Racial Feats

[Brom]

THE GIST OF IT:

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I'm doing a homebrew campaign for some friends IRL. I am starting at first level, and unless you have access to some good books and websites, I feel a lot of the starting feats are a little...meh. There are some things that are generally useful but not flavorful. I have a group that I think will be pretty into flavor. Not obsessive, but not disinterested. Fluff is important. They are also into crunch - my players won't, for example, choose combat casting when playing a caster. They would do Skill Focus (Concentration) instead. They aren't that bad at optimization. They aren't crazy, comb all supplements, work into PrC's optimized, but they try to make synergistic and effective feat choices.

Feel free to ask about flavor/campaign information. I didn't want to post unnecessary information, but if you feel you need it to be informed about judging the quality of the feats, ask away.

So what I want are feats competetive with good starting feats and plug the players into some of the campaign flavor.

Dwarf Racial Feats, then:

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Student of Knowledge

Description: You are a student of Dwarven schooling. It was rigorous, even for a Dwarf, and many times you were shamed for making assumptions and taking your best guess. You eventually learned that guessing isn’t good enough – you should know. This model of education is given to freely in Dwarven cities and produces solid, thoughtful minds – you are one of them.

Benefit: You were taught how to memorize, and thus have exceptional recall. You may reroll any knowledge check you make once and accept the better roll a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier. This number of times cannot exceed your character level, however.

Child of the Underdark

Description: Your family has orally passed on the stories of the times in the Underdark. A rough time, where Dwarves were largely alone, separated by lack of unity from even one another. Small groups of families toughed it out – and you were taught that such small families still survived. Thus you are of the belief that together, a Dwarf and his friends can always succeed.

Benefit: You were taught to work with others to succeed, and the success of your group is more important than personal glory. You grant allies a +4 when you take Aid Another actions, and gain a +4 bonus from flanking.

(I'd like to think of a third, but all my ideas were too IMBA. Speaking of IMBA, I suppose knowing the Dwarven racials would help you judge balance of the feats, no?)

Dwarven racial bonuses:

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Dwarven Racial Traits
* +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity: Dwarves are stocky and short, and not particularly agile. They are, however, very hard to kill.
* Medium: As Medium creatures, Dwarves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Dwarf base land speed is 20 feet. Dwarves are short and stocky, and thus slower.
* Darkvision: Dwarves can see sixty feet in pitch black, although it’s only black and white.
* Pragmatism: Dwarves gain a +2 bonus to skill checks when they take 10.
* Detect Secret Doors: Dwarves are entitled to a Search check to find secret doors when they pass by them, even if they are not actively searching for a secret door.

Here are the Elves, in the same order:

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Mirial’s Blessing

Description: You come from a family that lives the humble life of hunters. Your success in gathering herbs, vegetables, fruits, and animals for food and use is dependent upon Mirial’s blessing. But Mirial loves you as her true children: you were the first to inherit her blessing.

Benefit: You are keenly aware of nature and what is going on around you. You gain a +2 to Wisdom based skill checks and a +2 to initiative.

Medea’s Blessing

Description: In the second age, the Elven heroin Medea cautioned her people that there would be times of struggle in the centuries to come, and that preparations should be made. She claimed huge areas of land and gave her patronage to people wanting to live there: these people, in turn, obeyed her call to war. You are descendant from these warriors, and unceasing persistence has a hold in your soul.

Benefit: You are hard to put out of action: you can reroll a saving throw once per day. Your result only applies if it was better than your initial roll.

Sathyr’s Blessing

Description: In the first age, as the Elven people were first settling lands and becoming a society, Sathyr was there to guide them. Although not a hero in the conventional sense, he started the Elves on their path of consideration, knowledge, and peacefulness. Elven society has thus retained its form as Sathyr envisioned. You are descendant from the first people to heed Sathyr’s wisdom, and thus exhibit some of the traits of the Elven king.

Benefit: You are blessed with a certain nobility that causes others to respect and listen to you intuitively. You gain a +2 to Charisma based skill checks; additionally, you may use your Charisma instead of your Wisdom modifier for Will Saves.

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Elven Racial Traits
* +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution: Elves are quick, graceful, but hollow boned and taut skinned.
* Medium: As a medium creature, Elves have no special bonuses or penalties based on size.
* Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
* +2 to all Knowledge (History) checks, automatically gain Knowledge (History) as a class skill.
*Nightsight: Elves can see everything within ninety feet of illumination clearly and in detail.
* +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot.
* Automatic Languages: Common and Sylvan

[Pyrusticia]

Student of Knowledge

Description: You are a student of Dwarven schooling. It was rigorous, even for a Dwarf, and many times you were shamed for making assumptions and taking your best guess. You eventually learned that guessing isn’t good enough – you should know. This model of education is given to freely in Dwarven cities and produces solid, thoughtful minds – you are one of them.

Benefit: You were taught how to memorize, and thus have exceptional recall. You may reroll any knowledge check you make once and accept the better roll a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier. This number of times cannot exceed your character level, however.

I'm confused about the reroll limitations. Can you reroll any single knowledge check once, up to (Int mod) times per day, or can you reroll every check (Int mod) times, or is it something else entirely? And how does the 'number of times equal to your Int modifier' limitation work with 'number of times cannot exceed your character level'? Per day? Per encounter? During the entire career of the character?

[Brom]

Good question.

Basically, for every +1 of intelligence, you can reroll a knowledge check and take the better roll. The catch is that you can only apply one point per level: A Dwarf using this feat at level 1 with a 12 in Intelligence can reroll a single Knowledge check/day and take the better result.

That same Dwarf at level 1 with 18 Intelligence could still only reroll once.

At level 4, however, the Dwarf can reroll four times. At level five, though, assuming his intelligence doesn't go up to 20 (a +5) he can still only reroll 4 times.

That make more sense?

[Ashtagon]

How about this for a re-write:

Description: You are a student of Dwarven schooling. It was rigorous, even for a Dwarf, and many times you were shamed for making assumptions and taking your best guess. You eventually learned that guessing isn’t good enough – you should know. This model of education is given to freely in Dwarven cities and produces solid, thoughtful minds – you are one of them.

Benefit: You were taught how to memorize, and thus have exceptional recall. You may re-roll any knowledge check you make once and accept the better result. This ability may be used a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence bonus or your character level, whichever is lower.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Mirial’s Blessing

Description: You come from a family that lives the humble life of hunters. Your success in gathering herbs, vegetables, fruits, and animals for food and use is dependent upon Mirial’s blessing. But Mirial loves you as her true children: you were the first to inherit her blessing.

Benefit: You are keenly aware of nature and what is going on around you. You gain a +2 to Wisdom based skill checks and a +2 to initiative.

This is far better than Alertness or Self-Sufficient...it's both rolled together, PLUS other skill bonuses, PLUS 1/2 of Improved Initiative. Elf traits don't suck enough to justify a feat worth more than 2-1/2 feats!

[Ashtagon]

I don't think "skill bonus" feats have ever been taken seriously by anyone as contenders for the list of feats worth taking. It takes a really specialised build to make them worthwhile.

[wadledo]

This is far better than Alertness or Self-Sufficient...it's both rolled together, PLUS other skill bonuses, PLUS 1/2 of Improved Initiative. Elf traits don't suck enough to justify a feat worth more than 2-1/2 feats!

Yea, but Alertness and Self-Sufficient suck.
It's an O.K. flavor feat, but that's pretty much it.
If you made it a Prq for a decent PrC, I wouldn't be sad about taking it.

[DracoDei]

In that case you need to edit the feat to specify "... per day...".

[Brom]

If the skill bonuses weren't plugged in, people would just take Improved Initiative. It actually feels like it will remain a solid choice for a long time due to the Initiative bonus (something decently difficult to raise) that won't just be overshadowed by a few +5 skill items later.

Thanks for the rewrite on the Dwarf racial feat. Plugging that in to my description.

[GreatWyrmGold]

If the skill bonuses weren't plugged in, people would just take Improved Initiative.

I'm not saying, "Get rid of the skill bonuses!" I'm saying, make it not 2-1/2+ feats in one.Maybe +1 to Spot, Listen, Survival? (Plus the initiative bonus.)