Fixing feats

[Hazzardevil]

Let's face it, many feats in dnd were badly written ,easy to misinterpret or ha mistakes in them due to unfamiliarity with the system. And I'm going to rectify it where wizards never dared.

Dodge [General]
Prerequisite
Dex 13.

Benefit
"You gain a dodge bonus to AC equal to your Dexterity modifier (minimum +1)."
If your Dexterity score is above 20 you may gain the following to benefits.

When you are standing next to an Ally and that Ally has an attack declared on them, you may give them a bonus on AC equal to 1/2 your dodge bonus as a immediate action. This feat must be used after the attack is declared and the dice is rolled, but before the results of the attack are declared.

When you are standing next to an enemy and an attack is declared that isn't yours on the enemy you may as an immediate action give that enemy a penalty to AC equal to 1/2 your dodge bonus.

A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses. Also, dodge bonuses stack with each other, unlike most other types of bonuses.

Special
A fighter may select Dodge as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Master Spellthief [General]
Prerequisite
Steal Spell class ability
able to cast 2nd level
Arcane spells

Benefit
Add your Spellthief and Arcane Caster class to determine the highest level spell you can steal, the caster level of your Arcane spells and the levels of spells a spelltheief can hold. Also, ignore the Spell Failure chance of any Light Armor you are wearing when casting stolen spells.

So what feats do people suggest, and what do people think of these?

Toughness [General]
Benefit:
You gain your constitution score to your hit points or 1hit point per hit dice, whichever is larger.

Improved Toughness [General]
Prerequisite:
Toughness
Benefit:
You gain your constitution score to your hit points a second time or an extra 2 hit points per hit dice, this stacks with the bonus hit point per hit dice from toughness. You may not have your constitution score to your hit points and 2 extra hit points per hit dice. you must have your constitution score to it points twice or 3 extra hit points per hit dice instead.

[Glimbur]

Dodge [General]
Prerequisite
Dex 13.

Benefit
Your character gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC. This bonus to AC is increased by 1 for every positive ability modifier above 1.


The rest of it looks ok, and I think this is a typo. You'll be happier if it states "This bonus to AC is increased by 1 for every positive point of Dex modifier you have."

[erikun]

Dodge [General]
Prerequisite
Dex 13.

Benefit
Your character gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC. This bonus to AC is increased by 1 for every positive ability modifier above 1.
If your Dexterity score is above 20 you may gain the following to benefits.

The rest of it looks ok, and I think this is a typo. You'll be happier if it states "This bonus to AC is increased by 1 for every positive point of Dex modifier you have."
Funny. The way I read it, you get "+1 dodge bonus to AC, plus an additional +1 bonus for every seperate ability score modifier of +2 or higher."

Glimbur's interpretation makes much more sense, although I'm not getting that from what is written.

[Nate the Snake]

The rest of it looks ok, and I think this is a typo. You'll be happier if it states "This bonus to AC is increased by 1 for every positive point of Dex modifier you have."

Alternative wording: "You gain a dodge bonus to AC equal to your Dexterity modifier (minimum +1)."

Same effect, less clunky wording. The feat requires Dex 13, so you'll have at least a +1 bonus. The minimum is noted on the off chance that you gain the feat without meeting the prerequisites.


When you are standing next to an Ally and that Ally has an attack declared on them, you may give them a bonus on AC equal to 1/2 your dodge bonus as a immediate action. This feat must be used after the attack is declared and the dice is rolled, but before the results of the attack are declared.

When you are standing next to an enemy and an attack is declared that isn't yours on the enemy you may as an immediate action give that enemy a penalty to AC equal to 1/2 your dodge bonus.

This part of the feat seems like overkill. This is a core feat we're talking about, it's supposed to be relatively simple.

Not only that, it doesn't make any sense from a fluff perspective. The Dodge feat should make you better at dodging, not helping allies dodge or keeping enemies from dodging.

[Hazzardevil]

Alternative wording: "You gain a dodge bonus to AC equal to your Dexterity modifier (minimum +1)."

Same effect, less clunky wording. The feat requires Dex 13, so you'll have at least a +1 bonus. The minimum is noted on the off chance that you gain the feat without meeting the prerequisites.



This part of the feat seems like overkill. This is a core feat we're talking about, it's supposed to be relatively simple.

Not only that, it doesn't make any sense from a fluff perspective. The Dodge feat should make you better at dodging, not helping allies dodge or keeping enemies from dodging.

I was trying to word it as your dexterity modifer = dodge bonus to AC.

I imagined that for the bonuses and penaltys to others AC was your charecter would give slight nudges to allys and enemys to improved or ruin their posture to change their AC.

I'll remove the extra benefits and split them into a separate feat.

The next feats I intend to fix are those horrible save raising feats.

[noparlpf]

How does this even make sense? You already get your Dex modifier to AC. Why should you get it again?

If I were rewriting Dodge, I would probably scale it with level (ie, +1 at 1st, +2 at 5th, +3 at 10th, +4 at 15, +5 at 20th) and allow you to change the designated target once per round as an immediate action.

[Yitzi]

Idea for toughness: You gain 3 hit points, plus 3 hit points for every previous time you've taken the feat.

[noparlpf]

Idea for toughness: You gain 3 hit points, plus 3 hit points for every previous time you've taken the feat.

Idea for practicality: take Improved Toughness instead. +1hp/HD. Prereq is something like base Fort +3?

Edit: Prerequisite is base Fort +2.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

Pathfinder already did a lot of fixes. For example, Dodge is a flat +1 to AC, and Toughness gives bonus hp equal to your level or +3 (whichever is higher.)

[Hazzardevil]

How does this even make sense? You already get your Dex modifier to AC. Why should you get it again?

If I were rewriting Dodge, I would probably scale it with level (ie, +1 at 1st, +2 at 5th, +3 at 10th, +4 at 15, +5 at 20th) and allow you to change the designated target once per round as an immediate action.
My dodge does scale, and really is having dex to AC a second really such a bad thing?

Idea for toughness: You gain 3 hit points, plus 3 hit points for every previous time you've taken the feat.
I was actually thinking closer to having Con to Hp or a flat 1/hd whichever is bigger.

Idea for practicality: take Improved Toughness instead. +1hp/HD. Prereq is something like base Fort +3?
Edit: Prerequisite is base Fort +2.
Improved toughness would be further along in the feat chain than toughness and be 2/hd or Con to 1/4 of your HD.

Pathfinder already did a lot of fixes. For example, Dodge is a flat +1 to AC, and Toughness gives bonus hp equal to your level or +3 (whichever is higher.)
Yes, but we aren't playing pathfinder are we?

[Togath]

Improved toughness is a core feat(or at least I think it is, I have seen it printed in most of the rule books for 3.5), granting 1HP/level, it can also be taken at first level as long as your class or race has a good fort save.

[Timeless Error]

Improved toughness is a core feat(or at least I think it is, I have seen it printed in most of the rule books for 3.5), granting 1HP/level, it can also be taken at first level as long as your class or race has a good fort save.

It's not core. I think it's from Complete Warrior.

[Cieyrin]

I don't much care for double Dex to AC. A scaling flat dodge bonus to AC should be fine. The bonus or penalty to AC to adjacent allies and enemies seems more in line for Combat Expertise.

For Toughness, my favorite solution is Arcana Evolved's, which is twice Con bonus or 4 hp, whichever is greater. I think Improved Toughness works well as-is, though the PF version is a nice compromise between the two. If you want to further buff the AE version, I'd give an extra +2 for every time beyond the first Toughness.