| Tarynt Essrog |
A couple of reddit threads I've looked at have drawn the conclusion that choosing Improved Combat Maneuver as one of your three combat feats to go with Adaptive Fighting effectively gives you limited access to all versions of Improved Combat Maneuver.
The reasoning goes like this:
"Adaptive Fighting says that once per day 'you can gain the benefit of one of these feats'. The 'Benefit' line of Imp. Combat Maneuver begins with '(c)hoose one combat maneuver'. Put those together, and I'd say it allows you to pick the maneuver each time you use Adaptive Fighting."
According to the most pedantic reading of the rules as written, that is the absolutely correct. And I really want use that combination to round out my swashbuckling dwarven space capatain.
...and yet, I just can't convince myself that is the intended interpretation of the rules. Can I get an official ruling so I can stop wrestling with this moral dilemma?
| Pantshandshake |
To your actual question: No, you are very unlikely to get an official ruling here.
What we can give you a dialogue that's usually reasonable, that might help you or your GM make a decision, and maybe get this flagged as a FAQ candidate.
I'll start!
Since you have to pick the feats that are usable through Adaptive Fighting ahead of time, I'm going to say that you'd have to pick what maneuver Imp Combat Maneuver works with when you choose it, upon selecting the Adaptive Fighting feat. So no, I don't believe your idea would work.
If Adaptive Fighting was worded so that you just picked combat feats every time you activated it, then yes, I'd say your idea would work.
| Tarynt Essrog |
To your actual question: No, you are very unlikely to get an official ruling here.
What we can give you a dialogue that's usually reasonable, that might help you or your GM make a decision, and maybe get this flagged as a FAQ candidate.
I'll start!
Since you have to pick the feats that are usable through Adaptive Fighting ahead of time, I'm going to say that you'd have to pick what maneuver Imp Combat Maneuver works with when you choose it, upon selecting the Adaptive Fighting feat. So no, I don't believe your idea would work.
If Adaptive Fighting was worded so that you just picked combat feats every time you activated it, then yes, I'd say your idea would work.
First off, I agree that that is probably the correct interpretation. But I also want to point out that that is not the literal interpretation of the rules as written.
For reference, here are the Feats as they are written:
ADAPTIVE FIGHTING:
BENEFIT: Select three combat feats that you do not have but whose prerequisites you meet. Once per day as a move action, you can gain the benefit of one of these feats for 1 minute. Each time you gain a level, you can replace one of these three selected feats with a different feat that you don’t have but meet the prerequisites for.
IMPROVED COMBAT MANUEVER:
BENEFIT: Choose one combat maneuver (bull rush, dirty trick, disarm, grapple, reposition, sunder, or trip). You gain a +4 bonus to your attack roll to resolve that combat maneuver.
The BENEFIT of Adaptive Fighting is that you temporarily gain the BENEFIT of a different predetermined Feat. The BENEFIT of Improved Combat Maneuver includes the choosing of a combat maneuver to gain a +4 to. If this were code running on a computer, a user activating Improved Combat Maneuver via Adaptive Fighting would be presented with that choice every time they did so. No question.
But that is, of course, ignoring all context. (And the ability to apply context is the biggest strength pen and paper games still have over computer games). Context such as Improved Combat Maneuver's Special Rule:
SPECIAL: You can take Improved Combat Maneuver multiple times. The effects don’t stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new combat maneuver.
That Special rule does not explicitly state that Improved Combat Maneuver is, in fact, seven distinct feats; but strongly suggests that it should be treated as such. Maybe they were lumped together to save space because they were so similar.
The thing that makes me pause is the way context actually confused everyone's understanding of Versatile Specialization, when we should have just been following the rules as written. The false assumption was that you have to spend a feat on Weapon Specialization to meet the prerequisite for Versatile Specialization, and that the multiple Bonus Feats in Weapon Specializations the every class gets at level 3 don't count towards that prerequisite. The reasoning behind that conclusion was that there would be no reason to ever spend a feat on Weapon Specialization if everyone automatically qualified for Versatile Specialization at level 3. Unless you believe that Paizo would waste space on an inherently obsolete rule, why would Weapon Specialization even be included unless it was a feat you needed to take before Versatile Specialization.
The flaw in that reasoning stems from looking at the list of feats as a menu instead of a reference. There is, in fact, no reason for anyone to ever spend a feat on Weapon Specialization. But literally every character class receives multiple Bonus Feats in Weapon Specialization at level 3, so of course it needs to be covered in the Feats chapter for reference.
So the lesson I took away from that is don't assume that there is a mistake in the rules as written just because I don't immediately see the reason behind them. Maybe Improved Combat Maneuver is indexed as one feat even though it is actually seven distinct feats just to save space. Maybe it's a convention left over from previous D20 games. Maybe it is deliberately defined as a single feat with seven options to allow synergy with rules that temporarily grant it to a charcter. Maybe not that last one, but I appreciate discussion on the topic.