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View Full Version : New Combat Feat: Master of Inaction



Lord Tataraus
2007-11-08, 01:01 AM
I'm thinking of submitting this to the NotCon Combat Feat contest, please critique!

Master of Inaction [General]
The warrior was powerful and made many unexpected maneuvers, but the worst was when he did nothing...just stood there, staring...the staring! The staring!! Move darn you move!!! Why don't you do something!?!? AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +10, Intimidate 10 ranks, Concentration 10 ranks
Benefit: You are a master of action, but when it is needed, you can also a master inaction, causing your weaker opponents to crumble mentally. You may take a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity to do nothing. You must take a full-round action to maintain this ability. If an opponent attempts to attack you or target you for any spell or ability, they must succeed on a sense motive check opposed by your intimidate check or that attack, spell, or ability fails. For every consecutive round you maintain this ability, you gain a +2 bonus to this intimidate check. Additionally, for every continuous round passed the first that you maintain this ability your opponents become more unnerved by your inaction.

When you initiate this ability, make an intimidate check DC20. If you succeed this ability effects a radius of 30ft +10ft for every 5 the check exceeded the DC. So a result of 30 would effect a radius of 50ft. If your intimidate check fails, you lose this use of the ability as your opponents do not take your ploy seriously.All opponents within the effected radius must make a will save with a DC equal to 10 +1/2 HD +2 for every previous save. Upon a failed will save, the opponent suffers an effect as listed on the table below. A creature who has failed his save must continue making saves at a -2 penalty to his will save, additional failures result in more serious effects. All effects stack and continue for as long as you use this ability a number of rounds thereafter equal to number of failed saves.

While using this ability your dexterity becomes effectively 1 and you automatically fail all reflex saves. You may only use this ability 2/day and may maintain this ability for a number of rounds up to the number of ranks you have in the concentration skill.

{table=head]Number of Failed Saves|Effect

1|-4 penalty to all Sense Motive check

2|-4 penalty to all Sense Motive check

3|Shaken

4|Sickened

5|Dazed

6|Paralyzed

7+|Insanity[/table]
Special: A fighter may take this feat as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Edit: Check out the sig-tar of a guy using this feat!

boomwolf
2007-11-08, 01:12 AM
DAMN.
high HP and AC, and every low-willed char is going DOWN.

DracoDei
2007-11-08, 01:14 AM
A risky manuvar (I assume your DEX is effectively 1 and you automatically fail all Reflex saves), but since most opponents DON'T have ranks in Sense Motive this can potentially be devastating...

Xefas
2007-11-08, 01:18 AM
I can see this being really awesome with a Marshal/Dragon Shaman. You'd effectively be a WoW Shaman's totem; auto-buffing, and auto-debuffing by just sitting there...pulsating.

Actually, that sounds like it'd be hilarious for about...3/4ths of a session, and then be crushingly boring. Perhaps as a cohort.

Anyway, you need to add something about the effect requiring that the creatures must perceive you to take effect. This got my attention when I imagined a pixie cohort flying invisibly over opponents, and causing them to freak out for no reason...

Mewtarthio
2007-11-08, 01:48 AM
It seems too powerful to me. You're basically invincible with regards to most non-NPC monsters (ie everything without Sense Motive), and even classed NPCs rarely have Sense Motive.

Roderick_BR
2007-11-08, 04:21 AM
"He just stood there... staring... staring... staring... those eyes... always staring at me..." @_@

It actually would be a cool non-combat feat (or feat to avoid starting a combat). Heh, pretty cool at times. I could see barbarians and rogues using it.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-08, 11:26 AM
Alright, I fixed it to become less broken, sort of the bold are the changes/additions:


Master of Inaction [General]
The warrior was powerful and made many unexpected maneuvers, but the worst was when he did nothing...just stood there, staring...the staring! The staring!! Move darn you move!!! Why don't you do something!?!? AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +10, Intimidate 10 ranks, Concentration 10 ranks
Benefit: You are a master of action, but when it is needed, you can also a master inaction, causing your weaker opponents to crumble mentally. You may take a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity to do nothing. You must take a full-round action to maintain this ability. If an opponent attempts to attack you or target you for any spell or ability, they must succeed on a sense motive check opposed by your intimidate check or that attack, spell, or ability fails. For every consecutive round you maintain this ability, you gain a +2 bonus to this intimidate check. Additionally, for every continuous round passed the first that you maintain this ability your opponents become more unnerved by your inaction. All opponents within 30ft must make a will save with a DC equal to 10 +1/2 HD +2 for every previous save. Upon a failed will save, the opponent suffers an effect as listed on the table below. A creature who has failed his save must continue making saves at a -2 penalty to his will save, additional failures result in more serious effects. All effects stack and continue for as long as you use this ability a number of rounds thereafter equal to number of failed saves.

While using this ability your dexterity becomes effectively 1 and you automatically fail all reflex saves. You may only use this ability 2/day and may maintain this ability for a number of rounds up to the number of ranks you have in the concentration skill.

{table=head]Number of Failed Saves|Effect

1|-4 penalty to all Sense Motive check

2|-4 penalty to all Sense Motive check

3|Shaken

4|Sickened

5|Dazed

6|Paralyzed

7+|Insanity[/table]

AjaxTorbin
2007-11-08, 05:09 PM
WOW.creapy. id like to see some old monk guy do this.

small, slight, unarmed man enters battlefield, begins standing there. oppenents run from arena in fear.

heh. i have a old drunken master character that this would be great for.

Magnor Criol
2007-11-08, 07:51 PM
I have a fluff-based nitpick with the mass-target effect. The concept behind this, at least as I see it - which can definitely be wrong - is that you sit there and stare at an opponent, unnerving them by your willingness to sit there in combat and do nothing but stare at them.

Thus, it seems to me like it would fit more if you could only do this against one opponent at a time. You'd have to fix your gaze on them and not break it. You could plausibly keep your Dex bonus to AC and your Reflex saves, but only as they pertain to attacks and effects coming from the target - in fact, maybe you'd even gain a bonus on them, because you're so focused on the target that you're able to dodge them better. However, you're counted as flat-footed for everything and everyone else, because you're focused only on that one target.

In fact, an interesting train of thought coming from that idea is that because you must maintain an intense stare at the target, anything that causes you to lose that stare messes up the feat. So you lock on to one opponent with this, and his buddy attempts to support him by casting, say, Fireball at you. You as a player decide to either use your Reflex save and break the effect, or you can opt to voluntarily fail the save and take damage in order to keep the focus up. Perhaps then it'd take some sort of concentration check, DC based on damage perhaps, to keep up the effect.

Of course, these are just rambling ideas based on a variant take on your feat. As it is, it looks great, and the italicized fluff text made me laugh. :D Nice job, milord.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-08, 08:14 PM
I have a fluff-based nitpick with the mass-target effect. The concept behind this, at least as I see it - which can definitely be wrong - is that you sit there and stare at an opponent, unnerving them by your willingness to sit there in combat and do nothing but stare at them.

Thus, it seems to me like it would fit more if you could only do this against one opponent at a time. You'd have to fix your gaze on them and not break it. You could plausibly keep your Dex bonus to AC and your Reflex saves, but only as they pertain to attacks and effects coming from the target - in fact, maybe you'd even gain a bonus on them, because you're so focused on the target that you're able to dodge them better. However, you're counted as flat-footed for everything and everyone else, because you're focused only on that one target.

In fact, an interesting train of thought coming from that idea is that because you must maintain an intense stare at the target, anything that causes you to lose that stare messes up the feat. So you lock on to one opponent with this, and his buddy attempts to support him by casting, say, Fireball at you. You as a player decide to either use your Reflex save and break the effect, or you can opt to voluntarily fail the save and take damage in order to keep the focus up. Perhaps then it'd take some sort of concentration check, DC based on damage perhaps, to keep up the effect.
I really want this to be an area effect and you basically stand their while your opponents are unnerved, thinking your going to strike them when they get their guard down, but they are too afraid to attack you directly, for fear you'll do your horrible finisher. Soon the stress just builds up into insanity!


Of course, these are just rambling ideas based on a variant take on your feat. As it is, it looks great, and the italicized fluff text made me laugh. :D Nice job, milord.
I'm glad you liked that!

Magnor Criol
2007-11-08, 10:28 PM
Another idea popped into my head o nthe way home, and your response only encourages me. (Shoulda shut me up while you had the chance. =p ) It works with your desire for a mass effect, which I'm now envisioning better from that explanation you gave.
If the group of opponents is frightened by your unnerving inaction, and worried that you're about to make an attack, what if you incorporate attacks of opportunity into it somehow? Like...maybe while this feat is active, you must make all attacks of opportunity you have the chance to make against affected opponents. You aren't actually hitting, however; instead you're making an attack roll against some DC like maybe their Sense Motive or a Will save or something. Failure means some penalty on the feat, like an increased saving throw for them against your unnerving effect, while success means a similar penalty for them.
This would simulate you feinting and faking out the opponents with false starts to attacks, and since you're not actually trying to hit them you're not actually rolling against their AC - just some sort of check to represent whether you successfully freaked them out with that feint or not.
You could even split this last bit off into its own feat which has Master of Inaction as a prereq, sort of a booster for it. You have your normal Master of Inaction effect, and then someone who likes it can take this new feat to increase their ability to affect foes.
I'm really digging this feat now - it's really tapped into some creative stream of mine. Again, good job. :D

(Also - why did you bold "milord" when you quoted me? I missed the significance there.)

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-08, 10:44 PM
Hm...good idea. Though this was originally intended to be an entry for the NotCon feat contest (thus the unique-ness) I guess I should build off it. For now I want to focus a bit on Master of Inaction before I add the bolster feat so its professional enough to enter.

I'm thinking of changing the range by a large margin because the flavor is everyone who sees you and I don't want opponents to just take a move action to get away. So I was going to say evey opponent with line of sight is effected.

To powerful? What do you think?

Also, Magnor Criol, I bolded "milord" because I thought to be referred to by that honorific to be very, well, honoring.

Magnor Criol
2007-11-09, 12:12 AM
You're certainly deserving of such an honorific - for starters, you've more than proven your ability to craft good homebrews, you're well mannered and write very well, and furthermore, it's in your name. =p At the risk of cheapining the compliment, though, I refer to everyone as milord (or milady, depending on gender).

The problem with simple line-of-sight is - though this is still fluff-based, not mechanic-based - that if the idea is that enemies are afraid that you're about unleash a devastating attack on them, then only those that can be plausibly threatened by the idea of an attack from you would be unnerved. So while someone within ten, twenty, thirty feet of a warrior with a sword doing this (in)action could justifiably be shaken, another foe who's standing down at the other end of a long street and looking at the same warrior isn't going to be that worried.
Different weapons and abilities would imply different ranges for such a effect - while melee would be somewhat short ranges, ranged weapons would be longer, and what about people with spells or spell-like abilities that can affect long distances? I am, however, stumped as to how to reflect this variance. Simply something like "[x multiples of] the range of your current weapon" for an effect is too simple, as anyone would just pull out their bow right before activating this to get the max effect, and that's cheesy. Perhaps you'd have to be somehow skilled in the weapon you're using - like it'd require Weapon Focus or Specialization, or some improved form of them - but then that's adding another feat tree to the prereqs which isn't really necessary.

Perhaps the simpler way of doing it would be to make it variable based on some sort of Initmidate check from the beginning. You activate it, make an Intimidate check against some DC - I have no clue what - and any enemies within some range that's a product of the amount you beat the DC by ("For every 5 by which you beat this check, the range is increased by....") AND that have line-of-sight to you are under the effect.

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-09, 12:27 AM
You're certainly deserving of such an honorific - for starters, you've more than proven your ability to craft good homebrews, you're well mannered and write very well, and furthermore, it's in your name. =p At the risk of cheapining the compliment, though, I refer to everyone as milord (or milady, depending on gender).
Well Thanks a lot! It really means much to me, I've always strived to be good at what I love to do, though I know I'll never be as good as Fax Celestis or the Vorpal Tribble. Of course, my specialties lie in races and base classes, though I've done a handful of feats. I can't do monsters or PrCs though :smallfrown:


The problem with simple line-of-sight is - though this is still fluff-based, not mechanic-based - that if the idea is that enemies are afraid that you're about unleash a devastating attack on them, then only those that can be plausibly threatened by the idea of an attack from you would be unnerved. So while someone within ten, twenty, thirty feet of a warrior with a sword doing this (in)action could justifiably be shaken, another foe who's standing down at the other end of a long street and looking at the same warrior isn't going to be that worried.
Different weapons and abilities would imply different ranges for such a effect - while melee would be somewhat short ranges, ranged weapons would be longer, and what about people with spells or spell-like abilities that can affect long distances? I am, however, stumped as to how to reflect this variance. Simply something like "[x multiples of] the range of your current weapon" for an effect is too simple, as anyone would just pull out their bow right before activating this to get the max effect, and that's cheesy. Perhaps you'd have to be somehow skilled in the weapon you're using - like it'd require Weapon Focus or Specialization, or some improved form of them - but then that's adding another feat tree to the prereqs which isn't really necessary.
Good points in there. line of sight is just too much.


Perhaps the simpler way of doing it would be to make it variable based on some sort of Initmidate check from the beginning. You activate it, make an Intimidate check against some DC - I have no clue what - and any enemies within some range that's a product of the amount you beat the DC by ("For every 5 by which you beat this check, the range is increased by....") AND that have line-of-sight to you are under the effect.
That's a good idea so how about this:

"When you initiate this ability, make an intimidate check DC20. If you succeed this ability effects a radius of 30ft +10ft for every 5 the check exceeded the DC. So a result of 25 would effect a radius of 50ft. If your intimidate check fails, you lose this use of the ability as your opponents do not take your ploy seriously."

I figure 20 is a good number since you must have at least a +10 to the skill, you're bound to get at least 5 over the DC, extending the range. I just hope this isn't too much...

Magnor Criol
2007-11-09, 10:35 AM
Your logic makes sense to me, but I'm no number cruncher as far as die rolls go, so I don't really know if that's a reasonable assumption for the DC or not. (Though I do know that a result of 25 would give 30 + (1 x 10) = 40 feet, not 50...) The mechanic sounds good, though, I like it, especially the chance to lose the feat if you fail the check. That gives fun mental images of someone botching their check, and the DM making all enemies in the area end up laughing at them or something. =p

-E- By the way - can a Fighter take this feat as one of his bonus feats?

Lord Tataraus
2007-11-09, 12:59 PM
It can be taken as a fighter bonus feat (added the special description)

Oh and I originally had the DC at 15, I just forgot to change the example, I've put the corrected text in the OP.