Aasimar Protector Radiant Soul Upgrade

[Deiscent]

I might agree with you on the flight speed or dexterity, though by 5th level you do get access to the Fly spell which does the same flight speed. The 60ft flight speed on Radiant Wings would only last for a minute.

As for the reason behind not barring Heavy Armor, Urd Wings are always on as are the Teifling variant wings, where Radiant Wings needs an action to activate. In combat that makes a difference, also Sleep and Unconscious effects would necessitate activating the wings again. The former Kobold and Teifling are getting a completely new ability, while the latter Aasimar already has said ability this is just an upgrade. That was my reasoning.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I might agree with you on the flight speed or dexterity, though by 5th level you do get access to the Fly spell which does the same flight speed. The 60ft flight speed on Radiant Wings would only last for a minute.

Yes, but being able to access the fly spell is different than granting an ability that is similar. For one, Fly requires resource expenditure of a 3rd level spell slot, which is quite valuable, and also requires concentration. Thus the Fly spell limits your ability to cast other concentration spells, and can be negated if you take damage and can't pass a Concentration check. None of these limits apply to the flight granted by your feat.

Your table may have a different balance point. But if the goal is to create something that works with existing mechanics, we need to look at what is granted by similar feats or abilities. And no feat that grants flight grants the ability to fly at such high speed, or grants more than maybe a point increase for an ability score.

As for the reason behind not barring Heavy Armor, Urd Wings are always on as are the Teifling variant wings, where Radiant Wings needs an action to activate. In combat that makes a difference, also Sleep and Unconscious effects would necessitate activating the wings again. The former Kobold and Teifling are getting a completely new ability, while the latter Aasimar already has said ability this is just an upgrade. That was my reasoning.

Thanks for the feedback.

Sorry, but I don't buy this argument, and I have a few reasons.

1) Yes, the flight granted by your feat requires an action to activate. But there is no limit or duration for that activation. A character with this feat could wake up, activate their flight, and maintain them all day. This there is no need to bring action economy into the equation because you are likely to start combat with your flight already active.

2) We can look to another similar ability. The Dragon Sorcerer gains a flight ability. This ability comes online at level 14. It limits your fly speed to be equal to your walking speed. It must be "activated" like the flight in your ability. However, a character needs special armor and clothes to accomodate these wings. It does not have the same limits regarding heavy armor or encumberance level. But also, it is a high level ability.

So your feat allows a 4th level character to achieve an ability on par to a 14th level character, but does not require special accomodations for clothing and armor, and grants half an ASI, allows you to activate a racial ability more quickly than normal, and gives a temporary speed boost to double your normal movement.

So perhaps this feat may work at your table. And no, I don't think it will break the game. But given existing feats and abilities, I do not find it to be balanced.

 

[Deiscent]

Fair enough on the arguments. I'm not committed to any one thing except to have them, and I do want it to be balanced to the rules and not my table because that's my desired goal.

1) Would a duration work then? An hour, ten minutes, what?

2) I'm going with the flavor of the Aasimar ability, which Radiant Soul says is a luminous, incorporeal set. It's baked into the wings, thus consideration for clothing/armor or encumbering speed. And again, for the Sorcerer it's a new ability, albeit at 14th level. This is an upgrade to an existing one.

As for activating a racial ability more quickly than normal, I only considered that because the activating Radiant Wings a;ready costs the action, so half of that is done, so now your activating the combat portion and glowing eyes of Radiant Soul as a bonus action. Would it be better to keep it as a regular action then?

All in all I'd just dump the half ASI but would that be enough to keep as is or should I edit using your other suggestions?

 

[Hawk Diesel]

Well, once again, it depends on your priorities and how you envision your character to function within the limits of existing mechanics.

If you want always on flight, that is pretty much the limit of what can be achieved by a feat. Yes, aasimar already get flight, but it's limited to once per adventuring day. Plus, radiant soul continues to have use due to the extra damage you can deal in combat, so it's not like extending flight to a whole day makes radiant soul obsolete.

If you dump the half ASI from Radiant Wings, you can maybe allow the flight to be equal to your movement speed, allowing monks, barbarians, or those with the mobile feat to get more use out of it. You can maybe allow gaining a thematically appropriate cantrip, such as Thaumaturgy or Sacred Flame.

The problem is that flight is one of those abilities that tends to be weighted as quite powerful, especially for lower tier characters. Flight, especially always-on, resource-free flight allows a character to easily overcome a large number of obstacles that would be non-trivial for most other characters. It also creates more opportunities for a character to minimize risk and kite enemies via long range weapons. And since 5e seems to have worked hard to reduce the power curve, as a system it tends to be risk averse with putting potentially problematic or abusable powers in players' hands until they are sufficient level that such abuse no longer matters.

 

[Deiscent]

My priority is flight, while keeping it thematically close to what was presented. So I don't want the wings always on, thus an action to activate, but once on I do want them to last as long as the Aasimar is conscious and wants them on. The flavor is to unleash the divine energy and set them apart stylistically from the Dragonborn, Kobold and Teifling versions.

So no ASI, and make flight equal to movement speed. What about 10ft boost to flight when Radiant Soul is activated? And maybe activating Radiant Soul as a bonus action if Radiant Wings are up? That's all for the feat then, how does that sound?

I don't want to add Thaumaturgy or Sacred Flame because I feel that should be more a general Race Feat for all Aasimars rather then for a specific Protector.

and thanks again for the feedback.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

So this is a good point. If this is an Aasimar specific feat, then it benefits the other subraces too. And those 2 other ones don't gain flight.

If you aren't including an ASI, I'd keep the feat limited flight equal to movement speed. Not other bonus or synergy between the feat and the Radiant Soul, Radiant Consumption, or Necrotic Shroud.

 

[Deiscent]

Well no, I meant it to be specific to the Protector Aasimar, its why I listed it as a prerequisite. Like how Elve subraces have Feats specific to them.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I'm not sure I recall any feats that are specific to a particular surface. The only one that comes to mind is the gnome svirfneblin. I could be wrong though.

 

[Deiscent]

Drow High Magic: Prerequisite Elf (Drow)
Fey Teleportation: Prerequisite Elf (High)
Wood Elf Magic: Prerequisite Elf (Wood)'

When I was trying to come up with the feat I originally thought it had to be generic Aasimar (like their Tiefling counterpart), but the kind of examples above showed me I could specify.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

Ok, thanks for reminding me of those. But I think these feat examples only reinforce that Radiant Wings is balanced with fly speed and nothing more.

Let's start with Drow High Magic. The strongest ability you get is a once per day 3rd level spell with Dispel Magic. While useful, you aren't likely to use it every adventuring day, and doesn't provide the same kind of utility as a fly speed. Levitate is only situationally useful, and detect magic as a cantrip is not special, since it's a ritual spell anyways. Radiant Wings is a better version of the Fly spell. Even though its slower, it's unlimited duration and no concentration. The utility offered by consistent flight is also greater than the utility offered by the spells from Drow High Magic.

Fey Teleportation is even harsher as a point of comparison. Half an ASI, a language that is rarely encountered, and a once per short rest 2nd level spell. Meanwhile, Radiant Wings offers an always on version of a 3rd level spell. Comparatively, Radiant Wings is much more powerful.

So honestly, I think a feat that only offers flight equal to move speed is a powerful feat without any additions.