Reworking a homebrew chance feat line

[paddyfool]

I decided to return to a very old idea today, and try to make it work.  What do you think?

Shield of Fortune
Requires: Player character
That would have hurt... but for your silver cigarette case
When you use an action die to increase your defence, you gain an additional +1 defence (total +3).  Also, you gain an initiative action:
Lucky deflection (initiative action): 1/round, just after calculating damage taken by your character, you may spend and roll one AD to increase your DR against that hit only by the value rolled.  

Destiny's ward
Requires: Shield of Fortune
Destiny keeps a watchful eye on you, and you know when to follow her lead
When you spend an action die to increase your defence, the cost of activating criticals against you increases by 1 action die for the same duration.  Also, you gain a stance:
The perfect moment (stance): You gain a +1 to attack, damage, saves and skill checks while in this stance.  You automatically leave this stance if you have 0 action dice.

Protected by fate
Requires: Destiny's ward
You will not die today. Your fate forbids it.
When you spend an action die to increase your defence, you roll two dice and total them to determine the duration.  Also, you gain an initiative action:
Not fated to be (initiative action): 1/scene, you may spend an action die of D6 or larger to force a single hostile NPC to reroll any one die roll.

(click to show/hide)

Clean run:

Lucky deflection
That would have hurt... but for your silver cigarette case
1/round, just after calculating damage taken by your character, you may spend and roll one AD to increase your DR against that hit only by the value rolled.  

Protection of fate
Requires: Lucky deflection
You will not die today. Your fate forbids it.
When you use an AD to increase your defence, you gain an additional +1 defence (total +3) and the cost of activating critical threats against you increases by 1 AD for the same duration.

Miraculous destiny
Requires: Protection of fate
Miracles do happen... but seldom twice
1/adventure, your party may spend either a number of action dice equal to half the sum of your party's starting action dice (round up) or all your party's remaining action dice (averaging a minimum of 1 per party member) to undo one event the moment it has happened.

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Notes on what this was:

Saving Grace
Sometimes you only avoid the full force of a blow by the narrowest of margins
1/round, you may spend and roll one action die to increase your DR against any one hit before rolling damage.  If the opponent scored a critical threat on the attack, this will cost you 2 AD to use but you may still only roll one.

Lucky deflection
That would have hurt... but for your silver cigarette case
1/round, just after calculating damage taken, you may spend and roll one AD to increase your DR against that hit only by the value rolled.  If you have the Wise Counsel ability, you may also spend action dice in this way to protect your team mates as long as they can see or hear you.

Protection of fate
Requires: Lucky deflection
You will not die today. Your fate forbids it.
Immediately after a critical threat is rolled against you, you may spend 2 AD to prevent any criticals against you from being activated until your next initiative count.  If you have the Wise Counsel ability, you may also spend action dice in this way to protect an adjacent character as long as they can see or hear you.
When you use an AD to increase your defence, you gain an additional +1 (+3 total).  In addition, you may if you wish spend an additional action die to increase the cost of activating critical threats against you by 2 for the same duration (before rolling).  If you have the Wise Counsel ability, you may also spend action dice in this way to protect your team mates as long as they can see or hear you.

Miraculous destiny
Requires: Protection of fate
Miracles do happen... but seldom twice
1/adventure, you may spend all remaining action dice (minimum 2) and sacrifice all remaining edge to undo one event the moment it has happened.
1/adventure, your party may spend a number of action dice equal to half the sum of your party's starting action dice (round up) to undo one event the moment it has happened.

[Morgenstern]

First sentence doesnt say how much DR you gain.

It looks like a class ability to me.

I also don't see how it favors a sage.

[paddyfool]

First sentence doesnt say how much DR you gain.

Whoops!  I meant to specify that it increased the DR by the value rolled (just as you might increase the damage on an attack you make by the value rolled).

I also don't see how it favors a sage.

A sage can spend his action dice on anyone.  So giving one character a special use for his action dice that he'll rarely use isn't all that great, but the Sage can spend his AD on other players, so 1/round (1/initiative count?) he'll be able to save any party member that's on the brink as long as he's got action dice to spare.

[Krensky]

The Sage's ability doesn't work like that. The target would have to have the feat.

[paddyfool]

Ah, crud.  Back to the drawing board then.

[paddyfool]

Bump for comments after editing.  I'm worried I may have overpowered the second and third of these slightly...

[Dhampire]

Miraculous Destiny could be overpowered, if you call a Special NPC Enemy entering the scene an event.  Does it delay him 1 round from entering?  Does he not show up that scene?  If he doesn't show, then is XP awarded for defeating him?

I like the concept, though.  Especially if you open a chest which unleashes countless horrors upon the world, being able to say, "no, I didn't," and have the chest not be opened.

Protection of Fate, as much as it is cool, only lasting 1 round... I don't like.  I'd rather, like spending an AD for Defense, it lasted for a number of rounds equal to the result of rolling the AD.

Lucky Deflection is awesome.


Note: I do play a Chance-feat centered Sage/Priest (with Fortune).  I think this makes me more aware of how they work, but it may color my opinions.

Also: Adding additional Chance feats inherently adds to the viability of the above build, as Fortunate adds AD based on the number of Chance feats possessed.

[paddyfool]

Thank you for the feedback!

Miraculous Destiny could be overpowered, if you call a Special NPC Enemy entering the scene an event.  Does it delay him 1 round from entering?  Does he not show up that scene?  If he doesn't show, then is XP awarded for defeating him?

I like the concept, though.  Especially if you open a chest which unleashes countless horrors upon the world, being able to say, "no, I didn't," and have the chest not be opened.

The idea was primarily to make a killing blow or other major mishap just not happen, but on the whole it was based off the Wish spell line's ability, which is equally vague.  Maybe something more specific... "The moment any hit, skill check or spell directly affects you, you may spend all remaining action dice (minimum 2) to instead declare that it was unsuccessful.  If you have the Wise Counsel ability, you may apply this to any one hit, skill check or spell tha you can see take effect."

Protection of Fate, as much as it is cool, only lasting 1 round... I don't like.  I'd rather, like spending an AD for Defense, it lasted for a number of rounds equal to the result of rolling the AD.

Hmm... maybe instead I should have this as working in a similar way to the feat that allows you to raise the cost of one opponent activating criticals, and have:

Protection of fate
Requires: Lucky deflection
You will not die today. Your fate forbids it.
When you use an AD to increase your defence, you gain an additional +1 defence (+3 total).  In addition, you may if you wish spend an additional action die to increase the cost of activating critical threats against you by 1 for the same duration (before rolling).  If you have the Wise Counsel ability, you may also spend action dice in this way to protect your team mates as long as they can see or hear you.

Lucky Deflection is awesome.

Thank you!  That was the inspiration for the whole line - I just thought "I wish I could do this" at one point mid-game.

Note: I do play a Chance-feat centered Sage/Priest (with Fortune).  I think this makes me more aware of how they work, but it may color my opinions.

Also: Adding additional Chance feats inherently adds to the viability of the above build, as Fortunate adds AD based on the number of Chance feats possessed.

[Morgenstern]

Lucky Deflection is looking pretty sound. Rather than tying it to a class ability (pretty much a no-no in Mastercraft) just let anyone with the feat use it on themselves or allies. It won't be too strong under those circumstances (it all comes from the same limited pool of dice).

If Protection of Fate cost you all your remaining action dice (minimum 2) I would totally support it. Abilities to cheat death like that should STRONGLY encourage you to break off combat ASAP. The person who rightfully killed you dead should at least see you beat a hasty retreat .

Miraculous Destiny is in many ways the old Architect Masterclass' gamebreaker ability. It's also directly comperable to Wish I. I tend to think it's a bit too butch to offer as a feat.

[paddyfool]

Fair enough.  What if it were more restrictive (e.g. only negating 1 hit, or also requiring all your edge, minimum 2)?

[Morgenstern]

What, for Miraculous Destiny? Total off-the-cuff answer is let you AND teammates spend action dice to invoke it, and make the total cost fugly, like number of players +2.

It is the ultimate oh sh*t canceler. Charge accordingly . But leaving it open ended also makes it good out of combat, for things like somone penetrating a disguise at exactly the wrong moment. Making chance feats operate outside of combat is always a plus.

[paddyfool]

@Morg,

OK, how do you like the fix?

[Doublebond]

You need to stop mentioning the wise counsel ability. In Master Craft class abilities can be tied to feats (see Captain, Rune Master, etc.) but feats are never themselves tied to classes. If you want to get that functionality I recommend you nerf the feat somehow (if necessary) and give it to anyone who takes the feat.

[paddyfool]

@Doublebond,

OK, I've taken out helping others, since I can't give extras specifically based on class abilities and I don't want to give players an ability that would tread on the Sage's toes.  I left Lucky Deflection as is otherwise, because it's still pretty good imho, but slightly improved Protection of Fate to compensate.

How does this look now?

EDIT: And thank you all for your help and advice on this!

[paddyfool]

With apologies for thread necro, the fact that these homebrew things I tried to create when I was very new to FC never really worked has been nagging me.  I've had a further go at trying to make them work today - do you think they're better now?

I'm not sure about the stance granted by the second feat... other ideas I had were to (a) stop the GM's action dice exploding, and/or (b) grant cheaper narrative control.