five points by which you beat the DC. These Maneuver Points can be spent on one or more actions to gain superior positioning on the field as described below. These maneuvers happen immediately, are considered a part of the move action to activate this ability, and may provoke attacks of opportunity as normal. Unless otherwise specified, you may only use a given maneuver once each round. Any Maneuver Points that are not spent are lost.
One Maneuver Point
-Blade Cover: You receive a +4 circumstance bonus to AC against the next melee attack made against you unless an enemy uses a swift action to clear your blade.
Two Maneuver Points
-Driving Attack: You may attempt a bull rush combat maneuver against an opponent within reach.
-Luring Blade: You can attempt a drag combat maneuver against an enemy within reach.
-Sweeping Blow: You can attempt a reposition combat maneuver against an enemy within reach.
Three Maneuver Points
-Rapid Step: You move half your speed. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
-Unbalancing Strike: An enemy within reach is flat footed against the next attack made against him.
Your study of combat has given you unparalleled control of the battlefield.
Prerequisites: Combat Movement, Knowledge (tactics) 6 ranks.
Benefit: Using the Combat Movement feat only takes you a swift action. In addition, the following options become available.
One Maneuver Point:
-Watchful Step: You take an extra 5 foot step. You cannot take both a Watchful Step and a Rapid Step in the same use of Combat Movement.
Two Maneuver Points:
-Bounding Charge: During a charge action taken this turn, you can move an additional 10 feet. All other rules for charging still apply.
-Sliding Charge: During a charge action taken this turn, you can take a 5 foot step after you finish your movement but before your attack. All other rules for charging still apply.
Three Maneuver Points:
-Dizzying Attack: You may attempt a dirty trick combat maneuver against an opponent within reach.
While this mechanic can be instituted as-is in your games, I have some general house rules that are relevant.
- Obviously, this rule uses the Knowledge (tactics) skill. It should be made available to most martial classes, except perhaps the Barbarian. In addition, the Summoner and Wizard traditionally gain all knowledge skills, and this should be no exception. Choosing whether to grant or exclude this as a class skill essentially determines whether or not that class can use this feat.
- This feat does seem to be a skill tax, which I did not want. I have made two changes that help alleviate this. First, all classes that had (2+Int mod) skill points per level are increased to (4+Int mod) instead. Second, Climb, the Jump uses of Acrobatics, and Swim have all been rolled together into a single Athletics skill, which is Strength based. These two changes help most martial characters pick up a few extra skill points.
- In my games, I have ruled that combat maneuvers by default provoke an attack of opportunity only if the maneuver misses, with the exception of grapple. This encourages players to attempt combat maneuvers more often, which allows for a greater variety in combat. (I have excluded grapple mostly for personal reasons; I have found grapple to slow down combat more than any other single mechanic, largely due to the high complexity and poor quality of its rules.) Whether or not you use this option is up to you, but you may find that the feat is less appealing without it.
This mechanic is, to be frank, not as elegant as my truename mechanic. I like the options it provides, but I'm not terribly happy with the costs associated with it - skill tax, feat tax, and action economy tax. However, the two feats feel very strong to me even with these costs; without them it would be overpoweringly so. I am also slightly concerned with the dizzying attack option. The other combat maneuvers are all based around movement, but this one alone allows you to give a real meaningful penalty to an opponent. I have included it because I felt the need for at least one more option at the three point level.
Still, in the end I'm fairly satisfied with this mechanic. Feel free to use it, in part or in whole, in your own games. I'm about to begin the campaign in which this will be playtested, so needless to say it is experimental and may need some revision before its final form. If you have any criticisms, concerns or thoughts, please share them!
Edit: I see, the points are expended immediately as part of the move action. Ignore me!
Interesting idea.
This looks cool. I might implement this in a future campaign. I am a fan of combat maneuvers but they are rarely used by most of my players. The combat maneuvers don't provoke Attacks of Opportunity idea provokes my thoughts. Thanks for sharing!
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ok.
so as my move action, i roll tactics and then instantly apply the benefits.
at worst, i settle for a (clearable) +4 AC, maybe i get to force-move my opponent's position, but hopefully i get to take a 15-foot step or target flat AC.
kind of neat.
later, as a swift action, in addition to the options above, at worst i get to take a second 5-step, maybe i get to do a fast or tricky charge, but hopefully i get a free dirty trick.
...
though i like the idea, i share your concern about it being a skill-feat tax, even given your skill boost to fighters and athletic consolidations, because, one can never have enough skills and feats, especially the fighter.
also, i am concerned that adding a new tactics roll every round can slow down play.
to the first concern:
question: what role does Combat Expertise play in your game? have you altered it's base function in some way? (this is a common house rule).
because, the colors match (ie this kind of mechanic makes sense as a form of 'combat expertise'), and CE is already baked into the game in other ways.
this is the general route.
the specific route is to just give this ability outright to the fighter as a class feature. you could also do both.
to the second concern:
consider inverting the conventional pool mechanics.
like, say your Tactical Assessment Pool starts with 0 points, you take actions to fill it with points, and those points remain until spent or the battle is over. (if you like more concrete durations set it at 1 minute).
then, instead of rolling every round for points, some rounds you roll, some rounds you just jam. plus, this gives you something to do while the flying creatures or archers or whatever is out of reach.
dunno if that helps.
Here I am, as I said I would be.
I'm all for making combat more interesting, especially to me. I hate running combat. It's so boring. Which is just stupid, since combat is so core to the Pathfinder system and D20 in general, with tons of feats and spells and whatnot geared towards it, that it should be more interesting. It should be exciting! Dynamic! Shiny! But I'm bored, even when I strategize (apparently not a word) encounters and pull off stunts that my players didn't expect, I'm still bored. Because it essentially boils down to "did I hit it?" Sadly I can think of no way to change this, so whatever. Excuse my rant.
Your mechanic is wordy, and required a few reads before I could safely say I got what you were trying to do, and what it means. Some of the maneuvers are interesting. Four of them really stand out to me, three for the same reason.
Unbalancing Strike is just a good idea, especially for say, a Rogue. I like the idea of tipping a guy so your buddy can hit him easier.
Rapid Step, Bounding Charge and Sidling Charge. These appeal to me because I think the best way to make combat more dynamic, and therefore possibly interesting, is to give people movement in addition to their attacks. I have seen this implemented various ways. However, the easiest way is based on BAB. By allowing a character with multiple attacks to hit with a full attack and then expend his secondary attack on a move option is the tops.
You don't do that here, but you do mirror it. Incidentally, I believe that Bounding and Sidling Charge are feats in Saga Edition, or something similar to them anyway. Bantha Rush? Doesn't matter.
I don't think I will implement this mechanic as is into my games.
dunno if that helps.
Of course it does!
At the moment, rainzax, CE has no role at all - I removed it as a prerequisite for all feats and give it to every character once they reach +1 BAB. Even with everyone getting it, I've yet to see anyone who used it. It is not perceived as a very useful feat, especially when stacked next to power attack. I'm not opposed to finding a way to make CE useful, but I haven't seen one yet that I'm happy with (excepting perhaps a certain fighter rework I recently saw). However, I could very easily see this feat being integrated with CE, perhaps simply getting their Expertise bonus in points when they use the ability.
This feat feels like a feat for Fighters more than any other martial class, as the Fighter is the "smart" melee class in my mind. If I end up tinkering with the fighter class, I'll consider giving it these two feats for free.
The two concerns you raise - skill tax and slowing down gameplay with extra rolls - are likewise the two items I saw as potential problems. So far, the skill tax seems to be kept in check by the changes that I've made, though I'm keeping an eye on it in my games. The party fighter recently put a rank or two into linguistics to expand his languages, so he must not be feeling too strapped for skills. In one of the early drafts of this, I considered making the check based on base attack bonus, or even simply attack roll, but I eventually discarded it because it didn't feel quite right to me. Being able to hit things really well isn't intrinsically tied to understanding the flow of battle, which is what this feat is really trying to represent. I consider it an added bonus that you can boost this with skill focus if you really want to (though I think there are better feats to take). However,if the skill tax still worries you, then I'd recommend tying the check to either base attack bonus or the attack roll itself (the latter might require that you adjust the DC scaling some). If you're using a better Combat Expertise mechanic, then tying this feat to that somehow also makes a lot of sense to me (and I'd be curious to see how you'd do it).
As for slowing down the game, this is a situation where I would highly recommend you allow prerolling as a DM. Normally I am not a fan or prerolling - as a DM I don't like having to take a player at their word - but in this case the tactics check can dramatically change what the player is doing on their turn. Allowing a preroll also feels thematically appropriate to me - the warrior surveys the field, using his tactical knowledge to formulate his plans. I think prerolling will help eliminate the potential slow-down. However, if you allow them to preroll, they should understand that rolling is a commitement to use the ability on their turn, even if the roll would fail the check.
I like your suggestion about inverting the point pool, but I had already chosen not to allow characters to store points because I was worried about someone saving up a dozen points and just doing the whole list. That kind of behavior should be discouraged, both for balance and for plausibility.
UsagiTaicho, I'm sorry the feats were a bit too wordy for you. While I tried to keep it as concise as possible, fleshing out new mechanics does take a bit of explanation. I think it's comparable to most class features, at least.
To your comments, this system would mesh very poorly with a system that splits the full attack up into standard, move, and swift actions. If you're using such a system, then I understand completely why you wouldn't want to use this. I considered such a system, but didn't use it for various reasons.
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I like your suggestion about inverting the point pool, but I had already chosen not to allow characters to store points because I was worried about someone saving up a dozen points and just doing the whole list. That kind of behavior should be discouraged, both for balance and for plausibility.
cap the pool. using an ability score (like Grit), 1/2 BAB, 1/2 ranks, or some other metric (expertise bonus, etc)
or cap spending (per round), similarly.
also, you could write the pre-rolling into the system using the immediate action. maybe.