[Feat] Dodge (Alternative)

[Matthew]

A home brewed alternative to Dodge.



DODGE [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13, Base Attack Bonus +1.
Benefit: During your action, you designate an opponent and receive a +1 Dodge Bonus to Armour Class against attacks from that opponent. When you are Fighting Defensively or using the Total Defence Action, this becomes a +2 Dodge Bonus and may be divided between up to two opponents. You can select new opponents on any action. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity Bonus to Armour Class (if any) also makes you lose Dodge Bonuses.
Special: A Fighter may select Dodge as one of his Fighter Bonus Feats.



IMPROVED DODGE [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13, Base Attack Bonus +6, Dodge.
Benefit: During your action, you designate an opponent and receive a +2 Dodge Bonus to Armour Class against attacks from that opponent. Alternatively, you may divide this bonus between up to two opponents. When you are Fighting Defensively or using the Total Defence action, this Dodge Bonus increases to +4 and may be divided between up to four opponents. You can select new opponents on any action. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity Bonus to Armour Class (if any) also makes you lose Dodge Bonuses. Improved Dodge does not stack with Dodge.
Special: A Fighter may select Improved Dodge as one of his Fighter Bonus Feats.



GREATER DODGE [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13, Base Attack Bonus +11, Dodge, Improved Dodge.
Benefit: During your action, you designate an opponent and receive a +3 Dodge Bonus to Armour Class against attacks from that opponent. Alternatively, you may divide this bonus between up to three opponents. When you are Fighting Defensively or using the Total Defence action, this Dodge Bonus increases to +6 and may be divided between up to six opponents. You can select new opponents on any action. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity Bonus to Armour Class (if any) also makes you lose Dodge Bonuses. Greater Dodge does not stack with Dodge or Improved Dodge.
Special: A Fighter may select Greater Dodge as one of his Fighter Bonus Feats.



PERFECTED DODGE [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13, Base Attack Bonus +16, Dodge, Improved Dodge, Greater Dodge.
Benefit: During your action, you designate an opponent and receive a +4 Dodge Bonus to Armour Class against attacks from that opponent. Alternatively, you may divide this bonus between up to four opponents. When you are Fighting Defensively or using the Total Defence action, this Dodge Bonus increases to +8 and may be divided between up to eight opponents. You can select new opponents on any action. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity Bonus to Armour Class (if any) also makes you lose Dodge Bonuses. Perfected Dodge does not stack with Dodge, Improved Dodge or Greater Dodge.
Special: A Fighter may select Perfected Dodge as one of his Fighter Bonus Feats.

[Lord Iames Osari]

I would take away the "Character level 1" requirement in Dodge. Generally speaking, that indicates that the feat can only be taken at 1st level. With the others, there is the precedent of the leadership feat, which can be taken at any point after acquiring one's 6th character level, but it is generally assumed that creatures taking feats will have at least 1 level or HD.

[Matthew]

Good point and someting I hummed and harred about. How would you suggest making it so these Feats only become available at the proposed levels? I usually use Base Attack Bonus, but I think I want this to be available to Rogues at the same level as Fighters.

[Lord Iames Osari]

I only meant for the basic version of Dodge. Improved, Greater, and Perfected look fine to me.

[Matthew]

How about if I make it plural, so that it is Character Levels 1, 6, 11 and 16?

[Lord Iames Osari]

No, that's actually worse.

[magic8BALL]

Why do you want the character level to be "caped" for a particular feat? I dont see why Improved dodge at third level is such a bad thing, considering the character could have used the feats on somthing else. I'd just pull the level prereqs all together.

[Lord Iames Osari]

But if the level requirements are pulled, then you end up with a 2nd level human fighter with the entire feat chain.

[magic8BALL]

Good on em. I can think of better uses of four feats...

Perhaps a mediocer BAB requirement is needed...
Improved Dodge BAB +4
Greater Dodge BAB +8
Supremem Dodge +12
Monks and Rouges and such can still get them all pre-epic, and epic casters could get the last one... if they REALLY wanted, but primary combatants still have the edge. Not too far off what is proposed anyway I think.

[Golthur]

This looks familiar :wink:

As an alternative to the character level requirement (which people seem to generally not like), you could offer two prerequisite options - a Reflex save requirement (representing "ability to get out of the way of stuff"), or a BAB requirement (representing "skill in combat"). The character who could satisfy either could pick the feats up. This would leave mages out in the cold, but I believe that's the point.

[Matthew]

Heh. In my defence I had those Feats home brewed already, though not in exactly this form.

I think I am going to cap them by Base Attack Bonus and make them specially available to Rogues at certain levels.

[Yakk]

Reflex+BaB.

Level:fighter:rogue
1:1:2
5:6:7
10:13:14
15:20:20
20:26:27

They line up nicely. It would mean that a Ranger could get it even faster, however.

[That Lanky Bugger]

I'd set the requirements just by BAB alone, personally. Just lower the BAB to allow the Rogues to take the feat at whatever level you like and allows Fighters to take them a bit earlier. I like the ability to double the bonuses with Fighting Defensively, since it gives that option some more attraction for players.

Very nice, though. Consider it yoinked.

[Matthew]

Yakk and Golthur:
Interesting and a clever viable alternative, but I think for the moment I am going to use Base Attack Bonus, mainly because of the availability of Parry and Block.

Lanky Bugger:
Ah, well, if you like this, perhaps you would also be interested in the Parry (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34241), Block (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34243) and Skilful Defence (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34241) Feats, with which this Feat Tree is intended to operate.

[Catch]

Well-made feats, but what's your ruling on class features and other feats that affect the target of your dodge bonus? I could see potential for (ab)use in those terms.

[Matthew]

I have to admit I never thought about that. What Feats and Class Features do you have in mind?

[Catch]

The first one I can think of is the Elusive Target feat from Complete Warrior, which lets you negate the bonus damage from your dodge target's Power Attack, and if you are flanked by your dodge target and that attacker misses, you can divert it to another foe. I'm sure there's more, but for the life of me I can't remember where.

[Matthew]

Right, as far as I can see, to use the Negate Power Attack Manoeuvre you have to "designate a specific foe affected by your Dodge feat." So, I think that would mean only one, regardless of how many foes are actually affected by the Dodge Feat. The Diverting Defence Manoeuvre could be interpreted either way, but it looks like one target would be the most logical.

I found a couple of others. Deceptive Dodge (once per round) and Epic Dodge (once per round). Both are once per round, the only benefit being that you have a larger selection of targets.

Psionic Dodge, though, is a bit of a worry, as it would allow you to gain a +1 Dodge Bonus against all targets of Dodge. Still, not too powerful as far as I am concerned, though.

It would be interesting to see any other such Feats.