[3.PF] Pawn in the Great Game feat

[Fenryr]

Hi! For a one shot coming these next month I want to play a Crusader/Knight around level 12. A real tank. My group has only seen one and it was made thanks to Paladin's Spells and class. Now I want to make a tank with a Reach Weapon and more than one taunt (Knight Challenge, UMD and Antagonize feat). Something different.

I got very interested in Wedded to History feat from Dragon Magazine 354. You're immortal to time and you may get different additional bonus (in this case UMD as class skill).

Then comes Pawn in the Great Game from the same magazine. If you're gonna get -10 HP or instant death from a failed saving throw, you may roll Fort with DC 25 - your level. You stay alive with -2 Str and Con drain. I asked my DM and he's very skeptical. It's broken, he says. I agree. Although it asks for four feats in total I agree.

I want to balance this feat. Perhaps it should only work with instant deaths (failed saving throws and not negative HP). Or it should have a higher DC (30? 35? 40? minus your level).

Ideas? Or it should be banned with no balance fix?

Thanks!

[Saidoro]

Wow, leaving you alive with one hit point. For four feats. Totally broken. Literally any incoming damage from that point will provoke another save, and you can fail them on a natural 1. Not to mention it doesn't protect against ability damage/drain, baleful polymorph, plane shift or any of the many other ways there are of getting rid of things you dislike in 3.5. Admittedly, it gets better with mettle or some way of rerolling natural 1s, but even then it's just good, not horrendously broken.

Ideally you should avoid situations where the feat needs to activate in the first place.

[ThiagoMartell]

Get immunity to ability drain and Steadfast Determination and you're immortal.

[Sir_Chivalry]

First, you can't take Pawn in the Great Game if you take the Golden Ager version of Wedded to History where you get UMD. You take the Hand of Prophecy version.

Second, it only kicks in when you either fail a saving throw against a death attack or would be taken from positive hp to -10 or lower, so anything that depletes you to -1 to -9 you're SOL.

[ThiagoMartell]

Btw, Wedded to History does not make you immortal to time. It doesn't grant the template that does such.

[NichG]

A fix would be to make it 1/game, much like another similar feat that exists in Races of Destiny (Fearless Destiny, I think). With that you could even get rid of the Fort Save.

[Eurus]

Hi! For a one shot coming these next month I want to play a Crusader/Knight around level 12. A real tank. My group has only seen one and it was made thanks to Paladin's Spells and class. Now I want to make a tank with a Reach Weapon and more than one taunt (Knight Challenge, UMD and Antagonize feat). Something different.

I got very interested in Wedded to History feat from Dragon Magazine 354. You're immortal to time and you may get different additional bonus (in this case UMD as class skill).

Then comes Pawn in the Great Game from the same magazine. If you're gonna get -10 HP or instant death from a failed saving throw, you may roll Fort with DC 25 - your level. You stay alive with -2 Str and Con drain. I asked my DM and he's very skeptical. It's broken, he says. I agree. Although it asks for four feats in total I agree.

I want to balance this feat. Perhaps it should only work with instant deaths (failed saving throws and not negative HP). Or it should have a higher DC (30? 35? 40? minus your level).

Ideas? Or it should be banned with no balance fix?

Thanks!

Make it ability burn (cannot be restored by magic, only heals at 1 point per day naturally) that cannot be prevented even by immunities and cannot be used if you naturally lack a str/con score? For four feats, it'd be powerful but not overwhelming.

[NichG]

Make it ability burn (cannot be restored by magic, only heals at 1 point per day naturally) that cannot be prevented even by immunities and cannot be used if you naturally lack a str/con score? For four feats, it'd be powerful but not overwhelming.

Hm, I think I'd still be hesitant to allow something like that. On average, that means that someone with this will take five 'kills' to take out (and they're not even unconscious after it happens, they're still up with 1hp). Granted, the 1hp thing is actually a liability if they're getting e.g. full attacked by a dragon (since the critter can just continue its iteratives and force them to lose a life for each swipe).

Maybe have it be as you wrote, but when you're saved in this fashion you are knocked out and cannot regain consciousness by any means for at least one minute? So it serves the purpose of 'the gods aren't done with you yet', as opposed to 'I'm an invincible warrior'...

[Fenryr]

I like the idea of ability burn. Will talk to my DM.


First, you can't take Pawn in the Great Game if you take the Golden Ager version of Wedded to History where you get UMD. You take the Hand of Prophecy version.

Second, it only kicks in when you either fail a saving throw against a death attack or would be taken from positive hp to -10 or lower, so anything that depletes you to -1 to -9 you're SOL.

First, you're correct. Mixed stuff. My bad.

Second, you're correct too. I must be at least 1 HP and drop to -10 or so.


Btw, Wedded to History does not make you immortal to time. It doesn't grant the template that does such.

My bad. Any way to get that template beyond asking DM?

[ThiagoMartell]

My bad. Any way to get that template beyond asking DM?

None that I remember, I'm pretty sure it's intentional.
Of course, you could just be an elan (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicRaces.htm), they have no maximum age. In fact, it ties really well with the Pawn of the Great Game feat.
I've had a thread recently about abilities that trigger when you're low on HP (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=256587) which might be interesting to you.