Hand-and-a-Half Love (3.5 Feats) (PEACH)

[Shyftir]

I noticed that the base rules give no encouragement to using Hand-and-a-Half style weapons, (bastard sword, dwarven waraxe, etc.) in two hands. As a personal fan of that style of swordsmanship I present these feats.

New Feats

Hand-and-a-Half Specialist [Fighter/General]

You have mastered the art of using your hand-and-a-half weapon (HaaHW) in two hands as well as one.
Prerequisites:Str 13, Dex 13, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: (any hand-and-a-half weapon)
Benefits: When wielding an HaaHW with both hands. As a full attack action you gain an extra attack at your full attack bonus but incure a -2 on all attacks during that round.
Normal: A HaaHW held with two hands is treated like a normal two-handed weapon.
Special: This only applies to HaaHWs for which you have Exotic Weapon Proficiency. The extra attack only gains half of the normal (Strength and a half) bonus to damage. This does stack with haste effects.


Hand-and-a-Half Defense [Fighter/General]
Your have increased skill at parrying with a HaaHW weilded in two hands.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: (any HaaHW)
Benefits: When weilding a HaaHW in two hands you gain a +1 skill bonus to AC.
Normal: A HaaHW grants no bonus to AC.
Special: This bonus is Dex based and is thus lost whenever Dex bonus to AC would be.


Hand-and-a-Half Expert[Fighter]
Your skill and speed with a HaaHW is uncanny.
Prerequisites: Str 13, Dex 15, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: (any HaaHW), Hand-and-a-Half Specialist, fighter lvl 6
Benefits: You gain a second extra attack when using Hand-and-a-Half Specialist. This attack is at your second highest BAB. You still take -2 to all attacks that round.
Normal: You only gain one extra attack from Hand-and-a-Half Specialist.
Special: This only applies to HaaHWs for which you have Exotic Weapon Proficiency. The extra attacks only gains half of the normal (Strength and a half) bonus to damage. This does stack with haste effects.


Hand-and-a-Half Master [Fighter]
Your mastery of HaaHW has reached incredible levels.
Prerequisites: Str 15, Dex 15, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: (any HaaHW), Hand-and-a-Half Specialist, Hand-and-a-Half Expert, Weapon Focus (any hand-and-a-half weapon), fighter lvl 10
Benefits: You no longer take a -2 to attacks while using Hand-and-a-Half Specialist/Expert. You gain Exotic Weapon Proficiency in all HaaHW for which you have proficiency when used in two hands.
Normal: You take a -2 to all attacks when using HaaHW Specialist/Expert. Each Exotic Weapon Proficiency must be taken individually.
Special: The extra attack only gains half of the normal (Strength and a half) bonus to damage. This does stack with haste effects.


Improved Hand-and-a-Half Defense [Fighter/General]
Your have amazing skill at parrying with a HaaHW weilded in two hands.
Prerequisites: Dex 15, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: (any HaaHW), Hand-and-a-Half Defense, Weapon Focus: (any HaaHW)
Benefits: When weilding a HaaHW in two hands you gain an additional +1 skill bonus to AC. This stacks with Hand-and-a-Half Defense giving you a total of +2 to AC.
Normal: A HaaHW grants no bonus to AC.
Special: This bonus is Dex based and is thus lost whenever Dex bonus to AC would be.

Katana Finesse [Fighter/General]
Your style of fighting with a bastard-sword in two hands is based on speed not on strength.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: bastard-sword, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus: bastard-sword
Benefits: Weapon Finesse can be applied to a bastard-sword when used in two hands.
Normal: Weapon Finesse cannot be applied to a bastard-sword.


Alternate Weapon

Katana (Alt.)

A specialized bastard-sword favored by samurai, this weapon is curved to increase its sharpness. (A Hand-and-a-Half Scimitar, in effect.) They are never less than masterwork quality.

Classification: One-Handed Exotic, Two-Handed Martial
Damage: 1d8
Critical: 18-20/x2
Price: 400 gp (masterwork always)
Weight: 4 lbs? (could use some help here, I've held one IRL but i'm not sure what it should be in game.)

[Cieyrin]

For your defense feats, why not call the bonus a dodge bonus, given that a) they stack with other dodge bonuses, b) they're canceled when denied Dex and c) you don't need to add a new bonus type to the sheer amount of bonus types that are out there already.

For your HaaHW feat chain, you've basically imparted flurry to them when wielding them 2-handed, which is suppose is from having better blade control of the momentum so you can get that extra meaningful strike or two in, which kind of infringes into Slashing Fury's territory, from the PHB2, which does the same for all slashing weapons with heavier prerequisites (Weapon Focus(any slashing weapon), Weapon Spec(any slashing weapon), Weapon Mastery(Slashing), BAB +14). Given that most, if not all, HaaHWs are slashing, how would these feat tracks stack, if at all?

Finally, for your katana, you've basically statted out an Elven Thinblade that does Slashing instead of Piercing. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, as that's what I based my attempt to make a Katana on as well, when I needed it for a character in a BESM game. Now that I think about it, that actually matches up with the Great Scimitar stats from Sandstorm, though it weighed 8 pounds. The Thinblade weighs about 3 pounds, so you should aim for somewhere between those two, I'd imagine, keeping in mind the bastard sword weighing 6 pounds and that the DMG considers a MW Bastard Sword the equivalent of a Katana.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[Kensen]

I guess you tried to balance the feats against TWF - an additional attack per feat and same penalties. But your feats are more powerful because the weapon damage die is bigger than what most characters with TWF feats have and you only have to enchant one weapon instead of two. But then again only fighters can take the feats and many people think they deserve a boost. I think the feats are mechanically ok as far as balance goes - more powerful than TWF but not ridiculously so.

I like the concept but the descriptions need editing. Hand-and-a-half is quite clumsy as a name, and it's unusual to use abbreviations like HaaHW in feat descriptions. Moreover, Hand-and-a-half is not a game term so it's a bit vague. You should perhaps say "any two-handed weapon that can be used as a one-handed weapon with the associated Exotic Weapon Proficiency" or something along those lines. Rules text should be as unambiguous as possible.

Anyway, nice work, I like your katana :smallsmile: the katana relies on the draw cut while with a longsword/bastard sword you sort of hack instead of cutting, and I think your stats for katana reflect that fact.

EDIT: Oh and as far as I know, a katana rarely weighs as much as 4 pounds. I think 3 pounds is quite accurate.