Don't Fear the Reaper[Grim Reaper feats, 3.5, PEACH]

Background- Just came to me after making the Vampire Wanna-Be PrC.:smallbiggrin:

Background

Death is all around us. It exists everywhere we look. So, it's no surprise that some gain power from it, drawing strength from their nearness to death. These people are Reapers, living soldiers of the power that death holds. These people enforce the rules of death, and also use their powers to bring those who oppose them even closer to death than they are.

Death's Chosen[Reaper]
Benefit: You gain an aura of terror, having realized and embodied with the power that Death holds. This makes you more imposing, granting a +2 to Intimidate checks. In addition, you gain a bonus to saves against fear effects equal to 1 + 1/2 the Reaper feats you have. Also, you gain the power to summon the garb of a Reaper as a free action. This can either summon a black cloak that obscures your features, or simply makes your present attire reaper-themed, making it shades of black and grey, and making some minor adjustments to make it seem more gothic. The change into the garb does not grant a Disguise bonus of any kind, as anyone who knows you can easily recognize you despite the wardrobe change.
Special: You must swear the Reaper's Oath, which involves:

• Easing the dying gently towards death
• Bringing severe transgressors of the nature of life and death before her to be judged (guess how). Besides undead, this includes those who have been resurrected and those who have killed others for other reasons than duty or self-preservation.
• Slay all sentient undead you come across. These beings seek to defy the power death holds, and must be punished.
• Slay all mindless undead. These are animated by forces that attempt to defy death.
• Seeking opportunities to carry out the duties of their oath. This must be done at least 3 times a year.
• Carry out this work wisely. Reapers are not required to do their duties if a transgressor or undead has more HD than they do.

Grim Reaper[Reaper]
Prerequisite: Death's Chosen, 6th level
Benefit: Your aura of fearlessness puts off others. You gain an aura that acts as Frightful Presence, except that creatures of up to 4 + 1/2 the number of Reaper feats you have become panicked if they fail their save.

Reaper's Scythe[Reaper]
Prerequisite: Death's Chosen
Benefit: The reaper gains the ability to summon a scythe made of death's power as a move action, and is treated as proficient with this scythe. This scythe deals damage equal to 1d6 + 1/2 the number of Reaper feats you have. Against transgressors and undead, it deals damage equal to 1d6 + the number of Reaper feats you have, and has a critical range of 18-20. You can make critical hits on undead using the scythe granted by this feat. The scythe stays until dismissed or taken out of your hands for more than 1 round.

Death's Edge[Reaper]
Prerequisites: Death's Chosen, Reaper's Scythe, 6th level
Benefit: You gain a bonus to attack rolls with the scythe equal to 1/2 the number of Reaper feats you have. Also, your normal critical range for the scythe becomes 19-20. Additionally, for a number of rounds per day equal to the number of Reaper feats you have, you may increase the scythe's critical range against transgressors and undead by 1 per Reaper feat.

Death's Proxy[Reaper]
Prerequisite: Death's Chosen, 6th level
Benefit: The Reaper may now animate a Death's Proxy. This acts as Animate Dead, except that it has no material components, and all animated with this effect have the Deathless type instead of the Undead type. You may control a total of (your HD + number of Reaper feats) HD of undead, and cannot animate a Death's Proxy that has more HD than you have Reaper feats. This may be done 1/day.

Destroy the Defiled[Reaper]
Prerequisite: Death's Chosen, 3rd level
Benefit: You gain an attack that is most powerful against those you oppose. You gain the ability to fire a ball filled with Death's power at an enemy within 5 ft + 5 ft/ Reaper feat you have. This ball deals 1d8 damage per Reaper feat against transgressors and undead. Against all other enemies, this attack deals 3/4 damage. You may fire off 1 ball/Reaper feats you have per day.

Death's Protection[Reaper]
Prerequisite: Death's Chosen
Benefit: When wearing the garb of the Reaper and wearing no other armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC for every Reaper feat you possess. When wearing armor and wearing the garb of the Reaper, you gain a +1 bonus to AC equal to 1/2 the number of Reaper feats you have.

Death's Dirge[Reaper]
Prerequisites: Death's Chosen, Bardic Music
Benefit: You may sacrifice a use of Bardic Music in order to make use of one Reaper feat for free, or to treat the use of a Reaper feat as though you possessed one more feat than you already do for a number of rounds equal to 1 + the number of Reaper feats you have.

Deny the Defiled[Reaper]
Prerequisites: Death's Chosen, Destroy the Defiled, 6th level
Benefit: You gain the effect of a Magic Circle effect that works against transgressors and undead. This may be used 1 per day per two Reaper feats you have, and you treat your caster level as equal to the number of Reaper feats you have.

Discipline the Defiled[Reaper]
Prerequisites: Death's Chosen, Destroy the Defiled, Deny the Defiled, 9th level
Benefit: You gain the ability to use Turn Undead as a good cleric once per day per two Reaper feats you have. This works as normal Turn Undead, except that it also works on transgressors and your effective cleric level is equal to 1/2 your HD + the number of Reaper feats you have.

Death's Delegate[Reaper]
Prerequisites: Death's Chosen, three other Reaper feats, 12th level
Benefit: You become a living embodiment of Death's will in the world. Firstly, you can treat all creatures as undead or transgressors for the purpose of your reaper feats. Secondly, you can summon an avatar of Death 1 per day per three Reaper feats you possess. This avatar has the same stats as a vampire fighter of your race with fighter levels equal to the number of Reaper feats you have - 1, except that it's alignment is the same as yours, and it has the Deathless type. Lastly, Death grants you a reprieve from your natural death so that you can continue its work in the world, granting you the Deathless type.

Please Comment and PEACH!

Aw... Not feats for if you're a member of "[t]he immortal race of sentient starships, allegedly waiting in dark space"?

That saddens me...

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Originally Posted by The-Mage-King

Aw... Not feats for if you're a member of "[t]he immortal race of sentient starships, allegedly waiting in dark space"?

That saddens me...

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My apologies. :smallbiggrin:

I'll be honest. That was what I came here looking for too. But in lieu of that, these are pretty cool. Who doesn't want to be Death? Especially if we're talking the Discworld's Death.

They look pretty well-balanced. I can't see anything wrong. Nice work!

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Originally Posted by Insanealien

I'll be honest. That was what I came here looking for too.

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Yeah, going to need to change part of the title to clarify Grim Reaper.

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But in lieu of that, these are pretty cool. Who doesn't want to be Death? Especially if we're talking the Discworld's Death.

They look pretty well-balanced. I can't see anything wrong. Nice work!

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Thanks!

These abilities and the theme that they embody seem to be better suited to a class that feats.

Well, for the most part it seems good, but I find myself having some trouble with the Reaper's Oath.

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Bringing severe transgressors of the nature of life and death (a.k.a. repeated murderers) before her to be judged (guess how)

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So, this would apply to pretty much anything hostile you run across. I mean, even if it's called differently, anything that kills something else would be a murderer. So most soldiers who see regular combat, most monsters (exceptions may be made for things just trying to eat, but still), bandits that will kill people (criminals that only commit theft may be among the few people who wouldn't fit in here you might fight, along with those who haven't done so enough yet to be considered doing it regularly). Even you would fall under this as you're going around killing the people who do this (mind you may get off for working for death, but still). This seems like it could use some more defining since it seems somewhat important.

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Slay all sentient undead you come across. These beings seek to defy the power death holds, and must be punished.

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First, this should have some qualifier along the lines of if it is within your ability to do so. Seems like it would be rather bad if you had to attack some powerful undead at level 2 or 3 that you had no chance against because of this, rather then gaining power first so you might actually be effective.
Second, what about those who are undead due to reasons beyond their control? They aren't trying to defy death, they simply can't help it.
Third, depending on ones take this doesn't make sense, as having died they would already be in death's power, and thus unable to go against its will. The ones who really should be targeted are those who use methods to prevent death to begin with thus unnaturally extending their lifespan.

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Slay all mindless undead. These are animated by forces that attempt to defy death.

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Again this should have some qualifier as above. However, depending on ones take, mindless undead don't really defy death. They can be seen as little different from mindless constructs with but a different choice in building material.

I'll grant though that on the inclusion of undead as transgressors, that is more a personal choice and may vary with setting. Keep up the good work tough.

Owrtho

For Destroy the Defiled is it supposed to be 1 ball per reaper feat per day?
or do you have to keep taking reaper feats?:smallamused:

This is cool, simply cool.

A definite Reaper feat would be the ability to kill people dead. And let me explain; it means to kill people so the next person with more money than they care to count goes and resurrects them. Maybe like Gentle Repose or something. Seriously, DMs rezzing their villains and players rezzing each other gets seriously annoying sometimes.

Another feat could be the ability to sacrifice some HP to deal damage to your enemy. Say loose 1D4 hp and your next attack deals an extra 1D6 or something.

Also, may I clarify something; a Death god would not like Undead since they intrude into his domain, so maybe you could have a feat that deals more damage to them? I imagine you would be upset too if someone got into your house and started raiding whatever collections you have... Imagine a god reacting to that. Youchies...

I'll point out they already do extra damage to undead with the scythe, though you bring up a good point about resurrected people. I personally find the resurrected to be much more defying of death than the undead.

Personally though, I see undead as beings that, while staving off some of the effects of death, are, due to being within its domain, completely subjected to deaths will. Thus if death told an undead to do something it would have to do it and would get no save against it. Creating undead (at least sentient ones), seems like it would actually require deaths consent to an extent.

Owrtho

I have to second the idea that the oath needs a little more work (especially a better definition of transgressors), and I do have one complaint: For all this talk about an aura of fearlessness all it does is make you more intimidating. Maybe throw in an additional bonus to saves versus fear for the first feat?

Can you enchant the scythe you get from Reaper's Scythe?
What kind of action does it take to summon it and for how long does it stay? How do you dismiss it? What happens if it is lost or destroyed?

Ressurection is a... problem in DnD. There is the fact that it's usefull for not scrapping your character because of a failed save or bad roll (all the more terrifying in higher levels with what a Tier 2 class and above can do), but at the same time it's become... trivial. Heck, you can make your character live longer by killing yourself and having a minion/ally True Rezz you somewhere else. Who hasn't thought of that little twist? That's why I said about killing people dead. Killing the Big Bad Dude Of Destruction just doesn't really seem all that world-shaking any more - the DM can just rezz him.

You have niticed that loads of these feats grant bonuses to critical undead but none of them actually grant you the ABILITY to actually score criticals on! undead?

Hmm. Generally seems good, except for one thing:

If you're going to get one of these, you probably want to get all of them, as their power is dependent on how many you have. And given that they don't deal with what class the character is, the Reaper part of the character is hogging all of the Feats from the normal class. Some players may think of themselves more as a Reaper than a ____.

Why not adapt these into a Standard or Prestige Class? Most of these would make fine Class Abilities.

Yeah, looked it over. Going to add provisions to the oath that clarify transgressors, and also expand that definition to include resurrected. Didn't think of those. Also should include a provision that going after such a being is not mandatory if the target's HD exceeds theirs.

As for why this is a gigantic feat chain instead of a prestige class or standard class, let me explain my reasons:

1. I don't think it's really small enough for a 5-level prestige class, nor a 10-level one. May make a small PrC to enhance these feats, but I really don't know
2. It's not big enough for a standard class. Stretching them out, I might be able to make a 11-12 level class. Which, while better suited to be a PrC, I prefer my Prestige Classes in 10 or 5-level forms
3. As for the comment that characters may think of themselves as Reapers a bit more than a member of their other class levels, well, they should. In my campaign, this feat chain is what is called a Demi-Class. If anyone wants, I'd be glad to add the rules for a Demi-Class onto this thread.

Honestly, the idea of "feats that get better the more of them you take" was made by WotC. For example, Aberrant Feats, Abyssal Heritor Feats, etc. That whole idea of becoming more of an "x" and less of an "insert class here" makes perfect sense, and makes for an interesting new way to build characters.

On to the constrictive criticism:

1. Change "aura of fearlessness" to "aura of fear/terror/inevitability". Basically, make it less of a protective sounding thing and more of "my presence causes people to see their life flash before their eyes".

2. Clarify that you can crit against undead. It's implied, but implication is a tricky business, and some people may miss it.

3. As far as I can tell, you aren't necessarily proficient with your Reaper's Scythe. Why not?

4. Destroy the Defiled has no increment for reuse, such as /day, /minute, /encounter, etc. Why?

That's all I have for now. Please make more of these. The flavor is wonderful.

Slay MINDLESS undead? That's strange. Mindless undead aren't really defying death, the actual soul is dead. You'd think intelligent undead are a lot more guilty of defying the laws of death. I mean, a lich isn't exactly going peacefully to his grave at his natural time.

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Originally Posted by Keinnicht

Slay MINDLESS undead? That's strange. Mindless undead aren't really defying death, the actual soul is dead. You'd think intelligent undead are a lot more guilty of defying the laws of death. I mean, a lich isn't exactly going peacefully to his grave at his natural time.

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It comes back to the idea that the only undead that should exist either have a worthy cause or were created as servants of Death itself. Thus why you can use undead.

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Originally Posted by DaragosKitsune

Honestly, the idea of "feats that get better the more of them you take" was made by WotC. For example, Aberrant Feats, Abyssal Heritor Feats, etc. That whole idea of becoming more of an "x" and less of an "insert class here" makes perfect sense, and makes for an interesting new way to build characters.

On to the constrictive criticism:

1. Change "aura of fearlessness" to "aura of fear/terror/inevitability". Basically, make it less of a protective sounding thing and more of "my presence causes people to see their life flash before their eyes".

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Good idea. I like Aura of Terror. Or Death Corona. I'm debating which one sounds better.

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2. Clarify that you can crit against undead. It's implied, but implication is a tricky business, and some people may miss it.

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True, I do need to do that.

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3. As far as I can tell, you aren't necessarily proficient with your Reaper's Scythe. Why not?

4. Destroy the Defiled has no increment for reuse, such as /day, /minute, /encounter, etc. Why?

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Yeah, need to add those in.

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That's all I have for now. Please make more of these. The flavor is wonderful.

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Thanks. I'm turning around a few more ideas for feats in my head, and always feel free to suggest ideas for more feats.

Maybe a speak with dead ability, or something that lets you communicate with whatever death god you serve.

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Originally Posted by DaragosKitsune

Maybe a speak with dead ability, or something that lets you communicate with whatever death god you serve.

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Good idea, although Reapers serve Death itself, not death gods, although you can change this for your campaign if you wish. Perhaps a feat that grants you a Speak With Dead ability once per day per two Reaper feats, and able to cast Commune to speak with Death 1/month?

Do you already have one that gives you Detect Undead? Having that as an at-will would make sense...

Deathwatch would also make sense..

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Originally Posted by Welknair

Do you already have one that gives you Detect Undead? Having that as an at-will would make sense...

Deathwatch would also make sense..

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That's actually part of the Demi-Class version of this.

Typo in Grim Reaper: "except that creatures of up to 4 + 1/2" should have HD in there somewhere. "except creatures with HD up to 4 + 1/2" or something.

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Originally Posted by Pyromancer999

Reaper's Scythe[Reaper]
Prerequisite: Death's Chosen
Benefit: The reaper gains the ability to summon a scythe made of death's power as a move action, and is treated as proficient with this scythe. This scythe deals damage equal to 1d6 + 1/2 the number of Reaper feats you have. Against transgressors and undead, it deals damage equal to 1d6 + the number of Reaper feats you have, and has a critical range of 18-20. You can make critical hits on undead using the scythe granted by this feat. The scythe stays until dismissed or taken out of your hands for more than 1 round.

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Death's Edge[Reaper]
Prerequisites: Death's Chosen, Reaper's Scythe, 6th level
Benefit: You gain a bonus to attack rolls with the scythe equal to 1/2 the number of Reaper feats you have. Also, your normal critical range for the scythe becomes 19-20. Additionally, for a number of rounds per day equal to the number of Reaper feats you have, you may treat the scythe's critical range for transgressors and undead as (20 - the number of Reaper feats you have)- 20.

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Okay, I got confused with these two. It wasn't immediately clear to me that the 18-20 crit range was only for undead/transgressors, and Death's Edge making the range 19-20 on non-transgressors. Also, for the expanding crit range text, maybe this would be a simpler way to say it: "Additionally, for a number of rounds per day equal to the number of Reaper feats you have, you may increase the scythe's critical range against transgressors and undead by 1 per Reaper feat."


This whole concept is...very interesting...I know stacking feat chains have existed before, like the Fey Heritage things, but this actually DOES something. You can build a character around this, instead of it just being a cute (and expensive) sideshow. I love it!

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Originally Posted by blackmage

Typo in Grim Reaper: "except that creatures of up to 4 + 1/2" should have HD in there somewhere. "except creatures with HD up to 4 + 1/2" or something.

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To me, the wording you're suggesting is a bit confusing, although I think you may be onto something.

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Okay, I got confused with these two. It wasn't immediately clear to me that the 18-20 crit range was only for undead/transgressors, and Death's Edge making the range 19-20 on non-transgressors. Also, for the expanding crit range text, maybe this would be a simpler way to say it: "Additionally, for a number of rounds per day equal to the number of Reaper feats you have, you may increase the scythe's critical range against transgressors and undead by 1 per Reaper feat."

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Not sure if I can help you with the Reaper's Scythe, but you're correct on Death Edge, and that part has been changed.

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This whole concept is...very interesting...I know stacking feat chains have existed before, like the Fey Heritage things, but this actually DOES something. You can build a character around this, instead of it just being a cute (and expensive) sideshow. I love it!

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Thanks!