bonus feat at 1st

[Jerrand Redband]

have been thinking of house rule that would allow players to give their characters a bonus "non combat" feat at first lvl something like athletic, stealthy, or something similar I believe it would help to define the character ("oh he's a good acrobat") and you hardly see players choicing those types of feats

 

[Aus_Snow]

In my old house rules, I did that. Worked fine.

I just renamed a whole bunch of feats 'talents' (like all the +2/+2 feats and Ambidexterity), created a lot more, and added the quality that they could only be taken at 1st character level, to that type of feat.

'Background Feats' became the title later on, when I incorporated Talents into d20 fantasy, and had Feat/Talent/Feat, etc., by level. But yeah, never mind that.

 

[Jerrand Redband]

more feats??

do you mean that as a character levels up he ould probably get more bonus non combat feats??

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

To expand on the concept, you might want to take a look at Midnight 2Ed.

They have "Heroic Paths": each PC has a path, which provides 20 levels of benefits. The benefits can be skill or attribute bonuses, spell-like abilities, Feats, or even what you would otherwise consider to be class features.

 

[Aus_Snow]

do you mean that as a character levels up he ould probably get more bonus non combat feats??

No, just one, at Character Level 1. Sorry, I wasn't very clear there.

The other part was only in reference to the reason I changed the name for this kind of feat from 'talent' to 'background feat', later on. Still worked exactly the same way, but because I incorporated Talents* (with a capital 'T') from True20, d20 Modern, etc., I decided 'talent' was no longer such a great name for these feats.

Having each one available only at 1st character level makes it somewhat more enticing too - besides having to take one, anyway - because if you don't at that point, it's possible there'll be that nagging feeling you should've.


* which you get at even character levels, and feats at odd, in those systems (and in the d20 fantasy house rules I was using for a while.)

 

[Flatus Maximus]

I did something like this in a game I started recently, but I went a bit further. Each PC gets Toughness and one of the "+2 to skill/+2 to skill" feats for free. I also let them pick a skill in which the PC is considered to have max ranks. Both choices should reflect the PC's background. It seems to be fine.

 

[ivocaliban]

My version of this involved the Dragon #340 article "Dragon Astrology". Everyone rolled a d12 prior to character creation and received their star sign along with the Startouched feat for free. Startouched is the first of three feats that build on each zodiac sign presented in the article, providing a +2 bonus to one's Optimal Career skill. For example, those born under the Sign of the Dryad who have the Startouched feat receive a +2 bonus on Handle Animal checks.

Having Startouched provides the opportunity to take the Starborn feat which provides an additional +2 bonus the Lucky Action associated with a particular star sign (ex. Sign of the Dryad - Lucky Action: +2 bonus to Heal checks) and the ability to reroll a skill check involving one's Lucky Action once per day.

Finally, one can take Starblessed which provides a unique bonus of some sort if one carries their birthstone on their person (ex. Sign of the Dryad - Birthstone: (Pearl) +1 luck bonus to AC whenever an ally occupies an adjacent square). In addition, anyone possessing this feat can use the reroll ability from the Starborn feat twice per day.

The idea was basically to help provide some incentive to incorporate astrology more directly into the game. I felt that the Startouched feat in and of itself was too weak to provide any incentive for a player to select it, but providing it for free might persuade some to follow up on the Startouched and Starblessed feats. Some used it to shape their character concepts and others pretty much ignored it, but it was an interesting experiment and a fun article to add some extra dimension to the game.

 

[Phlebas]

I borrowed an idea from Monte Cook and gave everyone an additional 'Birthright feat' from a restricted list. (I also gave some that were restricted to regional / racial to try and build some flavour in)

theres an old list in my sig (Rules section / Feats)

it didn't exactly overpower the game, and the regional / racial feat combined with a regional skill has definitely helped with the background feel