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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other New Demoralization feats - PEACH



Halrax
2022-10-06, 03:03 PM
Prelude: I'm the sort of person who spends hundreds of hours making homebrew without any realistic intention of ever seeing it played. Figured I should start posting some of it to get some evaluations and reality checks, and maybe some people could find it interesting enough to use.

These feats are meant to replace all the little tricks (feats, skill tricks, class features, etc.) in a Fear Handbook, instead implementing this change directly into the demoralization action, the Intimidate skill, fear levels, and these feats.

Demoralize (like all other maneuvers) replaces an attack rather than being a standard action, for every 10 in excess the shaken condition lasts for an additional round, and for every 20 in excess the target gains an additional level of fear.

Fear levels are now just multiples of shaken rather than having different effects. So Panicked (fear level 3) has -6 to attacks, saves, skill checks, ability checks (or 3x the effects of shaken) instead of the target running away.

Also Skill Focus is now actually a good feat, so there's that.

Improved Demoralize: Cha 13, Skill Focus (Intimidate), BAB +1: gain +4 to Intimidate, you gain a free attack against the opponent you demoralize after a successful attempt (unless you demoralized from a bonus attack from an Improved Maneuver feat), and you can demoralize creatures immune to fear at a -20 penalty or immune to mind-affecting at a -40 penalty.
Never Outnumbered: Cha 15, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Improved Demoralize, BAB +3: You can demoralize multiple creatures at once, taking a -5 penalty to the check for each additional creature, penalty for targets being immune to fear or immune to mind-affecting only apply for those targets
Distant Fear: Cha 15, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Improved Demoralize, BAB +3: When demoralizing, you can affect any target within 30 ft that can see you rather than just ones you threaten
Deep Fear: Cha 17, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Improved Demoralize, BAB +5: When demoralizing, the target gains an additional level of fear for every 10 in excess instead of every 20
Long-Lasting Fear: Cha 17, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Improved Demoralize, BAB +5: When demoralizing, the effect lasts for an additional round for every 5 in excess instead of every 10

The Improved Demoralize is in line with the other changed Improved ____ feats, and the other feats expand upon it. This change assumes someone optimizing their build will have something like +50 or more to Intimidate and lets them actually use it to do stuff. Also all the thresholds and penalties are multiples of 5, which make them easy to use.

Metastachydium
2022-10-06, 03:39 PM
Demoralize (like all other maneuvers) replaces an attack rather than being a standard action,

What's that mean? You can, say, sacrifice a swift iterative to demoralize instead or generally combine demoralize with flailing around weapons in a full-attack? If so, I'd say I approve of that.


for every 10 in excess the shaken condition lasts for an additional round, and for every 20 in excess the target gains an additional level of fear.

Fear levels are now just multiples of shaken rather than having different effects. So Panicked (fear level 3) has -6 to attacks, saves, skill checks, ability checks (or 3x the effects of shaken) instead of the target running away.

I don't know. That makes sense for frightened, but I kind of like "the completely loses it" aspect of Panicked. (Side question: how does Cowering figure into this model?)


Also Skill Focus is now actually a good feat, so there's that.

Oh, I want to hear more about that!


Improved Demoralize: Cha 13, Skill Focus (Intimidate), BAB +1: gain +4 to Intimidate, you gain a free attack against the opponent you demoralize after a successful attempt (unless you demoralized from a bonus attack from an Improved Maneuver feat), and you can demoralize creatures immune to fear at a -20 penalty or immune to mind-affecting at a -40 penalty.
Never Outnumbered: Cha 15, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Improved Demoralize, BAB +3: You can demoralize multiple creatures at once, taking a -5 penalty to the check for each additional creature, penalty for targets being immune to fear or immune to mind-affecting only apply for those targets
Distant Fear: Cha 15, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Improved Demoralize, BAB +3: When demoralizing, you can affect any target within 30 ft that can see you rather than just ones you threaten
Deep Fear: Cha 17, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Improved Demoralize, BAB +5: When demoralizing, the target gains an additional level of fear for every 10 in excess instead of every 20
Long-Lasting Fear: Cha 17, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Improved Demoralize, BAB +5: When demoralizing, the effect lasts for an additional round for every 5 in excess instead of every 10

The Improved Demoralize is in line with the other changed Improved ____ feats, and the other feats expand upon it. This change assumes someone optimizing their build will have something like +50 or more to Intimidate and lets them actually use it to do stuff. Also all the thresholds and penalties are multiples of 5, which make them easy to use.

I was going to grumble about the nerf to mind-affecting immunity, but one really needs to build for breaching that so I think it's, in fact, fine in the end. I like these overall.