Harvesting Feats
Let’s talk about scythes for a minute. I’m sure that all of you, at some point in your lives, have probably played a game of D&D with a pre-teen who thought that wielding a scythe would make his character more “gritty” and “cool.” Alternatively, you may have played a game with someone who took a scythe with them everywhere they went because if you needed to kill a party member in his sleep, there was no better way to coup de grace than with a x4 critical multiplier. Odds are, if you haven’t, you probably were one of those people.
That said, you don’t need to wear eyeliner and dress all in black to use a scythe (really, it’s not in the rules anywhere—I checked), and they can be used in regular melee fights, and not to be a jerk. Despite this, they seem to get passed over quite a bit, in favor of other weapons. So, today’s Extraordinary Feats is designed to give you a reason to want to fight with a scythe. As it happens, many of these feats also address another issue that I’ve wanted to find a way to fix for a while: the fact that so many combat maneuver feats (Improved Trip, Improved Disarm, and so on) require Combat Expertise and an arbitrarily high Intelligence score that few fighters will get much other benefit out of. So, if the only thing keeping you from tripping and repositioning people is not wanting to waste ability points on Intelligence, I strongly recommend you give these feats, and the scythe, another look.
Improved Scythe Trip (Combat)
Your familiarity with the scythe allows you to trip up your foes with an expertise that would otherwise require much greater training.
Prerequisites: Scythe Trip, base attack bonus +6.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on checks made to trip a foe while you are wielding a scythe. This stacks with the bonus provided by Scythe Trip. Additionally, whenever you successfully trip an opponent with a scythe, he takes 1d4 points of bleed damage, as your blade cuts into his tendon.
Reaching Reaper (Combat)
You know how to make the most of your scythe’s long handle.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (scythe).
Benefit: When you draw your scythe, you may choose to wield it normally, or as a reach weapon. If you choose to wield it as a reach weapon, it gains the reach ability (meaning that you can use it to attack foes 10 feet away, but can’t use it to attack an adjacent foe). You may switch between wielding it with reach and wielding it normally as a move action.
Repositioning Reaper (Combat)
Because the scythe’s curved blade is so well-suited to pulling and dragging, you can reposition your foes with it, even without the necessary expertise.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (scythe).
Benefit: While wielding a scythe, you may use it to make drag and reposition combat maneuvers without provoking attacks of opportunity. Further, you gain a +2 bonus on all drag and reposition combat maneuvers made with a scythe. These bonuses do not stack with the Improved Drag or Improved Reposition feats.
Scythe Trip (Combat)
Because the scythe’s curved blade is so well-suited to knocking a foe’s legs out from under him, you can trip your foes with it, even without the necessary expertise.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (scythe).
Benefit: While wielding a scythe, you may use it to make trip combat maneuvers without provoking attacks of opportunity. Further, you gain a +2 bonus on all trip combat maneuvers made with a scythe, and you can trip creatures up to two size categories larger than you, instead of only creatures up to one size category larger than you. This bonus does not stack with the Improved Trip feat.
Sweep Them off Their Feet (Combat)
Your mastery of using the scythe to trip and pull your opponents is unparalleled.
Prerequisites: Repositioning Reaper, Scythe Trip, base attack bonus +11.
Benefit: Whenever you make a drag or reposition combat maneuver with a scythe, you may choose to use your CMB bonus that you would apply to a trip combat maneuver, instead, if it is higher. Additionally, if the attempt is successful, at the end of the target’s movement you may choose to have them automatically fall prone, as well. If the target has bonuses to CMD that apply only to trip attempts (such as from having more than two legs, or from possessing the Improved Trip feat), then you may only choose to trip the opponent if the result of your combat maneuver check also exceeds their CMD when those bonuses are included. Causing an opponent to fall prone in this way counts as tripping them for the purpose of additional effects that may occur when you trip an opponent (such as the Improved Scythe Trip or Greater Trip feats).
Whirling Scythe (Combat)
You swing your scythe around you in a great arc, striking everything in a circle of death.
Prerequisite: Weapon Focus (scythe), base attack bonus +11.
Benefit: As a full-round action, you may make a single attack with your scythe at your full base attack bonus against each creature adjacent to you (including allies). Make a single attack roll and apply the results against the AC of each target separately. Roll damage once, as well, and apply the result to each creature that you hit.