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Shuruke
2019-04-03, 10:41 PM
So out of sheer boredom and curiosity I am interested in knowing what kind of features and traits have left impressions on you guys through years and additions. Mainly so I can steal them to hand out as booms on a d100 table

Mine is arcane archer in 3.5 and adding self centered spells onto arrows

Just felt really nice XD

Quertus
2019-04-03, 11:19 PM
Wizard, through 2e: no spells known. All his knowledge & power was from whatever random scraps of Arcane lore he happened to find on his adventures.

Wizard, through 3e: spell research. Nothing set characters apart like their own custom spells.

Wizard, 2e: item creation.

Wild Mage, 2e, Nahal's Reckless Dwoemer: "<character name> attempts to cast <spell name>; what really happens is...".

Wild Mage, 2e: the ability to control otherwise random artifice was bloody awesome!

Thinker
2019-04-04, 07:21 AM
Both of mine come from 3.5e.
Magic of Incarnum - I loved these classes when they were released. Characters had an allotment of essence to distribute to their various abilities, which replaced magic items. They could be shifted around in different ways to achieve different effects.
Binding Magic - Make a deal with a Vestige (some near-dead divine power) to gain access to their ability.

KorvinStarmast
2019-04-04, 08:40 AM
So out of sheer boredom and curiosity I am interested in knowing what kind of features and traits have left impressions on you guys through years and additions. Ranger AD&D 1e: all of it. (And with weapon specialization from 1985 UA).
It was hard to get a ranger since there were plenty of minimum roll thresholds. So just getting one was nice. Starting with 2d8 was also nice.
In our campaigns, we had a mix of in the dungeon and out in the wilderness stuff, so I got to apply my outdoors skills alot. And I particularly liked that, against Giant class creatures (giants, ogres, bugbears) I got a damage boost based on my level for every hit. :smallcool:

Lapak
2019-04-04, 10:03 AM
A truly great class feature from a class that didn't live up to it: the Truenamer's Say My Name And I Am There.

Man_Over_Game
2019-04-04, 10:11 AM
4e Barbarians.

They had a bunch of defensive abilities to increase survivability and to protect the team, until they Raged. Raging was activated by a singular special attack that they could use (sometimes including flying, explosions, or both), and then they lost all of their defensive abilities for straight on aggression until the end of the fight.

It was a tactical wonder, and was implemented beautifully. Say what you want about 4e, they knew how to make a boring class seem fun.

2D8HP
2019-04-04, 10:58 AM
1e AD&D Rangers.
Humans and Half-Elves of a good alignment who start play with 2d8 hit points, do extra damage to: bugbear, ettins, giants, gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, ogres, ogre magi, orcs, and trolls.
They surprise opponents on a d6 score 1 through 3, and are themselves suprised only on a score of 1 on a d6.
They had ability in tracking.
At 8th level they had could start casting some druidic spells (Cleric spells instead in the 0e original The Strategic Review article, as Druids were a monster not a PC class at first), and they also could start casting some magic-user spells at 9th level.

Half-Elves could multi-class as Cleric/Rangers.

It was a good class.

[EDIT]: Dagnabbit! I now see upthread that @Korvinstarmast already picked the 1e Ranger, so in this (and so many other things) he blazed the trail, and I'm just following breadcrumbs.

FINE!!!

I'll pick the 5e Oath of Ancients Paladins instead, I like the Tenets.

Particle_Man
2019-04-04, 02:16 PM
I like the vodacce fate witch from first ed 7th sea. They could manipulate strands of fate connecting people due to love, duty, money or conflict and only they could see these colour coded strands.

For 3.5 I am fond of the random maneuver recovery mechanic of the crusader.

For first ed I liked the exclusivity of the illusionist spell list.

Jay R
2019-04-04, 03:17 PM
The follower list from the original D&D Ranger in The Strategic Review1. Your followers might include unicorns, a pegasus, a werebear, a hill giant, a stone giant or even a gold dragon.

Even better, at low levels, was the follower list for the original bard class also from The Strategic Review. At 1,000 xps, when most characters were still first level, a bard was second level and had two followers, who would be fighters, thieves, druids, bards, or wizards.

Those bards also had a crucial ability, in the days before the Identify spell, when cursed items were a real threat. They had a 10% chance per level of identifying the exact characteristics of a magic item.

1Sorry, 2D8HP. You mentioned it, but then you landed on 1e.

Guizonde
2019-04-04, 03:31 PM
i've always been a fan of the paladin's lay on hands ability in 3.5 and pf. sure, it's situational and kinda weak, but nothing says "you'll be fine, dude" like a bro-fist mid-combat.

another class feature i like is from pf's vigilante class. you play 2 characters as one. the face who is highly social and well respected, and your typical highly offensive punisher type with a whole different skillset. i gave mine a very jekyll-and-hyde feel, the face being a well-respected and wise inquisitor, while the alter ego is a close combat monster paired with an absurd agility score and the death from above feat allowing me to litterally backflip off a wall and deal a sneak attack from above the monster's nape. not really optimized in the classical sense, but as a skillmonkey build, it allows me to use almost all my skills regularly and not just either my physical or mental skills. with that character, my team knows i'm dependable no matter the situation. in a library? i give a buff to my teammate's knowledge rolls. in the sneak attack while researching? climb the bookcases and destroy the opposition. the fact that the class offers almost too many feats to tailor your vigilante to your favorite hero archetype is icing on the cake. you can go both superman or punisher, you can be peter parker or tony stark. it's a great class although i heard a lot of dm's made it npc only due to its inherent overpowered brokenness for a cunning player in a story-heavy game.

J-H
2019-04-04, 04:19 PM
I like the Initiate of the Seven Veils class. I'm running one right now as an NPC facing off against my players, and she's doing pretty well. Too bad she missed with her Prismatic Ray.

Pippa the Pixie
2019-04-05, 10:04 AM
2E Psionics. I utterly hate 3E's 'just like magic' way. I loved the spell point system where you could pick most any power at most any level. I loved having a low level character that could teleport..but use up all her power doing that. Not the 3e way of ''teleport is 5th level so you have to be x level to take it".

And powers that were not just re named spells.

Malphegor
2019-04-05, 10:58 AM
I'm fond of whatever mess I did to a 3.5e swashbuckler to make virtually every attack a sneak attack, and every intimidate was an aoe. I pretty much play wizards in every rpg, but playing a melee fighter who hits hard and can go "YARRRR!" and the Oni we were fighting cowering in fear whilst I gutted them was maybe slightly more fun than my normal reserved 'practically playing the starship enterprise in human form' wizard shenanigans.