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Nifft
2017-11-17, 10:51 PM
I wanted these to exist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22557076&postcount=6), and now they do.


Conspiracy Feats


You may never have more than one [Conspiracy] feat.

Each [Conspiracy] feat grants some general benefits:


You can verbally probe a creature to determine if it has the same [Conspiracy] feat that you do. This takes one minute of seemingly ordinary conversation. If the target has a compatible [Conspiracy] feat, both of you immediately learn this fact.

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One you know that a creature has a compatible [Conspiracy] feat, you both gain a +10 bonus to Bluff checks to deliver secret messages to each other. In general, a [Conspiracy] feat is only compatible with itself, and two creatures with the same [Conspiracy] feat are considered to be in the same conspiracy; but see below for an exception.



General Setting NPCs & Monsters

Ancestor Death Cult [Conspiracy, Incarnum]
Prereq: NPC, Con 13, Knowledge: religion 4 ranks

Benefit: You can invest or divest essentia in this feat as if it were a soulmeld. You receive a deflection bonus to Armor Class equal to twice the invested essentia. Choose one [Evil] soulmeld; you can shape this soulmeld as if you had the Shape Soulmeld feat. You gain 1 point of essentia.

Special: You can use the BoVD sacrifice rules to gain more essentia for yourself and your co-conspirators, with an initial Kn:Religion DC of 15 to grant each celebrant (including you) 1 additional point of essentia and can immediately shape one additional [Evil] soulmeld for 24 hours. For every 2 points above DC 15, one celebrant (possibly you) gains an additional point of essentia for 24 hours.


Diabolical Cult [Conspiracy, Devil-Touched]
Prereq: NPC

Benefit: You are a blight upon your foes, bringing misfortune wherever you rest your malevolant gaze. You gain the following spell-like abilities, with a caster level equal to half your HD, and a DC equal to (10 + HD/2 + Cha): at-will unluck (SpC), but any previous effect ends if you cast it again; 3/day alter fortune (PHB2).

Special: This feat is Devil-Touched, which may help meet prereqs for, or improve the effects of, other Devil-Touched feats. This feat counts as Evil Brand for the purpose of meeting prerequisites.



Eberron NPCs & Monsters

Cult of the Dragon Below [Conspiracy, Aberrant]
Prereq: NPC, Humanoid type

Benefit: You are functionally insane. This renders you immune to both confusion and fear effects, and you cannot be Intimidated. If you succeed on a saving throw against a [Mind-Affecting] effect, everyone within one mile who has a compatible [Conspiracy] feat immediately knows that you did so, and where it happened. Additionally, you are a gateway through which the horrors of the Daelkyr can emerge: you can cast summon monster N as a spell-like ability where N is (your HD/2)-2, up to a maximum of 9, to summon one creature, and apply the Pseudonatural template to the creature summoned. The creature tears itself through your corrupted flesh, dealing half your maximum hp in irresistable damage and rendering you Stunned for 2 rounds. Once the summoning duration ends (through the death of your summoned monster or any other means), you must wait one minute before using this ability again.

Special: This feat counts as Aberration Blood for the purpose of choosing [Aberrant] feats.


Inspired Faith [Conspiracy, Host]
Prereq: NPC

Benefit: The tendrils of Dal Quor touch the deepest reaches of your mind. When you interact with a creature that has a compatible [Conspiracy] feat, you establish a 24 hour mindlink effect which allows you to communicate with each other at any distance, so long as you are both on the same plane.

Special: If you have any psi-like abilities from another [Host] feat, you can use both abilities (instead of one or the other), and you can use them at-will.



Suitable for PCs

Conspiracy Theorist [Conspiracy]
Prereq: Over 40 ranks total in Knowledge skills

Benefit: Whenever a creature with a [Conspiracy] feat attempts to probe your membership, you appear to be a member of the creature's own conspiracy, and from that point forward this feat counts as compatible with that creature's [Conspiracy] feat. Additionally, you gain a +1 bonus to all Knowledge skill checks.

Special: Unfortunately the idiocyncracies and cyphers you integrate into your speech are nonsensical to normal people, and you suffer a -4 penalty to any Charisma-based skill check against creatures who do not have a [Conspiracy] feat.

Avigor
2017-11-18, 12:33 PM
Evil needs one for Vecna, and Good needs one for the Harpers.

aimlessPolymath
2017-11-18, 02:47 PM
Some of these are wildly out of balance with the others- I'm specifically referring to the Devil-Touched one here. NPC only helps a little, but there's no reason not to tune it down a bit.

Also, the Dragon one seems odd- it seems as though insanity should be a prereq for the feat, rather than the feat making you insane? The causation seems off.

I am a huge fan of the Conspiracy descriptor, though.

Avigor
2017-11-18, 04:23 PM
Some of these are wildly out of balance with the others- I'm specifically referring to the Devil-Touched one here. NPC only helps a little, but there's no reason not to tune it down a bit.

Also, the Dragon one seems odd- it seems as though insanity should be a prereq for the feat, rather than the feat making you insane? The causation seems off.

I am a huge fan of the Conspiracy descriptor, though.

Remember, Willing Deformity (Madness) only requires Willing Deformity, the Madness Domain only requires you be willing to become a cleric of an insane deity, and the Alienist PrC doesn't have any special "insane" requirements, but all of them make you insane, so that's really not off.

But yeah, a balance review would be worth it.

Nifft
2017-11-18, 05:15 PM
From a balance perspective... yeah, they're not balanced. I should probably remove bestow curse and scale up the other feats. EDIT: edited top post for balance.

I could probably make them balanced, but my primary concern with the NPC-only feats is that each one presents an interesting encounter edge.

The Inspired Faith [Conspiracy], for example, gives an ability that's emblematic of the Quori problem -- a secret network of inter-connected secret-police type agents. The difficulty of facing a creature with the Inspired Faith feat isn't that one creature, it's the all his secret cohorts know about you after you roll for initiative.

That sort of thing is obviously worthless in the hands of a PC, so I just rule that out.


What I care about mostly from a balance perspective is that the Conspiracy Theorist feat provides sufficient benefits. That is the one puzzle piece which is emphatically intended to fall into the hands of a PC, possibly quite early. It's about this paranoid guy who thinks everybody is suspicious and then sometimes he's right, because you're in D&D world and aliens really are invading, and the devil really is trying to get your soul, and so on.


Regarding Vecna -- it's a good idea, but I'm not sure how a [Conspiracy] feat could fit in. There's already the Vecna-Blooded template, and there's already those Nothic(sp?) things, so my impression is that Vecna's chosen are basically ignorant of each other -- hmm, but maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way. Maybe the Vecna-Blooded template prevents magical discovery specifically because there's a [Conspiracy] feat which allows Vecna-Blooded to recognize each other and communicate to further the goals of their secretive master.


Regarding The Dragon Below, according to setting lore those guys were already crazy (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebee/20050704a). So maybe it's a pre-req, maybe it's the effect of the feat, and I'm not sure the game rules really distinguish between those two things. I mean, are you a more persuasive elf because you took the Persuasive feat, or does the feat merely represent a thing that was always inherently true about you? Is there any difference? Not from the outside, so ... yeah. Cause and effect are poorly specified in the character-building mini-game.

Also everything Avigor says is true.

rferries
2017-11-20, 12:03 PM
I won't comment on the balance of these, but I will say it's an awesome idea to have setting-specific feats allowing a character (NPC or otherwise) to join the various evil cults etc. These could be extrapolated to Zhentarim, Red Wizards, Dragonarmies, etc...

Nifft
2017-11-20, 12:56 PM
I won't comment on the balance of these, but I will say it's an awesome idea to have setting-specific feats allowing a character (NPC or otherwise) to join the various evil cults etc. These could be extrapolated to Zhentarim, Red Wizards, Dragonarmies, etc...

Please do comment on balance!