Feinting

[BoB821]

Would some one be able to point me in the right direction to where feinting is? Which books, suggestions on skills, how to utilize them to my best, make a handbook?

I have only seen it briefly a long time ago, and never was relevant until now.

Thanks

[kitep]

The place to start is the Bluff skill, PHB-68

    Feinting in Combat: You can also use
Bluff to mislead an opponent in melee
combat (so that it can’t dodge your next
attack effectively). To feint, make a Bluff
check opposed by your target’s Sense
Motive check, but in this case, the target may add its base attack
bonus to the roll along with any other applicable modifiers. If your
Bluff check result exceeds this special Sense Motive check result,
your target is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) for the next
melee attack you make against it. This attack must be made on or
before your next turn.
    Feinting in this way against a nonhumanoid is difficult because
it’s harder to read a strange creature’s body language; you take a –4
penalty on your Bluff check. Against a creature of animal Intelligence
(1 or 2) it’s even harder; you take a –8 penalty. Against a nonintelligent
creature, it’s impossible.
    Feinting in combat does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Denied Dex bonus = sneak attack works.  But notice it's only for 1 attack, so if you get multiple attacks, SA only applies for the first one.

Then there's the Improved Feint feat (PHB-95)

IMPROVED FEINT [GENERAL]
You are skilled at misdirecting your opponent’s attention in combat.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise.
Benefit: You can make a Bluff check to feint in combat as a move action.
Normal: Feinting in combat is a standard action.
A fighter may select Improved Feint as one of his fighter bonus
feats (see page 38).

From here you learn that regular feint is a standard action, ie you feint in 1 round, then can attack the next round.  This feat makes it a move action, so you can feint and attack (once only) in the same round.

There's also text about Feint as a combat action PHB-155, but it just repeats the above.

[BoB821]

So, the run down is:  I attempt to feint as a standard action one round, if successful, the next round I would be able to attack with possible a bonus to hit a flat footed foe?  seems like a waste of a turn?   
As a Beguiler(first time playing one), aside from making ranged touch attacks, and getting higher DC on spells, is this all it is?  Nice part is, I am able to take "Heroic Surge" feat.

[kitep]

Beguiler

Surprise Casting (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, when you successfully use the Bluff skill to feint in combat, your target is denied its Dexterity bonus (if it has one) to AC for the next melee attack you make against it or the next spell you cast. You must remain in melee with the target, and the attack must be made or the spell cast on or before your next turn. The target is not considered flat-footed and therefore can make attacks of opportunity against you if you do not cast defensively.

All this adds is that after feinting, the target is denied DEX vs SPELLS as well as melee attacks.  I haven't checked the beguiler list, but a lot of spells that require to-hit rolls are treated as touch attacks, so you're likely to hit anyway, even if the target has his DEX bonus.

At 6th level, you gain the ability to feint in combat as a move action instead of a standard action. If you have the Improved Feint feat, you can now feint in combat as a swift action.

This is where feint actually becomes (somewhat) useful.  By doing it as a a swift action.

All-in-all, I think feint is pretty useless.  You're usually better off using your action doing something else.  Even if you get a log of goodies from a SA, there are other ways to pull off a SA.  And you'll want to focus more on spell-casting than SA.  Maybe if you're doing some sort of rogue-beguiler-arcane trickster build so you get both spells and SA, it might be worth it, but again, there are other ways to be able to use SA.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Uhh ... Keira Knightly does a bang of job of "feinting" here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZXcCYXGTXc




back edit --- the Divine Mind has a feinting based Aura.  Figures.

[Prime32]

The Invisible Blade PrC from Complete Warrior can take 10 on feint rolls and can feint with dagger-like weapons as a free action, though that was errata'd to 1/round.
Scarlet Corsair (Stormwrack) can feint as a free action, but with a cooldown.
The Einhander feat (PHB2) can feint as a free action using Sleight of Hand instead of Bluff, but only once per target, and only if you full attacked them last round.
The Group Fake-Out skill trick (Complete Adventurer) lets you take a penalty on your Bluff check to feint multiple targets at once. Timely Misdirection prevents feinted targets from making AoOs against you for 1 round.
Surprising Riposte (Drow of the Underdark) renders enemies flat-footed for 1 round if you hit them while feinted.

[Jackinthegreen]

Feinting requires a lot of investment to make work, but it can be made to work decently..  Note that stuff like Surprising Riposte makes the opponent flat-footed, which is a different effect than simply denying an opponent's Dex to AC.  Make sure you're aware of which one is going on if you're using a character that is focused on feinting.

By the way, if you're ever going to use Invisible Blade, the original author of that PrC noted his worked got changed from a single 10 level PrC to 2 5 level ones, the IB being one of them.  He recommends changing the prerequisite feats to Weapon Finesse and Weapon Focus (dagger, kukri, etc).

It's Complete Scoundrel where the skill tricks can be found, not Complete Adventurer.

[BoB821]

I appreciate all of the responses, Thank you.  Thank you for clearing up something I had at the time, and now still think (near useless), is going to be a rarely used skill on my character, and sticking with a more sneaky beguiler(Illusions).

[linklord231]

Beguiler

Surprise Casting (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, when you successfully use the Bluff skill to feint in combat, your target is denied its Dexterity bonus (if it has one) to AC for the next melee attack you make against it or the next spell you cast. You must remain in melee with the target, and the attack must be made or the spell cast on or before your next turn. The target is not considered flat-footed and therefore can make attacks of opportunity against you if you do not cast defensively.

All this adds is that after feinting, the target is denied DEX vs SPELLS as well as melee attacks.  I haven't checked the beguiler list, but a lot of spells that require to-hit rolls are treated as touch attacks, so you're likely to hit anyway, even if the target has his DEX bonus.

At 6th level, you gain the ability to feint in combat as a move action instead of a standard action. If you have the Improved Feint feat, you can now feint in combat as a swift action.

This is where feint actually becomes (somewhat) useful.  By doing it as a a swift action.

All-in-all, I think feint is pretty useless.  You're usually better off using your action doing something else.  Even if you get a log of goodies from a SA, there are other ways to pull off a SA.  And you'll want to focus more on spell-casting than SA.  Maybe if you're doing some sort of rogue-beguiler-arcane trickster build so you get both spells and SA, it might be worth it, but again, there are other ways to be able to use SA.

Just thought I'd point out that feinting also lets a Beguiler use his Cloaked Casting ability, which gives a decent bonus to save DCs and SR checks.  At 20th level, you can use a swift action to automatically overcome a foe's Spell Resistance, and that's pretty nice.  Shame it doesn't come until 20th level though.