New feats: Heroic Heritage / Heroic Legacy

[Gatac]

Hey,

for those of you who recall my thread about balancing one character's benefits against three other characters with "Heritage" feats, I've finally managed to come up with an amiable solution: I made up my own Species feats for that character. I thought I'd share them with the class, see what you guys think.

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Heroic Heritage
Adventuring is in your blood - literally.

Benefit: Choose a single weapon as your "ancestral weapon". When wielding this weapon, you may substitute your Charisma bonus in place of the normal attribute when determining attack bonus and damage. Further, you gain Stress Resistance 5. Finally, you gain a trick:

"Guide my hands!" (Melee attack trick, ancestral weapon only): If you miss with this attack but don't score an error, you may choose to lower your Defense for one round by the difference between the target's defense and your attack roll. If you do so, the attack hits and inflicts damage on your target as normal. You may use this trick a number of times per combat equal to your starting action dice.

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Heroic Legacy
You're the latest - and greatest - in a long line of adventurers.

Benefit: The higher of your Strength or Charisma scores increases by 1, your Stress Resistance increases to 10, and you gain the Cagey I NPC quality.

You may choose to embrace your larger-than-life nature once, when you level, gaining the Horror type. If you do, your starting action dice decrease by 1 and you find it much harder to hide your true self, suffering a -5 penalty with Disguise checks.

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Okay, here's how I intend this to work. First of all, I'm building off the idea that you've got your archetypical plucky hero with a big destiny here, not too much of a fighter yet but full of energy. Allowing him or her to wield a single weapon using Charisma is powerful, but I don't see it as too dangerous, as a single weapon can be disarmed or Charisma targeted. (This specific character relies on a lot of abilities that hang off her Charisma, including Martial Arts. Rocks on toast, but it's also all eggs in one basket, which I do intend to get around to exploiting some day.) It makes thematic sense to me - you've got Granddaddy's sword, and how well you fight hinges off your force of personality, not how strong or quick you are. The Stress damage resistance is part pluckiness, part steeling yourself against the pain. As for the trick, I figure this feat chain is written for characters who are not the primary fighter in the group. They'll be suffering from lacking BAB, and some enemies may prove too hard to hit. So with this trick, the character just swings for the sky - this attack has to hit and count, even if he or she ends up exposing themselves to the inevitable counter-attacks.

In the Legacy feat, I have some pretty standard attribute boosting and the damage resistance is heightened. Cagey I allows the character to auto-succeed at a save once per scene - call it hero's luck. The real meat, however, is the ability to become Horror type. Now you might be thinking that this has nothing to do with being a hero (outside of Marvel's next comic sensation, Cthulhu-Man), but hear me out. Everyone but your team has their Will saves lowered? They're in awe. The good guys adore you, the bad guys piss their pants. Animals don't attack and retreat? They recognize that you're King Badass. The various resilience boosts? Hell, you're a bona-fide Hero, capital H. Heroes are much tougher than they look. So, for this Horror? Less Lovecraft, more Batman.

(Incidentally, this was the part the player of that character had the most trouble with. He didn't want "Horror" on his character sheet. I obliged by renaming accordingly, but I decided to keep the name unchanged in this version so you can see where it comes from.)

So, yeah. I know, they pack a punch, but I contend they're not horribly out of whack. At the very least, I hope somebody will find the Horror mechanic funny.

[Crafty_Alex]

Sigh, tinfoil hat time.

Looks good, Gat. Not /exactly/ what I've drafted, but definitely hedging there....

[Doublebond]

Sigh, tinfoil hat time.

Looks good, Gat. Not /exactly/ what I've drafted, but definitely hedging there....

Poor Alex. I suppose the bane of every clever writer is an equally clever audience.

[Gatac]

Now I'm really curious what I've stumbled upon here. Would you at least tease me with which product I managed to sense through the tinfoil barrier?

[Crafty_Alex]

Now I'm really curious what I've stumbled upon here. Would you at least tease me with which product I managed to sense through the tinfoil barrier?

Sorry. No can do.

[Doublebond]

Now I'm really curious what I've stumbled upon here. Would you at least tease me with which product I managed to sense through the tinfoil barrier?

Seems we'll both have to wait until the adventure companion comes out before we finally see.

[tenebrae]

I would think that Legacy is fairly overpowered, given that the post-errata Sea Elder feat gives you the Horror type, and that's all. The -1AD drawback is a bit of a balancer, but it still feels more powerful to me than any other legacy feat. I'd also suggest that Blend might be a better skill to penalise, since a Disguise penalty won't even come up unless that character chooses to use it, while a Blend penalty seems more likely to regularly impact how the character can act.

The Heritage weapon benefit might need some clarification, too. Is that one specific weapon (my father's Scholar's Sword), or one type of weapon (e.g. Scholar's Sword), or even a category (Swords)? If it's the first, what happens if that weapon is damaged or destroyed? The Cha for attack and damage is very front-loaded for a feat (see the pre-errata Martial Arts), and it might be safer keeping damage where it is (and using the trick if they need to hit), and moving the attack bonus to Legacy. You say that it's going to be taken by the front-line fighter of your group, but what's stopping them, whether it's in your current game, or the next campaign?

[Morgenstern]

Interesting feats. Not what I would have expected based onthe theme, but neat effects .

Would add 'Prerequisite: Str 13+' to the first one (stat swappng effect). It probably also needs some sort of replacement clause or you'll end up being down 2 feats from a bad gear save.

I have some text flow suggestions but they'll have to wait as I'm about to start a raid.

In hindsight I really wish there was a general "Embrace your heritage" note at the beginning of the Species Feat Tree (like how some of the other trees explain Edge or Stances) - it would have allowed a little more clear treatment of the effect without the repetition of text that goes on throught the tree.

[Gatac]

I would think that Legacy is fairly overpowered, given that the post-errata Sea Elder feat gives you the Horror type, and that's all. The -1AD drawback is a bit of a balancer, but it still feels more powerful to me than any other legacy feat. I'd also suggest that Blend might be a better skill to penalise, since a Disguise penalty won't even come up unless that character chooses to use it, while a Blend penalty seems more likely to regularly impact how the character can act.

The Heritage weapon benefit might need some clarification, too. Is that one specific weapon (my father's Scholar's Sword), or one type of weapon (e.g. Scholar's Sword), or even a category (Swords)? If it's the first, what happens if that weapon is damaged or destroyed? The Cha for attack and damage is very front-loaded for a feat (see the pre-errata Martial Arts), and it might be safer keeping damage where it is (and using the trick if they need to hit), and moving the attack bonus to Legacy. You say that it's going to be taken by the front-line fighter of your group, but what's stopping them, whether it's in your current game, or the next campaign?

Yes, I know it's powerful, and just on the edge of what I feel comfortable with in *my* game, which is tilted towards enabling maximum asskicking from the PCs. In retrospect, I should've remembered Sea Elder; good catch. I didn't go with Blend because one of the Legacy feats (Devilish? Too lazy to look right now) already has that. Disguise made sense to penalize for the character I wrote this for, and I think works thematically - you've got the well-known features of your ancestors, everybody's gonna go "Wait, aren't you that McMonsterdeath kid? I fought with your Aunty against the Storm Dragons twenty years ago!"

As for the weapon effects, yes, that applies to *one* specific weapon - daddy's sword, grandmommy's scythe, whatever. I didn't bother with coming up with a replacement mechanic since that's not an issue in my game, but for general use, I figure you should have something like the Reputation cost of losing a Personal Lieutenant - the weapon can be retrieved/rebuilt, but it nicks your rep that you lost it in the first place.

Interesting feats. Not what I would have expected based onthe theme, but neat effects .

Would add 'Prerequisite: Str 13+' to the first one (stat swappng effect). It probably also needs some sort of replacement clause or you'll end up being down 2 feats from a bad gear save.

I have some text flow suggestions but they'll have to wait as I'm about to start a raid.

In hindsight I really wish there was a general "Embrace your heritage" note at the beginning of the Species Feat Tree (like how some of the other trees explain Edge or Stances) - it would have allowed a little more clear treatment of the effect without the repetition of text that goes on throught the tree.

I would definitely add that prereq for general use, yes. Good catch.

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys. I'm really tempted to try my hand at a Villainous Heritage/Legacy feat chain now.

[paddyfool]

I would say that Heritage is a tad overpowered.  Maybe just have Cha substituted for damage, rather than both damage and to hit?  FC is weighted towards having no dump stats, and this makes Str basically useless unless and until you lose your ancestral weapon, when the feat becomes mostly useless.

Legacy is really pretty potent too... perhaps replace Cagey I with a +5 to Craft checks made to repair or upgrade the ancestral weapon?

[Gatac]

Keep the feedback coming, guys, I'm working on making the Heroic feats more balanced for general use. But in the meantime, their counterparts!

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Villainous Heritage
Your parents had a bad reputation. You build on that.

Benefit: The higher of your Constitution or Intelligence scores increases by 1. Further, you gain Divine Resistance 5.

You gain 10 Reputation per starting action die that can only be spent to buy or improve holdings. The Scale of your holdings is not limited by your Panache or Prudence, though it may not exceed your character level.

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Villanous Legacy
Your family tree is rotten to the core, but its fruits are yours to command.

Benefit: The lower of your Constitution or Intelligence scores increases by 1. Your Divine Resistance increases to 10 and you gain Damage Defiance (Standard Folk Characters).

You may choose to embrace your dark heritage once, when you level up, gaining the Plant type. If you do, your starting action dice decrease by 1 and you find your demanding nature poisoning your attempts at politeness, suffering a -5 penalty with Impress checks.

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Okay, explanations. First off, Con or Int boost. Con never really gets love in these kinds of feats unless it's for a clear "brawler" kind of character, but I think it's fitting here - a good villain has staying power. And, of course, the smarts to plot and scheme. (Note we don't say anything about Wisdom here. That varies wildly.) Divine Resistance - send those meddling Gods and their zealots packing, you're beyond their petty power. And of course, every villain needs a suitable lair. The scale benefit is to enable the archetypical dilapidated family castle lair - it may be in bad repair, but as you climb you can quickly fix it up without doing too much to make it look nice. And what villain is *prudent*, anyway? Ill-gotten gains need spending, and who the hell pays minions anyway.

With legacy, you not only become hardier/smarter and more resistant to godly meddling, you also only take half damage from standard folk characters. Get that rabble out of my hair! And screw their torches and pitchforks. The transformation may seem, again, weird, but the benefits make you pretty much backstab-proof, and that's something every good villain should strive for. The Impress penalty is something that I also see as being in theme - you may throw on a grand pretense of being nice and affable, but at the end you only really get your results through fear and coercion, playing nice just doesn't work too well for you.

Comments appreciated, as always.

[tenebrae]

Perhaps it might be a good idea to state in the transformations (although it does make them wordier) that you gain the bonuses and penalties of the type, but are not considered a member of that type for effects/spells/feats. Otherwise, you'll end up with some very strange results when using Turning, the Charm spells, and similar.

[Gatac]

Hm, worth thinking about, though I'm willing to handwave it as those transformations making the characters shielded to standard magical effects to influence them but having other weaknesses due to equivalent exchange. Can't close a turning hole without opening another, weirder one.

[tenebrae]

Remember that, as written, they gain a type, but that doesn't remove their original one. So they're not shielded vs folk (assuming human) effects just because they're a folk horror or folk plant.

[Gatac]

Hm. Well, that could be an interesting wrinkle, then.