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View Full Version : Hey, It's Better Than Esperanto [Feats]



AstralFire
2009-08-08, 10:26 AM
Pulling some feats out of my old file. Putting up the ones I don't hate now.

HEY, IT'S BETTER THAN ESPERANTO [General]
You've learned that whatever other barriers there are, there are always ways to communicate.
Prerequisites: Perform (any instrument, singing, or pantomime) 15 ranks
Benefit: Make a Perform check (any of the categories listed above) to communicate with someone, even if they are animals or do not understand your language. The DC is 30, but various circumstances can raise or lower the DC:
- Understand a language you speak: -5 (-10 for singing)
- Complex Message: +5
- Animal: +15, simple messages only.

ASSASSIN FIGHTING [Fighter, General]
While a clean kill would be better, you can fight noiselessly if you have to.
Prerequisites: Stealthy.
Benefit: Creatures not engaged in combat with you do not lower the difficulty class of Listen checks made to detect you while you are fighting. ... Doesn't mean the guy you're hitting isn't going to scream bloody murder.
Normal: Listen DCs are lowered by 10 to detect combat.

BENETTI'S DEFENSE [Style]
It's only fitting for rocky terrain.
Prerequisites: Dodge, Balance 8 ranks, Weapon Finesse
Benefit: When on Lightly Obstructed, Heavily Obstructed, or Sloped terrain, you gain a +2 bonus to your armor class and your attack rolls with finessable weapons.

COMBINATION [Fighter, General]
You are good at using one attack to set up another.
Prerequisites: Improved Critical (Any)
Benefits: Choose one melee weapon group that you have Improved Critical for. When wielding this weapon, if you make a melee attack that is a critical threat, instead of confirming the critical you can choose to make an extra melee attack against the same opponent using the same attack bonus. If your weapon has a critical multiplier higher than 2, the target is also knocked prone. Extra attacks made with this feat cannot generate more attacks, though they can critical. Sneak attack bonus damage die do not apply to additional attacks granted by this feat.

DAYLIGHT ADAPTATION [General]
Unlike others of your race, you have pushed yourself to deal with bright light from an early age, and thus can stand the punishing sunlight.
Prerequisites: Chiropter, Kobold races
Benefits: You do not suffer a penalty to attack rolls made in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell, nor are you dazzled. But you probably should have just worn sunglasses.
Special: Yes, sunglasses are a real item. No, they're not Ray-Bans.

SinsI
2009-08-08, 05:48 PM
HEY, IT'S BETTER THAN ESPERANTO [General]
You don't need a feat for that, it is just one of the ways you normally use your perform skill. DC should depend on the difficulty of the task, with complex messages being an epic level challenge but very simple ones are almost automatic.
ASSASSIN FIGHTING [Fighter, General]
Vastly overpowered, completely destroys the usefullness of the whole flanking mechanic.
COMBINATION [Fighter, General]
Best case: Rogue sneak attacks using Kukri. Critical chance 30%*Confirmation chance, so with this feat he gets to double his sneak attack (and any magical +1d6 he has on it) damage a little less than 30% of all the time.
Comparison: Overwhelming Critical, Epic level feat, gives you from +1d6 to 3d6 damage on critical hits, depending on the weapon used.
You're easily getting 10 times that, and most of rogue's attacks are sneak attacks anyways.
DAYLIGHT ADAPTATION [General]
Seems solid.

Athaniar
2009-08-08, 05:58 PM
The first feat reminds me of the language Solresol. Wonder how that could be implemented into D&D?

AstralFire
2009-08-08, 05:59 PM
ASSASSIN FIGHTING [Fighter, General]
Vastly overpowered, completely destroys the usefullness of the whole flanking mechanic.

...What? What does that have to do with the price of tea in china? Oh, I see. It's not intended to give you a benefit against the person you are fighting, and shouldn't, generally speaking - it negates penalties for being in combat, but does not grant you cover or concealment. I'll clarify that, however.

Perform definitely does not allow you to communicate messages cross language, though.


COMBINATION [Fighter, General]
Best case: Rogue sneak attacks using Kukri. Critical chance 30%*Confirmation chance, so with this feat he gets to double his sneak attack (and any magical +1d6 he has on it) damage a little less than 30% of all the time.
Comparison: Overwhelming Critical, Epic level feat, gives you from +1d6 to 3d6 damage on critical hits, depending on the weapon used.

Overwhelming Critical and in general, Epic level feats, are terrible. So are magical +1d6. I will make it so sneak attack can only be applied once, however.


The first feat reminds me of the language Solresol. Wonder how that could be implemented into D&D?

Cool. I'd never even heard of that before.

The Neoclassic
2009-08-08, 06:16 PM
Very nice feats! I particularly like the name of the first one. :smalltongue:

SinsI
2009-08-08, 06:59 PM
...What? What does that have to do with the price of tea in china? Oh, I see. It's not intended to give you a benefit against the person you are fighting, and shouldn't, generally speaking - it negates penalties for being in combat, but does not grant you cover or concealment. I'll clarify that, however.
Obscuring Mist is a 1st level spell, and is on every caster's spell list (including Assassin's), it is not hard to emulate it with a Ninja-style smoke bomb or a single bluff check. And the way it was worded, you could've sniped him to death from a cover - you were removing a penalty of -20...

AstralFire
2009-08-08, 07:07 PM
Obscuring Mist is a 1st level spell, and is on every caster's spell list (including Assassin's), it is not hard to emulate it with a Ninja-style smoke bomb or a single bluff check. And the way it was worded, you could've sniped him to death from a cover - you were removing a penalty of -20...

Sniping to death from cover is not really that effective past about level 5, but in any case, it wasn't what was intended and has been removed. Thank you for the catch, though.

Athaniar
2009-08-09, 09:27 AM
Cool. I'd never even heard of that before.
I hadn't either until pretty recently. The concept is very intriguing.

Cieyrin
2009-08-09, 09:56 AM
Better than Esperanto reminds me of Wanderer's Diplomacy (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Wanderer~s_Diplomacy,PH2), specifically the Intuitive Communication, though it uses Sense Motive instead of Perform and you can actually communicate with it, rather than just puzzle out what the spear toting natives are screaming at you about (though the spear probably gives a good indication of what they're upset about :smallbiggrin:)

Your version of Daylight Adaptation is certainly more flexible than the published version (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Daylight_Adaptation,FRCS), given that's 1st level only and you still suffer some effects w/ that one. Also, what exactly is Chiroptor? I have not even the faintest clue ~_~

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

AstralFire
2009-08-09, 10:00 AM
My versions of both feats actually predate the published ones, as I recall, though I was amused when I first saw the PHB2. :smallbiggrin: I think it's justified because Perform tends to be less useful. Their Daylight Adaptation is actually identical to mine in function, other than the 1st Level restriction; they're just spelling out that you can't go 'omfg superawesome I r immune to being blinded by sunburst.'

Chiropters are a custom race in my Tareea (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6662169&postcount=7)setting. These are the handful of feats from my old feat file that don't need significant revision/flatout suck beyond all belief. The game predated Tome of Battle and thus has a lot of 'maneuver-like' feats with insane feat chain requirements.