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Net Maneuvering (Combat)
With sweeping movements and brute force, you can use your net to put foes at a disadvantage.Prerequisite: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (net), Net Adept, base attack bonus +3.
Benefit: In melee, you can use a net to trip or disarm opponents instead of entangling them. You gain a +2 bonus on disarm checks made to use a net in this way. Further, if you have an opponent entangled in your net, you can attempt to drag or reposition that opponent as long as he is within your net’s reach or you control the trailing rope on your net.
Net Adept (Combat)
You have trained to use the net as a melee weapon.Prerequisite: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (net), base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You can treat a net as a one-handed melee reach weapon with a 10-foot reach. Further, you take no penalty on melee attack rolls for using an unfolded net, and you can use one full-round action or two move actions to fold a net.
Net
A net is used to entangle enemies.Benefit: When you throw a net, you make a ranged touch attack against your target. A net's maximum range is 10 feet. If you hit, the target is entangled.
So, if I were to take this literally, the following 2 interpretation now describes the "Net" as used as a melee weapon.
Net
A net is used to entangle enemies.Benefit: When you
throw[perform a melee attack with] a net, you make aranged[melee] touch attack against your target.A net's maximum range is 10 feet.If you hit, the target is entangled [or tripped or disarmed].
Net
A net is used to entangle enemies.Benefit: When you
throw[perform a melee attack with] a net, you make aranged[melee] touch attack against your target.A net's maximum range is 10 feet.If you hit, the target is entangled. [Alternatively, you can use a net to trip or disarm them. See combat maneuvers.]
The two distinctions are important, because; the latter uses CMD, which can be considerable. The former, though, uses a touch attack. The former includes BAB and STR, while Touch attack includes only Dex.
For reference, the former means that just touching someone with your net is enough to entangle them, but ALTERNATIVELY, touching them is ALSO enough to either disarm or trip them. The latter means that you can use your weapon as though it can be used to perform combat maneuvers.
The problem is that, while the latter is fair, you could already do so;
If you want to make a trip combat maneuver, do you have to use a weapon with the trip special feature?
No. When making a trip combat maneuver, you don't have to use a weapon with the trip special feature--you can use any weapon. For example, you can trip with a longsword or an unarmed strike, even though those weapons don't have the trip special feature. Note that there is an advantage to using a weapon with the trip special feature (a.k.a. a "trip weapon") when making a trip combat maneuver: if your trip attack fails by 10 or more, you can drop the trip weapon instead of being knocked prone.
On a related note, you don't have to use a weapon with the disarm special feature (a.k.a. a "disarm weapon") when making a disarm combat maneuver--you can use any weapon.
[Source]
However, it might just be me; a net that can trip opponents which normally have an almost unbeatable CMD seems... Interesting? I can't help but feel like DMs will glare at me if I explain it the way I'm doing.
Does Net Maneuvering provide net users the ability to trip someone at a 10 foot reach as well as activating on touch? Is it like pulling the rug from under someone? What about disarming?
Or is it at my own discretion?
I'd say that because of the line "You gain a +2 bonus on disarm checks made to use a net in this way." you need to make CMB checks to use the disarm and trip features, with the +2 to disarm checks. I don't think it grants the ability to trip/disarm on a successful melee touch-attack.
Essentially the part about using the net to trip does not add anything to the functionality of the net as you could already do that. You do get a bonus to disarm as well as the ability to use grapple style repositioning type moves at range (by my interp of the RAW anyway).