Whipped!
Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting edition of Extraordinary Feats, where we bring you the best new feats each and every week. We spend a lot of time talking about combat here, offering up new feats to make one or more combat styles more exciting, as well as trying to make fighting with a sword and fighting with your bare hands feel different from one another. In keeping with that proud tradition, I want to talk about what I suspect to be the most under-utilized weapon style of all: whip fighting. Traditionally, D&D hasn’t really loved the whip, but ever since Indiana Jones I’ve always thought they were pretty damn cool, so it’s time they get some all-star treatment.
Thunderous Strikes (Combat)
Your extreme strength allows you to use a whip to strike with the force of a steel gauntlet.
Prerequisite: Str 15.
Benefits: You may choose to deal lethal damage with a whip against creatures with a natural armor bonus of less than +3, or an armor bonus of less than +1. Additionally, because of your extreme strength, you may damage creatures with a whip, regardless of their armor bonus or natural armor bonus.
Where it Counts (Combat)
You have no compunction about using the painful flick of your whip to cause extreme discomfort to your foes by striking sensitive areas such as the eyes or genitals.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (whip).
Benefit: Whenever you deal damage to a creature with a whip, you may attempt a dirty trick combat maneuver check against the target of the attack as a free action.
Whip Defense (Combat)
You can focus on defending with your whip, striking out against those near you with lighting speed.
Prerequisites: Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus (whip), base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: When you take the total defense action while wielding a whip, you threaten every square within reach with that whip until the beginning of your next turn.
Whip Grapple (Combat)
You have learned to wrap your whip around the body of your foes, impeding their movement and making it difficult to combat you or others.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (whip).
Benefit: As a standard action, you may attempt a combat maneuver check against any creature within range of your whip, which, if successful, causes that creature to gain the entangled condition until the beginning of your next turn. You cannot make further attacks with the whip, including attacks of opportunity, before the beginning of your next turn without unentangling the target.
Whip Mastery (Combat)
You are a true master of the whip, capable of incredible feats of whipmanship that dazzle onlookers, even as they punish those who dare to stand against you.
Prerequisites: Weapon Focus (whip), base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: When using the full attack action to attack with a whip, you may choose to substitute any combat maneuver check that you could make with a whip instead of making an attack.
Normal: Normally, only certain combat maneuver checks can be made instead of an attack roll.
Whip Tricks (Combat)
Practice with a whip has made you an expert at using its shape and flexibility to more effectively trip and disarm your foes.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (whip).
Benefits: You gain an additional +2 bonus on all combat maneuver checks made to disarm and trip creatures while using your whip.