Break these (proposed) racial features (luck/fate)

[PhoenixPhyre]

I have a race (well really a culture strongly associated with one race) in my setting that has a strong devotion toward an entity of fate/causality/prophecy. I'm in the process of writing them up as a playable race, and am considering the following (trimmed down, not including irrelevant pieces with no mechanical impact) feature set:

NOTE: Tasha's is not in play here.

Base race
ASI: +2 CON
Darkvision
Underground Adaptation: Can retrace steps when underground (basically can always get out the way they came in, barring teleportation or strong magic or blocked ways).

Culture (Subrace)
ASI: +1 INT
Bonus Proficiencies: 2 (tools or musical instruments)
Archon's Blessing: [option A, B or C, haven't decided. But the printed race would only get one, not a choice]

Option A: When you are required to make a saving throw, you can choose to succeed instead of rolling the dice. If you do so, you have disadvantage on the next attack roll, saving throw, or ability check you make, even if you otherwise would have advantage. Once you use this trait you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest and have made the disadvantaged roll. [Intent: no matter what, you've got disadvantage. Even if it would cancel out. And you can't use it again until you've paid the price, even if you rest in between.]

Option B: When someone you can see within 30' of you makes an ability check, saving throw, or attack roll, you can use your reaction to instead make them treat the check as if the die had rolled a 10. Once you use this trait, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Option C: When someone scores a critical hit against an ally within 30' of you, you can use your reaction to force them to reroll the attack, potentially negating the critical hit. Once you do so, you cannot use this trait again until you finish a short or long rest.

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What are the best combos you can think of for either version of this? Anything particularly strong? Or is it too weak (too many restrictions)?

[JNAProductions]

A
Way too good. A single attack or ability check at disadvantage is minor compared to a guaranteed passed save.

B
Interesting. Probably fine.

C
Totally fine.

[PhantomSoul]

A
Agreed that it's too good, and I'm not sold on my own scattered thoughts for fixing it (e.g. the next hit against you becomes a critical hit or all of them until the end of your next turn). It might be better to look at giving a 1d4 or a specific stat or some other bonus that they could apply, then have something else sensitive to that increase negatively (e.g. your AC decreases by that amount until the end of your next turn).

B
Quite strong, but I still like it; getting the most use still requires having an idea of what their bonuses are likely to be, so it's not always a freebie. It's also an auto-pass death save for an ally, which can be a huge bonus. (That aspect is what made 10-13 and 20 on portent dice feel so great.)

C
Definitely fine, but I'd clarify if it can also cause the attack to miss, or only negate the crit.

[PhoenixPhyre]

A
Way too good. A single attack or ability check at disadvantage is minor compared to a guaranteed passed save.

B
Interesting. Probably fine.

C
Totally fine.


A
Agreed that it's too good, and I'm not sold on my own scattered thoughts for fixing it (e.g. the next hit against you becomes a critical hit or all of them until the end of your next turn). It might be better to look at giving a 1d4 or a specific stat or some other bonus that they could apply, then have something else sensitive to that increase negatively (e.g. your AC decreases by that amount until the end of your next turn).

B
Quite strong, but I still like it; getting the most use still requires having an idea of what their bonuses are likely to be, so it's not always a freebie. It's also an auto-pass death save for an ally, which can be a huge bonus. (That aspect is what made 10-13 and 20 on portent dice feel so great.)

C
Definitely fine, but I'd clarify if it can also cause the attack to miss, or only negate the crit.

Thanks both of you.

I agree that A is too strong. I thought about doing just a straight +/- -- auto pass this save, auto fail the next one. But that felt too harsh. Or instead of an auto-pass save, giving advantage on the next d20 roll (again, a straight +/-), but that felt like too weak a bonus. Meh.

B) Note you can use it on yourself, although not on your own death saves (because incapacitated == no reaction).

C) My intent was that it's a completely new roll. Basically a "nope, try again, use the new result" do over.

Edit: What about the rest of the race, assuming I went with B or C? Is it too barren? I'd thought about adding survival proficiency to the subrace, since they live in (well, mostly under) a super-harsh area. This is my drow-replacement[1] race, so they're underground dwellers. But I dislike the sunlight vulnerability, so that's off the table.

[1] My elves are all technically separate races. These ones basically share only the "I have dark skin" (created artificially that way) and "I tend to live underground" traits of the stock drow. Basically everything else is different.

[PhantomSoul]

(I like that Elvish subraces are different -- I did that for some Elvish subraces and rather like the idea that that would be the norm, not the exception.)

Reinforcing the Underground Adaptation feature with Survival makes sense in that case (or potentially giving some other navigation method, akin to always knowing north).

If they're the underground elf, is their darkvision 60' or 120'? 120' fits especially if they're spellcasters, ranged attackers or tend to scout/spy, but if they're traditionally melee-focused the extra distance works without seeming as thematically necessary.

Are any other elvish traits being considered, e.g. Trance, or Fey Ancestry? (Though I kind of like the idea that they might not be extra resilient to charms and/or fear if you want them to be heavily guided by prophecy to the point of it being rather consuming, but I think I'd put it if you want them to seem unusually level-headed at particularly appealing or worrisome threats.)

Overall, I'd be tempted to give an extra trait, and probably a passive one since the options are active (unless it's a spell). Survival fits that bill, and you would still have room to give the extra boost to their darkvision if it fits thematically. If they tend to be social with other races or research divination, then an extra language could be a reasonable pick as well (perhaps with flavour text suggesting a language associated with arcanists/divination/diviners in your setting). Arcana could also replace survival, and/or just giving advantage when a knowledge check relies on prophecy (so broad that I think that would be tricky unless you had a player who would really turn it into an RP and collaborative worldbuilding opportunity).

[PhoenixPhyre]

I've actually removed those other traits (like fey ancestry and trance) from the core elven "bundle". Wood elves (ihmisi) get fey ancestry, while high elves (gwerin) get trance. So the goroesi won't get either.

As for dark vision... Not sure yet. May go extended as that'll be something unique. Probably that and (subrace) survival. There's another subrace that's much more martial focused--this one is a bunch of artists, scholars, and craftsmen. No contact with other races for a darn long time. Temporal shenanigans moved this culture about 6+ thousand years into the future in a few of their generations, and they're buried under what most people consider uninhabitable wasteland (basically an arcane nuclear crater). The surface is covered in black glass that fragments and you get glass storms. Plus monsters.

So they're mythical creatures to everyone else, and they've only barely started expanding out to where they might make contact soon.