Is this any good?

[SangoProduction]

So, if there were a feat chain, where the first feat is essentially meaningless fluff-level stuff, but the second one was:

"Gain your level as resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic."
Would you dump 2 feats into that?

Like...that's quite a varied set of permanent resistances...in fact it's all the elements... even if it's just at a rate of one per level.

I just kinda think that it's a bit too inconsequential, despite shielding against everything.

It certainly shields quite heavily against enemies using the +1 elemental enchantments on their weapons. In fact, that's pretty much the optimal case, where you can get upwards of 4 or 5 effective DR per level...up to level 3.5, after which point, you out scale the average elemental hit of those enchants...and most wouldn't be having those stacked up by that level. At least if you're not striking above your weight class.
Spells and supernatural abilities (ie Dragon's Breath) are the primary sources of substantial elemental damage. But they tend to more often than not come in the form of large hits (like Fireball) rather than a number of smaller ones (with notable exception to Magic Missile).

So, at some point, I just start comparing the choice of the two feat investment to Toughness and Improved Toughness, and kinda determining that Toughness is more generally applicable and useful. Especially as those would stack with spell casts for any specific elemental resistance that you are expecting to need.

[the_tick_rules]

barring epic levels it's potential is less then a ring of greater elemental resistance but if getting a hold of one is difficult it sounds good.

[Blackhawk748]

Is it amazing? No.

Is it decent? Sure I suppose, kinda does depend on what that first feat it. Like, is it a +1 Fort and Ref? Is it a small boost to skills? Cuz one feat for 5 Resistances (that scales for you) is pretty good. Well, not before level 5 but it is useful.

[SangoProduction]

Is it amazing? No.

Is it decent? Sure I suppose, kinda does depend on what that first feat it. Like, is it a +1 Fort and Ref? Is it a small boost to skills? Cuz one feat for 5 Resistances (that scales for you) is pretty good. Well, not before level 5 but it is useful.

Basically just Endure Elements, plus resistance to altitude sickness, and immunity to pressures of the deep sea. You know. Things that everyone in the party is going to need, or it's going to be avoided in the first place. Essentially just fluff.

[Blackhawk748]

Basically just Endure Elements, plus resistance to altitude sickness, and immunity to pressures of the deep sea. You know. Things that everyone in the party is going to need, or it's going to be avoided in the first place. Essentially just fluff.

Oh, so something that's useful but you woulnd't take on it's own then. Ya, I'd say it's worth it if you got the feats. Not for everyone, but for people who don't want to dedicate item slots or money to it, as it is a reasonable amount and while it won't stop Scorching Ray from hurting, it will stop it from killing you and take a fair edge off of a Dragon's breath weapon.

More usefully it will make all of the creatures that do 1-3d6 of an element much less of a threat as you gut their DPR

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Not worth it unless the tax feat actually has some minor effect and is useful for taking other feats or possibly a cool prestige class.

For example, feats like Aberration Blood, Willing Deformity, Sacred Vow, Draconic Heritage, Fey/Fiendish Heritage, Combat Focus, Dodge, Point-Blank Shot, etc. are often worth taking because you'll be gaining more than one of the feats that has it as a prerequisite, or the effect plus the second feat have an effect that's worthwhile.

Gaining resistance L against all five energy types is cool, but not really worthwhile in the low levels, and not significant enough in the higher levels. High level spellcasters can use (Rod of Extended) Energy Immunity 3/day and 2/day alternating (and Superior Resistance on the 2/day days) using a pearl of power so they only use two spell slots per day on it. That's immunity to all five energy types and a +6 resistance bonus on saving throws. Mass Resist Energy is a 3rd/4th level divine/arcane spell that targets one creature/level and grants resistance 10, or 20 at 7th+, or 30 at 11th+ level to whatever energy type needs to be resisted right now.


To make this worthwhile, consider making the initial feat grant some kind of effect, and make sure there are other feats with that one as a prerequisite. Having one or more of those feats' effect based on the number of feats in that set that the character possesses can also help. For example, make your resistance equals character level feat also say that if you have four feats in the set (including this one and its prerequisite), the resistance is 2x character level instead, and if you have six feats in the set is 3x character level.

[NigelWalmsley]

It depends on what you expect a feat to do. If your feats are going to be Weapon Focus and Alertness, this is pretty good. If they are going to be Natural Spell and Divine Metamagic, it is not worth your time. 3e simply does not have a consistent standard of what a feat is supposed to be worth.

[Crichton]

Seems like it comes down to 3 questions:


1-How much benefit do I anticipate getting from this effect? (do you regularly see enemies that dish out elemental damages, or expect to on a regular basis?)
2-How many free feat slots do I have, and/or what other feats are competing for these two slots? (feats are the most limited resource in most character builds)
3-Can you just spend money to gain something like this instead, and if so, how much? (generally, I feel that most of the time it's better to throw $$$ at a weakness than it is to waste those precious feat slots)




The effect itself seems decent. Better than some feats, worse than others, and as with all feat selections, very much depends on the character build.

[Particle_Man]

I could see a ranger with favoured enemy: dromite go for it.

[SangoProduction]

I could see a ranger with favoured enemy: dromite go for it.

Explanation, please?

[Particle_Man]

Explanation, please?

Dromites have a once per day racial ability to send out a ray attack of fire, cold, electricity, or sonic energy. A ranger with these feats would prove more resistant to that.

https://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicRaces.htm#dromites

Actually you only need favoured enemy Monstrous Humanoid so an even better deal for that ranger!

[SangoProduction]

OK, that's actually pretty neat.

[Kayblis]

This is a good feat for a specific kind of game - the games with 'realistic' DMs that don't give much money and have spells limited in some way. Two feats isn't cheap, but if you don't have expensive items and magic, it's actually not that big an investment, and I've played on a couple tables that had little to no money throughout the entire campaign.

This feat is great if you fight enemies with elemental damage on their swings, like Fire Elementals. Enemies with elemental rays and AoEs that rely on consecutive hits, although not common per se, have been quite present in these low-money games. Elemental damage, specially Fire and Acid, is much more common than you'd think when you stick to more mundane monsters.

Alternatively, if you're doing a Plane Hopping campaign, you'll see tons more elemental enemies than usual, so it's worth it to have general elemental resistance. The fact that it covers all 5 types makes all elemental, para-elemental and most aligned planes much more survivable.

In a more traditional game that follows the WBL tables and challenge ratings, the investment isn't worth it. This is an option that requires these unusual conditions to yield good results.

[Particle_Man]

Another thought to slightly sweeten the pot is to make the first feat able to be substituted for Endurance for the purposes of serving as a prerequisite for other feats, prestige classes etc. Maybe also add an "and vice versa" for allowing on to go the Endurance + your energy res (all) feat instead of your 1st feat + your energy res (all) feat?

[DarkSoul]

Make it 2x character level and find a way to keep it out of casters' hands? I could see making it require significant numbers of martial class levels.

[rel]

find a way to keep it out of casters' hands?

Adding the text
'special: Taking this feat reduces your caster level for all your spells by 4. This reduction stacks with any other reductions from feats.' to both feats should caster-proof them pretty thoroughly if it bothers you.

I can't see casters taking them regardless since they compete with valuable metamagics, cost reducers and PRC entry reqs.