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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Idiot Savant (feat)



rferries
2017-05-17, 02:55 PM
Idiot Savant [General]
You're a know-nothing know-it-all.

Prerequisites
Int 9 or less.

Benefit
When calculating your skill points or making Intelligence-based skill checks, your Int penalty is instead considered an Int bonus.

Add your Int penalty as a bonus on all non-Intelligence-based skill checks.

Special
A fighter may select Idiot Savant as one of her fighter bonus feats.

Basically spending a feat to turn a dump stat into something useful. The bonus on non-Intelligence-based skill checks may be a bit much, but it struck me as flavourful.

ORRRRRR... your Int penalty is instead an Int bonus for skill checks and Intelligence checks, and for calculating skill points at 1st level.

JeenLeen
2017-05-17, 03:36 PM
To clarify, am I reading you right that, say, a character with 9 Int (-1 modifier) gets a +1 ability modifier to Int skills and a +1 untyped bonus to all other skills?
Assuming that is true:
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Seems potentially too powerful for a skillmonkey build that doesn't need Int for class features.

Perhaps you should say "add your Int penalty as a bonus to Str, Dex, and Con skills." I could see adding in Wisdom, but Charisma-based skills seem out-of-place, especially considering diplomancy and the usefulness of things like Use Magic Device.
Also seems real good for boosting Stealth, Disable Device, etc. I could see this a cool, both mechanically and thematically, for a rogue with both this and Craven.

Still, it is a nice thing for mundanes, and if a spellcaster takes it, that's one less feat boosting its spellcasting, so it passes the "does it help mundanes more than casters" test.

nikkoli
2017-05-17, 05:16 PM
Yeah but you could only dump your int to 3 to maintain your sentience giving at most an effective +4 mod, and you couldn't boost it up with a head band of int, b/c a +6 headband would turn your +4 mod & 3 score to a +1 mod and 9 score.