[Pathfinder] Using Acrobatics to Dodge Attacks
I'm spit-balling an idea here, to reflect something that comes up in fiction (both printed and filmed). It's not uncommon to see an agile combatant squirm his way around an enemy, avoiding that enemy's attempts to hit him. Sometimes, he actually lures his enemy into attacking just to draw attention.
In the PF rules, you can use Acrobatics to move through a space an enemy threatens without provoking opportunity attacks, but that doesn't have the same feel to it. What if, instead, movement provoked as normal, but your Acrobatics skill could determine how hard you were to hit?
The current rules call for an Acrobatics check against the enemy's CMD, with each successive check increasing the target number by 2. With this variant, you would instead have the enemy make an attack as normal, but the moving PC uses their Acrobatics bonus + 10 in place of their AC (if that's higher). Situational modifiers that affect AC (dodge bonus, cover, etc.) would increase this number as well -- basically, if it would increase your CMD, it works here too. Feats like Dodge and Mobility would come into play as well.
Dodging like this requires moving at half-speed, just as in the rules for the skill. (Moving at full speed would remove the +10 modifier.) All of the other rules in the Acrobatics skill apply.
Attempting to move through an enemy's space would call for an Acrobatics vs. CMD check, as normal.
This message was last updated by a moderator, as it was the wrong forum, at 12:53, Tue 12 May 2015.