Feats: Spirit of Fury, Incorruptible Soul

[hong]

Originally meant to be a joke, but I kinda like these.


Spirit of Fury [General, Fighter]

You can channel the essence of your spirit into your attacks, at a cost.

Prerequisites: BAB +8, Power Attack, Str 13+, Cha 15+

Benefit: Before making a melee attack, you can choose to take 1d6 points of damage. If you hit, you inflict an extra +2d6 points of damage on your foe. You can use this feat once per round, and a number of times per day up to your level.


Incorruptible Soul [General]

You can turn assaults on your mind into assaults on the body.

Prerequisites: 4th level, Iron Will, Con 13+, Cha 13+

Benefit: When you would be affected by a mind-influencing spell or effect, you can choose to take physical damage instead. You take 1d6 points of damage per spell level of the effect. This damage is automatic and not subject to DR or SR. You may not use this feat if you are unconscious. You may use this feat a number of times per day equal to half your level.

 

[fba827]

Interesting in idea. True, not things I would use in my games as is, but they are still interesting and creative enough

Two things I noticed off the bat:

a) There aren't really any feats that are a variable number of times per day based on character level or anything... they all (referring to feats, not class features) have a standard X times per day that remains constant (of course, that leads to supplementry feats that allow you to use it Y more times per day ;-).

b) You have it in your second feat, but may want to include it in your first feat as well - the supplementry info that the 1d6 is not subject to DR (unless you want it to be so).

Like I said though, creative thoughts at that

 

[hong]

a) There aren't really any feats that are a variable number of times per day based on character level or anything... they all (referring to feats, not class features) have a standard X times per day that remains constant (of course, that leads to supplementry feats that allow you to use it Y more times per day ;-).

Off the top of my head, I can think of one feat that scales: Stunning Fist, which is usable (level/4) times per day. There are a few class abilities whose uses are also governed by your level, eg barbarian rage (barb level/4 + 1), and bardic music.

But #uses/day is only one way of limiting abilities by level. More generally, you have the smite ability which is generally usable 1/day, and gives +level to damage.

b) You have it in your second feat, but may want to include it in your first feat as well - the supplementry info that the 1d6 is not subject to DR (unless you want it to be so).

Good idea. I might also make the Indomitable feat (posted previously) a prereq for both.

Like I said though, creative thoughts at that

Thanks for your comments!

 

[Al]

Creative as ever hong.

Spirit of Fury looks very interesting, and is in league with both Zeal (DotF) and Vicious weapons (S&F). How would they combine? Despite this query (not even a nitpick) I like this feat very much.

Incorruptible Soul sounds a bit strong though. You take a trivial amount of damage in exchange for effective immunity to enchantments. Hold Person becomes a mere 2d6 damage, and the dreaded Dominate translates into a (relatively) feeble 5d6. Whilst it's not as strong as some class abilities in this department (Church Inquisitor and Holy Liberator spring to mind), for a single feat it's very good indeed, even if the Iron Will prerequisite is not an obvious choice for the fighter. Perhaps it should simply allow another save, and if this save is made then the damage is taken instead. Still very useful, but not overpowered.

 

[hong]

Creative as ever hong.

Spirit of Fury looks very interesting, and is in league with both Zeal (DotF) and Vicious weapons (S&F). How would they combine? Despite this query (not even a nitpick) I like this feat very much.

Hm, I hadn't even thought of vicious weapons. I'm trying my best to pretend that the ghastly abomination that is S&F never existed. My preference would be to say that the feat and the enchantment don't stack, but you could run it either way, I guess.

Incorruptible Soul sounds a bit strong though. You take a trivial amount of damage in exchange for effective immunity to enchantments.

Yeah, a few other people have mentioned that. I've upped the damage to 2d6/spell level, and reduced the uses per day to level/4. 18d6 from a dominate monster will make anyone sit up and take notice.

I've also changed the name to "Unyielding Soul". "Incorruptible" has connotations of purity that would be weird for a blackguard with this feat.


Unyielding Soul [General]

You can turn assaults on your mind into assaults on the body.

Prerequisites: 4th level, Indomitable, Iron Will, Con 13+, Cha 13+.

Benefit: When you would be affected by a mind-influencing spell or effect, you can choose to take physical damage instead, equal to 2d6 hit points per spell level of the effect. This damage is automatic and not subject to DR or SR. You may use this feat a number of times per day equal to your level divided by 4.

You may choose to use this feat after all your other defenses have been exhausted (SR, saving throws, possible rerolls, etc).

 

[hong]

On consideration, I think I'll change the name "Spirit of Fury" as well, to "Fateful Strike". Reason will become evident.

Okay, one more feat, this one top-level. Not sure which is the best of the lot, so opinions solicited:


Spirit of Fury (1)

Your fury in battle burns stronger than ever.

Prerequisites: BAB +12, Indomitable, Iron Will, Fateful Strike, Power Attack, Soul of Battle, Str 13+, Cha 15+.

Benefit: When you make a Fateful Strike, you inflict +3d6 points of damage instead of +2d6.


Spirit of Fury (2)

Prerequisites: as (1).

Benefit: When you make a Fateful Strike, you do not take damage.


Spirit of Fury (3)

Prerequisites: as (1), plus Great Fortitude, Weapon Focus.

Benefit: Choose a melee weapon you have Weapon Focus in. You may add your Charisma bonus to damage rolls you make with that weapon. This stacks with your Strength modifier to damage.

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

How about the spell deals 1d6 per point by which you missed your save. This makes using the feat always risky.

Or the minimum level to cast the spell for a wizard/cleric. Ex 1d6 for a first lvl spell. 9d6 for a 5th, and 17d6 for a 9th.

 

[reapersaurus]

hong - great feats, AND web page.

About Unyeilding Soul - I just don't see how 2d6 is not an incredible amount of damage for a BENEFIT.

The character that takes this needs restrictive attribute scores, and spends 3 feats (including this) to get the benefit of turning a mind-affecting spell into twice as much damage as the most powerful spells (fireball, etc) would be able to do to him on a failed save.

Granted, there are limited cases when this huge penalty would be a net sum, as in Hold Person, etc.

However, keep in mind the balancing factors:
the high pre-reqs make this feat pretty limiting, and since it only affects a small number of spells (%-wise) it might only be used in 1 combat round out of 15.

The killer is that you don't know what kind of spell it is that you are protecting yourself against.
You can't use the level of the spell, OR what the spell does to help you decide whether to turn it into physical damage.
For example, it might just be a Flare spell you failed a save on.
Do you take 1d6 points of damage, thereby turning Flare into the most powerful damage-dealing 1st level spell?

 

[hong]

Heh, thanks for the praise, Reaper.

Note that the fireball example is a bit off, because such spells deal damage by caster level. A fireball would do 10d6 from a 10th level wiz on a failed save, whereas a hold person would only do 4d6. A dominate person admittedly would do 10d6, but that's a 5th level spell.

On the other hand, you can make saves against fireballs all day.

As for the flare example, first, note it's an Evocation [light] spell. I assume you meant daze. Regarding the broader issue of knowing what spell you were up against, a partial clue would be gained by what you rolled on the save. If you got a 25 and failed, you could probably guess it was a high-level spell. And really, I haven't seen _that_ many people cast daze, compared to hold person....

Maybe 1d8 per spell level might be a good compromise (1/2d8 for a cantrip).

 

[Al]

reaper: I disagree with your point about Incorruptible Soul. This net-sum gain is huge. A Hold Person is typically followed up with by a coup-de-grace, usually spelling death. The amount of damage (4d6) is mitigating, but usually not devastating to a fighter with at least (i.e. at 3rd level) 2d10+10+con bonusx3. Dominate and Suggestion can even turn the fighter against the party, totally in the first instances and partially in the second (if worded cleverly). 10d6 damage upon a fighter with 8d10+10+con bonusx9 is not a vast amount, especially when facing the alternative (domination for nine days minimum).

As for mind-affecting spells used on one combat out of 15, perhaps your group fights giants, fighters and the like. That's fine. But in most campaigns, where there's an enemy cleric/wizard/sorceror/psion, mind-affecting spells are coming up a lot. After all, it's the major blind spot of the fighter: intelligent foes will try to use that against use. This covers it admirably at 2d6/level.