Campaign House Feats - Reasonable?

[Archade]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at running a home campaign version of Curse of the Crimson Throne, and I've written up a few feats. The background fluff will be gibberish to most of you, but I'm interested in your feedback on the power-levels/reasonableness of these feats -- too much? Too little? Please let me know ...

ANOMANEXUS HAZARD MAGE
Your training at Anomanexus makes you capable of great feats of magic, and the ability to overcome impediments to your spells cast, but at great cost.
- Prerequisite: Spell Focus (any)
- Benefit: At any point you have to make a check to determine if a spell will fail, be it from arcane spell failure from armor worn, Spell Resistance, impeded magic, Concentration checks to cast defensively, or the like, you may reroll your check to determine if your spell succeeds. However, if you choose to do so, you immediately take 1d4 points of damage per level of the spell being attempted.

FEYBLOODED
Your fey heritage is stronger that one might suspect.
- Prerequisite: Human, halfling, half-elf, gnome, or elf, Base Will save +3.
- Benefit: Your type becomes fey rather than humanoid. In addition, if you did not have low-light vision, you gain it from becoming fey.
As well, if you have any spell-like abilities gained from race, instead of being able to use them once per day, you may use them 3 times per day. If you have no spell-like abilities, you may choose any one 0-level spell and gain the spell-like ability to use it once per day.

GRIM MARCHER
You follow the heritage of your forefathers, hardening your heart to fear with childhood stories of horror, and as a child practicing hand-to-hand combat with the other children, to determine who was the stronger. Your heart and eyes are cold.
- Prerequisite: Human (marchlander)
- Benefit: You gain a +2 to all Will saves vs. Fear, and a +1 to all Intimidate checks and Grapple checks.

LUCK OF THE VADANI
Whether by wit, luck or charm the Vadani people always seem to make the best of a bad situation.
- Prerequisite: Human (vadani)
- Benefit: You may add their Charisma modifier to any d20 roll once per day. (Human characters of Vadani stock only)

MALACISTI HERETIC
You have thrown off the religion of your people, and hold divine magic in contempt. You either believe some heretical philosophy, or you fail to believe in the power of the gods themselves.
- Prerequisite: Human (malacisti)
- Benefit: You gain Spell Resistance equal to your character level +2 versus all divine magic. Unlike other forms of Spell Resistance, you cannot voluntarily lower your spell resistance.

ORSINI SWORD STUDENT
You are a student or admirer of Vencarlo Orsini, and have studied his style of rapier combat, either directly from him, or someone who has practiced at his school. Your defensive swordplay is to be admired.
- Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +3
- Benefit: When you wield a drawn rapier in combat, you gain a +3 to all Tumble checks, and may make Tumble checks as if you possess ranks in that skill.
As well, when you fight defensively, you are considered to have the equivalent of 5 ranks in Tumble – you may fight defensively, taking -4 to hit as a standard action, and in exchange gain a +3 dodge bonus to AC.

SILVANTI SCION
The pure blood of the forebears of the Silvanti runs strong in your veins and grants you a shadow of the power of your ancestors.
- Prerequisite: Silvanti
- Benefit: While raging, you gain DR 2/silver. If you gain untyped damage reduction (DR x/-) as a class feature from the barbarian class, you may add it’s value to your silver damage reduction. For example, a silvanti barbiarian with DR 1/- would gain DR 3/silver when raging.

SON OF THE SWORD SPIRIT
You share a deeper connection to the sword spirit than your brothers. In your hands, a sword can be nearly as potent as a magical blade.
- Prerequisite: Patron deity the Sword Spirit.
- Benefit: Once per day, you can spend a standard action to cause a sword you wield to be treated as if it were made of adamantine for 1 minute. If the sword is dropped, the effect is terminated for the day.

 

[Nifft]

ANOMANEXUS HAZARD MAGE
Your training at Anomanexus makes you capable of great feats of magic, and the ability to overcome impediments to your spells cast, but at great cost.
- Prerequisite: Spell Focus (any)
- Benefit: At any point you have to make a check to determine if a spell will fail, be it from arcane spell failure from armor worn, Spell Resistance, impeded magic, Concentration checks to cast defensively, or the like, you may reroll your check to determine if your spell succeeds. However, if you choose to do so, you immediately take 1d4 points of damage per level of the spell being attempted.

Mmmm. Troublesome balancing mechanism. I'd just say "reroll 1/day" and let someone take the feat multiple times; or make it a [Luck] feat (from Comp.Scoundrel).

FEYBLOODED
Your fey heritage is stronger that one might suspect.
- Prerequisite: Human, halfling, half-elf, gnome, or elf, Base Will save +3.
- Benefit: Your type becomes fey rather than humanoid. In addition, if you did not have low-light vision, you gain it from becoming fey.
As well, if you have any spell-like abilities gained from race, instead of being able to use them once per day, you may use them 3 times per day. If you have no spell-like abilities, you may choose any one 0-level spell and gain the spell-like ability to use it once per day.

The bold part is problematic. Immunity to all the screw person spells is just too good.

GRIM MARCHER
You follow the heritage of your forefathers, hardening your heart to fear with childhood stories of horror, and as a child practicing hand-to-hand combat with the other children, to determine who was the stronger. Your heart and eyes are cold.
- Prerequisite: Human (marchlander)
- Benefit: You gain a +2 to all Will saves vs. Fear, and a +1 to all Intimidate checks and Grapple checks.

Fine.

LUCK OF THE VADANI
Whether by wit, luck or charm the Vadani people always seem to make the best of a bad situation.
- Prerequisite: Human (vadani)
- Benefit: You may add their Charisma modifier to any d20 roll once per day. (Human characters of Vadani stock only)

Fine. Might want to make it a [Luck] feat, or allow it to be taken multiple times.

MALACISTI HERETIC
You have thrown off the religion of your people, and hold divine magic in contempt. You either believe some heretical philosophy, or you fail to believe in the power of the gods themselves.
- Prerequisite: Human (malacisti)
- Benefit: You gain Spell Resistance equal to your character level +2 versus all divine magic. Unlike other forms of Spell Resistance, you cannot voluntarily lower your spell resistance.

SR is very strong, even low SR like this. A simple save bonus is much more appropriate for a feat.

ORSINI SWORD STUDENT
You are a student or admirer of Vencarlo Orsini, and have studied his style of rapier combat, either directly from him, or someone who has practiced at his school. Your defensive swordplay is to be admired.
- Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +3
- Benefit: When you wield a drawn rapier in combat, you gain a +3 to all Tumble checks, and may make Tumble checks as if you possess ranks in that skill.
As well, when you fight defensively, you are considered to have the equivalent of 5 ranks in Tumble – you may fight defensively, taking -4 to hit as a standard action, and in exchange gain a +3 dodge bonus to AC.

Does this stack if you ACTUALLY have 5 ranks in Tumble? Is it too specific to limit it to Rapier? It's not too strong, but it may be too specific.

SILVANTI SCION
The pure blood of the forebears of the Silvanti runs strong in your veins and grants you a shadow of the power of your ancestors.
- Prerequisite: Silvanti
- Benefit: While raging, you gain DR 2/silver. If you gain untyped damage reduction (DR x/-) as a class feature from the barbarian class, you may add its value to your silver damage reduction. For example, a silvanti barbiarian with DR 1/- would gain DR 3/silver when raging.

You should require Rage as a pre-req just to prevent stupid questions later. Also, no apostrophe in "its".

SON OF THE SWORD SPIRIT
You share a deeper connection to the sword spirit than your brothers. In your hands, a sword can be nearly as potent as a magical blade.
- Prerequisite: Patron deity the Sword Spirit.
- Benefit: Once per day, you can spend a standard action to cause a sword you wield to be treated as if it were made of adamantine for 1 minute. If the sword is dropped, the effect is terminated for the day.

Adamantine and magic are different DR types... so the flavor text is a bit off. It's not overpowered, but neither is it particularly good. Perhaps instead...

SON OF THE SWORD SPIRIT [General, Fighter]
Prereq: Patron deity Sword Spirit, BAB +6
Benefit: When wielding a sword, you may make a special melee attack as a full-round action. Make a single melee attack with any sword. Your sword is treated as though it were a magic weapon (for the purpose of penetrating damage reduction and hitting incorporeal critters). If your BAB is 11 or above, you may choose to instead cause your sword to be considered Adamantine (for the purpose of penetrating Hardness or damage reduction).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Celebrim]

I really only like 'LUCK OF THE VADANI'. It's the only feat which is elegant enough for my tastes. Any feat that takes more than about a sentence needs to be rewritten. 'SILVANTI SCION' is my second favorite, but it feels awkward to me. Most of the time it reads "DR +2 when raging." It's acceptable as is primarily I think because there is some fluff behind it.

Other than that, I agree with Nifft's comments.


Try...

SON OF THE SWORD SPIRIT
You share a deeper connection to the sword spirit than your brothers. In your hands, a sword can be nearly as potent as a magical blade.
- Prerequisite: Patron deity the Sword Spirit.
- Benefit: When wielding any sword, you may ignore up to 5 points of the target's DR.

(This is basically a variation on my homebrew 'The Hand is Mightier than the Sword' feat.)

ORSINI SWORD STUDENT
You are a student or admirer of Vencarlo Orsini, and have studied his style of rapier combat, either directly from him, or someone who has practiced at his school. Your defensive swordplay is to be admired.
- Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +3
- Benefit: Add tumble, balance, and escape artist to your list of fighter class skills. Until you take a rank in one of these skills, you have 1 virtual rank in that skill.

(This is basically a variation on my homebrew 'Exotic Background' feat, combined with a bit of 'Jack of all Trades'.)

 

[Archade]

Mmmm. Troublesome balancing mechanism. I'd just say "reroll 1/day" and let someone take the feat multiple times; or make it a [Luck] feat (from Comp.Scoundrel).

I find the Luck feats from Complete Scoundrel a nice idea, but horribly underpowered -- I don't know anyone who would look forward to taking those feats. As a side note, to make them more palatable in my game, I gave all the luck feats the added feature of granting extra Action Points.

 

[Nifft]

I find the Luck feats from Complete Scoundrel a nice idea, but horribly underpowered -- I don't know anyone who would look forward to taking those feats. As a side note, to make them more palatable in my game, I gave all the luck feats the added feature of granting extra Action Points.

Interesting addition. Can Action Points also be used to power those feats? (I do agree they're mostly underpowered, unless you have enough of them that your rerolls cover a lot of different situations.)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Archade]

In my campaign, I give out a limited number of Action Points per level, and they are bankable (start with 3, gain 2 per level, if you get your character raised from the dead, gain 1d6 AP). I gave those luck feats an additional 1-2 action points.

In my game, AP are rare, and I use them for additional effects - second wind, becoming conscious, etc. But other than that, as UA.