[Tome] Non-Scaling Feats For Everyone!

[JonSetanta]

Assuming Frank has changed his mind, which has bound to happen, this time about scaling feats (see my signature)...

... What should be done differently?



IMHO every level should grant a feat. This slot can be used for Background, Combat, Metamagic, Skill, Subrace/Blood, and so on.

I recently saw a cool image of an Azer (you know those flame headed dwarf people?) and thought, what if getting a burning head and/or beard was a feat?
Just a single feat. No scaling.
Something like a one-time racial feat similar to the scaling monster ones we (Koumei, Prak, and others I can't remember) did a while ago, but without the scaling.

Sure, they might have prereqs sometimes, but no more than one, and it would be something simple to acquire.
There might be feat chains for Subrace/Blood but no others.

I also suggest bumping down the Epic feats to level 11+ and reducing the prereqs to merely other feats, such as Silent Spell -> Automatic Silent Spell (and a certain character level such as 11+).


Now, some might ask "Why is this Tome?", to which I say, Tome scaling feats could be split up into smaller feats, each previous bonus for each feat being the requirement for the next as long as it made thematic sense.

No extra work is needed. You could just look at a scaling feat and mentally split it into minifeats, and move on with your life.

[Prak]

I think "My head's on fire" lends itself to a very specific sort of game. I'm not necessarily opposed to it, and I could see it being a mage feat like the others I've written up in IMOI, or something similar to that, but I think that sort of "Stupid Awesome" stuff is very taste specific and not everyone has a taste for it.

[JonSetanta]

All right I'll stat it up.

Firemane aka Azer Blooded
Prereq: Humanoid
Bonus: Your body hair becomes fire. This fire only harms that which you want to burn.
Any flammable being or thing grappling or touching your body for more than one round automatically catches fire for 1d6 Fire damage each round.

Done. We have an Azer.

[JonSetanta]

Giantblooded
Bloodline Feat
Prereqs: Humanoid, non-Giant, Level 4+
Bonus: You count as a Giant and increase somewhat in size by one stage if you are not Large or bigger already.
For a size Medium character advancing to Large this becomes:
• +4 racial bonus to STR
• -2 DEX
• +2 racial bonus to CON
• +2 Natural AC
• -1 to all attack rolls and to AC
• Require twice as much food and water each day
• This feat is probably too powerful...


Ogreblooded
Bloodline Feat
Prereqs: Giantblooded, Level 5+
Bonus: You count as an Ogre. Gain Reach +5 and base movement +10.
• +4 STR
• +2 CON
• +5 Natural AC
• Low-Light Vision
Penalties: You get -4 INT and -2 CHA.


Trollblooded
Bloodline Feat
Prereqs: Humanoid, Level 7+
Bonus: You count as a Troll, your skin becomes green, and you gain Fast Healing 5 that is prevented by Fire and Acid damage. You can reattach a severed limb instantly by holding it to the stump.
• +5 Natural AC
• Low-Light Vision
Penalties: You get -4 INT and CHA.


Feral
Bloodline Feat
Prereqs: A mouth or hands
Bonus: This feat may be taken up to two times. Choose a different bonus each time:
• Bite (mouth): Gain a single Bite attack for 1d6 + STR damage. A bite attack deals B/P damage.
• Claws (2 hands): Gain a pair of claw attacks for 1d4 + STR damage. A claw attack deals S/P damage.


Darkvision
Bloodline Feat
Prereqs: At least one eye
Bonus: You see in natural darkness out to a range of 30 feet. This distance increases by 30 feet every 5 levels.
Optional Penalty: You may choose to have Light Blindness and in return gain an additional 90 feet to the Darkvision sight distance.
Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds you for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, you are dazzled as long as you remain in the affected area.

[JonSetanta]

Tough Fortitude
Prereq: None
Bonus: +2 Fortitude saves and an additional +2 Hit Points per level.

Lightning Reflexes
Prereq: None
Bonus: +2 Reflex saves and +2 Dodge to Armor Class.

Iron Will
Prereq: None
Bonus: +2 Will saves and +1 spell slot of a single spellcasting class you know. If you don't have a spellcasting class, pick any single spell as if your character levels were spellcasting levels.

[JonSetanta]

Feyblooded
Bloodline Feat
Prereqs: Non-Undead
Bonus: You count as Fey. Your hair and skin become a pastel color.
• +2 racial bonus to Spot and Listen
• Low-Light Vision
• Immune to magical Sleep effects
• +2 racial bonus to Will saves against Enchantment
• Damage Reduction 5/Iron or Steel as long as you have not eaten Prime Material food. Eating Fey plane food returns this protection.
• Immune to aging as long as you are not in the Prime Material plane or as long as you have not eaten Prime Material food. Aging resumes as normal once you enter the Prime.


Living Dead
Bloodline Feat
Prereqs: Non-Undead
Bonus: You become Undead without any specific subtype (yet).
• +2 Natural AC
• You can only digest raw meat.
• Gain a Slam attack for 1d6 + STR Bludgeoning damage.
• Immune to aging.

[JonSetanta]

Melee Focus
Combat Feat
Prereq: None
Bonus: You gain +1 to melee attack rolls.


Ranged Focus
Combat Feat
Prereq: None
Bonus: You gain +1 to ranged attack rolls.


Boring, yes, but it must be said.
It's better than Weapon Focus but then again most things are.




Solid Aura
Combat Feat
Prereq: Know at least 1 Kinetic Psionic power
Bonus: You get a +4 Armor bonus to AC while you are conscious. Your aura is visible.


Precognition
Combat Feat
Prereq: Wisdom 12+
Bonus: Add your WIS bonus to your AC as an Insight bonus.

[Kaelik]

I think you are overly wedded to level prereqs as solving all problems.

The bottom line should be that you want all the things you could take at level 1 to be competing with all the things you could take at level 20 and every level in between.

Not that some things can't have pre-reqs, but having pre-reqs isn't enough to justify being objectively stronger than any feat with a lower pre-req, because then you make a set of feats for level 1, another set for level 2, another set for level 3, ect. And if someone doesn't take a feat at level 1, then they will never take that feat, because it will be competeing with stronger and stronger feats.

[deaddmwalking]

If you had specific level cut-offs for when you could begin selecting Feats, you could possibly make it work. For example, at levels 1-5 you get 1 feat from the 'Level 1' list. Beginning at level 6, you can take from the Level 6 list. At the same time, you might start getting 'free picks' on the Level 1 list (for example, by completing an adventure).

At that point the Level 1 Feats wouldn't be a major power-up, but they would broaden the abilities of higher level characters.

Similarly, at level 11+ you could start getting higher tier feats when you level up, and the Level 6-10 could be 'free'.

[Chamomile]

I have serious concerns about keeping track of all this stuff as levels pile up. One per level isn't overwhelming, but add on a freebie low-level feat at the end of each adventure (and people will feel obligated to take one at every opportunity even if they're mostly worthless fluff at the level they're at) and I expect things to get completely overwhelming in a hurry.

[deaddmwalking]

I don't know if it would become overwhelming - but it probably would be overlooked.

Example: You saved the forest and your reward was a kiss from the dryad/nixie/pixie/nymph or whatever attractive fey. Boon: +2 on reaction rolls w/ Fey creatures.

Most of the time, it's not going to matter. It's not going to ever be WORTH a feat, even at low levels, but when you're later trying to have diplomatic relations with the evil fey and stop them from launching their major evil, you might look at your character sheet and notice it. Just like sometimes people remember they have pitons or a flask of oil - usually you forget about it, but when it matters, you might stumble on in.

On the other hand, having things like that does take up space on your character sheet, and if they don't have ANY limitations, it might be possible to Voltron enough bullshit abilities to become SUPERPOWERED. It's certainly a fine line to walk between offering flavorful abilities that feel like they are worth writing down versus useless crap on the one hand and 'must have' abilities on the other.

[OgreBattle]

Tracking dryad kisses to get +10% on a social roll seems like the kind of thing a "fate" or "Background" portion of your character sheet should be handling, something that can change from story arc to story arc.

[JonSetanta]

I understand what you're all saying but can't think of any other way to implement it.

And +2 to specific social rolls seems too puny to be a feat, it would be something else...

[Kaelik]

The point of Minor feats is that you make a whole bunch of them balanced with each other, and then you don't have to worry about it.

The problem is that you want feats to be the entirety of a monster, instead of a small part, so you make it a prereq Xth level.

How about instead, break the things that are that monster up into component parts, and then make those feats that are balanced, and is someone wants to be a Troll it can cost them 3 minor feats instead of one definitely not minor feat because a feat that gives Fast Healing 5 + GODDAM ANYTHING isn't a minor feat anymore.

Also for the record, saying fast healing is stopped by Acid and Fire is not enough information, you need to say how it is stopped for how long, what that means, ect.

And yes, that means people can be part troll without being 100% troll. OH THE HORROR!

[JonSetanta]

How about instead, break the things that are that monster up into component parts, and then make those feats that are balanced, and is someone wants to be a Troll it can cost them 3 minor feats instead of one definitely not minor feat because a feat that gives Fast Healing 5 + GODDAM ANYTHING isn't a minor feat anymore.

I shall meditate on this.
Not literally.

And despite your usually crass behavior (and as a friend said once "Does this guy really talk like that? I hope not."), you've given some gold advice here.

I'll try again when I completely withdrawal from Zoloft.

[Kaelik]

And despite your usually crass behavior (and as a friend said once "Does this guy really talk like that? I hope not."), you've given some gold advice here.

You have literally the thinnest skin imaginable.

[OgreBattle]

How can the current scaling [Combat] feats be reworked into this paradigm? I still like the idea of being able grab one feat that is everything I need to fight with a thing in each hand, or everything I need to punch ghosts, so I'm not entirely convinced that scaling feats for warriors is a bad thing.

Now for having monster blood and metamagic, then yeah a bunch of smaller feats is fine.

[JonSetanta]

You have literally the thinnest skin imaginable.

I could recite a lifelong history of varied abuse, gunfire, chemicals, repeated rape and molestation on my body, and ensuing PTSD, but you wouldn't be interested.

Meh. I can take that.

... I've met thinner.

[JonSetanta]

How can the current scaling [Combat] feats be reworked into this paradigm? I still like the idea of being able grab one feat that is everything I need to fight with a thing in each hand, or everything I need to punch ghosts, so I'm not entirely convinced that scaling feats for warriors is a bad thing.

Now for having monster blood and metamagic, then yeah a bunch of smaller feats is fine.

Have you read the addendum threads for Tome warriors? Or even carefully study the Tome series itself for the original scaling feats.
Keep in mind that each section of each feat must be accounted for when assembling a build.

It gets to be a mess very fast.

Imagine a level 20 character, hell even a level 11, Fighter for instance, chock full of scaling feats, having to add new options every five levels.
It's a mess.
A DM once told me "You can use the feats only if you use a new feat slot each time it scales up", or similar, I can't recall perfectly. It was a vodka fueled session.

[JonSetanta]

Here's an attempt to split up the Trollblooded feat.

Thick Skin
Prereq: CON 18+
Bonus: Add your CON bonus as a Natural Armor bonus to your AC.

Trollblooded
Prereq: Giantblooded
Bonus: You gain Fast Healing equal to your CON bonus but no higher than 5 HP healed per round. Damage dealt by Fire and Acid can not be healed in this way.


And a new Giantblooded...

Giantblooded
Prereq: Level 7 (that's the level you get Polymorph)
Bonus: You become size Large with all appropriate bonuses and penalties.
Penalty: You require twice as much food and water each day.


It would also help to allow a single feat to be spent on +2 to a stat, taken up to 4 times per stat.
This is more powerful than the inherent bonus granted by Wish, or the Epic feats that do similar, but that's the point... in 5e you can do just that, swap out a feat for +2 stat bonus.

[Judging__Eagle]

A DM once told me "You can use the feats only if you use a new feat slot each time it scales up", or similar, I can't recall perfectly. It was a vodka fueled session.

That's... the antithesis of meaning of the words: "scaling feat".

Probably approaching "communication is impossible, because words have no meaning" territory.

You have horribly illogical game referees.

[Sigil]

A DM once told me "You can use the feats only if you use a new feat slot each time it scales up", or similar, I can't recall perfectly. It was a vodka fueled session.

That's... the antithesis of meaning of the words: "scaling feat".

Probably approaching "communication is impossible, because words have no meaning" territory.

You have horribly illogical game referees.

It sounds more like his DM didn't want to use scaling feats, but was willing to let him take each bullet point of the scaling feats as separate feats as-is, but communicated it poorly.

[Mask_De_H]

Note: the current Tome gives Large Size out at level 6, JS.

[Kaelik]

Note: the current Tome gives Large Size out at level 6, JS.

Yeah, and it's literally the best level 6 feat even when competing with tome combat feats.

Almost like Sig's ideas of a small feat is fucking huge.

[JonSetanta]

Note: the current Tome gives Large Size out at level 6, JS.

Oh NOW you tell me! Which book? And thanks.


As for the scaling feat being chopped up by a DM, yes he didn't like the scaling part, I was fine with his decision and too drunk to care.



EDIT: As for splitting up "Large size", what if it's like this...

• +8 STR and a penalty like -4 INT
• +4 CON and -2 DEX
• Reach +5 and Speed +10 and a -2 CHA
... All stacks up for one size Large (Ogre)