Rolling with, 'Roll With It'

[DungeonMastering.com]

Recently came across the catapaulting craziness that is the 'Roll With It' feat & really dug the design.

Feat description:

You know how to take a hit, even if your reaction sends you bouncing and flying out of battle while shrieking at the top of your lungs.

Prerequisite: Goblin, Acrobatics 1 rank.

Benefit: "If you are struck by a melee weapon you can try to convert some or all of that damage into movement that sends you off in an uncontrolled bouncing roll. To do so, you must make an Acrobatics check (DC = 5 + the damage dealt from the attack) as an immediate action. If you succeed in this check, you take no damage from the actual attack but instead convert that damage into movement with each point equating to 1 foot of movement."

"For example, if you would have taken 6 points of damage, you would convert that into 6 feet of movement. You immediately move in a straight line in a direction of your choice this number of feet (rounded up to the nearest 5-foot-square), halting if you reach a distance equal to your actual speed. If this movement would make you strike an object or creature of your size or larger, the movement immediately ends, you take 1d4 points of damage, and fall prone in that square. This involuntary movement provokes attacks of opportunity normally if you move through threatened squares, but does not provoke an attack of opportunity from the creature that struck you in the first place."

"You are staggered for 1 round after you attempt to use this feat, whether or not you succeed."

It looks like a blast to play, reminding me of Goblins from WHFB. And after doing the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, my character (follower of Sarenrae) saved one of the Goblin babies. Once we're finally through RotR, the next campaign will be the '2nd generation' of the party. So children of the characters/NPCs/followers, either biological or adopted.

With the orphaned Goblin growing into adulthood, the backstory is set. And really want to take the advantage of the opportunity to play with Roll With It. But not sure how to best make it part of a solid PC build, so that's why I'm reaching out.

I did read a thread about making it effective, but this was for NPCs. Some of the take-aways are still applicable to a PC creation though;

• wear spiked armor
• being on fire
• Pounce feat; On a charge, you may make a full attack.
• flight, since "up" is a direction
• charge your opponents because you can charge while staggered
• Ring of Ferocious Action; 3000 gp and ignore the Staggered condition 5 rounds per day

So those are some of the possible pieces to play with, although Ponce is only 3.5
One of the legacy items/heirlooms that this Goblin may start with is a Belt of the Weasel, which has the related features of: A) move at half normal speed while prone & B) The wearer does not take a penalty on melee attack rolls or to AC against melee attacks while prone.

Not sure of the exact point buy, (or if we're doing rolling) but as far as suitable classes, whatever is the coolest (translation: funnest to play) creation will be his role in the party. But since I'm just finding out about the Feat, I definitely don't know how to best optimize it.

Any ideas?

[Bugromkiller]

I played a character with the feat in book 1 of Wrath of the Righteous. It was a Master of many style monk. The goal was to take Panther style and snake style and bounce in the middle of group of enemies. Being staggered matter less when you plan on doing damage through AOO. I did die before seeing at full power but at low level you cannot be hurt. I did use a crossbow when I was waiting for weapon finess at 3.

[StabbittyDoom]

My first thought is Feral Gnasher barbarian. Take the big head racial trait and go with beast totem. This gets you a nice bite at level 1, with the standard claw, claw, bite at lvl 4. Also quite a good grappler (if you feat for it). But with pounce at level 10 and maintaining a 30ft move speed despite small size, you could quite easily get your full attack even if you bounce. Combine that with Greater Elemental Blood (electric) for you fly speed needs (and 60ft move speed).

Depending on the foe's reach, the lay of the land, and the damage of the attack, I could easily see this feat being used to deny full attacks by bouncing off after the first successful hit, then just pouncing right back in. Taking the AoO from reach may be a problem, though.

[blackbloodtroll]

Monkey Style feats.

[Lamontius]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Monkey Style feats.

this

and also Mouser Swashbuckler

[blackbloodtroll]

Garuda-Blooded Aasimar with Scion of Humanity alternate racial trait, and the Racial Heritage(Goblin) feat.

They have +2 Dex, +2 Wis and +2 to Acrobatics, and Fly.

[LoneKnave]

Pummeling Charge. You can charge even if you are staggered.

[DungeonMastering.com]

Thank you for all your suggestions. Here's a few other Traits/Feats I came across that seem like they could help this build:

Bouncy:

Trait benefit:

: "Whenever you take falling damage, the first 1d6 points of lethal damage suffered in the fall are automatically converted to nonlethal damage. You also gain a +2 trait bonus on all Reflex saves made to avoid unexpected falls." -my thinking with this is for if you purposefully decide to get 'knocked up' or otherwise could suffer damage from Roll With It

Ankle Biter

Feat benefit:

: You know how take a mouthful out of anyone who tries to overpower you.

Prerequisite: Goblin, Escape Artist 1 rank.

If you are the target of a combat maneuver you can, as an immediate action, attempt to bite your opponent in addition to any attacks of opportunity or other consequences your opponent might incur from attacking you. This bonus natural attack does not provoke an attack of opportunity itself and deals base damage appropriate for a creature of your current size (usually 1d4 for Small creatures). If grappled or pinned, you can continue to make this additional bite attack each round as swift action on your turn. You gain a bonus on any attempt to break the grapple equal to the damage you dealt with your bite that round.

Special: You cannot make this bite attack when you are the aggressor, including if you manage to reverse a grapple or make any other attack of opportunity.

Tangle Feet:

Feat benefit:

: When you successfully make an Acrobatics check to avoid provoking an attack of opportunity from a larger opponent when you move through its threatened area or its space, you can make that opponent lose its balance until the end of its next turn as a free action. While that creature’s balance is lost, if it attempts to move, it must make a successful DC 15 Acrobatics check or fall prone, wasting the move action. You can only affect one creature with this effect each round.-my thinking with this is that this could be wonderfully paired with this build

...but not sure how to add these pieces in terms of classes/other Feats

[Kobold Catgirl]

Feat wrote:

"For example, if you would have taken 6 points of damage, you would convert that into 6 feet of movement. You immediately move in a straight line in a direction of your choice this number of feet (rounded up to the nearest 5-foot-square), halting if you reach a distance equal to your actual speed. If this movement would make you strike an object or creature of your size or larger, the movement immediately ends, you take 1d4 points of damage, and fall prone in that square. This involuntary movement provokes attacks of opportunity normally if you move through threatened squares, but does not provoke an attack of opportunity from the creature that struck you in the first place."

What I wanna know is what happens if you get hit by an AoO and use this feat again, since it never says the feat is once per round. Diagonal movement?

[Keep Calm and Carrion]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

What I wanna know is what happens if you get hit by an AoO and use this feat again, since it never says the feat is once per round. Diagonal movement?

Using the feat is an immediate action, so it's usable once a round max.

[Inlaa]

Here's a question: how high can your Acrobatics mod get and how quickly will it compare with the DPR of monsters or well-built NPC murderhobos?

[StabbittyDoom]

Goblin with Tree Runner alternate and 1 rank would have +11 easily (+3 from dex, +3 from class skill, +4 from racial, +1 from rank). That means minimum of DC12, for auto-success against 7 damage or less.

With skill focus, level 10 goblin from the above is now at +27 (+10 ranks, +4 dex, +3 class skill, +4 racial, +6 SF). This means auto-success against DC28, for auto-success against 23 damage or less.

So I think it holds up rather well. Especially if you can have a custom item crafted to grant a competence bonus to acrobatics for a cheap +5 to +10. It will never work well against the really big hits or against criticals.

Combined with Invulnerable Rager barbarian for the sweet DR makes it exceptionally easy to make this check (barring criticals or vital strikers). A great wyrm red dragon deals an average of 42 damage per hit, a check which a barbarian would auto-make due to DR. Even power attacking only ups it to 58, which is a DC 53 check for an invuln rager. By then a +40 should be fairly easy, higher with items, leading to at least a 50/50 shot of negating that full attack.

Of course, getting back to the fight gets harder wit higher damage rolls, so I suggest greater elemental blood (electric) for the 60ft fly speed. Also because it helps make "get up from prone" not be a thing.

[DeathlessOne]

If you plan on playing a goblin with 'Roll With It', find something to help you against ranged attacks because I guarantee you that your enemies will eventually adapt to your ability to roll with their punches and pin-cushion you from afar.

I'm currently playing a level 6 goblin character. Bloodrager 4 / Brawler 1 / Dragon Disciple 1, that make use of the 'Roll With It' and 'Anklebiter' feats. Every session I am reminded that I hate ranged attacks ... soooo much.

Here's the plan/breakdown: (Bldrgr4/Brwl1/DD7/Bldrgr8)

Bloodrager 12
-Primilist (rage powerz)
-Guarded Life
-Superstitious
-Come and Get Me (lol, roll with it if they hit me)
-Fueled By Vengence
-Crossblooded (Undead/Abyssal)
-Getting DR 10/- nonlethal helps with Guarded Life
-Abyssal for STRENGTH!
-Also getting Eldritch Heritage (Abyssal) Strength of the Abyss for more.
-Feral Gnasher (custom)
-Fast Movement for Savage Bite
-Blood Sanctuary for Lock jaw
-6th level bloodline feat for Improved Lockjaw & Greater Lockjaw
(improves at 9th and 15th level as normal) DM felt 1 feat was worth
a total of +3 trapsense improvements

Brawler 1
-Snakebite Striker
-Sneak attack +1d6
-Strangler
-Sneak attack +1d6 in Grapple! That's 2d6!

Dragon Disciple 7
-Dragon Stuff!
-Progresses bloodlines!
-Progresses Spellcasting! Alright!
-Strength +4, Constitution +2
-Claws and stronger bite (DM is allowing multiple 'bites' to act as improved natural attack)

[DungeonMastering.com]

Thank you for all the responses & suggestions.

Another build that would seem to work would be playing with fire. i.e. the goblin is purposefully on fire, he gets hit, 'Rolls With It' & then burningly bounces into another enemy. This way he's not just absorbing damage, he's doing damage. Goblins have several fire-related racial Feats:

Burn! Burn! Burn! :

You take the goblin love of arson and fire play to a whole new level.
Prerequisites: Disable Device 1 rank, Goblin.

Benefit: You deal an extra 1d4 points of fire damage when you attack with fire from an alchemical or non-magical source (such as with alchemical fire or torches) and gain a +4 competence bonus on Reflex saving throws made to avoid catching on fire or to put yourself out when on fire. Additional damage caused by this feat does not apply to magical attacks (such as an alchemist's bomb) or to splash damage.

Flame Heart:

You have mastered fire magic and alchemy.
Prerequisites: Fire Tamer, character level 5th, goblin.

Benefit: You gain fire resistance 5. When casting spells with the fire descriptor or throwing alchemist bombs that deal fire damage, treat your caster level or alchemist level as if you were 1 level higher.

So any thoughts as to this approach? Magic items that would help? It seems like being on fire + rolling could be both fun as well as effective.