Introduction
From coalescing some thoughts on how to manage levelling and feat acquisition to half-assing a list of racial feats, this post does it all.
Advancement
Accessorizing is important.
The process of levelling, as per
the book, is much too calcified around unexciting numerical increases, every other
level offering something amounting to a tired ol’+1 modifier, an enhanced number of uses on an already-unlocked feature or a feat whose parenthood has been thoroughly planned, all this made
the worse by the premapped nature of the advancement pattern, which lends the
whole package to optimization and builds, not to mention boredom.
More interesting class
progressions are a goal that is well served by sweeping aside the more
monotonous aspects and injecting some spanish inquisition. Not content that the feats themselves be random, so too should be the instance of their acquisition, the better to contrast with the remaining class structure. I don’t really aim all of my
steps to deliberately spite the fair-and-balanced point-buy paradigm, but boy
do my feet ever find themselves repeatedly planted all over those lego pieces.
For those to whom the numbers are
much too important, taking as given that we’re rolling for stats and Hp already,
adding one more layer of variability will mean that to end up with a truly irredeemable character will be even more difficult, and the mechanic is also
meant to implicitly add a convergence effect, so that the weaker characters
will have an easier time upping their scores and earning their ticket out of
suckdom.
Elfsploitation
To accordingly supplement the last
post, the table had entries pointing to feats afforded by the player character’s
race. I meant to use that design space to store certain capabilities of more or
less apocryphal nature which I feel ought to manifest rarely and that would altogether
unbalance or simply overburden the race profiles if used as standard features.
I pondered doing the same for
“class feats” and for the longest time the 95-to-100 slot was filled with
precisely that designation. The more I thought about it, though, the less sense it
made. Classes are not really about waxing whimsical, rather more about structured and reliable abilities. And since I’d like for my revised classes to have something new to
offer at most every level, I folded back that line of thinking.
It is useful that this embedded feat table approach affords me the space to add playable races to a setting roster at
a later point, if I’m ever up for misguidingly notching up complexity for the
sake of diminishing returns, something that I’m prone to do, so might as well clear
the road of debris before the fact.
These following feats are about
supernatural atavism and stark displays of a race’s underlying thematic. Men are
extraversatile, Half-men are extra shifty, Dwarves are extra tough, Elves are
extra snowflakey/better than you and
Gnomes are extra magicky. Many of these are also utter bullshit, but I know I’ll get
away with it because I took the care to warn you in advance.
The Crunch
— Whenever a character levels up the
player rolls a d20 and chooses one among the applicable effects:
a) If
the result is higher than any of the character’s attributes, the player may
raise one of these scores by one. A given attribute score may not be increased
twice in a row.
b) If
the result is lower than the character’s level, the player may make a roll on
the feat table.
Alternatively, the player may
forgo the d20 roll to re-roll that level’s HD instead, the second result must stand.
The Racial Feats
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Racial Feats – Half-man
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1.
May Hide as a bonus action.
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2.
You can burrow into soft ground and have Advantage when digging.
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3.
You can take Disadvantage to all rolls until the
end of next turn to be able to Dodge as a bonus action.
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4.
Can Disengage as bonus action.
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5.
You gain +1 to AC against melee
attacks per every size difference of the attacker.
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6.
You don’t provoke opportunity
attacks from large-sized (or larger) creatures. Avoid all incidental damage.
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Racial Feats – Dwarf
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1. May roll on the Dismemberment
table with 4d6 instead of 3d6; Advantage
on Death Saving Throws.
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2. Rooted: While you don’t move
and both your feet touch the ground you get a save against attempts to push, disarm or render you Prone.
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3. Can sniff precious metals (20’ radius,
10 mins, concentration).
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4. Resistant to Arcane Magic.
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5. Stone skin. Non-bludgeoning
weapons can break or dull when you’re struck (attack rolls under CON mod).
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6. Gain proficiency
with smith’s tools. Can forge or reforge metal weapons every level, granting or increasing enchantment by +1 a number of times equalling proficiency.
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Racial Feats – Elf
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1.
Your melee attacks always count
as magical and their damage cannot be resisted.
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2.
Your base number of attacks
equals your proficiency bonus and you never drop your weapon from fumbling. Lose
any feature granting accuracy or additional attacks.
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3. You don’t provoke attacks of
opportunity. Your Dexterity saves against damage prevent all on a success and
half on a miss and you may parry ranged attacks.
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4.
Ignore all mundane difficult
terrain and leave no scent or tracks. You are less likely to trigger traps.
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5.
Roll a feat, receiving the
improved version, as though you had rolled that result twice.
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6.
Your Proficiency range is +3 to
+7.
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Racial Feats – Gnome
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1. Items magically resize to fit
you while in your possession.
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2. Once per day, you can enlarge
or shrink (but not your possessions) up to two size categories, shift lasts until
a ‘1’ is rolled on the proficiency die, checked every minute.
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3.
Your can attempt to Hide in the
open (with Disadvantage).
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4. Odd copper pieces inexplicably find
their way to you and you always find additional coins (proficiency die) on
treasure troves, type as per most abundant on cache.
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5.
You become Invisible as long as your eyes are closed.
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6.
Once per running, you can turn
a small object into red gold (worth Proficiency die gp).
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