Birthright Bloodline feats (dragon 315)

[schreier]

Has anyone used them in a standard 3.5 setting (forgotten realms, eberron, dragonlance, ravenloft)? In case you don't have it ... you get a bloodline at the cost of a feat. Then, as a bonus feat you get a bloodlune feat (alter appearance, animal affinity, character reading, fear,etc). Those abilities scale as the blood gets stronger thorough extra feat expenditures or experience of specific types

If so, were they too powerful? I'm thinking of allowing the bloodline feat as a minor bloodline (11 points), but requiring the strengthen bloodline feat to raise it from there.

The alter appearance blood feat is pretty attractive ... basically at will disguise self at character level CL, and at will alter self with 2 strengthen bloodline feats.

If you were to use it, would you just replace the gods in the feat with patriarchs? You could use the time of troubles in forgotten realms I guess?

[thorr-kan]

These are the ones for sorcerers, right?

They're often mentioned as an easy way to give sorcerers more spells known. Haven't used them myself, but I can't see it being that overpowering.

[schreier]

Not quite - they were basically a port-over from a second edition campaign setting called birthright
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthright_(campaign_setting) )

The article starts with a quick summary of the Birthright setting: "The gods of Aebrynnis brought about their end, and the end of an age, on the slopes of Mount Deismaar ..." basically, the gods fought on the mount, and it exploded, killing them, and the power of the old gods entered into the people fighting on either side, and new gods came into being.

The Bloodline feat grants some powers to those, based on this transfer of power through bloodlines.

If you take the feat, you start with a minor power - alter appearance grants at will disguise self (not game breaking, although it's nice that it tracks with level). If you advance the bloodline strength, it becomes more powerful - with 2 "strengthen bloodline" feats, the at will disguise self becomes at will alter self. Other blood feats grant other powers, such as speak with animals, detect thoughts (3/day), and fear 1/day.

[thorr-kan]

Ah, I was thinking of the ones that were reprinted in the Dragon Magazine Compendium.

[schreier]

No one has had experience with the feat?

Would it make sense to allow it through loremaster secret? If you could get the bloodline, the strengthen bloodline feat could logically follow