Gone Fencin'
I’ve always felt that many of the weapons in 3.5/Pathfinder are a little too interchangeable. What’s the real difference between a battleaxe and a warhammer? One pound, two gold, and whether they deal bludgeoning or slashing damage. So unless you’re up against a creature with DR/slashing or DR/bludgeoning, you won’t even be able to tell the difference. In order to combat this, I wanted to try experimenting with some weapon-specific combat feats that give you options to fight differently with different kinds of weapons. I’ve decided to start with the rapier. Enjoy.
Fencer (Combat)
Your experience in the art of fencing has made you a master of slipping past your opponents’ defenses.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (rapier).
Benefit: Whenever you make a melee attack with a rapier, you may take a -2 penalty to your attack roll in order to make a special combat maneuver check. If you succeed, the target is denied any dodge or shield bonus to AC for that attack.
Fencer’s Foil (Combat)
You have mastered the art of defending with your weapon as well as attacking, and you deflect all but the most determined attacks with your blade.
Prerequisite: Fencer, Weapon Focus (rapier), base attack +6.
Benefit: Whenever you make a full attack action while wielding a rapier in one hand and holding nothing in your other hand, you may choose to sacrifice one or more of your attacks. If you do, you gain a +4 shield bonus to AC until the beginning of the next round, and for each additional attack sacrificed beyond the first, this bonus increases by +2. You can sacrifice a maximum number of attacks in this way equal to 1 less than the total number of attacks you would make (so a character with a base attack bonus of +6 could sacrifice only 1 attack, while a character with a base attack bonus of +11 could sacrifice 2 attacks, and so on).
Fencer’s Strike (Combat)
You are adept at waiting for the moment when your foe creates an opening, and then seizing it.
Prerequisite: Combat Reflexes, Fencer, Fencer’s Foil, Weapon Focus (rapier), base attack +11.
Benefit: As a full-round action, you can enter a defensive stance and ready yourself for attack. If you do, then until the beginning of your next turn, any time a creature makes a melee attack against you, it provokes an attack of opportunity, allowing you to strike it first. If you hit, in addition to dealing damage, the target suffers a -4 penalty on its attack roll for that attack.
You can’t make more attacks in this way each round than you would be able to make with a full attack action, even if you are able to make more attacks of opportunity than that in one round. Further, these attacks suffer a cumulative -5 penalty for each such attack already made since the beginning of your last turn. Other attacks of opportunity (such as those made against a creature leaving a square you threaten) do not count towards these penalties and do not suffer such penalties.
Improved Fencer (Combat)
Prerequisite: Fencer, Weapon Focus (rapier).
Benefit: Whenever you use the Fencer feat, if the attempt is successful, in addition to denying the target any dodge or shield bonus to AC, the target also adds only half his Dexterity bonus to AC. This does not count as being denied his Dexterity bonus for the purposes of sneak attack and similar abilities.
Master Fencer (Combat)
Prerequisite: Fencer, Improved Fencer, Weapon Focus (rapier).
Benefit: Whenever you use the Fencer feat, if the attempt is successful, in addition to the normal effects, you also deal an additional point of bleed damage to the target. This bleed damage stacks with itself, so multiple hits will increase the amount of bleed damage the target suffers.