Toughness Feat Alternatives?

[radja]

in my 3.5 game I've houseruled improved toughness to have a prereq of toughness instead of the normal prereqs. I've also slightly upgraded toughness: it not only increases your maximum hitpoints by 3, it also adds 3negative HP before you die. a character with the toughness feat doesn't die until at -13HP instead of at -10 HP.

 

[amethal]

In my campaign I allow players to replace the Toughness requirement with Skill Focus (Craft [basketweaving]) or Ride by Attack.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Sturdy, from Arcana Evolved, is a somewhat stronger version of Toughness. The Warmain class, also from that ruleset, gets it straight away (at 1st level) for free. Tough class, that one (what with d12 Hit Die as well!)

Sturdy grants double your Con bonus to your HP, or 4, whichever is higher.

 

[Liquidsabre]

My version of the Toughness feat is as follows:
You gain +1 hp, and +1 hp per HD. So 2 hp for level 1, and 1 for every HD thereafter. This is retroactive, and essentially means that your HD becomes one size bigger. I don't use Improved Toughness or allow Toughness to be taken repeatedly, but I don't know if there would be any balance issues with doing so.

Yea I did something similar. I just combined Toughness and Improved Toughness to provide +3 HP at 1st level and an additional +1 HP per level after that.

 

[frankthedm]

I don't see any reason why Toughness is a prereq. The PrC is basically a cleric class that gains a new Domain, Alertness, a Wyrmling, Sleep & Paralysis Immunity, Darkvision & Low Light Vision, and can Summon a Dragon. So I figured changing the Toughness prereq wouldn't be a big deal since it doesn't seem to add to the flavor of the class in any way.

No it does not add to the flavor of the class. It may very well add to the balance of the class.

Here is one way to put it.

By the time Draconomicon was in development, WotC was well aware that Toughness was among the weakest feats. It's likely that its inclusion in the prestige class in question was a deliberate balancing factor.

Here is another way.

No alternative feat is needed or should be allowed. It is fairly common for Prestige classes to have a crap feat as part of its requirement to make you pay something for it.

 

[clearstream]

in my 3.5 game I've houseruled improved toughness to have a prereq of toughness instead of the normal prereqs. I've also slightly upgraded toughness: it not only increases your maximum hitpoints by 3, it also adds 3negative HP before you die. a character with the toughness feat doesn't die until at -13HP instead of at -10 HP.

I was running with 'You get a +2 feat bonus to Con for the purpose of calculating hit points' but what you have is very nice too. I wanted something simple that would unambiguously scale as you gained levels.

-vk

 

[Darklone]

Yea I did something similar. I just combined Toughness and Improved Toughness to provide +3 HP at 1st level and an additional +1 HP per level after that.

Same here.

 

[Arkhandus]

3 hp/level would be too much. Improved Toughness from Complete Warrior gives 1 hp/level and can only be taken once. It requires something like +2 or +4 Base Fortitude Save, I forget which.

My houseruled version of Toughness can be taken multiple times, and gives 4 HP. It doubles at 10th-level onward (retroactively).

 

[Angrydad]

in my 3.5 game I've houseruled improved toughness to have a prereq of toughness instead of the normal prereqs. I've also slightly upgraded toughness: it not only increases your maximum hitpoints by 3, it also adds 3negative HP before you die. a character with the toughness feat doesn't die until at -13HP instead of at -10 HP.

Consider the -13 HP idea yoinked.

On a more related note, I've houseruled Toughness to grant what Improved Toughness currently grants (+1 HP per HD) and find that it is something my players actually consider taking. Sure, at the lower levels it is less power than the Toughness feat RAW but it quickly becomes more useful once you reach level 4+. I'd even consider letting players take it multiple times if they wanted, though I might add a Fortitude save requirement so I don't get someone loading up on it early on.

 

[reierh]

Currently My games use a system similar to the Wound Point and Hit Point system found in Unearthed Arcana and Star Wars.

very briefly:

Toughness = +3 Wound Points
Improved Toughness = +6 Wound Points
Greater Toughness = +9 Wound Points
Advanced toughness = +12 Wound Points
Epic Toughness = +15 Wound Points
Legendary Toughness = +18 Wound Points

Dwarf's Toughness = +1 HP/HD
Giant's Toughness = +2 HP/HD
Dragon's Toughness = +3 HP/HD