Student of Chaos variant

[Gorfnod]

In the 3.5 campaign I am currently DMing I will soon be adding another player that would like to try out a rogue/fortune's friend/uncanny trickster character focused on chaos and luck.

His plan is to play around with a lot of wonderous items, especially the ones with random effects. He really likes the 3rd level ability of the wild mage, student of chaos, but has no interest in playing a caster.

The following is my attempt to do something similar based with Luck feat system introduced in Complete Scoundrel but it still seems a little lacking to me (read weak).

Advantageous Activation [Luck Feat]
You seem to have a way with magical items.
Prerequisite: Character level 6th, any two luck feats
Benefit: You can expend one luck reroll as an immediate action to reroll a randomly determined effect from a magic item(such as a bag of tricks or rod of wonder). You must take the effect of the second roll.
If a random roll is made only once to determine the nature or contents of a device (for example, a robe of useful items or an iron flask), this feat provides no benefit.
You gain one luck reroll per day.
Special: Unlike other luck feats, you can use this feat after seeing the result of the roll to be affected.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Dragonsoul]

How about some way to add/Subtract numbers from the result say +/- 10?
Of course you might not want to remove the randomness.....

[Gorfnod]

Thanks for the quick response but I think that adding a +/-10 would take away too much of the randomness.

Say in the case of a Rod of Wonder they roll a 76 and get a Fireball. A player that knows the Rod of Wonder table would then know that a +10 would be the Leaves grow from target effect (86) and a -10 would be the Reduce weilder effect (66). So would probably just stick with the Fireball instead of using a luck reroll.

I do think that the items need to retain their randomness and thats why I am againist Student of Chaos as a flat out feat. So any other ideas out there?

[HunterOfJello]

There's already a siliar feat called Wild Touch from Dragon Magainze 326 that works like the one you've written.



Wild Touch [Anarchic] (DR326 p80)

Requirements: Chaotic alignment, Use Magic Device: 8 ranks

When determining the random effect of a magic item (i.e., drawing a card rom a Deck of Many Things, activating a Rod of Wonder, etc.), you may roll twice and choose the more appropriate of the two. This ability may be used once per day.
You gain a Chaotic Aura equal to your Character level. It can discerned by Detect Chaos spell or ability.

Compared to the Dragon Magazine feat, I like that you created it as a Luck feat and put the limitation of choosing to use a luck reroll to be able to reroll it instead of a roll two dice and choose between them mechanic.

I think that some kind of penalty like a Chaotic Aura for the feat would be amusing.

[Gorfnod]

Thanks Hunter, glad to see that there is something published similar to what I was thinking of. I don't know if I will use my feat or the published one but I definetly want to get my hands on Issue 326 now.

I like the idea of the Chaotic Aura and knowing this character he will consider it a bonus.