Assorted Feats

[rferries]

Changeling
Although it may be secret to those who raised you (and even to yourself), you are in fact a foundling fey child.

Prerequisite
Humanoid, must be selected at 1st level.

Benefits
Your type changes to fey. You gain low-light vision.

Bluff is always treated as a class skill for you.


Fey Armour
You fear only the touch of cold iron.

Prerequisites
Fey.

Benefits
You gain damage reduction 2/cold iron.

Unearthly Grace
You are as graceful as a nymph.

Prerequisites
Fey, Cha 12, Knowledge (nature) 12 ranks, character level 9th.

Benefits
Add your Charisma bonus as a deflection bonus to your Armour Class and a resistance bonus to each of your saving throws.

Cursed [Drawback]
You suffer from a terrible curse, but have persevered and learned to compensate for your burden.

Prerequisite
Must be selected at 1st level.

Benefits
You are subject to the effects of bestow curse, lesser geas, insanity, geas, baleful polymorph, lycanthropy, or some other harmful magic (determined in advance between yourself and the DM).

You gain the benefits of two other feats for which you meet the prerequisites.

Special
At the DM's discretion the curse might take effect only at certain times e.g. at night, in combat, etc.

If your curse is ever broken or circumvented (e.g. with an antimagic field), you lose the benefits of this feat and may exchange it for any feat for which you meet the prerequisites.

Disfigured [Drawback]
Your visage is truly horrific.

Prerequisites
Must be selected at first level or subject to a particular curse or injury (at the DM's discretion).

Benefits
The initial attitude of creatures you (and your allies) meet is reduced one step for the purpose of the Diplomacy skill.

Intimidate is always treated as a class skill for you (regain one skill point for each cross-class skill point you have already invested in Intimidate when you select this feat).

You may make an Intimidate check as a free action against any number of creatures within 30 feet that can see you (but no more than one such check per round).

Elemental Necromancy (AKA Feel The Weather In My Bones!)
Your bony legions are wreathed in flames or frost.

Prerequisites
Specialist necromancer or access to Death domain, caster level 5th.

Special
Whenever you create a skeleton with the animate dead spell, choose one: the skeleton's natural weapons and any weapons it wields gain the flaming property; or the skeleton's natural weapons and any weapons it wields gain the frost property.

Giant-Blooded
You have titan ancestry.

Prerequisite
Humanoid, must be selected at 1st level.

Benefits
Your type changes to giant. You gain low-light vision.


Powerful Build
You are a formidable foe.

Prerequisite
Giant-Blooded.

Benefits
You gain the Powerful Build special quality (you are treated as a creature of your own size category or one size category larger, whichever would be more beneficial for you at the time).

Intellectual [Drawback]
Your frailty belies your brilliance.

Prerequisites
Cha 12, Int 12, Wis 12, must be selected at 1st level.

Benefits
You gain a +2 bonus to each of your mental ability scores.

You gain a -2 penalty to each of your physical ability scores.

Hide In Plain Sight
You have mastered the art of stealth.

Prerequisites
Rogue level 10th.

Benefits
You may make Hide checks even while being observed.

Keen Senses
You have uncanny perception.

Prerequisites
Wisdom 12, elf, or dwarf.

Benefits
You gain a bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks equal to one-half your character level, and those skills are always treated as class skills for you (regain one skill point for each cross-class skill point you have already invested in those skills when you select this feat).

While merely passing within 5 feet of a trap or secret door, you are entitled to a Search check to notice it as if you were actively looking for it.

Special
Elves and dwarves that select this feat gain an additional +2 bonus on Search checks.

Lore
You are a scholar of many fields.

Prerequisites
Int 12.

Benefits
You gain a bonus on Knowledge checks equal to one-half your character level, and those skills are always treated as class skills for you (regain one skill point for each cross-class skill point you have already invested in those skills when you select this feat).

Scars [Drawback]
Your battle-scarred flesh is as tough and gruesome as old leather.

Prerequisites
Con 12.

Benefits
Add your Constitution bonus as a natural armour bonus to your armour class, a circumstance bonus to your Intimidate checks, and a circumstance penalty to your Diplomacy checks.

Unlike other natural armour bonuses, the natural armour bonus from this feat applies only while you are unarmoured or wearing hide armour.

Skilled
You are multitalented.

Prerequisites
Int 12.

Benefits
You gain an extra skill point at each level (with quadruple skill points at 1st level). This benefit is retroactive.

Stamina
You recover quickly.

Prerequisites
Con 12 or [Shapechanger] subtype.

Benefits
Whenever an encounter ends, all lethal damage you have taken is converted to nonlethal damage.


Superhuman Stamina
You recover supernaturally quickly.

Prerequisites
Con 20, Stamina, or [Shapechanger] subtype.

Benefits
You gain fast healing 5.

Undertaker
You are trained at letting the dead rest.

Prerequisites
Wis 12.

Benefits
You gain a bonus on Knowledge (religion) checks equal to one-half your character level, and Knowledge (religion) is always treated as a class skill for you (regain one skill point for each cross-class skill point you have already invested in Knowledge (religion) when you select this feat).

You gain Favoured Enemy (undead) as a ranger of your character level.

If you are capable of casting 4th-level spells, add death ward to your class spell list as a 4th-level spell.

Vital [Flaw]
Your stupidity belies your vitality.

Prerequisites
Con 12, Dex 12, Str 12, must be selected at 1st level.

Benefits
You gain a +2 bonus to each of your physical ability scores.

You gain a -2 penalty to each of your mental ability scores.

Voracious
You devour your foes with alarming speed.

Prerequisites
Improved Grab, Swallow Whole.

Benefits
Whenever you establish a hold on a creature with your Improved Grab special attack, you may immediately make a grapple check to swallow that creature (instead of waiting until the following round).

[Unavenger]

Fey armour is too good - there's already a fey heritage feat that's thematically similar to changeling, and there's a feat requring it that gives DR 1/cold iron for each feat in that line you take - and DR 2/cold iron is still one of the most useful things a low-level character can do with their feats.

Unearthly grace is sheer nonsense and should never be a feat under any circumstances - it's the equivalent to about 9 mediocre regular feats plus another 6 mediocre epic feats stacked on top of each other, only better, if you're a character relying on charisma anyway. I would absolutely take a feat giving +3 deflection to AC on its own. I would never not take a feat giving +6 deflection to AC and +6 resistance to all saves, which is what that feat gives a low-to-mid-level sorcerer.

Flaws are not feats and have their own rules. Disfigured grants a benefit normally associated with an exceptionally strong variant that makes fighter worth taking, plus another strong benefit, in exchange for a drawback that will never matter on a build that isn't using diplomacy, and is probably too good.

Giant-blooded is twice as strong as an epic feat.

Intellectual is probably fine power-level-wise but can create really wonky characters - that said, the hit to AC and saves is made up for if you have Unearthly Grace too...

Scars is too good. You shouldn't be getting more than +1 to AC out of a feat, I don't think - in Pathfinder, that's what dodge gives, and some people actually take dodge for the +1 to AC in Pathfinder.

Apart from being retroactive and doing the first-level thing properly, Skilled is worse than Nymph's Kiss, but I think that's fine and Nymph's Kiss is the one that's too powerful.

Superhuman stamina is ridiculous. Players shouldn't have fast healing 5 for the cost of one feat that can be taken at level 1.

Vital is going to be taken on almost every noncaster if allowed, I'd think.

Voracious is probably fine.

EDIT: At some point, I need to make the Ultimate Rferries Character. I'm trying to work out how to get all the feats I need (although Cursed helps) but I think I can get four times my charisma and one time my wisdom to AC and all saves by 7th level, and my wisdom and charisma to my initiative.

[rferries]

Oops sorry for the delay! Thank you for the feedback, I generally agree. I was whipping these off to clear out headspace for my perpetually-delayed wizard revamp. General themes I usually go for in feats are "better than Alertness" and "scaling/always-useful benefits", but I'll readily admit I often overshoot in both cases. Some specific comments...


Fey armour is too good - there's already a fey heritage feat that's thematically similar to changeling, and there's a feat requring it that gives DR 1/cold iron for each feat in that line you take - and DR 2/cold iron is still one of the most useful things a low-level character can do with their feats.

Unearthly grace is sheer nonsense and should never be a feat under any circumstances - it's the equivalent to about 9 mediocre regular feats plus another 6 mediocre epic feats stacked on top of each other, only better, if you're a character relying on charisma anyway. I would absolutely take a feat giving +3 deflection to AC on its own. I would never not take a feat giving +6 deflection to AC and +6 resistance to all saves, which is what that feat gives a low-to-mid-level sorcerer.

I generally avoid taking non-Core stuff into consideration, but yeah Unearthly Grace in particular is broken. I've lowered the DR of Fey Armour and added a Knowledge (nature) prerequisite for Unearthly Grace, though they're probably better off being excised and just Changeling left for flavour.


Flaws are not feats and have their own rules. Disfigured grants a benefit normally associated with an exceptionally strong variant that makes fighter worth taking, plus another strong benefit, in exchange for a drawback that will never matter on a build that isn't using diplomacy, and is probably too good.

I just used [Flaw] as a handy subtype here to indicate "feat with a drawback". Removed the scaling bonus for Disfigured; however I'd argue the Diplomacy penalty is relevant as it also hampers your allies.


Giant-blooded is twice as strong as an epic feat.

Polyglot is also an epic feat :smallwink:. I'll defend this as flavour and a helping hand for martials.


Scars is too good. You shouldn't be getting more than +1 to AC out of a feat, I don't think - in Pathfinder, that's what dodge gives, and some people actually take dodge for the +1 to AC in Pathfinder

Fair enough. I was thinking of two possible fixes: a) unlike usual natural armour bonuses, this bonus only applies while you're wearing light or no armour, or b) the bonus cannot exceed your character level.


Superhuman stamina is ridiculous. Players shouldn't have fast healing 5 for the cost of one feat that can be taken at level 1.

That's a bit harsh I'd say, it has no in-combat utility and doesn't do anything magical healing doesn't already do better. However, what about: "whenever an encounter ends, you regain hit points as though you had rested for a night"? Though I can't see that appealing at higher levels.


EDIT: At some point, I need to make the Ultimate Rferries Character. I'm trying to work out how to get all the feats I need (although Cursed helps) but I think I can get four times my charisma and one time my wisdom to AC and all saves by 7th level, and my wisdom and charisma to my initiative.

There's a "use somebody else's broken homebrew challenge" opportunity in there somewhere hehe.

[Unavenger]

I generally avoid taking non-Core stuff into consideration, but yeah Unearthly Grace in particular is broken. I've lowered the DR of Fey Armour and added a Knowledge (nature) prerequisite for Unearthly Grace, though they're probably better off being excised and just Changeling left for flavour.

Non-core stuff is on average more balanced, not less, than core stuff, so it's a little bizarre that you would ignore it as a balance point. I can see "My group doesn't use noncore stuff, so I don't mind if this combos with noncore stuff to do horrible things" but "my group doesn't use noncore stuff, so it doesn't matter if this is several hundred times as powerful as noncore stuff" seems a little bizarre.


I just used [Flaw] as a handy subtype here to indicate "feat with a drawback".

I would suggest "Drawback", then, although other feats with drawbacks don't have a special tag to tell you about them.


Removed the scaling bonus for Disfigured; however I'd argue the Diplomacy penalty is relevant as it also hampers your allies.

The diplomacy penalty is vaguely relevant if you have someone attempting to use diplomacy. I think the current feat is now "Very good on any build that does intimidate" rather than broken, which is a good place to be, though.


Polyglot is also an epic feat :smallwink:. I'll defend this as flavour and a helping hand for martials.

I still think that making a feat that a strength-based character would rarely not take is a little strong.


Fair enough. I was thinking of two possible fixes: a) unlike usual natural armour bonuses, this bonus only applies while you're wearing light or no armour, or b) the bonus cannot exceed your character level.

I think no armour only might work, as a good way to give monks nice things.


That's a bit harsh I'd say, it has no in-combat utility and doesn't do anything magical healing doesn't already do better. However, what about: "whenever an encounter ends, you regain hit points as though you had rested for a night"? Though I can't see that appealing at higher levels.

I would hardly call fast healing no combat utility at all, particularly when 5 can be most of your hit points! I don't usually like encounter powers, and encounter healing in particular grinds my gears - you could have it be one hit point per level every half hour, which is still pretty useful without allowing someone to go from "Knocking on death's door" to "Absolutely fine".


There's a "use somebody else's broken homebrew challenge" opportunity in there somewhere hehe.

Okay, if nothing else, you have inspired me, and that's all a homebrewer can ask for:

CG Revised Elf Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 10/Revised Monk 1/Humble Hero 3.

Ability Scores (Before Racial Adjustments): 10/12/12/8/14/18
Ability Scores (After Racial Adjustments): 10/14/10/8/14/20
Ability Scores (By the time we're done here): 10/20/10/8/20/30



Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Feats


1st
Revised Ranger 1
+1
+2
+4
+2
Magical Aptitude, Weapon Finesse


2nd
Revised Ranger 2
+2
+5
+7
+4



3rd
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 1
+3
+5
+9
+6
Animal Affinity


4th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2
+4
+10
+15
+12



5th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 1
+5
+12
+15
+14



6th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2
+6
+18
+20
+20
Scribe Scroll


7th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 1
+7
+20
+22
+22



8th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 2
+8
+29
+31
+31



9th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 3
+9
+38
+41
+41
Unearthly Grace


10th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 4
+10
+39
+42
+42
Master Artisan


11th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 5
+11
+39
+42
+42
Enchanted


12th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 6
+12
+44
+48
+48
Flight


13th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 7
+13
+44
+48
+48



14th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 8
+14
+45
+49
+49



15th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 9
+15
+50
+55
+55
Persist Minor Magic


16th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 9/Revised Monk 1
+16
+59
+62
+62



17th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 9/Revised Monk 1/Humble Hero 1
+16
+61
+64
+64



18th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 9/Revised Monk 1/Humble Hero 2
+17
+62
+65
+65
Scars



19th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 9/Revised Monk 1/Humble Hero 3
+18
+72

+75

+75




20th
Revised Ranger 2/Revised Bard 2/Revised Paladin 2/Elf-Lord 10/Revised Monk 1/Humble Hero 3
+19
+73

+76

+76





Far from the most ridiculous thing I can do, this build still stacks its charisma onto its saves six times over, as well as its wisdom modifier once, and adds its charisma modifier to its armour class 5 times (two of them are deflection bonuses and don't stack), as well as adding its wisdom (replacing constitution via the monk ability) as a natural armour bonus, and of course its dexterity just for existing. Its charisma, dexterity and wisdom are all added into its initiative, practically guaranteeing it will go first, and all its attacks are wisdom-based (making the finesse pointless, but it was needed as a feat tax). All its weapons and armour are +5 equipment. Your spellcasting leaves an amount to be desired, but you still have two sets of 4th-level spells, as well as some other mediocre casting and manifesting. Humble Hero may seem just to be a flex in order to get even more to your saves, but it's really there to turn your 1s to 10s. Your saves make you practically immortal and your full attack is difficult to shrug off, particularly with as many 2nd-level-or-lower buffs as you like on you.

It's probably not the best I can do, though. Ideally, I think, I would be leaning on revised monk's quintessence, which I noticed partway through making the build and decided to add as an afterthought. Taking a race that gives a wisdom modifier would make elf-lord impossible to get into (outside of taking a non-core elf), which is a little sad I think. If you want to be actually good at spellcasting rather than using monk to lean into everything-is-wisdom, Sylvan Sorcerer with a 2-level revised-bard dip can get into elf-lord, and getting +6 to charisma, dexterity and wisdom and triple-charisma to saving throws, double-charisma to AC (again, two deflections!) and charisma to initiative while still managing to get 9th-level spells seems worthwhile. SylSorc 4/RevBard 2/Elf Lord 10/SlySorc 4 seems like a decent build (sadly, you don't get to advance the bard casting). Alternatively, you can go for the ultimate support build by using the Legendary Hero (Crusader) feat and the Moon Disciple to add your charisma to all your allies' stuff twice over. Divine Armour does the same kind of thing, as well, and while it can be taken as a fighter bonus feat, you should wind up with enough feats spare that you can just take it.

It does seem pretty weird that almost every class you have, and several of your feats, have some kind of super version of divine grace loosely strapped to them. If I want to play a class of yours without a version of that ability I'm actually quite strapped for choices - although Draconian seems like a good pick, with a near-perfect chassis, 9-level casting and a breath weapon that does shockingly little but will happily accept some interesting rider effects. Perhaps the correct move is to play a human green draconian, spend all 10 of the feats you get by level 9 on improved breath weapon and, at level 10, deal 60d6 acid damage (reflex half) to anything that isn't acid immune and is dumb enough to get in your way, before falling back on your full bab, full casting and full saves if anything isn't. Conversely, I could play as a guide, which is actually fairly weak - I would seriously consider just taking a normal class instead of it.

[rferries]

Non-core stuff is on average more balanced, not less, than core stuff, so it's a little bizarre that you would ignore it as a balance point. I can see "My group doesn't use noncore stuff, so I don't mind if this combos with noncore stuff to do horrible things" but "my group doesn't use noncore stuff, so it doesn't matter if this is several hundred times as powerful as noncore stuff" seems a little bizarre.

I meant more in the sense that there's so much non-Core stuff that I don't fret about balancing around it as a general rule, since I lack the system mastery to be aware of all the possible combinations. Metamagic feats in particular are the bane of my existence haha. I prefer leaving things as a binary DM decision for whether or not they should be included, rather than assuming they'll be included and planning ahead for how they might interact with (or be judged against) other material.


I would suggest "Drawback", then, although other feats with drawbacks don't have a special tag to tell you about them.

Very good! And yes, the tag is superfluous, especially since I neglected to add [Heritage]/[Background]/[Racial]/etc. to the other feats here.

Are there already feats with disadvantages?


The diplomacy penalty is vaguely relevant if you have someone attempting to use diplomacy. I think the current feat is now "Very good on any build that does intimidate" rather than broken, which is a good place to be, though.

Good good.


I still think that making a feat that a strength-based character would rarely not take is a little strong.

Righto, I've deleted the Str bonus. I suppose a two-feat investment for powerful build is already plenty powerful.


I think no armour only might work, as a good way to give monks nice things.

I've set it unarmoured or hide armour (since barbarians are traditionally depicted in hide armour with exposed skin).


I would hardly call fast healing no combat utility at all, particularly when 5 can be most of your hit points! I don't usually like encounter powers, and encounter healing in particular grinds my gears - you could have it be one hit point per level every half hour, which is still pretty useful without allowing someone to go from "Knocking on death's door" to "Absolutely fine".

Agreed about encounter-based powers being a bit "meta"! However the feat doesn't give in-combat utility the same way fast healing does, just helps you afterwards (and relies on the DM/PCs actually allowing for "breathing room" between encounters). And if it's a question of a mere 5 hp, Toughness is almost as "good" and improves your max hp too.


Okay, if nothing else, you have inspired me, and that's all a homebrewer can ask for:

Haha OMG I forgot about my old revised classes! Excellent work, and yes I was/am clearly addicted to Unearthly Grace (my favourite supernatural ability, which I continue to slap onto monsters even when it makes no sense, though in hindsight I'd make all the versions give non-stacking vanilla resistance/deflection bonuses), along with boosting ability scores for martials. Plus multiclassing between my homebrew is clearly something that should be banned. In my defense, the draconian at least has been superseded by this (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?536086-Draconian-(race-and-racial-class)) (slightly) less broken race/class.

I salute your mastery of my material!

[nonsi]

.
The name "Changeling" clashes with the Eberron race. I'd pick another name.

I really like Fey Armor. I'd add two successors that give DR 5 and then DR 10.

Elemental Necromancy is really inspirational. I think you should add some evocation spell(s) as prereq.

Giant-Blood is indeed too strong for a standalone feat. Without LA, it should cost 2 feats (i.e you must burn your 1st level racial feat and your 1st level standard feat).

Intellectual – Raistlin Majer :smallsmile:
Nice duality with Vital

Keen Senses is awesome :smallcool:
The Special part seems redundant/leftover.

Stamina is way too powerful.

Voracious is an awesome monster feat.

[Southern Cross]

There is one feat that other posters are ignoring - Undertaker.
Despite the name, it provides the following benefits:
Characters with this feat gain bonus skill ranks equal to half their level for Knowledge (Religion), plus Knowledge (Religion) becomes a class skill: plus Favoured Enemy (Undead); and finally, all spellcasters capable of casting 4th-level spells can now cast death ward as a 4th-level spell, even if it isn't in the classes normal spell list.
It might be better named Undead Hunter.