Negflar2099
Explorer
The thinking on this was answered on twitter recently.
but the Eldritch Knight can't cast spells through his arrows, right, unless I'm missing something. That's still not quite the same.
The thinking on this was answered on twitter recently.
I haven't seen anyway to treat a weapon as a spell focus, only the reverse (staff treated as quarterstaff). There could be a feat for this. Perhaps:
+1 to either str or dex.
Choose one weapon you're proficient in. It is treated as a spell focus for spells cast by you. It is also treated as magical.
What do people think? Does it need something more? It doesn't replicate any class feature that I know of and it can be useful for multiple classes.
Interesting. A lot of overlap with War Caster (which allows you ignore Somatic Components which is the basic upshot of this feat).
However the true benefit of this Feat is you make your Weapon attacks magical. I would imagine as it stands, way more Fighters and Rogues would take it than spell casters.
There were feats in the playtest that I wish had stayed in the game. One in particular that I miss was a feat called Arcane Archer that basically replicated the Arcane Archer prestige class. I thought it was a great way to do prestige classes and a really fun feat. I don't know why it was left out of the final version.
I think feats are likely the hardest thing to design in the game. You want things that not everyone (or even each member of class X) would want or feel they need. You also want something that "anyone watching the game for an hour would realize who has what feat(s)".
I guess at I high level I think of each feat as a mini-class; it should represent some very strong character type in a way that sets your character apart from others, but overlaps with too many other concepts too much to be its own class.
- feats that are thematic to specific to character concept that grant expertise on 2 related skills or tools (e.g. Medic = medicine; herbalist kit; Charioteer = animal handling; vehicles (land); Archaeologist = history, religion).
Telepathy
- You can communicate telepathically with any creature you have charmed, or any creature in line of sight within 60 feet, that can understand a language.
- You can sense the presence and Intelligence score of every sentient creature in line of sight within 60 feet.
- You can touch a number of creatures up to your spellcasting ability modifier to create a telepathic link with them, which allows you to communicate with those creatures anywhere as long as they are on the same plane.
Mindbender
Prerequisites: Telepathy ability, proficiency in Insight and Persuasion, ability to cast charm person and 3rd level spells
- You may add twice your proficiency bonus to Insight and Persuasion checks.
- You learn the following spells: detect thoughts, suggestion
- You add the following spells to your class spell list: mass suggestion, dominate person
In general I like Telepathy, though it may be too good. It's clearly a defining character concept. I don't care for Mindbender, though I could see a feat meant to represent someone who is particularly skilled at influencing others.
Yeah. I am not real sure about handing out Expertise with feats. On the other hand, I'm trying to replicate the Mindbender Prestige Class from 3.5's Complete Arcane.
As for Telepathy, can you give any advice on how to tone it down?
I would go with this for Feats, based loosely on my psionicist mixed with the ideas you posted.
TELEPATHY
You have the ability to touch others minds as a mentalist, granting you the following benefits.
- You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don’t need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language. This communication is two-way.
- You can read a creatures thoughts. You can use your access to the creature’s mind to command it. As an action, choose one creature that you can see within 60 feet of you. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Psionic power save DC. If the creature succeeds on the saving throw, you can’t use this feature on it again until you have finished a long rest. If the creature fails its save, you can read its surface thoughts (those foremost in its mind, reflecting its current emotions and what it is actively thinking about) when it is within 60 feet of you. The effect lasts for 1 minute. During that time, you can use your action to end this effect and manifest the suggestion power on the creature without expending the power points. The target automatically fails its saving throw against the power.
MINDBENDER
Prerequisite: Telepathy feat
You are not only good as a mentalist but also as a controller, gaining the following abilities:
- You gain proficiency in Persuasion if you do not already have it. If you are already proficient, you gain Expertise in it instead, applying double your proficiency bonus to Persuasion skill checks.
- As an action, you can cause each creature in a 10 foot cube originating from you to make a Wisdom saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier. The creatures that fail their saving throws are all charmed or frightened by you (your choice) until the end of your next turn. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
- You gain the ability to generate a telepathic field of white noise static that disrupts mind-influencing effects. As an action, you can manifest the field which lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, you and any friendly creature within 30 feet of you have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed. The field also ends if you are incapacitated or if you voluntarily end it (no action required).
I prefer the idea that non-casters can take these feats and use the abilities. If you want one that it purely caster we could try to work on that.