Non-combat, non-magic feats: Why are there no good ones?

[RangerWickett]

Does anyone else agree with me that for people other than warriors and flash-bang mages, feats seem kinda pointless? Way too many feats are combat-oriented, and from the previews of D20 Modern, it looks like that will continue even into the new system. This displeases me.

I mean, it's like, "Hey, I'm the canny investigative journalist. That means that I can choose between getting a boring feat, like Skill Focus, or a cool feat, like Ultra-Mega-Super-Upper-Cutta-Kung-Fu!"

Why are there no interesting non-combat feats? I don't want flat numerical bonuses like skill focus, run, or endurance. Some of the things from the Psionics Handbook that relied on empathy and such, those were kinda nifty, but we need more. Any suggestions?

 

[Skywalker]

I totally agree. One thing I really liked Fading Suns d20 was that it added the concept of Social Feats. These were used to represent social aspects of the character including noble title, religious aspects and personality skills. I think they were as many as the combat orientated feats.

 

[BluWolf]

That is because 3E lacks the supporting mechanisms around "social" or roleplaying feats that make them truly work while.

The system has no real codified way of handeling social and political titles, economic wealth over monetary wealth, land holdings, templates for social interactions........ so on and so forth.

I'm not saying you can't do it (and maybe somebody already is) but as it stands, no.

Shameless plug. Those of us @ E1066 have been working for quite awhile on these issues and hope to start bringing some of our fruit to market.

 

[Crothian]

Spycraft has some usible non combat, non magic feats. But I totally agree with you. I don't think they would have to be social feats just anything not combat related. Someone could even come up with some useful skill related feats.

 

[Bob Aberton]

"Blood-lines" feats?

Kinda toyed with this idea in my Tainted Avalon campaign...they'd basically give a small number of bonuses to various things due to ancestry, like:

Knightly Ancestry: +4 competence to Ride, Sense Motive, Diplomacy. Changes favored class to Paladin. (In my Tainted Avalon campaign, this entitles one to a knighthood and estates and lands.)

Noble bloodline: +4 competence to Bluff, Intimidate. Bluff and Intimidate are class skills. (In my Tainted Avalon campaign, this feat also entitles one to an estate, lands, knighthood, and/or a seat on the Council of Lords.)

Wild Ancestry: +4 competence to Intuit Direction, Wilderness Lore, Knowledge: Nature. Changes favored class to barbarian.

Seafaring Blood: +2 to Profession(Sailor) and Profession(Pirate), and Balance.

Northern Ancestry: Cold Resistance 3. +2 to Wilderness Lore in cold environments.

Southern Ancestry: Fire Resistance 3. +2 to Wilderness Lore in hot environments.

You get the idea. What do you think of it?

 

[JacktheRabbit]

The new Ravenloft D20 has some interesting and useful feats and most of them are not combat directed.

 

[RangerWickett]

Not too terribly excited, sadly. As I said, I don't want simple bonuses.

Now, non-combat doesn't mean non-flashy. As a silly example, consider -

Horse-Fu
Akin to the famed Gun-Fu of modern action flicks, Horse-Fu lets you do nifty things with your horse.
Prerequisites: Ride - 8 ranks, Animal Empathy or Handle Animal - 4 ranks.
Benefits: Any trained horse you ride will obey your subtle mental commands, performing any action that is not-immediately life-threatening, as long as the horse is physically able to do so. This ability also extends to any horse within eyeshot that you have ridden for at least 8 hours total, though if the horse is beyond touch range, you must give verbal commands to it. Thus, your horse can come with a whistle, fetch ropes to pull you up off a cliff, curl itself into a ball to hide behind a bush, or jump into a river to save you.

I know it's kinda silly, and probably overpowered but it would be fun.

 

[Bob Aberton]

How about:

PANACHE

prerequisites: CHA 18+, Intimidate 8 ranks, Bluff 8 ranks

Benefit: Whenever you perform an ordinary action (such as walking in a door, or merely walking down the street), subtle theme music of your choice emanates from you to a range of 20 yards. For additional dramatic effect, you can cause a crescendo in your theme music to coincide with a flashy visual effect, such as a puff of smoke, a flash of light, a gust of wind, or a thunderclap and harmless streak of lighting in the background.

All these effects are a supernatural ability that can be suppressed by the character at will.

this good enough for ya, RangerW?

 

[RangerWickett]

I much prefer

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
Your touch is the equivalent of coinage.
Benefit: By slamming your fist into the side of a coin-operated mechanical device, you can activate it, even if you didn't put any coins in.

 

[the Jester]

Here are a few rough ideas:

Inheritance [General]
You gain an inheritance. This may be (at your option) money, land, or a single object (magical or mundane) worth up to 50% of the average wealth per level of a pc of your level.

Lasting Intimidation [General]
Prerequisites: Cha 13+
Whenever you successfully intimidate someone, they will remember you. You may make one demand of the target's future behavior, such as not revealing that they saw you, not attempting to waylay travelers on the bridge anymore, etc. Before violating your demand for the first time, the victim of your intimidation must make a successful Will save, DC15 + your cha modifier. After they succeed for the first time, the force of your intimidation fades. The subject of your intimidation may attempt to violate your demand once per day, and for every week that passes without the victim seeing you they gain a +2 morale bonus on the saving throw.

Renowned Critic [General]
Prerequisites: Cha 13+
You may criticize the performances of another either at the time or after the fact. If you heckle a performer at the time of the performance, you may subtract your cha bonus from the perform check of the performer. If you criticize after the fact, all creatures that hear you do so are less impressed by later performances by the same performer, and the performer's perform checks are penalized by twice your cha bonus as regards those who heard you utter your criticism until the performer manages to roll a perform check that exceeds twice your charisma score (including the penalty) in their presence, thereby overcoming your scornful critique in their eyes.



Just a few thoughts....