New Feat: Hostile Soul(versions 1.0-1.2)

[Winged One]

Version 1.0:

Hostile Soul[psionic]
Your psyche recoils violently against those who use divine magic against you.
Requires: CHA 15
Benefit: Whenever you are subject to any divine spell, be it malignant or benign, the caster must win an opposed CHA roll with you or take 1d10 damage. You may not voulentarily fail this roll.

You may suppress this ability with a full-round action and an Autohypnosis check of the same DC as the spell. You apply your modifiers against Fear to this check.

Special: You may not take this feat if you are a divine spellcaster.

Version 1.1

Hostile Soul[psionic]
Your psyche recoils violently against those who use divine magic against you.
Requires: CHA 15
Benefit: Whenever you are subject to any divine spell or outsider's Supernatural or Spell-Like Ability, be it malignant or benign, the caster must make a Will save(DC 10+ ½ your character level + your Charisma bonus) or take 1d10 damage.

You may not volentarily fail the save against a divine spell or outsider's Supernatural or Spell-Like Ability. You are never considered willing for the purpose of a divine spell or outsider's Supernatural or Spell-Like ability.

You may suppress this ability with a full-round action and an Autohypnosis check of the same DC as the spell you intend to let through. You apply your modifiers against Fear to this check. Doing so deactivates the feat for a full round after you recieve the intended spell.

Special: You may not take this feat if you are a divine spellcaster.

Version 1.2

Hostile Soul[psionic]
Your psyche recoils violently against those who use divine magic against you.
Requires: CHA 15
Benefit: Whenever you are targeted by any divine spell, be it malignant or benign, the caster must make a Will save(DC 10+ ½ your character level + your Charisma bonus) or take 1d10 damage.

You may not volentarily fail the save against a divine spell. You are never considered willing for the purpose of a divine spell.

You may suppress this ability with a full-round action and an Autohypnosis check of the same DC as the spell you intend to let through. You apply your modifiers against Fear to this check. Doing so deactivates the feat for a full round after you recieve the intended spell.

You can also suppress this ability as a free action, with no check, but only if you are dead.

Special: You may not take this feat if you are a divine spellcaster.


Obviously, inspired by Hostile Mind. I can't tell if it's broken or not, because I'm not very good at balancing stuff.

EDITED

[jdrich]

It shouldn't be a psionic feat or have the autohypnosis blurb. A suggested re-write:

Hostile Will [General]

Your mind recoils violently against those who tamper with your free will.

Prerequisite

Cha 15.

Benefit

Whenever you are subject to a power from the Enchantment school, the caster must make a Will saving throw against a DC of 10 + ½ your character level + your Charisma bonus or take 2d6 points of damage.

The benefit of this feat applies only to magical spells and spell-like abilities

Special

You cannot take or use this feat if you can cast spells of the Enchantment school or have an arcane caster level.

[hr]

The reason that I recommend the changes is because the feat doesn't translate that well to magic. You could keep it the way you have it, but Paladins wouldn't be able to take it, even though it might fit the flavor in some circumstances. Either way, I would keep that damage at 2d6.

[Winged One]

You have the concept wrong, mine is for a character who dislikes divne magic, not having their will screwed with.

EDIT: yours is good for the concept that you seem to have written it for, though.

[jdrich]

The original intent of the feat (Hostile Mind) is for someone who has a natural aversion to telepathy.

Having it apply to the entirety of divine magic is a bit overpowered.

It definitely shouldn't be a psionic feat, though I could see maybe where you chould justify that. It does make healing harder, but it also negates orc shamans and the like really hurting your character.

Also, what about a divine _fireball_? It doesn't target you, it targets an area. Does the feat still apply?

The reason the original feat applies to telepathy, I assume, is because most of the Telepathy powers (all except for the power, mass type) target a single creature.

[Arakune]

hi! my first post here!

---------edit---------

ok, i got that. sorry for the incovenience but i don't read right. don't happen again.

[Winged One]

On the contrary, extending it to all of divine magic, which is well known for buffs and heals rather than blasting, seems more balanced than limiting it to, say, the necromancy school.

A Flame Strike would be treated by Hostile Soul the same way a Psionic Blast would be treated by Hostile Mind. However, I don't know how that is.

And to be perfectly honest, it's a psionic feat because I intend it for a Wilder character of mine. My justification is that you need psionics to attack somebody's mind unconciously unless they're trying to affect your own mind. And, of course, the Autohypnosis bit, which is there because you might want to let this down to accept healing, but to the sort of person I intend it for, it's frightening to do so, hence the Fear modifiers to the Autohypnosis check.

EDIT: I'd reccomend starting a new thread for those, ryuan. This one is intended to get the feat I wrote evaluated for balance.

[Toliudar]

Winged One, it's a fascinating idea, and one that might work brilliantly for a character in one of the online threads here on this board...

My instinct is that the annoyance factor of having to concentrate on lowering this and for a round (and it is the ability that's suppressed, not the specific spell that's let through, so a second divine spell cast during the same round would automatically get through without zapping, yes?) outweighs the munchkin factor, and so the feat is not overpowered.

I would not make it an opposed Cha check, unless there's a backlash that might further affect the feat-user, but rather make it a straight will save on behalf of the caster - perhaps the DC of their original spell?

Also, I'd name the damage in some way - be it force, an energy type, bludgeoning, something that gives it a concrete reality as part of the game (and the caster a chance to soak it with damage resistance).

A few questions:

My assumption is that the triggering event for this feat is the character being TARGETED with a spell. So Flame Strike, or silence, for instance, would only work if they targeted the character. If they happened to simply be in the area of effect, there's no backlash. If it's not "targeted" but simply "affected by" or "subject to", you end up with some weird scenarios: Every time you enter a consecrated area, the priest who cast it ends up rolling to avoid damage.

I'm also going to assume that it has no effect on spell-like effects, supernatural abilities, spells cast from wands, etc.

Then, the weirder questions:

I'm a rogue with this feat. Can I use Use Magic Device to activate a wand of cure light wounds on myself? If so, can I end up hurting myself worse than I'm healed?

If I have this feat and am unconscious (where, I think, I would normally fail all saves automatically), would this feat still be active and zap a cleric who healed me?

If I'm asleep, and a druid scries me from a hundred miles away, woud she be zapped?

If I'm in a line-up of people being scanned with detect magic, is this enough to set off this feat?

If I'm dead, and a druid reincarnates me, do they get zapped?

Whew! So many questions, so little brain left. Good luck with the Wilder!

[Winged One]

Winged One, it's a fascinating idea, and one that might work brilliantly for a character in one of the online threads here on this board...
Thanks. Anyway, long post, so I'll break my replies into chunks.


My instinct is that the annoyance factor of having to concentrate on lowering this and for a round (and it is the ability that's suppressed, not the specific spell that's let through, so a second divine spell cast during the same round would automatically get through without zapping, yes?) outweighs the munchkin factor, and so the feat is not overpowered.
Well, I was undecided about this, but if you think it needs to be that way for balance...


I would not make it an opposed Cha check, unless there's a backlash that might further affect the feat-user, but rather make it a straight will save on behalf of the caster - perhaps the DC of their original spell?
All right, so I'll use the mechanic Hostile Mind uses: (Character level*.5)+CHA bonus


Also, I'd name the damage in some way - be it force, an energy type, bludgeoning, something that gives it a concrete reality as part of the game (and the caster a chance to soak it with damage resistance).
The damage is meant to be akin to the Mind Thrust power, hence the 1d10 damage and the lack of an energy type.


A few questions:

My assumption is that the triggering event for this feat is the character being TARGETED with a spell. So Flame Strike, or silence, for instance, would only work if they targeted the character. If they happened to simply be in the area of effect, there's no backlash. If it's not "targeted" but simply "affected by" or "subject to", you end up with some weird scenarios: Every time you enter a consecrated area, the priest who cast it ends up rolling to avoid damage.
Okay, perhaps it should be changed to only work when the spell is cast(so entering a Silence spell won't trigger it, but being in the area when it's cast would).


I'm also going to assume that it has no effect on spell-like effects, supernatural abilities, spells cast from wands, etc.
Well, I'm thinking of having it apply to the SLAs and SNAs of outsiders, actually, but only after reading this part of the post. Wands aren't affected.


Then, the weirder questions:

I'm a rogue with this feat. Can I use Use Magic Device to activate a wand of cure light wounds on myself? If so, can I end up hurting myself worse than I'm healed?
I'll assume that you took Wild Talent first, but that aside, a wand won't activate it, as wands don't seem to descriminate between arcane and divine spells(like a bard could use a cleric-made wand of Cure Light Wounds), so you won't hurt yourself with the wand.


If I have this feat and am unconscious (where, I think, I would normally fail all saves automatically), would this feat still be active and zap a cleric who healed me?
Yes. Also, I should probably add that unless you're supressing it with Autohypnosis, you won't voulentarily fail any saves against any divine effect or allow a touch spell to be delivered if you believe it to be a divine spell. It's your psyche, or soul, that lashes out at the cleric, not your concious mind.


If I'm asleep, and a druid scries me from a hundred miles away, woud she be zapped?

Yes, see above.


If I'm in a line-up of people being scanned with detect magic, is this enough to set off this feat?
Yes.


If I'm dead, and a druid reincarnates me, do they get zapped?
I would assume that, even dead, you would be able to use a purely mental skill like Autohypnosis.


Whew! So many questions, so little brain left. Good luck with the Wilder!
Thanks!

[Toliudar]

Winged One

I'd say that adding SLA and supernatural abilities of outsiders is a whole other thing. Especially since many of the outsiders (elementals, etc) may or may not have divine origins for their powers. Even demons, for that matter, are not defined as divine in their power source.

I would also argue that "targeted by" is a much betterd mechanic than "subject to". It's a game term that's relatively well defined, and has a nice, clean test of whether it should apply or not. Otherwise, especially with divinations and abjurations, it gets very messy.

A cleric standing next to you casts blade barrier - why does this trigger your soul's response, but stepping into the blade barrier a round later doesn't? A cleric casts detect magic and then concentrates on you a round later - but they're not zapped, because they didn't just cast the spell? You're standing in a room when a divine caster begins to scry someone else in the room, but you're seen - is just seeing you through the use of a spell enough to trigger your divine-touchy soul? Keep it simple.

As I said, a very cool character concept, and good luck with it.

[Winged One]

You have a point. Therefore, making version 1.2 now.

EDIT: done.