A Few Feats

[The Demented One]

Cruel Critical [Fighter]
You strike deeply with your favored weapon.
Requirements: Fighter level 6th, Weapon Specialization, Improved Critical
Benefit: Choose a weapon you have taken both the Weapon Specialization and Improved Critical feats for. When you make a critical hit with that weapon, its critical modifier is treated as being one higher.

Special
You can gain Cruel Critical multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of weapon.

A fighter may select Cruel Critical as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Weapon Master [Fighter]
You wield your favored weapon to rend the flesh and hew the bones of your foes.
Requirements: Fighter level 16th, Greater Weapon Specialization
Benefit: Choose a weapon you have the Greater Weapon Specialization with. When you wield it, its damage dice size is increased by one step.

Special
You can gain Weapon Master multiple times. Its effects do stack. Each time you take the feat, you may either apply it to a weapon you have previously chosen or a wholly new weapon,

A fighter may select Weapon Master one of his fighter bonus feats.

Sunder Armor [Fighter, General]
You can rip a foes’ armor off of him with a stroke of your blade.
Requirements: Improved Sunder
Benefit: You may attempt to sunder armor worn by an opponent.

Special
A fighter may select Sunder Armor one of his fighter bonus feats.

Bardic Toughness
Your music bolsters your body.
Requirements: Toughness
Benefit: Whenever you begin a bardic music effect, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your bard level. These hit points last until 5 rounds after you stop playing.

Mage of Many Forms
You retain your spellcasting power while polymorphed.
Requirements: Able to cast a spell of the polymorph subschool, Spellcraft 10 ranks
Benefit: You retain the ability to cast cantrips while polymorphed. However, whenever you cast a spell while polymorphed, you must make a Spellcraft check with a DC of 20 + the spell’s level or have the spell fail.

Special:
You may select this feat multiple times. Each time, you gain the ability to cast spells of the next level. For example, the second time this feat is taken, it grants the ability to cast 1st level spells.

Normal:
You may not cast spells when polymorphed.

Facilitating Follower
You are the power behind your leader’s throne.
Requirements: Must be a cohort
Benefit: Whenever you use the Aid Another action to aid your leader, on a attack or skill roll, the bonus you grant is increased by two.

Barbaric Bard
The frenzied rhythms of your bardic music inspires savagery in your allies.
Requirements: Inspire Courage, Perform 4 ranks, Intimidate 2 ranks.
Benefit: The morale bonus provided by your Inspire Courage or Inspire Greatness class feature to damage rolls is doubled for allies in a rage. In addition, if you have the rage class feature, you may expend two uses of your bardic class feature in place of a single use of that ability in order to enter into a rage.

Divine Bard
The divinely inspired melodies of your music inspire faith in your allies.
Requirements: Inspire Competence, Perform 6 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 4 ranks.
Benefit: The competence bonus provided by your Inspire Competence class applies to turning checks made by your allies, in addition to skill checks. In addition, if you have the turn or rebuke undead class feature, you may expend two uses of your bardic class feature in place of a single use of that ability to turn or rebuke undead.

Arcane Demolitionist
You use your spells to wreck the architecture around you, spraying foes with shrapnel.
Requirements: Able to cast spells, Spellcraft 8 ranks, Knowledge (Architecture) 6 ranks
Benefits: Whenever you cast a spell with an area of effect that deals damage while in a building, you may attempt a DC 25 Knowledge (Architecture) check. If you succeed, the spell does one extra point of damage per dice of damage as shrapnel sprays your foes. For every 10 points you exceed the check by, one extra point of damage per dice is dealt.

Brew Exclusive Potion
You can brew potions that store personal spells.
Requirements: Brew Potion, Spellcraft 8 ranks
Benefit: You may brew potions of spells with a range of Personal. Such potions cost 1.5 times more to make.

Bloodfueled Artifice
You use your own life force to power magic items.
Requirements: Toughness
Benefit: You may take one point of Con damage instead of expending a charge from a wand or a staff when you use it.

[The_Blue_Sorceress]

Cruel Critical [Fighter]
You strike deeply with your favored weapon.
Requirements: Fighter level 6th, Weapon Specialization, Improved Critical
Benefit: Choose a weapon you have taken both the Weapon Specialization and Improved Critical feats for. When you make a critical hit with that weapon, its critical modifier is treated as being one higher.

Special
You can gain Cruel Critical multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of weapon.

A fighter may select Cruel Critical as one of his fighter bonus feats.

By critical modifier, do you mean multiplier or range? With this feat would my character be doing damage along the lines of 1d8 16-20/x2 with her longsword, or would she be doing 1d8 17-20/x3?

Weapon Master [Fighter]
You wield your favored weapon to rend the flesh and hew the bones of your foes.
Requirements: Fighter level 16th, Greater Weapon Specialization
Benefit: Choose a weapon you have the Greater Weapon Specialization with. When you wield it, its damage dice size is increased by one step.

Special
You can gain Weapon Master multiple times. Its effects do stack. Each time you take the feat, you may either apply it to a weapon you have previously chosen or a wholly new weapon,

A fighter may select Weapon Master one of his fighter bonus feats.

I think stacking this feat is too powerful. Say my greataxe-weilding goliath fighter takes this feat. He already uses a Large greataxe (because of powerful build), and his base damage is 3d6. Then he hits 16th level and takes this feat. Now he does 4d6 damage. But wait, he gets two MORE feats at 18th level, and he takes this feat two more times. Now he deals 8d6 base damage. That smells a little broken to me, particularly if combined with Improved Critical and then your Cruel Critical feat.

Barbaric Bard
The frenzied rhythms of your bardic music inspires savagery in your allies.
Requirements: Inspire Courage, Perform 4 ranks, Intimidate 2 ranks.
Benefit: The morale bonus provided by your Inspire Courage or Inspire Greatness class feature to damage rolls is doubled for allies in a rage. In addition, if you have the rage class feature, you may expend two uses of your bardic class feature in place of a single use of that ability in order to enter into a rage.

Interesting idea. Works very well with you Bardic Toughness feat to create the perfect bardarian. I don't know if I like the ability to switch out uses of bardic music for uses of rage.

Arcane Demolitionist
You use your spells to wreck the architecture around you, spraying foes with shrapnel.
Requirements: Able to cast spells, Spellcraft 8 ranks, Knowledge (Architecture) 6 ranks
Benefits: Whenever you cast a spell with an area of effect that deals damage while in a building, you may attempt a DC 25 Knowledge (Architecture) check. If you succeed, the spell does one extra point of damage per dice of damage as shrapnel sprays your foes. For every 10 points you exceed the check by, one extra point of damage per dice is dealt.

I like the concept behind this. It's an interesting idea.


Bloodfueled Artifice
You use your own life force to power magic items.
Requirements: Toughness
Benefit: You may take one point of Con damage instead of expending a charge from a wand or a staff when you use it.[/quote]


Very nice idea. It's got some serious flavor.

Interesting feats over all, I'm curious to see what else you might come up with.

-Blue

[Toric]

I think stacking this feat is too powerful. Say my greataxe-weilding goliath fighter takes this feat. He already uses a Large greataxe (because of powerful build), and his base damage is 3d6. Then he hits 16th level and takes this feat. Now he does 4d6 damage. But wait, he gets two MORE feats at 18th level, and he takes this feat two more times. Now he deals 8d6 base damage. That smells a little broken to me, particularly if combined with Improved Critical and then your Cruel Critical feat.

Weapon Master [Fighter]
You wield your favored weapon to rend the flesh and hew the bones of your foes.
Requirements: Fighter level 16th, Greater Weapon Specialization
Benefit: Choose a weapon you have the Greater Weapon Specialization with. When you wield it, its damage dice size is increased by one step.

It says damage dice size, which I believe is a step up from d8 to d10, d12, etc. Still, what happens when you get past d12?

[Last_resort_33]

Logically the next one up is d20...

ROCK N ROLL!!!

seriously, it is broken, I would make it so that it cannot be taken multiple times, also it cannot be taken on a weapon that already does d12 damage, and specifically mention that this does not apply to - for example fire damage that a flaming weapon might do.

this would be best taken on a weapon like greatsword I think which would make it 2d8... sweet

[Malachite]

Arcane Demolitionist rocks. It reminds me of the time in another RPG one of my players used telekinesis to turn a bowl of peanuts in a bar into an impromptu frag grenade.

Good times, good times...

[Leon]

It says damage dice size, which I believe is a step up from d8 to d10, d12, etc. Still, what happens when you get past d12?

it stops at d12, monks used to have d20 damage but it is now 2d10s

after d12 it becomes multiples of the various d's, mostly 6's, 8's and 10's

[Orion-the-G]

You use the size increase chart in the PHB (unless the feat follows its own rules which really wouldn't make sense)

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/...htm#weaponSize

1d8 becomes 2d6 which becomes 3d6 etc. etc.

definitely overpowered however. For a longsword it's a gain of +2.5 average damage the first time you take it, +3.5 the second time, +3.5 the third and +7 the 4th.

For a greatsword it's a gain of +3.5/+3.5/+7/+7

It's insanely strong if it's allowed to stack, and even if you don't stack it it's stronger than any other damage adder feat. Improved Weapon Specialization gives only a +2 and it's got greater requirements. So a definitive no.

[squishycube]

Mage of Many Forms
You retain your spellcasting power while polymorphed.
Requirements: Able to cast a spell of the polymorph subschool, Spellcraft 10 ranks
Benefit: You retain the ability to cast cantrips while polymorphed. However, whenever you cast a spell while polymorphed, you must make a Spellcraft check with a DC of 20 + the spell’s level or have the spell fail.

Special:
You may select this feat multiple times. Each time, you gain the ability to cast spells of the next level. For example, the second time this feat is taken, it grants the ability to cast 1st level spells.

Normal:
You may not cast spells when polymorphed.

Maybe you/your DM uses a houserule but:

d20srd If the new form is capable of speech, you can communicate normally. You retain any spellcasting ability you had in your original form, but the new form must be able to speak intelligibly (that is, speak a language) to use verbal components and must have limbs capable of fine manipulation to use somatic or material components.

Maybe you meant to create a feat like Natural Spell, the druid feat which allows you to make verbal components in Animal form, but in that case the feat is terribly underpowered.

Otherwise, good feats, great flavour. Not too sure on the balance of some of them, allowing new actions in combat can be difficult to judge. (Sundering armor for example)

[Dragonmuncher]

Actually, I believe the new polymorph rules say you don't retain your spellcasting. It's in the excerpts of the PHB2 on the Wizards site.

And as for Weapon Master, it seems like it would be unbalanced... but remember, you could only take it like three times before hitting epic. So, not too bad. Although I'd probably say, don't let it stack anyway.

[Democratus]

Sundering armor is very, very bad. If the PCs can do it, then so can monsters and NPCs. Your players will hate you if you destroy their hard-won magic platemail. Heck...even sunder weapon should be used sparingly.

Also. What's the armor class of armor?

[Orion-the-G]

And as for Weapon Master, it seems like it would be unbalanced... but remember, you could only take it like three times before hitting epic. So, not too bad. Although I'd probably say, don't let it stack anyway.

That's still an average of +14 to damage from 3 feats. Compare it to Weapon Specialization and Improved Weapon Specialization (and their epic versions). Those are the only feats that exist which improve weapon damage with no penalty in exchange. Why would anyone ever take weapon specialization when these feats exist? Or epic specialization?


And I agree, no sundering armor. If nothing else no stats currently exist for Hardness/HP for armor, and that's for a reason. At best I would say there could be a feat that allows you to 'disable' armor: cutting straps, pulling off plates, etc. Causing opponents increased armor check penalties or decreasing the armor bonus of the armor.

[The Demented One]

By critical modifier, do you mean multiplier or range? With this feat would my character be doing damage along the lines of 1d8 16-20/x2 with her longsword, or would she be doing 1d8 17-20/x3?

Crit multiplier, so the latter.

I think stacking this feat is too powerful. Say my greataxe-weilding goliath fighter takes this feat. He already uses a Large greataxe (because of powerful build), and his base damage is 3d6. Then he hits 16th level and takes this feat. Now he does 4d6 damage. But wait, he gets two MORE feats at 18th level, and he takes this feat two more times. Now he deals 8d6 base damage. That smells a little broken to me, particularly if combined with Improved Critical and then your Cruel Critical feat.

At 18th level, he'll be competing with casters with 9th level spells, rogues with +9d6 sneak attack, and warlocks slinging around 8d6 eldritch blasts with blast shape and essence invocations. Any of those much more powerful than 8d6 weapon damage?

d20srd If the new form is capable of speech, you can communicate normally. You retain any spellcasting ability you had in your original form, but the new form must be able to speak intelligibly (that is, speak a language) to use verbal components and must have limbs capable of fine manipulation to use somatic or material components.

According to the new rules (see the PHB 2 excerpt), a polymorphed caster loses all class features, including spellcasting.

And I agree, no sundering armor. If nothing else no stats currently exist for Hardness/HP for armor, and that's for a reason. At best I would say there could be a feat that allows you to 'disable' armor: cutting straps, pulling off plates, etc. Causing opponents increased armor check penalties or decreasing the armor bonus of the armor.

Good point. I'll work something like that out.

It's insanely strong if it's allowed to stack, and even if you don't stack it it's stronger than any other damage adder feat. Improved Weapon Specialization gives only a +2 and it's got greater requirements. So a definitive no.

Umm...no? Greater Weapon Specialization is a requirement for taking Weapon Master.

[Orion-the-G]

At 18th level, he'll be competing with casters with 9th level spells, rogues with +9d6 sneak attack, and warlocks slinging around 8d6 eldritch blasts with blast shape and essence invocations. Any of those much more powerful than 8d6 weapon damage?

Actually they're all much less powerful. Much, much less powerful. The rogue is doing 9d6 sneak attacks on only those few attacks he can make against flat footed opponents, and he only gets 2 attacks a round against them. Not to mention that he isn't damaging those folks immune to sneak attack damage.

The warlock is swinging around A 8d6 eldritch blast a round. The fighter has 3 attacks which do 8d6 damage each, plus strength bonus, plus any magic weapon damage or power attack addition he wants to make. And at 20th level the warlock has 9d6 damage and the fighter is now doing 10d6. next level he'll be doing 12d6. And he'll have 4 attacks a round. That means he has a maximum damage potential of 48d6. So tell me, how is that not insanely overpowered?

The fact that a single attack from a fighter is not as damaging as a single spell from a spellcaster or a single blast from a warlock does not mean the fighter is underpowered. They just don't rely on single massive damage effects to do their job.

[OzymandiasVolt]

And I agree, no sundering armor. If nothing else no stats currently exist for Hardness/HP for armor, and that's for a reason.

Actually, the PHB has a table describing the HP and hardness of armor. It's on page 166.

[Orion-the-G]

huh..my mistake there then.

[Fizban]

Am I the only one who noticed the blood artifice feat would allow you to activate say a staff of healing (with the heal spell) and heall all that con damage?

[ExHunterEmerald]

Hmm. Maybe you can make the sunder check take two successful checks, representing hits to a certain area of the armor.
'cause otherwise this feat could just ruin someone's day.
"I just got my new enchanted plate!" *ka-sunder!*

[Ugly_Panda]

Cruel critical is too powerful when you're using rapiers or other weapons with a wide critical range. (Improved critical already accounted for)15-20/x3 is a lot of power compared to a scythe, which would end up with a 19-20/x5.

I like the bard feats, just because I like playing bards. Would the bardic toughness stack with multiple songs (stopping a song and playing another one, seeker of the song, etc.)?

[AtomicKitKat]

Cruel Critical and Weapon Master strike me as needlessly powerful. That and the format should have been "Weapon Specialisation with the chosen weapon, Improved Critical with...etc." Could have just made Overwhelming Critical non-epic(let's face it, does it really feel epic to you?), and be done with that. ;D

Also, as written, Weapon Master means that my 1d12 greataxe becomes 1dpercentile after the third taking of the feat. ::) :P

[Thray]

Hmm. Maybe you can make the sunder check take two successful checks, representing hits to a certain area of the armor.
'cause otherwise this feat could just ruin someone's day.
"I just got my new enchanted plate!" *ka-sunder!*

Sunder can already ruin someone's day. "I just got a 200 billion gp uber staff of the magi." Ka-sunder!
"I must activate this scroll of disjunction, destroying the evil sword of the seven hells and saving the world." Ka-sunder!
"Yay, after 6 months I finally got my weapon back." Ka-sunder!

[Yossarian]

Also. What's the armor class of armor?

It depends on what kind of armor it's wearing, of course.