D4's Mini-Guide to Feats: Cut from the Air

 D4's Mini-Guide to Feats: Cut from the Air



     Cut from the Air and its line of feats are interesting in the sense of allowing you to stop ranged attacks by using your attacks of opportunity. The further feats in the line allow you to negate large projectiles, and even spells by using your skills with the blade. Today I'm going to review all three feats and how they might pan out in a game.


Cut from the Air

     Prerequisite(s): Str 13, Power Attack, base attack bonus +5, weapon training class feature with a melee weapon.

     

     Benefit(s): When a ranged attack is made against you or a target adjacent to you, you can cut the weapon (or ammunition) out of the air, deflecting the attack so the target takes no damage. As an attack of opportunity, make a melee attack roll at your highest bonus. If the result is greater than the attack roll total of the ranged attack, the attack is deflected. You must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. Unusually massive ranged weapons (such as boulders or ballista bolts) and ranged attacks generated by spell effects cannot be deflected.


     So, let's break this down. First, the prerequisites. Requiring a base attack bonus of +5 AND the weapon training feature is a bit of an issue; normally, Fighters are the only character class (barring archetypes) that gain access to weapon training. This can be negated with the Martial Focus feat, but that ALSO requires a base attack bonus of +5, meaning most other characters can't access the feat until level 7. That being said, another important takeaway is that it uses an attack of opportunity to use. This means that you'll generally require high Dexterity and Combat Reflexes to take full advantage of this feat. The fact that you can protect adjacent allies is very nice.

     Let's say an average Fighter has an 18 Strength, a 16 Dexterity, Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus and Weapon Training with their weapon of choice (a Longsword in this case), and Cut from the Air. This Fighter can deflect four projectiles per turn, each at +11 (+4 from Strength, +5 from BAB, +1 Weapon Focus, +1 Weapon Training). Considering the average attack bonuses of ranged attackers in the bestiary, you'll have above a 50% chance to deflect any small projectile in range! That's better than having Displacement cast upon you!




Smash from the Air

     Prerequisite(s): Str 13, Cut from the Air, Power Attack, base attack bonus +9, weapon training class feature with a melee weapon.


     Benefit(s): You can use Cut from the Air against unusually massive ranged weapons (such as boulders or ballista bolts) and ranged attacks generated by spell effects. Spell effects that do not require attack rolls cannot be deflected.

     The second feat in the line, Smash from the Air, allows you to crush down larger projectiles. It's the same principle as Cut from the Air, but this works on the big stuff. This feat is more situational in that it doesn't improve your chances for Cut from the Air, but it's still useful nonetheless.


Spellcut


     Prerequisite(s): Str 13, Cut from the Air, Power Attack, base attack bonus +9, Spellcraft 1 rank, weapon training class feature with a melee weapon.

     Benefit(s): Once per round, you can use your base attack bonus in place of your total saving throw bonus for a spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability that either allows a Reflex save or is not a melee attack and targets only you.

     This one allows you to use your base attack bonus to stop spells coming at you. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in the same vein as Cut from the Air, in which you can only use it once per round, and you can't use it to save allies. It also requires a rank in Spellcraft which is less than useful for Fighters. There is one saving grace, however: if you decided to make Wisdom your worst stat, Spellcut can give you an effective +4 or greater on Will saving throws! That's better than Iron Will, and you're less likely to be targeted more than once per round in this sense.



FINAL THOUGHTS

     I like Cut from the Air. I think it has great flavor, being able to use your martial prowess to strictly deny ranged attackers and spellcasters the chance of hurting you. I don't think it's a "for sure every character" pickup, even in the case of playing a Fighter. However, if your campaign has a lot of ranged attackers, and your character is built in such a way to take advantage, then Cut from the Air may be the feat for you!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

D4's Mini-Guide to Feats: Shikigami Style

 D4's Mini-Guide to Feats: Shikigami Style     Welcome back to another mini-guide! This guide will be about improvised weapons and the Shikigami Style line of feats. Shikigami Style is... weird. Essentially, it allows you to deal increased damage with anything you find on the ground, from broken bottles to frying pans, to anything in-between. In any case, let's get started. Shikigami Style      Prerequisite(s) : Catch Off-Guard or Throw Anything.      Benefit(s) : While in this style, you deal damage with improvised weapons as if they were one size category larger. For every style feat you have that lists Shikigami Style as a prerequisite, treat the improvised weapon as an additional size category larger, to a maximum of three sizes larger than its actual size.      First thing to note is very easy to meet prerequisites: all you need is either Catch Off-Guard or Throw Anything, which are both mandatory ...
Read more

D4's Character Creating Guide (Part 1)

Image
D4's Character Creating Guide                Pathfinder has a lot of options. I mean... a LOT. Without even delving into 3pp material, there are about 40 classes, with 30 or so races to choose from. It can get daunting to create a character when there are so many moving parts, especially at higher levels. However, I decided to make this guide (and in doing so pushing Alchemist off... again) to help new players figure out how to create a character. While other character creation guides do exist, I'll be using our house rules and walking through multiple character setups, as well as higher-level character creation.               I'll be referring to character archetypes in three major categories: Striker, Controller, and Supporter. Strikers are damage dealers who excel at removing targets from play through high damaging attacks or spells. Just about any class can be a Striker, but some classes do a much b...
Read more