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View Full Version : [4e] Feat: Faithful Friend



LoneStarNorth
2008-09-01, 12:56 AM
A feat of the Heroic tier.

Faithful Friend
Benefit: You designate an ally (usually a fellow party member) as your “friend”. When your friend is bloodied, visible to you, and within 10 squares, you gain a +1 bonus to all attack rolls and +2 to damage rolls. If your friend is unconscious and dying instead of bloodied, you instead gain a +2 bonus to all attack rolls and +4 to damage rolls. If your friend is unconscious and dying and you are standing in his or her square, you may take a +2 bonus to all of your defenses instead of bonuses to attack and damage.
This feat may be taken multiple times with different allies designated as your "friend".



I made up this feat mostly for roleplaying purposes; my dwarven fighter happens to be close friends with the halfling rogue, and something along these lines would give them a solid mechanical bonus for it. My DM will be more likely to accept it in game if I get some general approval on the boards first. So, is this balanced?

As an option, both parties could be required to take the feat. Naturally I want to get away with as much benefit for as little cost as possible, but that wouldn't be a bad option since we're both going to take it anyway.

Critique away, and thank you in advance.

Shadow_Elf
2008-09-01, 09:32 AM
Typically, attack bonuses are 1/2 damage bonuses. Since, if an enemy has. say, AC 20, +1 attack increases your chance to hit by 5% at any level. However, +1 damage becomes very, well, obsolete, at later levels. When an enemy has 900 hp, +5% hit is better than +2 damage. So, I think it would still be "fair" to give them +1 attack and +2 damage and then +2 attack +4 damage. The defence bonus application is nice, but I don't know anything about balance. I have a character who would benefit from this, as he gets along well with our dwarven cleric. And it would fit his personality really well.

JackTR69
2008-09-01, 06:42 PM
I would agree that it could use to be a +2/+4 to damage instead of +1/+2 for balancing purposes. Now, about the defense bonus. I don't think it's that overpowered because it's only when you're standing over a dying friend, and hence bound to a single square. If it was the same bonus wherever you are then it would be too much. So yeah, I think it's a perfectly acceptable feat, as long as you reword it so that it doesn't "stack". Just change it so that if you have multiple "friends" you can only gain the benefit from one at a time.

Shadow_Elf
2008-09-01, 06:46 PM
I just had an idea. WotC has not yet made the "morale" type bonus in 4e. As this feat is a state of mind (OMG my best friend is dieing!) rather than a physical buff i.e. potion of strength, a +1/2 morale bonus would fit. And prevent it from stacking.

Zocelot
2008-09-01, 08:00 PM
Tons of Warlord powers would make sense if they were morale bonuses, but WotC has done away with Morale bonuses. Even if it stays untyped, untyped bonuses from the same source don't stack, so the feat wouldn't stack with itself.

LoneStarNorth
2008-09-01, 08:17 PM
Okay, so apparently the feat can actually be made better and still be balanced? Alright, let's go with that then. Thanks for the input, if anyone out there disagrees, post and say so :smallsmile: