Five Feats (XVI): Dragons

There are never enough feats, (expecially if you use the Book of Experimental Might feat rules). This is the sixteenth article of 5 feats a week (80 total feats!), some are original feats others are from OGC sources, converting them to AE and editing the feats in an attempt to improve balance and avoid "feats that suck", the idea being "why take this feat when I can take power attack? " *Balance Disclaimer: these feats have not been playtested. Skill Focus is a perfectly balanced feat, it is also boring. These feats are designed to be "cool" first and "balanced" second.

This week I look at what more you can do with dragons even if you have the 3e draconomican, that will leave PCs flabergasted, and remember those PCs with breath weapons can use some of these feats too.

AERIAL SWEEP [Ceremonial]

Prerequisites: Hover, Tail sweep, truename, in a special ceremony you hover over several prepared targets and strike them with your tail without touching the ground.  

Benefit: When you perform a full attack action, you can make a tail sweep attack when hovering in addition to any other, this is a haste effect.

 

BREATH WEAPON OF THE ELDRITCH [ceremonial]

Prerequisites: Breath weapon, Truename, Con 25, 

Benefits: Once per day, when you use your breath weapon all those who fail a save against this attack are subject to an targeted heighted dispel magic (caster level equal to your character level)

 

CONCENTRATED BREATH WEAPON [Ceremonial]

You learn to focus your breath weapon into a single quick burst of energy that strikes a single foe.

Prerequisite: Breath Weapon, Truename, in a special ceremony you must defeat an opponent using only your breath weapon and not damage your surroundings.

Benefit you may target your breath weapon against a single target rather than an area of effect.  The Save DC is increased by +2 and the damage is increased by 50%.

Special: Add +2 to the number of rounds it takes for you to recover the use of your breath weapon.

 

DEBILITATING BREATH WEAPOM [Ceremonial]

The power of your breath weapon is so intense it causes physical debilitation

Prerequisites: Breath Weapon, Truename, In a special ceremony you swallow a specially prepared totem that symbolizes your Breath weapon.

Benefit: your Breathe weapon deals ability damage in addition to normal damage, The damage dealt is equal to one point per two character levels (or hit dice) you possess (max +12) A successful save negates this damage.

SWEEPING BREATH WEAPON [Ceremonial]

By slowly channeling its breath weapon rather than expending it in one burst of energy, you can sweep a wide area with your breath weapon.

Prerequisites: Breath Weapon, Truename, in a special ceremony you must defeat several opponents in a specific area using only your breath weapon

Benefit:  You may use your breath weapon in a semicircle with a radius equal to your normal range, the dc of the save is reduced by 2, and the damage dealt is reduced by 50% 

Stangers to the Jade Oath Part II

More Brainstorming as I look at the tropes and underlying themes of my Wuxia Adventure! you can find part I HERE

Flying leaps: this is a huge part of a Wuxia style adventure I will be including/encouraging the use of  magical tems that let payers, fly, leap and climb with supernatural skill to simulate this stye, in this adventure the laws of gravity are bent and broken.

Training Montage!: How do I introduce training yet still maintain player intrest, my fris thought is to Handave it offstage, but I think better yet would be a set of teachers who test these foreign visitors to see if they are worth admititng to thier school, I think if one can show there is a great benfit to joining the school and also require gaining acceptance to some form of school in order to advance the story (not for them to advance in experiance, as some training rules have been used.) 

Secrets of the Seven Star Palm: theft of school secrets, play a big role in wuxia films I think I am going  to need to come up with a ceremonial Feat/Combat Ritual/Prestige class or perhaps a magical item that is "technique" similar to a legacy weapon.  

Fame and Infamy:  people talk, people write down stories and tell the results of your battle to everyoe and thier brother, notices of infamous members of the wuxia socities are posted for all to read.  Soon everyone knows your Name,  every NPC has a nickname every player will quicky be givin one if htey don't choose one, a name will quicky be given to a players fighting style and everyone will have a name for thier style, the common folk will quickly given your distinctive weapon a name, even if you don't, They will also  all have signature moves, known allies, known teachers, and famous opponents they have defeated and notable deed.  

I also want to put in some kind of reminder that the "common" folk,  showing the stratified culture that if you step out of place you will be put to death.

Gender if Fluid:  Eunchs, (my evil channcelor), Man disquised as a  woman, a woman disguised as a man. 

Strangers to the Jade Oath

I decided I wanted to write a new free adventure for Jade Oath, that could be played using 3.x OGL system.   

So I went to one of my favorite places 

I will be using The Big List of RPG Plots

Not In Kansas

The PCs are minding their own business and find themselves transported to a strange place. They must figure out where they are, why they are there and how to escape. 

    Common Twists & Themes: They were brought there specifically to help someone in trouble. They were brought there by accident, as a by-product of something strange and secret. Some of the PCs' enemies were transported along with them (or separately), and now they have a new battleground, and innocents to convince which guys are the good guys. 

I will write this on a micro scale, probably an isolated village, maybe even and Island as I don't want to make a mistake about how the Lands of the Jade Oath should be. I know I will want to make this primarily a location based set of encounters, and mix in a few event based encounters based on what the PCs do. 

I know that I am going to mine some Wuxia Tropes: Evil chancellor, Lady of War, Arrogant Kung Fu guy, Martial pacifict, Rebellious princess, Honor Before Reason, Magnificent Bastard, Zen Survivor/Deadpan snarker, The Dragon, a ghost story. amongst others

Looking at what I have above I think the reason the PCs are brought there is something strange and secret.  I think I will also go look at my Dragon #298 and mine that for some tropes.

Your welcome to suggest possible ideas for this adventure.

Ritual of Links (or stuff I like and you should like too)

Here is a list of stuff I have been reading this week, that I am going to be using in my sunday game.

Roleplayingtips.com has several great ideas that turn hero points into drama points

 

Treasure Tables: Here is something that sits in my favorites and I use it to create a NPC name on the fly when I need one.

 

Dungeon Mastery: Al-Quadim and Arabian Nights, when I think about the first game I ever played that did not depend on alighnment for black and white morality it was a cross between Al-Quadim and Thomas Covenant.

Enworld Blogs: I run an improve game, and while I disagree with things like dice fall where they may because no one likes to die stupidly, I do like alot of Reynard's Rules

Ars Ludi: I a design philosphy very close to my own, Would I lie to you?

If you know a blog or site I should be reading let me know!

Steve

Off to enjoy the weekend

The Churning Storm

Quick update today

I am working on an article for A Witch's Choice Patronage Project, about Midnight on the Firing Line, 

The idea is that A Witch's Choice is the calm before the storm, and that thier are events hidden in it that will have a huge impact on the Myth Arc of The Rituals of Choice Adventure path. 

This is close to what I wanted A Witch's Choice to be but I am trying to take it a bit futher as I feel it is the start of a Churning Storm, that will become a super cell that will lay waste to Diamond Throne and all of Serran 

Thanks to Jesse Butler for the spark that got me thinking about this article. 

Five Feats (XV) : Character Building

Its been a while since I did a 5 feats article but i had some new ideas I wanted to play with. 

There are never enough feats, (expecially if you use the Book of Experimental Might feat rules). This is the fiftteenth article of 5 feats a week (75 total feats!), some are original feats others are from OGC sources, converting them to AE and editing the feats in an attempt to improve balance and avoid "feats that suck", the idea being "why take this feat when I can take power attack? " *Balance Disclaimer: these feats have not been playtested. Skill Focus is a perfectly balanced feat, it is also boring. These feats are designed to be "cool" first and "balanced" second.

I start back up with feats that would help develop a unique type of background, while still exploring the themes of Arcana Evolved.

AKASHIC ANCESTORY [Talent]

You are well versed in the history and ancestor worship of your family; you can tap into the akashic memory of your ancestors

Prerequisites: You may only take this feat as a first level character, one of your ancestors must have possessed the skills selected below (DM adjudication)

Benefit: you select two skills that are not normally class skills, they are no considered class skills you gain a +1 bonus to each of these skills.

 

EXEMPLAR OF AWARENESS (Ceremonial)

Prerequisites: Wis 13, Listen 10 ranks, Sense Motive 10 ranks, Search,10 ranks, Spot 10 ranks,Truename, In a special ceremony 10 special objects are hidden from you by a trusted friend, who must lie to you about their location, when you discover them these objects are consumed as part of the ritual.

Benefit: You may take 10 with the Listen, Sense Motive, Search, and Spot ranks even if stress and distractions would normally prevent you from doing so. Once per day you can take a 20 with each of these skills, regardless of stress or distractions.

 

EVOLVED WARD (Ceremonial)

Prerequisites: Truename, a runethane or runeblade in a special ceremony places a special rune upon that does not count against his normal allotment of runes.

Benefits: at the beginning of each day choose one of the following extraordinary, spell, spell-like abilities, or supernatural, until the beginning of the next day you gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws against this type of effect.

 

Art by Eric Lofgren, copyright 2009 Rite Publishing. 

NOBLE FAVOR (Talent)

Your aristocratic breeding, training or wealth has given you a powerful personality among others. You know how to recover from and make the best of your social gaffes.

Prerequisite: Charisma 13+

Benefit: You may re-roll the result of any of your Charisma-based skills up to three times per day, using the most favorable result.

 

RITUAL OF THE HEART [Ceremonial]

You can cut out and eat the heart of a defeated enemy to gain its strength.

Prerequisites: 5 ranks in Heal skill or 5 ranks in survival, Truename, In a special ceremony you must eat the entire heart of an opponent you have killed by yourself without becoming sick.

Benefit: Once per day, you can eat the heart of an animal, humanoid, magical beast, or monstrous humanoid that you have defeated in combat (subject to DM adjudication). Eating the heart will heal 2 points of damage per character level of the defeated foe. You also gain a +1 enhancement bonus for every three character levels of the defeated foe (max +6) to a singular ability score of your choice during your next encounter.  

Special: You can take this feat multiple times to gain additional uses per day.

 

 Hope you enjoyed

Steve

Brainstorm: Akashic Nodes, Memes, and Doppelgangers

“A meme is the manifestation of a specific belief, societal institution, or potent emotion.” Akashic Nodes: The Home of Memory.

Sometimes I just like to read rpg material and see where my imagination takes me, here is where this singular line (written by Michael Trice, I believe, I will have to ask Bill Collins about it.)

Think of an Akashic Node that is created by a group of like-minded people, now go a bit further make them all doppelgangers, they can read each other’s thoughts so they are nearly all the same mind. In the black and white world of D&D they would be a conspiracy plotting to replace all the people of the world with doppelgangers. 

In the gray and grayer world of Arcana Evolved I think of them as a group of spies created by the giants in the same way that they created the sibeccai, but the doppelgangers were created in wartime they were not afforded the status because war demands expediency not morality.  They accept people into their society who have lost their sense of identity, humans often become mojh but the other races don’t have that choice all they have left are the doppelgangers. 

 The node becomes the meme of the forgotten, an institution of acceptance and secrecy, where you often feel a sense of release and new beginnings, here anyone can start over and begin anew.   Yet what terrible secrets lie hidden here cast off like skin shed by a snake.   Could even a dramojh that hated demonic dragon-scions have shed their skins, memories and sins?  The Doppelganger your talking to could have been anyone, anyone at all.

Well it was just a thought.

Steve “Qwilion” Russell

Rite Publishing