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<blockquote data-quote="nothing to see here" data-source="post: 1638207" data-attributes="member: 16432"><p><strong>Background Feats</strong></p><p></p><p>Our group also wanted to differentiate humans from different backgrounds (and other races too) without making up whole new subraces.</p><p></p><p>Several sources use the idea of regional feats. We adapted this idea as follows. It's reqlly quite simple in implementation...though, for the life of me, I'm having difficulty writing it simply here...</p><p></p><p>First the complicated part.</p><p></p><p>Each character, based on their history, chooses a "Background"...which in game terms -- will just be a couple additional qualifiers on your chacter sheet.</p><p></p><p>A Background is selected by choosing an appropriate combination of two of the following. </p><p></p><p>RACE (or more precisely, subrace)</p><p>REGION</p><p>STATION/CAREER (can be chosen twice)...</p><p></p><p>So your half-even fighter might choose -- a Forrest of Darkness(region)/farmer(career) as his background...alternately he could choose Forest of Darkness(region)/western elf(race) instead...</p><p></p><p>...while the young prince inducted into the magus school could choose aristocrat(station)/magus school(career).</p><p></p><p>All characters, of course, draw from more than just two elements in their -- however, for game rule purposes, two elements (and only two) must be chosen that most accurately embody the character.</p><p></p><p>Now the easy part.</p><p></p><p>You can devise as many different races, sub races, countries, regions, occupations, guilds, social castes or any other background groupings as you can think off. T</p><p></p><p>he only game rule differentiation is that each background elementincludes a list of 3-5 bonus feats...</p><p></p><p>Combining the feats from both elements will result in a character-specific list of 6-10 Feats caled "BACKGROUND FEATS"...</p><p></p><p>Here's how this list is used...</p><p></p><p>at first level all characters receive a bonus feat from this list.</p><p></p><p>Furthermore upon selecting three background feats (be they general, bonus or virtual feats)...a character is entitled to a second bonus feat to be chosen upon gaining an additional level. This bonus feat DOES NOT have to be from the background feat list (though, of course, it can). However it is important to note that a full level must pass between filling the requirements and gaining the extra feat.</p><p></p><p>This process happens again upon choosing six background feats...though no more after that.</p><p></p><p>So if our half-elf fighter above's list included alterness, dodge, investigative, and weapon focus (short bow)...and the half elf chose alertness at first level, investigative as his bonus background feat, and weapon focus as fighter feat...then he would be entitled to a bonus feat upon reaching second level. If instead he waited until third level to pull three feats off the list...the bonus feat would be gained at fourth level instead.</p><p></p><p>The one caveat of this system is that feat lists should be generic and slightly underpowered...as a general rule no more than one feat per background element should be explicitly combat related...and class specific feats (like metamagic feats) should also follow this rule unless the background element itself is expressly magic related.</p><p></p><p>The benefits of this system: </p><p></p><p>1) Endless variety as backgrounds are defined (mechanically) by little more than their bonus feats...thereby making the creation of a world specific and truly diverse list of elements...relatively easy.</p><p></p><p>2) A quick and easy way to differentiate characters from different races or regions without too much bookkeeping.</p><p></p><p>3) By providing a slight mechanical benefit (bonus feat at first level, up to two other bonus feats over time) there is a minor game-related benefit for focussing character development according to the background (good for players who want to roleplay but tend to think metagame as well).</p><p></p><p>The drawbacks: </p><p></p><p>1)it is one more thing to keep track of at character creation. </p><p></p><p>2) If you're not careful this system, and its bonus feats, can be abused by min/maxers.</p><p></p><p>3) It's also hard to describe in posting to messageboards...but that, currently, is my burden alone...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="nothing to see here, post: 1638207, member: 16432"] [b]Background Feats[/b] Our group also wanted to differentiate humans from different backgrounds (and other races too) without making up whole new subraces. Several sources use the idea of regional feats. We adapted this idea as follows. It's reqlly quite simple in implementation...though, for the life of me, I'm having difficulty writing it simply here... First the complicated part. Each character, based on their history, chooses a "Background"...which in game terms -- will just be a couple additional qualifiers on your chacter sheet. A Background is selected by choosing an appropriate combination of two of the following. RACE (or more precisely, subrace) REGION STATION/CAREER (can be chosen twice)... So your half-even fighter might choose -- a Forrest of Darkness(region)/farmer(career) as his background...alternately he could choose Forest of Darkness(region)/western elf(race) instead... ...while the young prince inducted into the magus school could choose aristocrat(station)/magus school(career). All characters, of course, draw from more than just two elements in their -- however, for game rule purposes, two elements (and only two) must be chosen that most accurately embody the character. Now the easy part. You can devise as many different races, sub races, countries, regions, occupations, guilds, social castes or any other background groupings as you can think off. T he only game rule differentiation is that each background elementincludes a list of 3-5 bonus feats... Combining the feats from both elements will result in a character-specific list of 6-10 Feats caled "BACKGROUND FEATS"... Here's how this list is used... at first level all characters receive a bonus feat from this list. Furthermore upon selecting three background feats (be they general, bonus or virtual feats)...a character is entitled to a second bonus feat to be chosen upon gaining an additional level. This bonus feat DOES NOT have to be from the background feat list (though, of course, it can). However it is important to note that a full level must pass between filling the requirements and gaining the extra feat. This process happens again upon choosing six background feats...though no more after that. So if our half-elf fighter above's list included alterness, dodge, investigative, and weapon focus (short bow)...and the half elf chose alertness at first level, investigative as his bonus background feat, and weapon focus as fighter feat...then he would be entitled to a bonus feat upon reaching second level. If instead he waited until third level to pull three feats off the list...the bonus feat would be gained at fourth level instead. The one caveat of this system is that feat lists should be generic and slightly underpowered...as a general rule no more than one feat per background element should be explicitly combat related...and class specific feats (like metamagic feats) should also follow this rule unless the background element itself is expressly magic related. The benefits of this system: 1) Endless variety as backgrounds are defined (mechanically) by little more than their bonus feats...thereby making the creation of a world specific and truly diverse list of elements...relatively easy. 2) A quick and easy way to differentiate characters from different races or regions without too much bookkeeping. 3) By providing a slight mechanical benefit (bonus feat at first level, up to two other bonus feats over time) there is a minor game-related benefit for focussing character development according to the background (good for players who want to roleplay but tend to think metagame as well). The drawbacks: 1)it is one more thing to keep track of at character creation. 2) If you're not careful this system, and its bonus feats, can be abused by min/maxers. 3) It's also hard to describe in posting to messageboards...but that, currently, is my burden alone... [/QUOTE]
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