Periodical PF1: Better Acrobatics-Based Feats for Pathfinder 1st edition (Part One) (Patreon)

I did a poll to see what weekly available-to-free-and-paying-Patrons article series my paying Patrons most wanted to see take the place of the Horrifically Overpowered Class Features line I finished after covering every class the Pathfinder publisher put out for 1st edition.

The number one result, by far, was "Anything, as long as it's for Pathfinder 1e." The second most popular options were a 4-way tie between "Anything for Pathfinder 2nd edition," "Anything for Starfinder 1e," "Anything for Starfinder 2e,"and "Anything that ISN'T Horrifically Overpowered." But any PF1 option got twice the votes of any one of those options. So, I'm looking at doing weekly PF1 articles, and turning to those other game systems and system-agnostic articles when I am doing another blog post in a given week.

Right now I'm not sure WHICH series of PF1 articles to do weekly. I'm going to try a few and see if any get a resoundingly positive reaction. While the poll was running I released "Better Bluff-Based Feats for Pathfinder 1st edition," and lots of people seemed to like it. So, now I am following that up with this post on Acrobatics-based feats for PF1. If you want to see more articles compiling and revising skill-based feats, let me know!

That said, this set is going to take 3 parts to get through. There is a TON of research and organization that goes into boiling down 30 so-so feats into 7-8 great ones. But if these are popular I'll happily through them into the Pathfinder 1e content mix, and if necessary do other articles for other weeks. I'm tagging these all as "Periodical PF1" for now, as the 'line' name of weekly Pathfinder 1st ed content.

I'm also creating a Better Skill Feat Index as an exclusive benefit for paying Patrons. It has links to all the Better Skill Feat articles, and an alphabetized list of all the skill feats released so far. I'll update it each time there's a new Better Skill Feat article.

(Because if you spend a precious feat on an option to look cool that depends on the right set up, you WANT TO GET TO USE IT and go ahead and flip over the bad guy while throwing kives at him! Art by Николай Акатов)

So What Is An Acrobatics-Based Feat?

I had to make some decisions when deciding what counted as an "Acrobatics-based" feat. When deciding what skill to link to a feat with 2 different skills as a prerequisites, I generally assigned it to the skill that has the higher number of ranks required. I didn't include any Style feats in this article, because I think they need to be considered as a whole (rather than just looking at those related to Acrobatics). Similarly, I didn't look at any of the performance combat feats, since performance combat is a little-used subsystem and all of its components should be looked at together. The various "trick" fears are also excluded, as they have a unique structure all their own.

There are some terrain-specific feats (Icy Climber, for example), that affect Acrobatics checks under some circumstances, but don't require ranks are a prerequisite or expand your use of Acrobatics. I definitely think those are worth a unifying and compiling pass, but mostly it should be separate from looking at Acrobatics-skill-specific feats. I have Adaptive Acrobatics as a catch-all for the simplest of those, but others really need a different treatment.

The feats below fall into a few categories, largely based on the things you can do with Acrobatics. In some cases why I did things the way I did is obvious. In other cases, I thought it might be useful to outline why I redesigned, combined, and adjusted feats, as follows.

Adaptive Acrobatics: Okay, look--if you are in a campaign that is specifically built around low-gravity planes of existence, or sailing ships, or tree-filled jungles, it might be worth taking the Expert Boarder, Light Gravity Acclimation, Sea Legs, and so on. But if not in a campaign where that is where most of the action is, they absolutely are not worth it. By combining them, it's possible for a character to get roughly the same use out of the feat whether the campaign spends most of its time in just one of those environments, or it if bounced around to different ones.

Augmented Leap: There are a lot of interesting feats designed to help you jump farther or safely fall farther. At lower levels, those are cool. But by the time flying is fairly common (even for non-spellcasters if they buy potions or get flight items, which are popular choices), a feat has to do a lot and do it without taking up another move or standard action for it to be worthwhile. Augmented Leap lets you pick from a long list of options if you have the right powers, but is also genuinely useful even just on its own if you may be jumping down often and want to retain your footing.

THE FEATS (Pt. 1)

Adaptive AcrobaticsYou have learned to use your acrobatic abilities to get by in a range of environments.Prerequisites: Acrobatic, Acrobatics 3 ranksBenefit: If you are moving through terrain that requires a DC 15 or lower Acrobatics check to move through at full speed, or to move through without falling, you are treated as automatically succeeding at that check. If in such terrain with a DC 16 or higher Acrobatics check required, you gain a +5 bonus to such checks.

(Dex 13) Your land speed increases by 10 feet while in an area with light gravity or no gravity, and other creatures do not gain a circumstance bonus on attack rolls against you from light or no gravity.

(Fly 3 ranks) When flying in strong winds, you gain a +15-foot bonus to your fly speed. For every wind strength category above strong, you gain an additional +15-foot bonus to your fly speed (for a total of +30 feet in severe winds, +45 feet in a windstorm, and +60 feet in tornadoes). This does not give you any bonuses on Fly or Strength checks to determine if you are potentially checked or blown away.

(Fly 5 ranks) When you take a move action to fly you do not need to succeed at a Fly check to continue flying, even when moving less than half your speed. When moving less than half your speed in a round, you also gain a +2 bonus on Acrobatics checks to avoid attacks of opportunity and a +2 bonus to your AC against attacks of opportunity you provoke because of movement.

(Profession [sailor] 3 ranks) You gain a +2 bonus on Acrobatics and Climb checks to climb or swing on a rope or ship’s rigging, and to all Swim checks. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity from climbing or swinging on a rope or ship’s rigging.

Special: This feat replaces the feats Careful Flyer, Expert Boarder, Light Gravity Acclimation, Sea Legs, and Wind Rider, and counts in place of any of those feats for purposes of meeting prerequisites.

Augmented LeapYou can use some of the powers available to you to jump farther or do mor while jumping.Prerequisites: Acrobatic, Acrobatics 3 ranksBenefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Acrobatics checks made to jump, and when falling you treat all falls as if they were 10 feet shorter. This stacks with the reduction in effective distance of a fall from succeeding at a DC 15 Acrobatics check. Also, if you do succeed at a DC 15 Acrobatics skill check to soften a fall, you ignore an additional 10 feet of distance (20 feet total). When doing this you land on your feet as long as you take less than 20 points of damage from the fall.

You may gain one or more additional bonuses or options if you meet the additional prerequisites listed in parenthesis.

(grit class feature or Amateur Gunslinger feat; Dodge, Mobility, base attack bonus +4) (Grit) As a full-round action, you can move up to your speed and make firearm attacks at your highest base attack bonus with each loaded firearm you are wielding. You can make these attacks at any point during your movement, and if you are wielding two firearms, you can make the attacks at different points during the movement. At the end of this movement, you fall prone. This costs 1 grit point to perform.

(kinetic blast) Once per day as a swift action, you can conjure a burst of energy from your kinetic blast to help you jump a long distance, adding a +10 bonus on your Acrobatics check to jump (+20 if you have at least 10 ranks in Acrobatics). By accepting 1 point of burn, you can use this ability at will until your burn is removed.

(Knowlege [planes] 3 ranks)(Conduit) As a swift action, you can wrap your body in airy energies reducing your weight by 50% until the beginning of your next turn. This gives you a circumstance bonus on Acrobatics checks equal to half your ranks in Knowledge (planes), causes you to be treated as having a running start when attempting Acrobatics checks to jump, and allows you to treat your Acrobatics checks to high jump as long jumps for the purpose of determining the DC. You can use this feat’s benefit for a number of rounds per day equal to your ranks in Knowledge (planes). These rounds need not be consecutive.

(arcane pool, arcane reservoir, bloodrage, ki pool, or rage) As a swift action, you can expend 1 point from your arcane pool, arcane reservoir, or ki pool (or 2 rounds from your bloodrage or rage), to gain a +10 bonus to one Acrobatics check made to jump. If you have the slow fall class feature, your slow fall distance is increased by 10 feet.

(spellcasting) As a swift action, you can expend a spell slot or prepared spell of 1st level or higher to gain a surge of magical leaping power. You may expend a 1st level or higher spell-like ability to do this, as long as it has limited uses per day. Until your next turn you gain a bonus to Acrobatics checks made to jump equal to +5 per level of the spell or slot expended.

Special: This feat replaces the feats Cat's Fall, Kinetic Leap, Leaping Shot, Shingle Runner, Slow Faller, and Wind Leaper, and counts in place of any of those feats for purposes of meeting prerequisites.

Next Week: Combinations of Acrobatic Spellcaster, Canny Tumble, Confounding Tumble Deed, Disorienting Maneuver, Mobile Acrobat, Passing Trick, Sliding Dash, Tumbling Upset, and Underfoot, and a revised Cut Your Losses!