Dragon and Dungeon Magazine Feats + Other unheard of Feats

[TheCreatorT]

{Copyrighted material link removed} Doing some more digging at the Wizard's Feat Index (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/lists/feats) I discovered even more feats that are rarely discussed, at least today, like Dragonmarks. Does anyone use these feats like Time of Birth or Mark ones, and what do you guys think of in general.

On a side note one feat that particularly caught my eye was Spawn of the Dark Prince from Dragon Magazine 359, which if you have 15 Charisma, you can get a +10 in bluff for a -2 in Spot. I would say that was worth it for a diplomat.

[ATHATH]

Cerebrosis serves a similar purpose (optimization-wise) to Mother Cyst, but can be purchased without using a feat slot with 3,000 GP or so, a spare week to meditate, and a permanent 1 point reduction in CON.

My two Optimizing the _____ threads discuss two cool races, and mentioned the Catoblepas occasionally.

[Mrs Kat]

I'm actually using a Dragon Magazine feat on a character at the moment (Sacred Outlaw on a cleric/rogue). I think the consensus has been that there are quite a few outright broken feats in Dragon, so they are rarely included as standard. Historically, they were also difficult to look up, so weren't included in many of the well-respected handbooks.

I've yet to meet a DM who accepts Dragon Magazine material without review.

As an aside, some of the class-specific flaws in Dragon are actually flaws.

[Afgncaap5]

So I was looking at Erez and Outland's Feat Index (http://chet.kindredcircle.org/pdf/DnD3.5Index-Feats.pdf) when I discovered quite a few feats I never heard of, and discovered that most of these were from the Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine issues. Doing some more digging at the Wizard's Feat Index (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/lists/feats) I discovered even more feats that are rarely discussed, at least today, like Dragonmarks. Does anyone use these feats like Time of Birth or Mark ones, and what do you guys think of in general.

On a side note one feat that particularly caught my eye was Spawn of the Dark Prince from Dragon Magazine 359, which if you have 15 Charisma, you can get a +10 in bluff for a -2 in Spot. I would say that was worth it for a diplomat.

Dragonmarks are great, though they're usually tied to Eberron. I once had a "Sorcerer" who was actually just a House Orien member, so at level seven he still really only had level 1 or 2 spells slots. (However, the tactical advantage of being able to instantly be behind someone to deliver a Shocking Grasp next round before they figure out where you are turned out to be stronger than I expected.) I've seen them outside of Eberron games, though they generally take on a different connotative use (even the Eberron books talk about the differences in gameplay story and mechanic with them, and raises the question about Aberrant Dragonmark usage among players as something like "Does the player want a character who's shunned from society for bearing the mark of a prophetic, destructive curse, or does the player just want their Fighter to be able to cast Shield?")

Another rare set of feats that I *really* like for story purposes are the feats that grant you effective immortality. Dragon Magazine #354 has a whole section on Ancient PCs, including a feat called Wedded To History that allows you to become immune to the ravages of time, along with some other benefit (must be taken at level 1). There are also some feats that modify/improve your usage of your immortality feat, and a couple spells if memory serves. They're *fantastic* for wanting a character who'll never die from old age or a character who's been around eons, though I don't think they get brought up very often by people who'd rather figure out ways to optimize damage or... really, much of anything else. Immortality is something that feat-hungry people often choose to arrange in other ways.

[Fizban]

feats that grant you effective immortality.
Wut. Why did no one tell me of this? Now I won't have to build every ageless character as an Elan or Killoren, hooray!

[martixy]

Wut. Why did no one tell me of this? Now I won't have to build every ageless character as an Elan or Killoren, hooray!

Well... yea. The feat is called "Wedded to History".
It's fairly well known, because it has several flavours, some of which are quite optimization-friendly. For example one grants you UMD as class skill and the ability to make checks untrained. Another lets you use your Will save in place of Fortitude or Reflex.
There's also additional feats that expand of the idea, one amusing one of which actually lets you have a Schroedinger's backpack.

[daremetoidareyo]

Like most folks, with my groups dragon magazine feats and prestige classes have a blanket ban on them that can only be lifted by asking. Mostly, it's because some players have access to them and others do not. But in this vein, if you can find the feat on the wizard's site, they are fair game. From my experience, dragon magazine is at it's very most broken when PCs have UNFETTERED access to the spells, magic items, and monsters. The feats, as usual, tend to be terribly weak in that they offer mechanics that are more unforgiving than winging it, or they are actually a good return on investment. Mourning mutate is a perfect example. They took the feat tax element out of aberration feats. Why does WOTC believe that the first feat in a feat chain have to blow mad chunks? They made 2 good abyssal heritor feats, and only one of them is in a 1st party source book. I think that the caster disparity issues of the game are corrected in part by allowing some of the tier 3 feats from dragon. But, until we had tablets at the table, the text of the feats was always a pain to get to for everyone.

I saw on another thread that Wizards is paying for high quality scans of old sourcebooks. So maybe, if they want to continue marketing to grognards, they'll make a second dragon compendium as a special pdf only, and put that up for sale.

So we allow weird feats from the website, as they tend to be a bit weaker, font of inspiration is just an outlier.

So, this means that the fabulous cats (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c) feats are allowed. Or fey feature (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fey/20030815a) feats. Killoren Sorcadin with charming the arrow, delicious.

[Âmesang]

I'm a fan of the WORLD OF GREYHAWK® regional/racial feats presented in DRAGON #315 and #319 (Troll Blooded notwithstanding :smalltongue:), though I suppose they may have to be updated in a manner similar to the regional feats in Player's Guide to Faerûn (only one regional/racial feat allowed and only at 1st level, most likely).

I also plan on getting some good use out of Enspell Familiar (reprinted in the DRAGON Compendium). Sharing spells out to one mile instead of 5 ft.? Yes, please! :smallbiggrin:

EDIT: Speaking of blanket bans and whatnot, until my last group's campaign collapsed I was looking forward to having a character learn the dual-school spell, Slerotin's fortitude… from 2nd Edition. Using Wizards' conversion manual it's actually not that hard to update after some minor clarifications: rename "alteration" to "transmutation," dual-school spells exist once again due to the Player's Handbook II and Dragon Magic, and swap the line "per level of experience" with "per caster level."

[Aleolus]

While it isn't a Dragon mag or Dungeon mag, I quite like AEG's book Feats. Sure, its third party, but some of the things in it are either quite useful or very fun (I would like to play a Monk that takes the feat Monkey Grabs the Peach sometime). That being said, some of them have a rediculous feat tax for equally ridiculous abilities. Case in point, Assassin's Strike. Iirc, it takes 7 other feats to qualify for it, and the benefit is


Whenever you deal Sneak Attack damage to a creature, it dies.

Seriously broken, with heavy tax requirement

[Inevitability]

While it isn't a Dragon mag or Dungeon mag, I quite like AEG's book Feats. Sure, its third party, but some of the things in it are either quite useful or very fun (I would like to play a Monk that takes the feat Monkey Grabs the Peach sometime). That being said, some of them have a rediculous feat tax for equally ridiculous abilities. Case in point, Assassin's Strike. Iirc, it takes 7 other feats to qualify for it, and the benefit is


Text

Seriously broken, with heavy tax requirement

This may sound weird, but I don't think it's broken at all.

By the time you have eight feats (18th-level human with no flaws still only has seven), most things you face will be sneak attack-immune, or at least protected in several ways.

Of course, you can cheese your way into getting that feat at low levels. But at that optimization level, most martials can already one-shot anything they manage to hit.

[zergling.exe]

This may sound weird, but I don't think it's broken at all.

By the time you have eight feats (18th-level human with no flaws still only has seven), most things you face will be sneak attack-immune, or at least protected in several ways.

Of course, you can cheese your way into getting that feat at low levels. But at that optimization level, most martials can already one-shot anything they manage to hit.

Don't all characters get 7 feats over 18 levels?

1st
3rd
6th
9th
12th
15th
18th

[Aleolus]

This may sound weird, but I don't think it's broken at all.

By the time you have eight feats (18th-level human with no flaws still only has seven), most things you face will be sneak attack-immune, or at least protected in several ways.

Of course, you can cheese your way into getting that feat at low levels. But at that optimization level, most martials can already one-shot anything they manage to hit.

I was basing my statement off the fact that there is no save against it. Its just a flat "you do this, they automatically die" thing. Then again, AEG's books are not only third party, they're also 3rd ed, not 3.5, as Improved Weapon Finesse shows (it states that you have to choose a weapon that yoou have taken Weapon Finesse for to apply its benefits to, but in 3.5 you apply Weapon Finesse benefits to all applicable weapons)

[TheCreatorT]

I apologize for the copyright incident, I will be more careful in the future.

[Thurbane]

My favorite unofficial feat flavour-wise is Sailor Talk from Dead Man's Chest (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/2392/Dead-Mans-Chest?it=1). It's pretty weak in terms of effects (-1 to attacks and skill check for 1 round, resisted with a Will save), but the idea of literally swearing at an opponent so badly it gives him a penalty is just plain awesome. :smallbiggrin:

Lost Tradition from Bastards & Bloodlines (http://greenroninstore.com/products/bastards-and-bloodlines-a-guidebook-to-half-breeds-pdf) is relatively infamous: switch your primary casting stat to any ability (including Str, Dex or Con).

Crossbow Mastery from the Curse of the Crimson Throne (http://paizo.com/products/btpy806v) player's guide: (this existed in a 3.5/d20 form before PF) lets you full attack with any crossbow. It's a fighter bonus feat, or a Ranger can take it in place of his Manyshot fighting style.

...in terms of official or semi-official, there's Practiced Magic from the Shackled City (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8ysn?Dungeons-Dragons-The-Shackled-City-Adventure-Path-Hardcover) hardcover. Works like Practiced Spellcaster, but for SLAs.