New Tactical Feats

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Lago_AM3P
Duke
Posts: 1268
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

New Tactical Feats

Post by Lago_AM3P »

Energy Master
Prereqs: Ability to cast 5 spells with an energy descriptor that cause hp damage, at least one of them 3rd level.

Pyromaniac: Any spell you cast with the [fire] or [electricity] descriptor sets things on fire. Things follow the normal rules for setting on fire, though objects with a hardness exceeding 8, creatures with the [fire], [electricity], or [water] subtype, or fire immunity do not catch on fire unless they possess sufficient amounts of flammable equipment.

Sundering Blast: Any spell you cast with an energy descriptor does full damage against objects and also ignores the first 5 points of energy resistance possessed by the target(s).

Back Blast: Target a creature benefitting from cover from a burst or ray spell that deals hp damage that can also deal damage to objects. Treat the object as the original target; if the damage from the spell is sufficient to destroy the object, the difference between the spell's damage and the object's hp is passed along to the targeted creature and he does not receive the benefit of cover (reflex saves, improved evasion, AC bonus). The caster must still be able to target the creature for rays, but burst spells that destroy cover deal spillover damage to those benefitting it even if the spellcaster was unaware of their location.


Professional Wrestler
Prereqs: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Clever Wrestler or Close Quarters Fighting, BAB +5.

Wedge: If a creature with the swallow whole ability has you in its maw but fails on any grapple check to swallow you, you automatically get to make a grapple check of your own or make a light attack at a -4 penalty.

Master of the Dogpile: As appropriate, you may still take attacks of opportunity as if you were not grappled against creatures who try to join the grapple.

Close-Quarters Fighting: In a grapple, you may draw and use one-handed melee weapons at a -4 penalty, as if they were light weapons; if you have more than one set of arms or the improved grab special ability, you may draw and use a two-handed weapon in the same manner.


Assassination
Prerequisites: 5d6 Sneak Attack Damage, Sleight of Hand 9 Ranks, Hide 9 Ranks


Chink in the Armor: Against corporeal creatures with an anatomy, but no vital organs such as many constructs, undead, some plants, etc., you may now deal half of your sneak attack damage against the creature for the remainder of the encounter after your initial hit. This ability also applies to characters protected by fortification armor or similar enchantments.

Sniper's Eye: For each 1d6 worth of sneak attack damage you forgo, the penalty for sniping while hiding is reduced by -5, to a minimum of 0.

Glint of Steel: You are able to sneak attack creatures that have vitals but you cannot reach (because of size differences) in your threat range as if you could reach their vitals normally. This ability does not bypass fortification armor or similar enchantments.


Divine Channeler:
Prerequisites: Ability to channel positive or negative energy. Caster Level 6.

Energy of True Fear: A channeler of energy does not break the awe or rebuke effect by approaching their foes.

Energy of True Destruction: Against an unattended object or objects, a channeler of energy may use a turn attempt on it in an attempt to destroy it. A channeler of energy rolls a normal turning check, but with special stipulations: The channeler's turning check represents the maximum hardness he can affect and the turning damage the amount of actual hp damage deat to the objects. If the channeler can affect more HD than the object has, he can affect more objects up until the maximum hit dice if he chooses.

Dual Energy Channeler: When preparing spells, a channeler of energy may petition the force they pray to whether to channel positive or negative energy (as a cleric) in addition to normal preparation. Any creatures commanded by the channeler are freed. This does not remove the moral reprocussions from channeling energy; thus a godless cleric of an evil deity may never be able to use this ability, while a good cleric of Wee Jas may be able to channel both kinds of energy freely.
Username17
Serious Badass
Posts: 29894
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Re: New Tactical Feats

Post by Username17 »

Energy Master


All three of these abilities function on exactly the same set of spells, really. It's just three things that happen when you cast Fireball.

Except that it's not. I don't exactly follow what Back Blast is supposed to do - but you normally don't target creatures with bursts at all - they affect areas, which is a whole different thing.


Assassination

I can't tell what Chink in the armor is supposed to do. What it does is give you a couple of bonus dice of damage against everyone immune to criticals all the time. This makes you better at fighting a single ooze than fighting a single humanoid, which is weird.

There is no penalty for sniping while hiding. There is a penalty to hiding while attacking or running.

Special on "Glint of Steel" - there realy aren't any rules for the thing this ability lets you ignore. It's mentioned in the rules for sneak attack, but is "ad hoc" at best. So since this ability only serves to negate an ad hoc adjudication by the DM for an unusual situation, it doesn't actually do anything.

Divine Channeler:


Energy of Fear is cool. The other two are incomprehensible and have no place in the game.

-Username17
RandomCasualty
Prince
Posts: 3506
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Re: New Tactical Feats

Post by RandomCasualty »

I too have no idea how backblast works.

Pro.wrestler looks okay.

Assassination has a load of mechanical problems. First, a golem doesn't have an anatomy at all... so I'm not sure how that's supposed to work. I'd change the wording to just include creature types and fortification armor. Even still I wonder if such an ability is too powerful. The ability to sneak attack constructs, undead and people wearing fortification armor is something every rogue will consider a must take, so I'd be really careful with this one. If this were the only ability offered by the feat, I think every rogue would still want to take it.

The sniper thing is really screwy. Reducing your penalty to hide after firing by reducing your sneak attack damage just seems nonsensical. From a balance point of view it may be too powerful also. It amounts to a +20 to hide checks when sniping... and that's very good for one feat. A rogue is going to be basically undetectable with that.

Glint of steel is ok, though as frank said it's dealing with a rule most DMs ignore, but considering the other abilities of this tactical feat are huge, it's probably a good idea to have something lesser like this.

The divine channeler feat seems for the most part useless. Aside from the first ability, which is really I guess just a way to get cheap kills on undead, the rest of them are relatively useless.
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