What do you think about this home-brewed feat?

[kakwokwa]

Hi!

First of all sorry for my english, I'm french...

I play a 8th Level Druid sicnce two years, before that I was a total newbie in the D&D universe.

I may retrain a feat and I tried to persuade my Role Master to accept this homebrewed feat:

Gaining the ability to train and infuse whit magic animals (and my animal companon) to gain the Magebred template.

All the players who knox better than me the D&d universe and the character building said that it was a waste of a feat. I taught it was kind of fun and I'm more into roleplay than character building, and this feat would have suit my character perfectly (a crust punk, nature loving, eco-activist).
But the Rolemaster don't want to introduce to much home-brewing.

So what do you guys think?

THanx in advance for your answers.

David

[trikkydik]

What advantages do you get from fusing with your Magic animals?

Keep in mind Druids only summon Nature's Ally. Not summon monster.

I guess I'm unfamiliar with "Mage bread template." Explain that please.

[kakwokwa]

Hey, sorry, I was'nt clear enough:

It's not for the nature allies I can summoned but for the regular animals rhat I can pet, own and train.

I can already train them to become warbeast (template) whith an handle animal check and a month training (you just need to have enough in your handle animal skill)

the magebred template is as follow:

Magebred Animal

An animal magically bred by House Vadalis might have any of a number of useful qualities—higher ability scores most notable among them—and is easier to train than a mundane animal. A magebred animal of any kind costs twice as much as its mundane equivalent.

The widespread use of magic on Eberron has led to the development of magical enhancements to animal breeding, particularly within House Vadalis. Some experiments in that direction have created new creatures that are actually magical beasts, with unusual intelligence and supernatural or spell-like abilities. In general, however, the aim of these breeding programs is simply to create better animals—ones that are more suited for use in the work of daily life. These magically enhanced animals are called magebred.
A magebred animal looks essentially like a f ne specimen of its kind. Sometimes one may display unusual coloration, including colors rarely found in nature. Its appearance is always slightly exaggerated, emphasizing the feature for which it was bred: A horse magebred for pulling loads has exceptionally large shoulder muscles, for example, while a dog magebred for tracking has a particularly long nose.
CREATING A MAGEBRED ANIMAL

“Magebred animal” is an inherited template that can be applied to any living animal (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A magebred animal uses all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.
Armor Class: The base creature’s natural armor bonus increases by +2.

Special Qualities: A magebred animal is easier to train and handle than a normal animal.
Excellent Learner: A magebred animal can learn a maximum of eight tricks, and the DC for all Handle Animal checks involving a magebred animal is reduced by 2 . In addition, the time required to train a magebred animal for a purpose is reduced by 1 week (to a minimum of 1 week).
A magebred animal also gains one of the following additional special qualities.
Swift Breed: One of the creature’s modes of movement increases its speed by 10 feet.
Thick-Skinned Breed: The creature’s natural armor bonus to AC improves by an additional 2.
Tracking Breed: The creature gains a +4 bonus on Survival checks made to follow tracks.

Abilities: One of the base creature’s physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) increases by 4.The other two physical ability scores increase by 2. A magebred animal always has an Intelligence score of 2.
Feats: A magebred animal gains one of the following feats as a bonus feat: Alertness, Athletic, Endurance, Improved Natural Attack, or Multiattack.
MAGEBRED ANIMALS

Magebred Ghost Tiger
Magebred Brown Bear
This example uses a heavy horse as the base creature and illustrates an animal magebred for versatility and speed.
Magebred Heavy Horse

Large Animal
Hit Dice: 3d8+9 (22 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 60 ft. (12 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (–1 size, +1 Dex, +5 natural), touch 10,
fl at-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/+9
Attack: Hoof –1 melee (1d6+2)
Full Attack: 2 hooves –1 melee (1d6+2)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Excellent learner, low-light vision,
scent, swift breed
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +2
Abilities: Str 20, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +6, Spot +6
Feats: Alertness, EnduranceB, Run

[trikkydik]

It sounds like a complicated skill/feat/spell.

I just don't understand why you can't use your handle animal check to perform the magebred feat you want. You should be able to do it without a feat.

Am I right in assuming you want to "absorb/fuse" with the animals you own?

Or you just want upgraded animals?

In all honesty it sounds like too much effort for little payout.

Wouldn't you be better off summoning a natures ally?

And using the extra feat for something more vital? Maybe one that helps you during combat.

Just my 2 cents.

[trikkydik]

Also,

votre anglais est meilleur que mon français

[Gildedragon]

So you want to... Give animals you find, and your wildshape the magebred template? I'd say that's more Spell worthy than feat worthy... I'd pin it as a 3rd to 4th level spell
Or an Incantation. As a feat it is a bit odd and weak

Also I think that posting the whole template goes against the forum rules regarding copyrighted content.

[eggynack]

Seems decent. Mostly just worse than natural bond. As upside compared to it, you're basically getting a +4 to one physical stat, as well as that speed bump. The +2's are basically the same as the standard advancement's +1's, cause animal physical stats tend to be odd, the bonus feat is frequently going to be matched by the one from HD, and the rest is not overly important. The big downside is that natural bond gives those HD, which grant all kindsa stuff, like HP, and to-hit, and save bonuses. And sometimes even a stat point. In fact, the HP goes over the top of magebred enough that putting the magebred's extra +4 in constitution is going to leave you behind, meaning that you're probably putting it in strength instead, meaning, in turn, that you're only getting a +1 to your strength mod as your biggest upside. And, while the feat isn't always going to be granted by natural bond (going by simple probability, rather than plausible but annoying research, you get the feat 2/3's of the time), it's not like the magebred feats are that exciting. It's mostly just multiattack, which doesn't even work on everything. Overall then, I don't see much reason to not just use natural bond, which means this is probably fine.

Few caveats. First, one thing that makes this feat better than natural bond is that it works from first level, where natural bond kicks in at fourth. Those three levels are where your animal companion is at its best, and giving it major stat bumps, ones that you're not even comparing to anything cause there's not much available for comparison, is a big deal. You're improving what is already roughly equivalent to the party meatshield, imbalancing you in a way that's more problematic than most for its direct comparability. Second, a thing that makes this feat worse is that it doesn't work on everything. You mentioned the magebred ghost tiger and brown bear, but, y'know, those are things. And, probably, the best things you can do with your animal companion at that level. Things you can do that don't interact at all with this feat. At that higher level range, this feat is only letting you put arbitrary companions at parity with the best companions, which isn't all that exciting. Finally, while I used natural bond as a baseline feat of comparison to assess the power here, there's obviously nothing stopping you from taking both. And, while investing two or more feats into the animal companion may be a bit much, there's a definite multiplicative effect you get from combining them like that. That big constitution bonus stops being a thing that's worse than the HD boost, and starts being a thing that helps the HD boost be even better. Which, in turn, could make this feat more problematic than a comparison test would indicate. In the end, that interaction is probably fine, and the first level thing is irrelevant given your level, so the feat is alright but not too good. Doesn't help that you're verging on levels where the animal companion is seriously weakening.