Skill Focus, Dodge, Toughness: Weak... ?

[Michael Morris]

This is in that Player's Guide I put together, but I'm sharing it here because it is a rule change I think everyone should use - Skill Focus, as written, are too much weaker than the other feats.

These are the rewrites. They are open content in the form given below

SKILL FOCUS (General)
Choose a skill, such as move silently. You have a special knack with that skill.
Benefit{/b] You gain a +2 bonus on all skill checks with that skill. If the skill is not exclusive to a class, it is always a class skill for you. If this skill is exclusive to a class, you can treat it as a cross-class skill if you later multiclass.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat it applies to a new feat.

This version, in the hands of single class characters, is not any real improvement over the core book. However, for multiclassed characters the feat helps greatly, especially if one of the multiclasses is a highly skill deprived class like the fighter.


DODGE (General, Fighter)
You are adept at dodging blows.
Prerequisite: Dex 13+
Benefit: Gain a +1 dodge bonus to your AC against all melee foes, or gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC against a single foe using a missile weapons against you. You must be aware of the foe with a missile weapon in order to dodge his attacks. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses. Dodge bonuses stack.

Let's face it - checking which foe Dodge applies against is just a pain, especially in a melee. And if a feat can grant a +1 to attack against any foe, a +2 to any save or a +2 to one or even two skills, what's so broken about a +1 to AC, period.
As to missile weapons, having played dodge ball well for many years I can testify that dodging missiles is easier than dodging missile attacks, though in this case concentration on a single foe is crucial.


TOUGHNESS (General)
You are tougher than normal.
Benefit: You gain +3 hit points +your constitution ability modifier. You shrug off subdual damage at a rate of 1 per minute instead of 1 per hour.

This change, given the real to subdual damage healing rules of the Dusk setting, makes toughness a stellar feat on the munchkin shopping list, up there with improved initiative or combat casting. The loss is that the feat cannot be taken repeatedly.

Opinions welcome.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I would suggest that Skill Focus be simply treated the way that WotC have in all their subsequent game materials - +3 to a chosen skill.

In our game we have used dodge gives a blanket +1 to AC against all foes and found it acceptable. Does it make the feat so good that everyone wants it? No.

Toughness as you suggest it seems much too powerful. Subdual recovery per minute!! If you made it double the normal subdual recovery rate it would still be a good and strong feat. The nearest comparitive published feats are

Rapid Metabolism [Psionic]

Prerequisite: Con 13+.

Benefit: You naturally heal a number of hit points per day of rest equal to the standard healing rate + your Constitution modifier.


Psionic Metabolism [Psionic]

Prerequisite: Con 13+, Rapid Metabolism.

Benefit: You convert 1 point of normal damage to 1 point of subdual damage per hour, if you pay the cost of 1 power point per hour. If you are unconscious or dying, Psionic Metabolism does not work.

Both of these seem considerably weaker than your proposed version.

Regards

 

[Zappo]

Whoa! The Toughness feat as you put it is really powerful! It gives about as many hit points as a new level would, and improves by 60 times (!) the subdual damage healing rate. I fear that it would make abilities that turn normal damage into subdual damage rather overpowered, such as the biofeedback psionic power.

Maybe a prerequisite of CON 13 or 15...? Myself, I've always wondered if someone with CON 5 taking 'toughness' made sense...

 

[Michael Morris]

Whoa! The Toughness feat as you put it is really powerful! It gives about as many hit points as a new level would, and improves by 60 times (!) the subdual damage healing rate. I fear that it would make abilities that turn normal damage into subdual damage rather overpowered, such as the biofeedback psionic power.

Maybe a prerequisite of CON 13 or 15...? Myself, I've always wondered if someone with CON 5 taking 'toughness' made sense...

One of the primary reasons for this change is that in Dusk no spell or magical (or for that matter psionic) ability can remove subdual damage. Spells and abilities that heal real damage instead turn them into subdual damage.

I cannot copy how WotC has treated Skill Focus in subsequent products. WotC wants all d20 publishers to pretend that they don't exist, and we must comply.

 

[Zappo]

One of the primary reasons for this change is that in Dusk no spell or magical (or for that matter psionic) ability can remove subdual damage. Spells and abilities that heal real damage instead turn them into subdual damage.

That makes it even more powerful. So much that I can't think any character not taking it. Assuming that spells to turn the real damage into subdual are available, the character is practically healing 60 times faster!

I cannot copy how WotC has treated Skill Focus in subsequent products. WotC wants all d20 publishers to pretend that they don't exist, and we must comply.

If you put it like this... OTOH there's a clear advantage in using a standard, and I don't think the current RPG scene lacks in diversity. Quite the opposite!

 

[Numion]

IMC Dodge has been chosen by many fighters, but just at the higher levels. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good feat; it can also mean that fighters have feats in abundance at higher levels.

 

[Number47]

In my campaign, I encourage players to come up with their own feats if they like. I usually point to Alertness (which gives +2 to Spot and +2 to Listen), and tell them they can make just about any feat that gives them +2 to two separate but related skills. This essentially means that Skill Focus doesn't really exist in my campaign except for commoners and experts.

 

[Chimera]

I find Skill Focus extremely useful for NPCs, but giving only a +2 to one skill, when other feats give +2 to TWO different skills, is somewhat limiting. +3 is an improvement, but not much.

I'm thinking of going back over my NPCs and inventing some new feats. One comes to mind;

Physician You are skilled in the healing arts. Grants a +2 to Healing and Herbalism checks.

Some of my players used to laugh at low-level NPC specialists, until they needed the services of a Healer. Mere 3rd level Cleric, but amped up to; Healer 6(ranks) +4(wisdom)+2(skill focus)+2(herbalism synergy)+2(Healer's Kit) = 16.

Dodge seems fine to me the way it is. Giving a +1 to all opponents seems too much.

I like the 3+con change to Toughness above. Yes, it is, in some cases, as much as another level of HP. Works for me! Joe Blow "seems" tougher than the 1st level Fighter he is, but lo and behold, he sure doesn't fight as well as you thought! The only potential downside is that the "+con" reduces the effectiveness of the feat for those with negative Con modifiers. Perhaps that's the point, perhaps not, but it still works for me. I have the same feelings as above on a person with a 5 Con taking Toughness.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I cannot copy how WotC has treated Skill Focus in subsequent products. WotC wants all d20 publishers to pretend that they don't exist, and we must comply.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are saying here - on the one hand, plenty of people turned Skill Focus into a +3 bonus before WotC started printing anything else, it was all over various discussion boards. if stuff hadn't been pruned you would just need to search for "Skill Focus shafted"

On the other hand, you are suggesting a redefinition of Skill Focus here (actually turning it into the Cosmopolitan feat, from FR, which isn't OGC at present as far as I know).

Just curious, but whether you are wanting to avoid legal problems or conform to existing d20 D&D rules I don't see what the issue is here - your proposed rewording of Skill Focus is a more direct copy of published D&D material than my (common house rule) suggestion!

Cheers (and best wishes for Dusk)

 

[Gargoyle]

Your Skill Focus isn't overpowered or anything, but seems odd to me. Why should someone who multiclasses be encouraged to specialize in a skill? I would prefer the common house rule that it be increased to +3.

I agree that choosing which foe to apply your Dodge bonus against is a pain. Why make the same mistake with ranged weapons? Also your write up is unclear if you can switch this bonus from "melee" to "ranged" mode, and when that switch occurs. I assume you do it as a free action on your turn, but it doesn't specify.

No comment on your Toughness feat, since it's geared toward a campaign setting I'm not familiar with, except to say that it seems like a feat that will always be taken by melee characters, and therefore is too good.

Overall, I agree that these feats are less satisfying than some other choices, like Combat Reflexes or Improved Initiative. But if that bugs you, I'd suggest making them just a little better, rather than redesigning them. Make Toughnesss +4 to hp, Skill Focus +3 to bonuses, and Dodge +1 to everyone you're aware of. After playing your campaign a while like that, see if it makes them popular enough to take. Simple mechanics have a place in the game, especially for NPCs and for players who prefer quick character generation.

I would also consider whether making passive feats more attactive is a good idea at all. Feats that require very little in the way of decision making like Toughness probably should be weaker than the more exciting stuff, like Power Attack or Combat Reflexes.

(PS: I would have put this in house rules, you'll get much more feedback there.)