One Tactical Feat

[Sepulchrave II]

Curious about this: frankly, I've no idea about balance when it comes to tactical feats. Is this reasonable? What would make it better?

Hand-and-a-Halfer [Tactical]

Prerequisites: Dex 15, Combat Expertise, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword), Improved Trip, BAB +6.
Benefit: If you are fighting with a bastard sword and carrying nothing in your off-hand, the Hand-and-a-Halfer feat grants you access to three special tactical maneuvers.

Half Sword: You may shift your grip upon your sword, with one hand holding the blade at the ricasso and the other on the pommel. When you use this maneuver, your bastard sword is considered to be a two-handed piercing weapon which does a base 1d6 damage. You gain a +2 bonus to hit any opponent who is wearing medium or heavy armor.

Snag and Pommel: As a standard action, you may make a trip attempt with the crossguard of your bastard sword against any opponent who is wearing medium or heavy armor. If your trip attempt is successful, you may make an immediate attack against your opponent with the pommel of your sword at your highest Base Attack Bonus: this attack does not count against your attacks of opportunity for a round, nor does this maneuver provoke an attack of opportunity from your opponent. Your sword is considered to be a one-handed bludgeoning weapon which does a base 1d4 damage.

Additional Reach: As a full-round action, you may make a single attack against an opponent with a 5-ft. bonus to your attack's reach. For the purposes of this maneuver, your sword is considered to be a one-handed piercing weapon which does a base 1d6 damage. Upon resolving your attack, you immediately provoke an attack of opportunity from your opponent: if you possess the Mobility feat, you may use it to mitigate against this attack.

 

[Laman Stahros]

Looks good, except for the damages. I think that you could kick those up by a die type.

 

[the Jester]

Looks good, except for the damages. I think that you could kick those up by a die type.

*nods* I'm going along with this- looks slightly underpowered, given the prereqs.

A couple of things:

Most tactical feats require some kind of set up to use the maneuvers they grants, often over the course of two rounds. You might consider adding something like this- although I'm honestly not certain what kind of set up to recommend for these maneuvers.

You should prolly clarify how the snag and pommel maneuver works in combination with Improved Trip; near as I can tell, Improved Trip- which is a prereq for this feat- completely trumps this maneuver.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Looks good, except for the damages. I think that you could kick those up by a die type.

It's funny - it was originally a d8 for the piercing maneuvers, but on consideration I felt it might be too much. Upon reconsideration, you might be right. Although a shortspear does only 1d6, and that seems the closest parallel. I was thinking that the x 1.5 from Str bonus might offset the damage die for the Half-Sword maneuver.

You should prolly clarify how the snag and pommel maneuver works in combination with Improved Trip; near as I can tell, Improved Trip- which is a prereq for this feat- completely trumps this maneuver.

True, but normally you can't trip with a bastard sword at all. Maybe drop the Improved Trip prereq? Given that the opponent must be armored, it decreases the utility somewhat.

I was thinking of 'setup' for the maneuvers as well, but nothing springs to mind.

 

[GreatLemur]

I'm not really a huge fan of crunch that abandon's D&D 3.x's customary level of abstraction where combat is concerned. Specifically, it seems kind of off to talk about tripping people with a bastard sword's crossguard when "bastard sword" is a broad, generic category of weapons that includes the katana, a sword not really known for having much in the way of a crossguard.

But, admittedly, this is a pretty nitpicky objection.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

I'm not really a huge fan of crunch that abandon's D&D 3.x's customary level of abstraction where combat is concerned. Specifically, it seems kind of off to talk about tripping people with a bastard sword's crossguard when "bastard sword" is a broad, generic category of weapons that includes the katana, a sword not really known for having much in the way of a crossguard.

But, admittedly, this is a pretty nitpicky objection.

Or maybe state that this tactic requires a bastard sword with an oversize crossguard.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Looks good, except for the damages. I think that you could kick those up by a die type.

Agreed. All in all, I really like this.

With regards to using the bastard sword as a thrusting weapon, consider retaining the d10 for damage but taking a penalty to hit and reducing the critical threat range. In many cases a successful hit and crit with a bastard sword is the thrust. In fact, it is far easier to crit with a thrust than it is with a swing. However limiting oneself to thrusting only means having to pass up opportunities to take a swing, hence the penalty to attack and reduced critical threat range. And once an intelligent opponnent realizes that there will be no swings, he will adust his defensive posture and offensive tactics accordingly. Which also supports a penalty to hit and reduced critical threat range.

Of course here's where Bluff (feint) can add some fun. One could bluff one's opponent with a false swing and actually thrust to trip or disarm.

 

[Bagpuss]

Should the Snag and pommel, trip include text so that if you are tripped in return, you can instead drop the bastard sword? That's normal if you trip with a weapon.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Additional Reach: As a full-round action, you may make a single attack against an opponent with a 5-ft. bonus to your attack's reach.

There is a feat that does this, in PH2, called Lunging Strike. I can't remember its pre-reqs (if any), but they aren't too rigorous.

For the purposes of this maneuver, your sword is considered to be a one-handed piercing weapon which does a base 1d6 damage. Upon resolving your attack, you immediately provoke an attack of opportunity from your opponent: if you possess the Mobility feat, you may use it to mitigate against this attack.

Lunging Strike (1) uses your weapon's normal damage and (2) doesn't provoke an AOO, so it is strictly better than the proposed tactical option.

I'm not saying this is necessarily a problem, as the tactical feat gets you two other options as well. But it's something to be aware of.