I was talking house rules with one of my players and he turned me on to this what is everyone’s thoughts on them?
The Elephant in the Room Feat Tax
I think there is another one out there according to another one of my players that I’ll be looking into the world is square I’m going to Investigate that one too.
There's a lot to like in this.
I think the Cleave chain is too taxing, not least because at high levels you seldom get more than two opponents that close together. Compressing Cleave, Great Cleave and Whirling Cleave (and, indeed Whirlwind Attack which is in the wrong chain entirely) into one or two feats would help.
Vital Strike and its I and G followers should be one feat. It's mediocre anyway (unless you're a druid shifted into a dinosaur in which case it's broken). Personally, I just add +BAB to the damage which gets rid of any balance issues from small or huge weapons.
This is very reminiscent of the way feats in 5e work.
I absolutely agree that Cleave and Vital Strike should be single feats that scale with your BAB, unlocking their respective Improved and Greater versions.
A lot of this is similar to house rules I've used, like combining dodge and mobility, eliminating combat expertise, combining "improve maneuver" feats etc. All that works pretty well. If you're improving (or eliminating) feats that people weren't excited to take in the first place it's hard to go wrong.
There's a choice to be made whether to condense maneuver feats horizontally or vertically. Do you end up with (as in the paper) Deft Maneuvers, Powerful Maneuvers, Greater Trip, Greater Disarm, etc etc? Or do you keep Improved Trip, Improved Disarm etc but fold the Greater versions into them at BAB +6? It's unreasonable to do both together (Deft Maneuvers and Powerful Maneuvers sprouting all the Greaters at BAB +6).
There's a choice to be made whether to condense maneuver feats horizontally or vertically. Do you end up with (as in the paper) Deft Maneuvers, Powerful Maneuvers, Greater Trip, Greater Disarm, etc etc? Or do you keep Improved Trip, Improved Disarm etc but fold the Greater versions into them at BAB +6? It's unreasonable to do both together (Deft Maneuvers and Powerful Maneuvers sprouting all the Greaters at BAB +6).
Personally, I would keep each maneuver its own feat, same with Cleave and Vital Strike, but they grow to include their greater versions at the appropriate BAB.
Big fan of these rules. Adapting them for my own games.
I tend to use these myself and are a regular thing in my games.
Helps to trim some of the "Starting" feat chaff like Power attack and Combat Expertise along with Dodge+Mobility.
Could use some work in places but helps open up room for not being hyper focused. The Weapon focus line looks really good for this as it applies to a weapon Group rather than just 1 sword/axe/etc.
There's a choice to be made whether to condense maneuver feats horizontally or vertically. Do you end up with (as in the paper) Deft Maneuvers, Powerful Maneuvers, Greater Trip, Greater Disarm, etc etc? Or do you keep Improved Trip, Improved Disarm etc but fold the Greater versions into them at BAB +6?
I did "you can do combat maneuvers without provoking" as a single feat and then rolled the "specialize in a specific combat maneuver" into a single feat for each combat maneuver which combines the +2/+2 CMB/CMD from Improved with the effects of Greater once you hit BAB +6.
My logic was that I want people to be able to attempt combat maneuvers easily (no one will take improved drag, like, ever) but people should be rewarded for specializing (but it's feasible to be good at both tripping and disarming.)
Frankly, all the feats that dole out driblets of extra damage are woefully poor compared to feats that grant extra attacks. E.g., Weapon Specialization is actually worse than Vital Strike because it already has had a tax feat to even get to it.
So I think I’ll be using a mix of this the world is flat and somethings I have heard around the boards.
I’m not a fan of the weapon groups so that won’t be used.
I don’t want to change up all the combat maneuvers feats so I’m thinking of folding improved and greater into one feat as well as for two weapon fighting and spell focus
I plan on giving the 3 bonus feats with the two optional of agile Maneuvers and weapon finesse and remove point blank shot all together from the game.
And feats to allow you to vital strike cleave and vital strike charge which was a house rule before.
And remove the 13 dex off dodge
... And feats to allow you to vital strike cleave and vital strike charge which was a house rule before...
Both of these feats already exist:
Weapon Trick allows you to use Vital Strike with Cleave.
Gorum's Divine Fighting Technique allows you to use Vital Strike on a charge.
But if you don’t worship gorum you can’t do it and, the weapon trick is only for single weapon correct?