Combat Module B: Combat styles and combat style skills.

[theobserver]

[theobserver]

.....You're overreacting pretty badly, deadzero.

First, regarding hobble: I've already mentioned that a good comparison to hobble is a strength-based dirt kick, with good reason. Before we toned down blindness penalties, being dirted for a warrior type was actually WORSE than a halfling not having dodge at all, because it basically cut THREE defenses in half. Now with the blindness penalty reduced, being blinded by dirt is a bit weaker than a halfling losing dodge, but still comes with the can't target and can't re-equip after disarm penalties. Hobble also has a shorter duration than dirt, and can be prevented COMPLETELY by not falling into a combat style disadvantge. Like I've said, it's a good counterpart to how good dirt kick still is for dex-based chars.

As for concentration, yes it scales up against high-dex targets, but remember that dex differences for dodge have also been doubled, so a halfling vs concentration will still dodge considerably better than a human vs concentration. You really have to play the other side, as a giant trying to fight a halfling's dodge, to appreciate how uber halfling dodge is -- and because of the dex factor being doubled now, it's even more potent now.

Lastly, clobber, hobble, and sidestep give rogues plenty of options during straight up combat, much more than they used to have. And they've already had many other types of options compared to warriors (backstab to initiate, hide when hurt, etc), so warriors now having additional tools to help them gain an edge in straight-up combat is to be rather expected.

You'd probably fare better with rogues if you'd spent half as much energy figuring out ways to leverage clobber/hobble/sidestep to maximize your advantage rather than worry about hobble and concentration. Someone using a polearm against you and land a hobble? Switch to single dagger and nail them hard with an improved-damage sidestep -- hobble doesn't lag you or prevent you from returning the favor. They try to dual wield sword/dagger to hobble you again? Switch to a two-handed exotic (which include some of the most powerful weapons in the game -- taint, balance sceptre, etc, as well as a slew of them in the novelty shop for weeks now), and your uncanny attack will hit for massive damage AND disarm both of his weapons if used under those circumstances. And so on.

Point being, just about everything is a double-edged sword now, and every advantage your opponent has comes with built-in ways for you to counter them as well. The best way to go is to give enough thought to covering your ass minimally -- just enough to prevent you opponent's strongest countermeasures, and usually neutral weapon type or evenly matched combat style is enough to do this even without advantage/superiority -- then focus on leveraging all the advantages you have offensely. These double-edged weapon types and combat styles will STRONGLY favor those who use them AGGRESSIVELY to kill their opponents, rather than sit back and worry just about "staying alive" and trying to stamp out each penalty as it happens to them. You can choose to drive yourself nuts trying to cover your ass, or you can go balls out and actually kill people using the changes. Your choice.