[Feat] for low magic campaigns

[magic8BALL]

In a low magic campaign, it may be hard or imposable to get the bracers of strength or head band of wisdom other, normal magic, characters have. Here is a feats to offset this. If you run a normal magic campaign, consider NOT having this available... please... the balance of existance relies on it.

Ability Boost [General]
You are more able than normal.
Prerequistsites: 4 hit dice.
Benefit: Choose an ability. Gains a +1 bonus as though gained through hit die gain.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take it, you may choose a new ability, or the same one. The effects stack, but to a bonus of +1 per 4 HD on any one ability.

[nonsens]

There are already Epic feats that give a +1 bonus on a stat and those feats are Epic, so this, being non-epic, is wrong.

[Ajikozau]

Imho should be buyable only at 1st level and should improve a stat UNDER 10 maybe 12... imho

[Darth Mario]

I would suggest making the bonus inherent +1 (like the epic feat) and cap the top end of how many times you can improve a single ability to 5. Otherwise, there is no reason why a player wouldn't take this feat EVERY FEAT PICK.

[Catch]

It's a difficult balance to maintain, really. D&D is balanced around the accumulation of magical dodads and trinkets, so low-magic settings tend to have certain issues. However, considering the point of low-magic campaigns is to limit the psuedo-godlike power of characters, buffing their stats to high Celestia isn't exactly a great idea, IMO.

[Moribundus]

Hmm.. regardless of what others say... I like it... if used in only a low/no magic setting however.

I would say, make it specific in the wording of the feat that it applys only to low magic settings... and maybe not be takeable at 1st level... I guess put some sort of level pre req in there as well... (say... lvl 6...?)

[Fizban]

Actually, considering the other options available for feats, it's not really that overpowering. Most characters only gain seven feats over their career, and those feats make or break the character. At most I see it as being an excellent choice at low levels when you don't meet the prerequistes for the feat you want. Reducing the bonus to a +1 would make it perfectly reasonable in my opinion, as would putting a cap of +4 to a single ability. The only problem right now is casters putting their save DC's even higher, but it's not actually more powerful than spell focus, just applicable to all spells instead of one school.

[jlousivy]

I'm just thinking.... human fighter with a 15 str takes this as his human,1,3,6,9,12,15,18 feats, then just uses his fighter ones for everything else...
with the +5 from levels
20-> 36 str

[Triaxx]

Half Orc Fighter could potentially do the same thing, without loosing much ground. Worse yet if he starts with 20 strength. 20>39 STR, and that's without the potential enhancing items that might be found as a very high level reward in a low magic campaign.

[Icewalker]

I like the idea, but I agree with most of the posters here, it seems a little bit overpowered. I suggest lowering it to +1 and capping it at 4-5, even in a low magic campaign being able to increase your stats by such a big amount could cause problems. It is pretty balanced compared to what it would be replacing, (magic items), but compared to other feats it is a bit too good.

[Roderick_BR]

Keep it as a 1st level only thing. It shows a natural predisposition for a character to be better in a given area. He could say his father was strong, and he inherited it, etc.

[magic8BALL]

Ok... looking over these posts there seems to be a few trends:

- keep it to fisrt level
- cap it out at 4 or 5 for any single ability
- reduce it to +1
-change prereqs.

I'm going to pull the prereqs, reduce it to +1 and cap it so that you can only gain +1 per 4 HD on any one ability from this feat, and then add a prereq so that people don't take it to no effect.