feat Combat Expertise

Combat Expertise (General)

This material is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.

Prerequisite: Intelligence 13.

Benefit: When you use the attack action or the full attack action in melee, you can take a penalty of as much as -5 on your attack roll and add the same number (+5 or less) as a Dodge bonus to your Armor Class. This number may not exceed your base attack bonus. The changes to attack rolls and Armor Class last until your next action.

Normal: A character without the Combat Expertise feat can fight defensively while using the attack or full attack action to take a -4 penalty on attack rolls and gain a +2 Dodge bonus to Armor Class.

Special: A fighter may select Combat Expertise as one of his fighter bonus feats.

How Combat Expertise Works

Combat Expertise lets a melee character trade accuracy for defence. When taking the attack action or full attack action, choose a penalty to the attack roll of up to -5. The character gains the same number as a dodge bonus to Armor Class, but the chosen number cannot exceed the character’s base attack bonus.

Combat Expertise Example

A character with base attack bonus +6 chooses to take -3 on melee attack rolls for the action. Until the character’s next action, Combat Expertise grants a +3 dodge bonus to Armor Class. The same character could choose -5/+5, but a character with base attack bonus +2 could choose no more than -2/+2.

Combat Expertise vs Fighting Defensively

Fighting defensively uses a fixed -4 attack penalty for a +2 dodge bonus. Combat Expertise is more flexible because the character chooses the size of the trade each time, within the feat’s limits. That makes it useful when survival matters more than maximum accuracy but the full defensive penalty is unnecessary.

See the Feats index for other fighter and defensive options.