Maerok
2008-11-26, 06:35 PM
Some feats I've been scheming up for Monte Cook's Word of Darkness. No descriptions yet as I'm just focusing on this rough draft of them first.
I'll note that I'll be using a homebrew variant of Star Wars Saga edition's skill system (1d20 + 1/2 HD + ability mod+ skill focus bonus); Speak Language has been done away with and now there is the Linguist feat.
In the future, I plan on creating a character class: The Seraph. I guess you could say it's 75% paladin and 25% demon. It's a spiritual symbiote created to oppose the arrival of demons in the mortal world. They get Rites centered around defense and supernatural suppression. Their major weakness is that they get set back by having their host killed with no one else to occupy (can only take over normal humans).
But the thing is that that class might detract from the Humans vs. Monsters situation at hand. If they are receiving steady outside help, then it's no longer just Humanity's fight. I'll have to think on it. Seraphs might end up with their own prejudices as they still need human hosts when the battle is over (they'll be using up a host a month at a time, but using fast healing reduces this time to weeks and eventually days).
Arcane Apprentice
Prereq: Arcane Hobbyist, level 11
Benefit: You adapt your single spell into a more powerful 8 component version, usable once per day with a DC 25 Spellcraft check. You may also use your hobbyist spell once per day as well at DC 20.
Arcane Hobbyist
Prereq: One mental score at least 15+, level 6
Benefit: Once per day, you may make a DC 20 Spellcraft check to cast a spell as a full-round action. The spell is chosen when this feat is taken and cannot exceed a component cost of 3. Your spellcasting attribute is the lowest of your mental scores.
Arcane Supplicant
Pre: Arcane Apprentice, level 16
Benefit: Your signature spell increases further to 13 components, usable with a DC 30 Spellcraft check once per day. Like with Arcane Apprentice, you still retain your uses of prior versions of this spell.
Arsonist
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Flamethrower)
Benefit: Your fire-based weaponry or abilities bypass 5 points of hardness. When you light someone or something on fire, the heat is supernaturally augmented such that they roll 3 dice and take the highest two for the 2d6 fire damage they take each round. Add +1 to your Demolition checks when placing a bomb.
Blind-Fight
Benefit: In melee, every time you miss because of concealment, you can reroll your miss chance percentile roll one time to see if you actually hit.
An invisible attacker gets no advantages related to hitting you in melee. That is, you don’t lose your Dexterity bonus to Defense, and the attacker doesn’t get the usual +2 bonus for being invisible. The invisible attacker’s bonuses do still apply for ranged attacks, however.
You take only half the usual penalty to speed for being unable to see. Darkness and poor visibility in general reduces your speed to three-quarters normal, instead of one-half. (Taken from D&D 3.5)
Bravado
Prereq: Cha 13
Benefit: You may use your Charisma modifier in place of your Wisdom modifier for Will saves.
Brawler
Benefit: When grappling, you may deal damage with certain melee weapons each round you succeed on a grapple check after pinning your opponent. You may use: Unarmed, Brass knuckles, Pistol whip, Knife, Bayonet, Club or chain, Rifle butt, or Sap . If your grapple roll was a natural 20, you may make a second grapple check to confirm the critical; if you fail this roll you still maintain the pin.
Crackshot
Prereq: Quickdraw, Improved Critical (one-handed ranged weapon or firearm)
Benefit: When you deal a critical hit and kill a creature with the qualifying weapon, you may make another attack against a creature within 10 feet of that creature at your base attack bonus. This may only work once per round and with a one-handed ranged weapon.
Death Lark
Prereq: Wis 13
Benefit: You can sense a relatively natural death (gunshot, etc.) within three miles. You can sense an unnatural death (a demon cant used to kill someone, a magical weapon used to kill, etc.) from within one mile.
Explosive Savvy
Prereq: Skill Focus (Demolitions)
Benefit: Reroll any 1's you roll for weapon damage on your grenades and explosives. The DC of the Reflex save increases by 2. You gain a -2 penalty to Listen checks.
Gun Kata
Prereq: Weapon Focus (pistol or rifle), Point Blank Shot
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Defense and +1 bonus to ranged attacks against any opponent you pistol-whipped or rifle-butted in the last round of combat, or vice versa (these bonuses don't stack). You may shoot and melee with your pistol(s) or rifle interchangeably within a single full-attack action.
Ex: Bob gets three attacks in a full-attack action. He pistol whips Joe, gaining a +2 bonus to Defense against Joe for one round and a +1 attack bonus to shoot him. His second attack is to shoot Joe, gaining a +1 attack bonus to pistol whip him, which he proceeds to do in his final attack. These bonuses last one round.
Hemlock Healer
Prereq: Skill Focus (Heal)
Benefit: You can twist the benefits normally provided by the Heal skill to covertly weaken and kill. A DC 20 Heal check when trying to stabilize a victim allows you to set the new base DC from 10 to your roll outcome – 10 (plus the number of negative hitpoints the victim has). A DC 20 Heal check in surgery allows you to deal 1d6 damage for every level of the patient.
Impromptu Weaponry
Prereq: BAB +4
Benefit: You are proficient in the use of improvised weapons up to your size.
Leather Face
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Chainsaw)
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to bullrush and overrun attempts when wielding a chainsaw in combat. You also gain a +2 bonus to saves against fear while wielding one.
Note: A chainsaw's damage bypasses hardness on structures just short of reinforced metal.
Linguist
Prereq: Int 13
Benefit: You gain a number of known languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1).
Lucky
Prereq: Cha 13
Benefit: Once per day per point of Charisma modifier, you may add a +1 bonus to a skill check. You cannot use this more than once on a single check.
Mage Hunter
Prereq: Sensitive
Benefit: When you encounter a mage who has cast a spell within <exhaustion rating> minutes, you can make a DC 20 Spot check to identify them for what they are. If the spell cast is relevant to the mage's type, but necessarily a rote, then you are aware of that mage's type (warlock, theurgist, etc.).
Magekiller
Prereq: Sneak Attack
Benefit: When you deal sneak attack damage to a mage, you may instead increase that mage's exhaustion rating by half that damage.
Mow Down
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Machine Gun)
Benefit: When you strafe with a machine gun, the DC for the Reflex save to avoid the damage increases to 16; or 18 if you spend a full-round action and 20 bullets.
Raining Fire
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Grenade Launcher), BAB 6
Benefit: As a standard action you may fire a grenade up into the air, aiming at a specific place. Next round, the shell lands as if you have fired it horizontally but anyone caught in the blast radius takes a -4 penalty to their Reflex save. You may reduce the range by 10 x # feet to clear barriers 5 x # feet high.
Pacificist
Benefit: The DC of the debilitating effect of tranquilizer darts, tasers, and pepper spray increase by 2. The effect of tasers and pepper spray last an additional round.
Paranoia
Prereq: Awakened level 4
Benefit: You only require half as much sleep. The DC to Listen while sleeping is reduced by 5 and you require a DC 15 Concentration check to get to sleep when you want to (even when trying to recover from fatigue). When ambushed in your sleep, you get a Listen check to avoid being caught flat-footed (there will probably still be a surprise round against you).
Parry
Prereq: Dex 19, character level 6
Benefit: Once per day, you may counter a standard attack against you with an opposed attack roll. If your roll is equal to or greater than their own, the attack is negated. If you fail, you are flat-footed when the attack hits. Either way you become flat-footed until your next turn. You must be aware of the attack to parry it.
Relentless
Prereq: Level 16, stunned rather than take Constitution damage from a critical hit
Benefit: Critical hits are no longer confirmed against you.
Rocketeer
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Rocket Launcher)
Benefit: Unless a creature has Evasio*n, it is knocked prone and set on fire if it is caught in the blast and does not roll higher than 5 over the DC required to take half damage.
Second Skin Armor
Prereq: Armor Proficiency (any type)
Benefit: Reduce the armor penalty of your selected armor type by 2. Its weight only counts half as much when determining encumbrance and you may sleep in it. But you take a -2 armor penalty when not wearing that type of armor (unless wearing another armor type that you have chosen for second Skin Armor).
Soul Drain
Prereq: Sneak attack 2d6
Benefit: When you deal sneak attack damage against a creature with points of Vitae, Essence, or Anima, you may negate two dice to reduce their energy pool of that type by one. You are not automatically aware of how much they had to begin with, or if they were even a user of that energy type. If the attack kills the victim and you happen to use that energy type, you gain that stolen energy.
Up Close and Personal
Prereq: Sneak attack 4d6, level 11
Benefit: When you deal sneak attack damage from an adjacent square, you may reroll any 2 or 3 outcome on your sneak attack dice once each.
Weapon Focus (Expanded)
Prereq: BAB 1
Benefit: +1 to attack with, choose one: melee weapons, firearms, explosives, ranged weapons, or an exotic weapon you are proficient with.
Weapon Specialization (Expanded)
Prereq: BAB 4, Weapon Focus with that weapon or type
Benefit: +2 to damage with that weaponry type.
I'll note that I'll be using a homebrew variant of Star Wars Saga edition's skill system (1d20 + 1/2 HD + ability mod+ skill focus bonus); Speak Language has been done away with and now there is the Linguist feat.
In the future, I plan on creating a character class: The Seraph. I guess you could say it's 75% paladin and 25% demon. It's a spiritual symbiote created to oppose the arrival of demons in the mortal world. They get Rites centered around defense and supernatural suppression. Their major weakness is that they get set back by having their host killed with no one else to occupy (can only take over normal humans).
But the thing is that that class might detract from the Humans vs. Monsters situation at hand. If they are receiving steady outside help, then it's no longer just Humanity's fight. I'll have to think on it. Seraphs might end up with their own prejudices as they still need human hosts when the battle is over (they'll be using up a host a month at a time, but using fast healing reduces this time to weeks and eventually days).
Arcane Apprentice
Prereq: Arcane Hobbyist, level 11
Benefit: You adapt your single spell into a more powerful 8 component version, usable once per day with a DC 25 Spellcraft check. You may also use your hobbyist spell once per day as well at DC 20.
Arcane Hobbyist
Prereq: One mental score at least 15+, level 6
Benefit: Once per day, you may make a DC 20 Spellcraft check to cast a spell as a full-round action. The spell is chosen when this feat is taken and cannot exceed a component cost of 3. Your spellcasting attribute is the lowest of your mental scores.
Arcane Supplicant
Pre: Arcane Apprentice, level 16
Benefit: Your signature spell increases further to 13 components, usable with a DC 30 Spellcraft check once per day. Like with Arcane Apprentice, you still retain your uses of prior versions of this spell.
Arsonist
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Flamethrower)
Benefit: Your fire-based weaponry or abilities bypass 5 points of hardness. When you light someone or something on fire, the heat is supernaturally augmented such that they roll 3 dice and take the highest two for the 2d6 fire damage they take each round. Add +1 to your Demolition checks when placing a bomb.
Blind-Fight
Benefit: In melee, every time you miss because of concealment, you can reroll your miss chance percentile roll one time to see if you actually hit.
An invisible attacker gets no advantages related to hitting you in melee. That is, you don’t lose your Dexterity bonus to Defense, and the attacker doesn’t get the usual +2 bonus for being invisible. The invisible attacker’s bonuses do still apply for ranged attacks, however.
You take only half the usual penalty to speed for being unable to see. Darkness and poor visibility in general reduces your speed to three-quarters normal, instead of one-half. (Taken from D&D 3.5)
Bravado
Prereq: Cha 13
Benefit: You may use your Charisma modifier in place of your Wisdom modifier for Will saves.
Brawler
Benefit: When grappling, you may deal damage with certain melee weapons each round you succeed on a grapple check after pinning your opponent. You may use: Unarmed, Brass knuckles, Pistol whip, Knife, Bayonet, Club or chain, Rifle butt, or Sap . If your grapple roll was a natural 20, you may make a second grapple check to confirm the critical; if you fail this roll you still maintain the pin.
Crackshot
Prereq: Quickdraw, Improved Critical (one-handed ranged weapon or firearm)
Benefit: When you deal a critical hit and kill a creature with the qualifying weapon, you may make another attack against a creature within 10 feet of that creature at your base attack bonus. This may only work once per round and with a one-handed ranged weapon.
Death Lark
Prereq: Wis 13
Benefit: You can sense a relatively natural death (gunshot, etc.) within three miles. You can sense an unnatural death (a demon cant used to kill someone, a magical weapon used to kill, etc.) from within one mile.
Explosive Savvy
Prereq: Skill Focus (Demolitions)
Benefit: Reroll any 1's you roll for weapon damage on your grenades and explosives. The DC of the Reflex save increases by 2. You gain a -2 penalty to Listen checks.
Gun Kata
Prereq: Weapon Focus (pistol or rifle), Point Blank Shot
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Defense and +1 bonus to ranged attacks against any opponent you pistol-whipped or rifle-butted in the last round of combat, or vice versa (these bonuses don't stack). You may shoot and melee with your pistol(s) or rifle interchangeably within a single full-attack action.
Ex: Bob gets three attacks in a full-attack action. He pistol whips Joe, gaining a +2 bonus to Defense against Joe for one round and a +1 attack bonus to shoot him. His second attack is to shoot Joe, gaining a +1 attack bonus to pistol whip him, which he proceeds to do in his final attack. These bonuses last one round.
Hemlock Healer
Prereq: Skill Focus (Heal)
Benefit: You can twist the benefits normally provided by the Heal skill to covertly weaken and kill. A DC 20 Heal check when trying to stabilize a victim allows you to set the new base DC from 10 to your roll outcome – 10 (plus the number of negative hitpoints the victim has). A DC 20 Heal check in surgery allows you to deal 1d6 damage for every level of the patient.
Impromptu Weaponry
Prereq: BAB +4
Benefit: You are proficient in the use of improvised weapons up to your size.
Leather Face
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Chainsaw)
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to bullrush and overrun attempts when wielding a chainsaw in combat. You also gain a +2 bonus to saves against fear while wielding one.
Note: A chainsaw's damage bypasses hardness on structures just short of reinforced metal.
Linguist
Prereq: Int 13
Benefit: You gain a number of known languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1).
Lucky
Prereq: Cha 13
Benefit: Once per day per point of Charisma modifier, you may add a +1 bonus to a skill check. You cannot use this more than once on a single check.
Mage Hunter
Prereq: Sensitive
Benefit: When you encounter a mage who has cast a spell within <exhaustion rating> minutes, you can make a DC 20 Spot check to identify them for what they are. If the spell cast is relevant to the mage's type, but necessarily a rote, then you are aware of that mage's type (warlock, theurgist, etc.).
Magekiller
Prereq: Sneak Attack
Benefit: When you deal sneak attack damage to a mage, you may instead increase that mage's exhaustion rating by half that damage.
Mow Down
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Machine Gun)
Benefit: When you strafe with a machine gun, the DC for the Reflex save to avoid the damage increases to 16; or 18 if you spend a full-round action and 20 bullets.
Raining Fire
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Grenade Launcher), BAB 6
Benefit: As a standard action you may fire a grenade up into the air, aiming at a specific place. Next round, the shell lands as if you have fired it horizontally but anyone caught in the blast radius takes a -4 penalty to their Reflex save. You may reduce the range by 10 x # feet to clear barriers 5 x # feet high.
Pacificist
Benefit: The DC of the debilitating effect of tranquilizer darts, tasers, and pepper spray increase by 2. The effect of tasers and pepper spray last an additional round.
Paranoia
Prereq: Awakened level 4
Benefit: You only require half as much sleep. The DC to Listen while sleeping is reduced by 5 and you require a DC 15 Concentration check to get to sleep when you want to (even when trying to recover from fatigue). When ambushed in your sleep, you get a Listen check to avoid being caught flat-footed (there will probably still be a surprise round against you).
Parry
Prereq: Dex 19, character level 6
Benefit: Once per day, you may counter a standard attack against you with an opposed attack roll. If your roll is equal to or greater than their own, the attack is negated. If you fail, you are flat-footed when the attack hits. Either way you become flat-footed until your next turn. You must be aware of the attack to parry it.
Relentless
Prereq: Level 16, stunned rather than take Constitution damage from a critical hit
Benefit: Critical hits are no longer confirmed against you.
Rocketeer
Prereq: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Rocket Launcher)
Benefit: Unless a creature has Evasio*n, it is knocked prone and set on fire if it is caught in the blast and does not roll higher than 5 over the DC required to take half damage.
Second Skin Armor
Prereq: Armor Proficiency (any type)
Benefit: Reduce the armor penalty of your selected armor type by 2. Its weight only counts half as much when determining encumbrance and you may sleep in it. But you take a -2 armor penalty when not wearing that type of armor (unless wearing another armor type that you have chosen for second Skin Armor).
Soul Drain
Prereq: Sneak attack 2d6
Benefit: When you deal sneak attack damage against a creature with points of Vitae, Essence, or Anima, you may negate two dice to reduce their energy pool of that type by one. You are not automatically aware of how much they had to begin with, or if they were even a user of that energy type. If the attack kills the victim and you happen to use that energy type, you gain that stolen energy.
Up Close and Personal
Prereq: Sneak attack 4d6, level 11
Benefit: When you deal sneak attack damage from an adjacent square, you may reroll any 2 or 3 outcome on your sneak attack dice once each.
Weapon Focus (Expanded)
Prereq: BAB 1
Benefit: +1 to attack with, choose one: melee weapons, firearms, explosives, ranged weapons, or an exotic weapon you are proficient with.
Weapon Specialization (Expanded)
Prereq: BAB 4, Weapon Focus with that weapon or type
Benefit: +2 to damage with that weaponry type.