Age-related flaws and racial feats

[Gnome]

I'll soon be running a one-shot where the PCs are high-level venerable dwarves that made-up a previously-famous adventuring party, but had been retired for nearly 200 years until forced out of retirement by events leading to the adventure I am writing.

Anyway the PCs will be 16th-level, and age-category venerable. I was looking for a way to add more age-related "flavor" to the one-shot, so I came-up with a list of age-related flaws, and I'm asking players to select 1 or two of these.

For each flaw selected, they can select one racial feat from a list I have created. These represent abilities that are an extention of existing dwarven abilities that most dwarves cannot perform.

The flaws are worse than those from UA, and the feats are more powerful than regular feats to compensate.

Anyway, I'd like people's opinion on these, as well as any new suggested flaws or feats, or tweaks to the ones I've written. They don't have to be balanced for any characters other than 16th-level venerable dwarves, since I won't be using these outside of my one-shot.

Anyway, the flaws and feats I've written-up follow.

 

[Gnome]

Age-related Flaws

Absent-minded

You can easily lose your train of thought.

Penalty: Before attempting any action that requires concentration or finesse, you must succeed at a DC 15 Will save. Success means that you perform the action normally. Failure means that you forget what you were about to do for that round. Each subsequent round grants a new save, unless the save is failed by 5 or more (in which case the character only gets a new save if reminded of his action). Being reminded by someone else grants either a +2 or +4 circumstance bonus to the new save, depending on whether the reminder is general or specific. E.g. "you were going to cast a spell' would grant a +2 bonus, whereas "you were going to cast magic missile" would grant a +4 bonus.


Bad Balance

You have poor balance.

Penalty: A character with bad balance gets a -4 penalty to balance checks. Any time the character is subjected to a check or save that could knock the character prone, this is made at a -4 penalty as well. Additionally, every time a character is hit with a meele attack for more than 10 points of damage, he must make a reflex check to remain standing (DC is equal to the damage dealt in the attack).


Easily Winded

You have trouble sustaining strenuous activities.

Penalty: If a character with this flaw engages in any strenuous activity (such as combat, climbing, running, etc.) for two consecutive rounds, he must make a DC 15 Fortitude save at the end of the second round. Failure means that he must spend a round catching his breath (see below).

A successful save means that he may act normally on the subsequent round, but at the end of each round, a new save is required, adding 1 to the save DC each time.

If the character spends a round catching his breath (whether voluntarily or not), he may engage in strenuous activities for two more rounds without making a save, and the save DC is lowered by two from its present value, or to 15, whichever is lower.

If a charater is forced to spend a round catching his breath due to a failed save, he may not perform any actions at all that round (though he may defend himself normally). If he voluntarily takes a round to catch his breath, he may take a non-strenuous move action, however.


Half-blind

You have very poor eyesight.

Penalty: A half-blind character has a -10 penalty to spot checks. Additionally anything greater than 10 feet away is treated as having concealment (20% miss chance with ranged weapons and targeted spells).


Half-deaf

You have very poor hearing.

Penalty: A half-deaf character gets a -10 to listen checks, and has a 10% check of spell failure when casting any spell with verbal components. Using a hearing horn (which is a move action that provokes attacks of opportunity, reduces this penalty to -5, and eliminates the chance of spell failure. Note that a hearing horn may not be used when casting any spell with somatic components.

Note that hearing normal spoken conversation is DC 0, and understanding the words spoken is DC 10.


Shaky Hands

You have shaky hands, which interferes with ranged weapon fire, as well as certain skills.

Penalty: A character with shaky hands recieves -4 to ranged attacks and skill checks primarily involving hands, such as disable device.

A charater may negate this penalty by taking extra time to steady his hands, which translates to a move action in combat, or the action taking twice as long as normal for all other actions. The attempt to steady hands is successful if a DC 15 reflex save is made. The extra time is still spent regardless of the success or failure of the attempt, however.


Slow

You move slower than normal, possibly due to complications from age (arthritis, bad knees or hips, etc.).

Penalty: Your base movement speed is reduced by half, and you cannot run.

 

[Gnome]

Racial Feats

Earth Born

You have a deep connection to the earth, which makes you more resiliant.

Benefit: You gain a + 1 natural armor bonus to your armor class and a +1 to all saves when you are in contact with the ground, or on any kind of stone surface (natural or worked).


Favored Dwarven Enemy

Your understanding of a particular dwarven foe is greater than that of most dwarves.

Benefit: You gain the ranger's favored enemy ability verses a traditional dwarven enemy: orcs, goblin-kind, or giants. If you already have the favored enemy ability versus the same creatures, then this feat has no effect.

Special: A character may gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Every time this feat is chosen, it applies to a new creature type.


Greater Spell Resilience

Your resistance to spells and spell-like abilities is legendary, even among other dwarves.

Prerequisite: Greater Spell Resilience

Benefit: You gain spell resistance equal to 6 + your character level.


Improved Darkvision

Due to a lifetime of living in often lightless conditions, you are able to see farther in the dark than most of your brethren.

Benefit: Darkvision range is increased by 30 feet.

Special: A character may gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.


Improved Spell Resilience

You resist spells and spell-like abilities more easily than other dwarves.

Benefit: Your racial bonus to saves vs. spells and spell-like abilities increases from +2 to +4.


Legendary Weaponsmith

Your mastery of weapons and weaponsmithing far surpasses what most dwarves could hope to achieve in their lifetime.

Prerequisites: Skill Focus (Weaponsmithing), 15 or more ranks in craft (weaponsmithing)

Benefit: You gain a +1 competence bonus on attack and damage rolls when wielding a weapon you have forged yourself (even if it has been enchanted by someone else). Additionally, your familiarity with weapons gives you the following abilities:

• Find Flaws: By spending a standard action to study an opponent's weapon, you can find its weak points. For the next 3 rounds after having studied the weapon, if you make a sunder attempt against that weapon, you may ignore 5 points of the weapon's hardness. After the 3 rounds expire, the weapon must be studied again in order to gain this benefit.
• Field Appraise: Your familiarity with weapons allows you to determine the total enhancement bonus (if any) on a weapon. To do this, you need to practise with the weapon, uninterrupted, for at least 10 minutes. At the end of this period, make a craft (weaponsmithing) check. If your result is 30 or greater, you are successful. Failure by 5 points or less means that you know whether or not the weapon has a positive or negative enhancement bonus, but are uncertain as to the extent of the bonus. Failure by over 5 points means that you are unable to tell whether or not the weapon has any kind of enhancement bonus at all.

One With the Earth

Your connection to the earth becomes stronger.

Prerequisite: Earth Born

Benefit: You now have the Earth subtype. You gain damage reduction 5/Adamantine when you are in contact with the ground, or on any kind of stone surface (natural or worked).

 

[Gnome]

* bump *

Just thought I'd try one more time to get feedback / suggestions here.

 

[genshou]

Very cool. I wish I could get a racial feat for my characters to compensate for my absent-mindedness as a player.

 

[Felnar]

typo
Greater Spell Resilience has "Prerequisite: Greater Spell Resilience"

looks good tho
lots of flavor for your campaign

i'd make the slow flaw stronger

 

[Gnome]

typo
Greater Spell Resilience has "Prerequisite: Greater Spell Resilience"

looks good tho
lots of flavor for your campaign

i'd make the slow flaw stronger

Whoops, I guess it would be hard to qualify for that feat.

How would you make Slow stronger, exactly? As-is, it will reduce movement rate to 10. Since they can't run, I guess that means they wouldn't be able to charge, either, so maybe I'll add that.

Oh, and thanks for your feedback.

 

[Felnar]

How would you make Slow stronger, exactly? As-is, it will reduce movement rate to 10. Since they can't run, I guess that means they wouldn't be able to charge, either, so maybe I'll add that.

i'm not sure, but Slow is the only flaw that is just a flat constant penalty
maybe make it more like the others, where if they do something specific there's a chance the penalty would kick in, so the PC could avoid their flaw and they arent sure when it will or wont affect them

feel free to expand/tweak this, but how about
Bad Knee/Hip
when the PC moves more than 15 feet in a round (or more than X% of their moverate or something)
they must make a check against a DC of 10 (or 12?), apply both their strength and constitution mods to the check (i'm trying to avoid a check that is affected by class level)
if they fail the check,
1. their movement rate becomes 5'
2. the can't make free 5' steps
3. they take a -2 dodge penalty to AC
they can make a Fort check vs DC 20 to fix their knee/hip by taking a full-round/AoO-provoking action to pop the joint back in place. Consecutive rounds lower the DC by 1 per round.
options: take X damage to get a bonus on the fix check.
-or- still able to move at full speed by taking damage per 5' moved

hopefully that all makes sense

 

[Muaythaidaddy]

Earth Born and One With the Earth are well balanced and great choices............. good stuff.

 

[Nekode]

It's an awesome idea. It should be fun