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<blockquote data-quote="GMMichael" data-source="post: 6230287" data-attributes="member: 6685730"><p><strong>Chapter 5: Perks</strong></p><p></p><p>Until this point, Modos characters have been growing into heroes (and villains) who exhibit their powers with easily measured rules. They're impressive, but a little predictable. Perks allow you to bend the rules, and create some of the more unusual character features.</p><p> A perk is any character feature that cannot be classified as an ability (inherent character trait that allows him to interact with the world), skill (talent that improves with experience or training), or equipment (feature that can be purchased, traded, or destroyed - see Equipment chapter). There is one more very important aspect of perks: only one perk can grant a bonus to skills, called Specialize.</p><p><u></u></p><p><u>Choosing Perks</u>[sblock]</p><p> For convenience, a list of common perks is provided at the end of this chapter. However, a character can take anything as a perk, provided:</p><p>- it meets the definition of a perk,</p><p>- it is no more useful than any common perks, or</p><p>- it is part of a properly segmented perk tree, and</p><p>- the GM approves the perk.</p><p> When choosing perks, consider your character theme. If you are a member of a special race, you'll want to take a racial perk at starting level. Or if your profession is similar to a particular archetype, you'll want to select perks mostly from that archetype.</p><p><u>[/sblock]</u></p><p><u>Gaining Perks</u>[sblock]</p><p> Characters gain a perk at every level. When gaining a perk, a player can choose a new perk, the next perk on a perk tree, or to substitute the perk.</p><p> </p><p>A new perk can be taken when the character gains a level. This can be any perk without pre-requisites, a stackable perk that the character already has, or a perk that has new uses when the character takes it again.</p><p> </p><p>A perk tree is a series of perks that get more powerful as you take perks higher in the tree. Each higher perk has a lower perk as a pre-requisite. A stackable perk is similar, because the perk gains more power as you take it multiple times.</p><p> </p><p>If the player wants to improve something else, he can substitute a new perk. These can be substituted for an ability point or skill point. If the player chooses another skill point, his total points in that skill may not exceed his level.</p><p><u>[/sblock]</u></p><p><u>Common Perks</u>[sblock]</p><p> The following perks are available to all characters. For your convenience, they've been sorted into racial and archetypal lists. Perk descriptions follow these lists. Stackable or tree perks are noted with a - T.</p><p></p><p>Racial perks: cat's eye, diehard, large size, longstrider, observant, owl's eye, sleepless, small size.</p><p></p><p>Priest perks: armor training, divine intervention, enlightened, grudge, ki strike, stubborn.</p><p></p><p>Thief perks: backstab, dual wielder, informed, lucky day, nick of time, off the mark, rage.</p><p></p><p>Warrior perks: armor training, defender, dodge, dual wielder, fearless, special move, toughness, weapon focus.</p><p></p><p>Wizard perks: casting endurance, familiar, grudge, heroic companion, spell implement, spell maintenance, spell upgrade. </p><p></p><p>Armor training (armor type) - T</p><p>Choose a type of armor (e.g. chainmail). When wearing this armor, the protection die increases by one (e.g. d6 becomes d8). Taking this perk again increases the protection die again, or improves the protection of another armor type.</p><p></p><p>Backstab - T</p><p>You gain +2 damage when your opponent does not use a parry action against your attack. Can only be applied to light weapons. Stacking this perk raises the bonus to +4, then +6, and so on.</p><p></p><p>Casting endurance - T</p><p>When using any cast spell skill, the casting damage is reduced by 1 point, but cannot be reduced below 1 point. Stacking this perk reduces the damage by 2, then by 3, and so on.</p><p></p><p>Cat's eye</p><p>You can see twice as far as a normal person in daylight, dim light, or shadowy light.</p><p></p><p>Diehard</p><p>You can use hero points when rolling protection. You must announce this intent before making the protection roll.</p><p></p><p>Divine intervention</p><p>You can pray for holy power. Make a willpower contest as a metaphysical action. If you win a challenging (+4) contest, you can cast any spell of which your god approves (see rule zero) without having specific knowledge of the spell.</p><p></p><p>Dodge - T</p><p>Each round, you gain one extra parry action. Taking this perk again grants another parry action.</p><p></p><p>Dual wielder - T</p><p>When attacking with two one-handed weapons or a double weapon, you gain one fight action each round to be used with the secondary weapon.</p><p></p><p>Enlightened - T</p><p>You gain 1d4 protection against mental attacks. Each time you take this perk, the protection increases by one die type, e.g. 1d4 to 1d6.</p><p></p><p>Familiar - T</p><p>Your pet gains +4 to its mental ability score. This does not alter its physiology, for example, giving it the ability to speak. Stacking this perk grants another +4 to the pet's score, or allows you to grant the bonus to a second pet.</p><p></p><p>Fearless</p><p>You are immune to fear effects and conditions.</p><p></p><p>Grudge - T</p><p>Each round, you gain one additional concentration action.</p><p></p><p>Heroic companion - T</p><p>Your pet gains a level. Pets cannot earn or use hero points.</p><p></p><p>Informed</p><p>You can use a hero point to simulate specific knowledge in a knowledge skill. Roll the hero point, and use the result as your skill points in the selected knowledge skill.</p><p></p><p>Ki strike</p><p>When you succeed on a fight-melee or fight-unarmed attack, you also deal one point of metaphysical damage.</p><p></p><p>Large size</p><p>You are much bigger than the average person. When you are in conflict, your enemies must use two movement actions to take, and return from, defensive posture instead of one. This benefits your allies as well. Furthermore, you must use two movement actions to take defensive posture, but taking offensive posture requires only one action. This perk does not affect fleeing. </p><p></p><p>Longstrider - T</p><p>Each round, you gain one additional movement action. Taking this perk again provides an additional movement action.</p><p></p><p>Lucky day</p><p>If a physical attack causes you to reach max physical damage, you can use a free action to spend a hero point to reduce the damage by 1d6 points. This perk can reduce damage dealt to zero, which is less than minimum damage.</p><p></p><p>Nick of time</p><p>If you fail a parry contest against a trap, you may spend a hero point to reroll the contest.</p><p></p><p>Observant</p><p>You have a 1 in 6 chance to notice anything hidden from view. The GM should roll this for your character.</p><p></p><p>Off the mark</p><p>You gain +4 to all initiative rolls.</p><p></p><p>Owl's eye - T</p><p>You can see 30 feet in darkness. Taking this perk again extends your view another 30 feet.</p><p></p><p>Rage</p><p>You can spend hero points on damage rolls. You must announce your intent before rolling damage.</p><p></p><p>Sleepless</p><p>You are immune to sleep spells and effects. You only need 4 hours for a good night's rest.</p><p></p><p>Small size</p><p>You are much smaller than the average person. You are always considered to be in defensive posture, and you treat your enemies as if they are always in defensive posture. This does not apply to your allies.</p><p></p><p>Specialize (skill)</p><p>You have extra ability in a particular skill. Choose a skill. Anytime you use this skill, you gain +3 to your contest.</p><p></p><p>Special move (fight skill) - T</p><p>Choose a fight skill (melee, missile, or unarmed). You may reduce any of these fight contests by one to add one point to your damage if that contest succeeds. You must announce your intent before rolling the fight contest. Taking this perk again gives you the option to reduce your contests by 2, and add 2 damage, and so on. Also, you may choose to use a new perk on a different fight skill.</p><p></p><p>Spell implement (object) - T</p><p>Choose a unique object. When you use a physical action with that object, you can use the cast spell skill for a spell in which you have no specific knowledge. Your spell selection is limited based on the object. For example, if your implement is a spellbook, you can cast only spells that you've entered into the spellbook. If your implement is a musical instrument, you can cast only spells that you've learned as performances. The GM decides which spells you've acquired.</p><p></p><p>Spell maintenance - T</p><p>Each round, you gain an additional mental action for maintaining spells. Taking this perk again provides an additional spell maintenance action.</p><p></p><p>Spell upgrade - T</p><p>Choose a Cast Spell skill in which you have skill points. You may forget this spell and transfer the skill points to a similar spell of higher level. For example, if you have 3 points in cast spell (sleep), when you take spell upgrade you can remove the 3 sleep points and take 3 skill points in cast spell (coma). Or you could lose 5 skill points in cast spell (fire) and put 5 points in cast spell (inferno) instead.</p><p></p><p>Stubborn - T</p><p>Your max mental damage increases by 3 points. Each time you take this perk it grants another 3 points to your max mental damage.</p><p></p><p>Toughness - T</p><p>Your max physical damage increases by 3 points. Each time you take this perk it grants another 3 points to your max physical damage.</p><p></p><p>Weapon focus (weapon type) - T</p><p>Choose a type of weapon (e.g. blaster rifle). When wielding this weapon, your damage improves by one die type, like d10 to d12. Taking this perk again increases the damage by another die type, or increases the damage die of another weapon.[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GMMichael, post: 6230287, member: 6685730"] [b]Chapter 5: Perks[/b] Until this point, Modos characters have been growing into heroes (and villains) who exhibit their powers with easily measured rules. They're impressive, but a little predictable. Perks allow you to bend the rules, and create some of the more unusual character features. A perk is any character feature that cannot be classified as an ability (inherent character trait that allows him to interact with the world), skill (talent that improves with experience or training), or equipment (feature that can be purchased, traded, or destroyed - see Equipment chapter). There is one more very important aspect of perks: only one perk can grant a bonus to skills, called Specialize. [U] Choosing Perks[/U][sblock] For convenience, a list of common perks is provided at the end of this chapter. However, a character can take anything as a perk, provided: - it meets the definition of a perk, - it is no more useful than any common perks, or - it is part of a properly segmented perk tree, and - the GM approves the perk. When choosing perks, consider your character theme. If you are a member of a special race, you'll want to take a racial perk at starting level. Or if your profession is similar to a particular archetype, you'll want to select perks mostly from that archetype. [U][/sblock] Gaining Perks[/U][sblock] Characters gain a perk at every level. When gaining a perk, a player can choose a new perk, the next perk on a perk tree, or to substitute the perk. A new perk can be taken when the character gains a level. This can be any perk without pre-requisites, a stackable perk that the character already has, or a perk that has new uses when the character takes it again. A perk tree is a series of perks that get more powerful as you take perks higher in the tree. Each higher perk has a lower perk as a pre-requisite. A stackable perk is similar, because the perk gains more power as you take it multiple times. If the player wants to improve something else, he can substitute a new perk. These can be substituted for an ability point or skill point. If the player chooses another skill point, his total points in that skill may not exceed his level. [U][/sblock] Common Perks[/U][sblock] The following perks are available to all characters. For your convenience, they've been sorted into racial and archetypal lists. Perk descriptions follow these lists. Stackable or tree perks are noted with a - T. Racial perks: cat's eye, diehard, large size, longstrider, observant, owl's eye, sleepless, small size. Priest perks: armor training, divine intervention, enlightened, grudge, ki strike, stubborn. Thief perks: backstab, dual wielder, informed, lucky day, nick of time, off the mark, rage. Warrior perks: armor training, defender, dodge, dual wielder, fearless, special move, toughness, weapon focus. Wizard perks: casting endurance, familiar, grudge, heroic companion, spell implement, spell maintenance, spell upgrade. Armor training (armor type) - T Choose a type of armor (e.g. chainmail). When wearing this armor, the protection die increases by one (e.g. d6 becomes d8). Taking this perk again increases the protection die again, or improves the protection of another armor type. Backstab - T You gain +2 damage when your opponent does not use a parry action against your attack. Can only be applied to light weapons. Stacking this perk raises the bonus to +4, then +6, and so on. Casting endurance - T When using any cast spell skill, the casting damage is reduced by 1 point, but cannot be reduced below 1 point. Stacking this perk reduces the damage by 2, then by 3, and so on. Cat's eye You can see twice as far as a normal person in daylight, dim light, or shadowy light. Diehard You can use hero points when rolling protection. You must announce this intent before making the protection roll. Divine intervention You can pray for holy power. Make a willpower contest as a metaphysical action. If you win a challenging (+4) contest, you can cast any spell of which your god approves (see rule zero) without having specific knowledge of the spell. Dodge - T Each round, you gain one extra parry action. Taking this perk again grants another parry action. Dual wielder - T When attacking with two one-handed weapons or a double weapon, you gain one fight action each round to be used with the secondary weapon. Enlightened - T You gain 1d4 protection against mental attacks. Each time you take this perk, the protection increases by one die type, e.g. 1d4 to 1d6. Familiar - T Your pet gains +4 to its mental ability score. This does not alter its physiology, for example, giving it the ability to speak. Stacking this perk grants another +4 to the pet's score, or allows you to grant the bonus to a second pet. Fearless You are immune to fear effects and conditions. Grudge - T Each round, you gain one additional concentration action. Heroic companion - T Your pet gains a level. Pets cannot earn or use hero points. Informed You can use a hero point to simulate specific knowledge in a knowledge skill. Roll the hero point, and use the result as your skill points in the selected knowledge skill. Ki strike When you succeed on a fight-melee or fight-unarmed attack, you also deal one point of metaphysical damage. Large size You are much bigger than the average person. When you are in conflict, your enemies must use two movement actions to take, and return from, defensive posture instead of one. This benefits your allies as well. Furthermore, you must use two movement actions to take defensive posture, but taking offensive posture requires only one action. This perk does not affect fleeing. Longstrider - T Each round, you gain one additional movement action. Taking this perk again provides an additional movement action. Lucky day If a physical attack causes you to reach max physical damage, you can use a free action to spend a hero point to reduce the damage by 1d6 points. This perk can reduce damage dealt to zero, which is less than minimum damage. Nick of time If you fail a parry contest against a trap, you may spend a hero point to reroll the contest. Observant You have a 1 in 6 chance to notice anything hidden from view. The GM should roll this for your character. Off the mark You gain +4 to all initiative rolls. Owl's eye - T You can see 30 feet in darkness. Taking this perk again extends your view another 30 feet. Rage You can spend hero points on damage rolls. You must announce your intent before rolling damage. Sleepless You are immune to sleep spells and effects. You only need 4 hours for a good night's rest. Small size You are much smaller than the average person. You are always considered to be in defensive posture, and you treat your enemies as if they are always in defensive posture. This does not apply to your allies. Specialize (skill) You have extra ability in a particular skill. Choose a skill. Anytime you use this skill, you gain +3 to your contest. Special move (fight skill) - T Choose a fight skill (melee, missile, or unarmed). You may reduce any of these fight contests by one to add one point to your damage if that contest succeeds. You must announce your intent before rolling the fight contest. Taking this perk again gives you the option to reduce your contests by 2, and add 2 damage, and so on. Also, you may choose to use a new perk on a different fight skill. Spell implement (object) - T Choose a unique object. When you use a physical action with that object, you can use the cast spell skill for a spell in which you have no specific knowledge. Your spell selection is limited based on the object. For example, if your implement is a spellbook, you can cast only spells that you've entered into the spellbook. If your implement is a musical instrument, you can cast only spells that you've learned as performances. The GM decides which spells you've acquired. Spell maintenance - T Each round, you gain an additional mental action for maintaining spells. Taking this perk again provides an additional spell maintenance action. Spell upgrade - T Choose a Cast Spell skill in which you have skill points. You may forget this spell and transfer the skill points to a similar spell of higher level. For example, if you have 3 points in cast spell (sleep), when you take spell upgrade you can remove the 3 sleep points and take 3 skill points in cast spell (coma). Or you could lose 5 skill points in cast spell (fire) and put 5 points in cast spell (inferno) instead. Stubborn - T Your max mental damage increases by 3 points. Each time you take this perk it grants another 3 points to your max mental damage. Toughness - T Your max physical damage increases by 3 points. Each time you take this perk it grants another 3 points to your max physical damage. Weapon focus (weapon type) - T Choose a type of weapon (e.g. blaster rifle). When wielding this weapon, your damage improves by one die type, like d10 to d12. Taking this perk again increases the damage by another die type, or increases the damage die of another weapon.[/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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