Yes, I know, increased crit multiplier is a really nice thing and really strong (tm). Though this class has some glaring faults I think is about time are considered to be addressed which I will outline below.
Prerequisites are first on the menu. I speak broadly when I say this, but I don't think there is a single person out there that can agree with a straight face that the current feat requirements do any good for the class and only hinder player choice and versatility. By three to four feats which largely, have no immediate or extremely trivial use. I will provide links to the wiki pages as well.
We'll start with
Dodge. Pretty self explanatory if you read the page. You get 1 AC that doesn't apply when flat footed, listed as "other" AC. I think this is rather unfortunate, given the literal name of the feat. Furthermore, in extensive testing done in the past, the 1 AC against your "last attacker" has never worked and still does not work to my knowledge. A good feat for dueling someone directly, but not an overall 1 AC gain, unlike Bonetti's Defense or Two Weapon Defense.
Expertise is always useful. No real complaints here.
Spring Attack. Here we go. This feat is utterly nullified by the investment in the tumble skill even in full plate armor. At a fixed DC of 14 to avoid an attack of opportunity with tumble, and most Weaponmasters wearing Half Plate or lighter, this is
laughably easy to overcome on PotM especially. You could say, of course, that not everyone splashes Rogue into their Weaponmaster build and it's useful for those sorts, but how many of those actually are there? Not taking Rogue with your Weaponmaster is like not putting butter on bread. It's a direct hindrance and you lose next to nothing for putting in 3 Rogue levels minimum. And even if you are a Fighter/Weaponmaster, why would you not cross-class tumble either way? Redundant.
Mobility. Arguably another redundant feat. If the player is smart and knows how to avoid Attacks of Opportunity already, what use is this to the Weaponmaster that cannot even provoke most Attacks of Opportunity that matter in the first place? If built correctly they already have an insane amount of AC mid combat and are not exactly at risk of being hit.
Weapon Focus is self explanatory.
Last but not least,
Whirlwind Attack! I feel as if I don't have to explain much here. You are committing a full action to spinning around in a circle when you could instead, spend four attacks on one target (five if hasted), having a high chance of killing it and potentially another. If this could be implemented as a free action instead, I could see the use. However, anyone that's ever played a Weaponmaster can agree that this feat is quite worthless. Especially here on PotM.
So there we have it. Three to four feats that are a largely considered a waste by most Weaponmaster players. It would be very nice if we could consider removing these as prerequisites or fixing the ones that can be fixed (and by popular demand, replacing them).
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Moving on to one final point I'd like to make about Weaponmasters is one of their core functioning abilities,
Ki Strike. From a quote I pulled from the wiki from someone who seems to have figured out how the system is supposed to work, he had this to say:
Ki damage critical hits only apply maximum damage to the first weapon base damage roll. Thus a critical hit with a x2 multiplier would deal (as far as base weapon damage is concerned) normal base weapon damage + maximized base weapon damage. The base weapon damage of a critical hit with x3 multiplier is two instances of base weapon damage and one instance of maximized base weapon damage. Etc. -WhiZard 14:37, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
From what it sounds like, this is what happens -- Greatsword critical hit with Ki Strike translates to: x3, so , (1d12 + 1d12 + 12) + all other damage modifiers x 3.
(It's very important to note that the base damage is not actually multiplied here, resulting in less damage).An interesting choice to make for Ki Damage criticals, given that just multiplying 12 by 3 gives you far better damage potential than two random dice and one static number would. On average, non-critical hits, Ki Damage always wins out. But you can't accurately predict when you'll land a critical hit, nor is it useful against high AC targets exactly. So, what is the point of Ki Damage over all? Can it possibly be made into something better? I of course invite people to comment who have had extensive experience with this Weaponmaster feat and Weaponmaster experience in general to get an overall feel for where the class is at the moment.
