In an upcoming game, a player has expressed interest in a rogue character who disables armor as well as traps. I already have some ideas for a rogue talent or feat to that end, as all the necessary mechanics appear to exist and thematically it feels great.
I tend to approach mechanics from a stance of "you can try, but without training, you wont be good, much less great". So building off of existing mechanics is a favorable starting point.
So far, I see a rather robust pool of possibilities and connections, but my current line of thought for a starting point ability is as follows:
Quick Disable as a prerequisite.
Full round action.
Disable device check against CMD (not sure about this, skills are easy to skyrocket, but disable seems like it should be involved)
I'm of two minds of thought at this point: sneak attack damage applied as a sunder, or simply taking the armor to a phantom "broken" condition, where it can be repaired with a minute of work, a second check takes it to phantom "destroyed".
This is also where a lot of the dirty trick feat progression starts to make sense, making me think perhaps this should be a feat that allows a modification of dirty trick. Part of me thinks the target should be distracted/unaware in some why, which is why the sneak attack conditions (flanked/flat footed) come to mind. Heck, I even considered the effects of the chaos beast corporeal instability in regards to the effects of undone armor. Lots of thoughts, still very disorganized.
Anyhow, I would love to hear anyones input on the idea. I like the image of a rogue darting around the enemy, popping buckles and cutting straps, and suddenly the enemy's armor is more hindrance than help.
Here's the problem with the basic idea: most of those straps and buckles and stuff are in some way protected by the armor. I think I would make it a 'precision damage feat', something that the character can only take once they get 2d6 or more in precision damage, such as sneak attack. (Because an agile rapier guy doing this would be fantastic too, y'know?) However their character is able to apply that precision damage, with this feat they would be able to apply it to a sunder maneuver - with light armors, they cut into the cloth/leather, cut at the seams, that sort of thing, while with heavier armors they target buckles and all.
With an advanced feat, they'd be able to ignore the armor's hardness - because they're avoiding it altogether, targeting the armor's vulnerabilities.
Hm. I think you'd require an alternate Improved Sunder maneuver too, one which required Combat Expertise instead of Power Attack.
Progression:
Combat Expertise
Agile Improved Sunder (as standard Improved Sunder)
Precise Sunder (add precision damage to sundering)
Greater Precise Sunder (ignore Hardness when sundering)
Alternately - if one can NORMALLY add precision damage to sundering - then you don't need Greater Precise Sunder, and you make Precise Sunder ignore Hardness when sundering. Both Precise Sunder (and Greater Precise Sunder) would both be applicable only against armor.