[feats] old abilities as new feats

[TheThan]

I’m currently working on making an Oriental adventures campaign setting. I’m going to be using 3.5 rules and I have everything I need to update the older 3.0 stuff and get all the rules straightened out. So that’s not a problem. However I have hit a slight snag. There are a few prestige classes that I feel would fit an oriental adventures world perfectly, however these classes require Smite evil and Turn or Rebuke Undead as class features to enter the prestige class. In a normal game this wouldn’t be a problem but for this game the paladin and cleric are not going to be present (being replace with a homebrewed samurai class and the Shugenja). So I got to thinking, I could wave the ability requirements but I’m sort of hesitant to do that, but then it hit me, I could just as easily turn both Turn or Rebuke Undead and smite evil (even smite good for that matter) into feats. So I present those abilities to you below. As always I would appreciate any constructive criticism and/or other comments you have to offer.


Turn undead
Requirements:
Good or neutral alignment
Must be able to cast 1st level divine spells
Knowledge: religion (3 ranks)

You have the power to affect undead creatures by channeling the power of your faith through your holy (or unholy) symbol (see Turn or Rebuke Undead).
A good character (or a neutral character who worships a good deity) can turn or destroy undead creatures. This turning ability functions just like that of a good cleric. Once you have gained this feat, you cannot also gain Rebuke undead as a feat.
You can turn undead a number of times per day equal to ½ your character level, rounded down (minimum 1).

Rebuke undead
Requirements:
evil or neutral alignment
Must be able to cast 1st level divine spells
Knowledge: religion (3 ranks)

You have the power to affect undead creatures by channeling the power of your faith through your unholy symbol (see Turn or Rebuke Undead).
An evil character (or a neutral character who worships an evil deity) can rebuke (awe) or command (control) undead rather than channeling positive energy to turn or destroy them. An evil character makes the equivalent of a turning check. Undead that would be turned are rebuked instead, and those that would be destroyed are commanded. Once you have gained this feat, you cannot also gain Turn Undead as a feat.
You can rebuke undead a number of times per day equal to ½ your character level, rounded down (minimum 1).


Smite evil
Requirements
Base attack bonus +1
Good alignment
Knowledge: religion (3 ranks)

Once per day, a character may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per class level. If the character accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.
A character can smite evil a number of times per day equal to ½ her character level rounded down (minimum 1)




Smite Good
Requirements
Base attack bonus +1
Evil alignment
Knowledge: religion (3 ranks)

Once per day, a character may attempt to smite good with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per class level. If the character accidentally smites a creature that is not good, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.
A character can smite good a number of times per day equal to ½ her character level rounded down (minimum 1)

[Damionte]

They on't really need commenting. In a game world where palladins and clerics don't esist then turning these into feats doesn't hurt anything.

[Korias]

The Feat Captures the Ability Correctly. Since the Paladin and Cleric are not present, this is good.

[Yakk]

Class level makes no sense for Smite Evil/Good.

How about:
Smite
Requires BaB +1, Knowledge(religion) 3.
Once per day if used against the correct target type, adds charisma bonus to-hit and 1/2 Knowledge(religion) to damage.

Extra Smites:
Requires: Smite Evil, BaB +5
The player gains an extra Smite evil per day at BaB +5, +10, +15 and +20.

...

For the Undead turn/rebuke feats, use 1/2 of your Knowledge(religion) again as your turning level.

The first feat gives you 1 turn/day.

The second feat increases this to 3+cha bonus per day.

...

By using 1/2 Knowledge(religion) as the base for the power of these feats is that it adds a small side cost to them, and it is hard to make your skills go up more than twice as fast as your level. :)

[DracoDei]

Making number of turnings per day scale with character level is noticeably different from the way the standard cleric works... could be good... then again what if you have a character with a 1 level dip into Shugenja? Might want to base make it Charisma Modifier + Ranks in Knowledge [Religion] - 2 or something like that. If you do that then I would probably drop the Synergy bonus that 5 ranks in Knowledge [Religion] gives to turning checks...

[TheThan]

*Snaps fingers*

I forgot about that synergy bonus.
I’m wondering if half class level is too powerful. A 20th level paladin can only smite evil 5 times a day (which I thought was kind of weak, but that's besides the point). With this a 20th level character can smite evil 10 times a day. That’s twice as much. So I may have to put a limit on it, probably about 5 times a day or something.

I’m not too worried about the turning and rebuking abilities, as they are only useful when undead are around or you have something that spends turning attempts for another effect. But then turning is something few clerics waste their time doing, when they could be popping their ‘zilla spells and going to town on the monsters.

I haven't decided how this works with divine meta-magic. I’m probably not going to allow the meta-magic for balance purposes anyway. I’ll have to think more on that.

Thanks for the info, I’ll be considering the suggestions you all have given me.

[Matthew]

Smite Evil and Smite Good now have contradictory opening and closing text. I think that Yakk has it about right.

Turn Undead is trickier to keep balanced. Almost certainly it is too powerful as a Feat.

[Roderick_BR]

You could make turn undead into a spell. I thought about doing it once for a no-cleric campaign.

Make it available to whatever can use magic effects, as a 1st level spell, or a 1st level spell for divine casters if you have any, and 2nd level for arcane casters.

It'll limit the number of times you can use it, but as people said, you don't need much.

[Triaxx]

I did play a variant where there were no Clerics, and Paladins got a holy aura instead of Turn Undead, so it was given to the sorceror, instead of a familiar. Given my preference to sorceror, I was mildly annoyed, but since we fought nothing but undead for the first three levels, it was fine. Worked out perfectly.

[Nocte]

Those abilities are here as feats to http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/genericClasses.htm

[Matthew]

You could make turn undead into a spell. I thought about doing it once for a no-cleric campaign.

Yeah, that's what I have been doing. Turn Undead makes a lot of sense as a Spell when you use Magic Points.