Author Topic: PEACH homebrew planar feats?  (Read 2882 times)

Offline BeldakSerpenthelm

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PEACH homebrew planar feats?
« on: February 05, 2014, 03:44:40 PM »
EDIT: MASSIVE RENOVATION

Does it look like any of these could be useful, or are some of them too over/underpowered?

Good Planes:
(click to show/hide)

Neutral-ish Planes:
(click to show/hide)

Evil Planes:
(click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: October 13, 2014, 11:55:32 PM by BeldakSerpenthelm »

Offline sirpercival

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Re: PEACH homebrew planar feats?
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2014, 11:30:28 AM »
I have kind of mixed feelings about this. I like the idea of feats tied to particular planes, but I'm not convinced this is the best implementation. First, the effects are all just numeric benefits, and while the different ways you grant/receive them are kind of flavorful, the uniformity of it really smears them together. I would love instead for planar feats to grant interesting and unique abilities which thematically represent their respective planes.

Also the whole "have gained a level on X plane" prereq is... really weird. I don't love it, especially since you could just nip over to Bytopia or wherever and kill a Celestial Shrieker for the last little bit of xp you need to gain a level. It's really arbitrary.
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Offline BeldakSerpenthelm

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Re: PEACH homebrew planar feats?
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2014, 06:00:56 PM »
First, the effects are all just numeric benefits, and while the different ways you grant/receive them are kind of flavorful, the uniformity of it really smears them together. I would love instead for planar feats to grant interesting and unique abilities which thematically represent their respective planes.

Also the whole "have gained a level on X plane" prereq is... really weird. I don't love it, especially since you could just nip over to Bytopia or wherever and kill a Celestial Shrieker for the last little bit of xp you need to gain a level. It's really arbitrary.
Fair points. Any suggestions?
« Last Edit: February 13, 2014, 06:45:33 PM by BeldakSerpenthelm »

Offline sirpercival

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Re: PEACH homebrew planar feats?
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2014, 06:56:08 PM »
These might give you some inspiration for thematic abilities.
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Offline BeldakSerpenthelm

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Re: PEACH homebrew planar feats?
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2014, 11:28:57 AM »
Thank you, that was amazing, and I'm definitely going to be making some changes.

The most fundamental changes to the list as a whole that I'm considering are:

*More varied effects. I definitely went a little heavy on the straight up combat focus, so I'm going to come up with more effects that do different things instead of just adding bonuses to what someone's already doing (and even for the bonuses, skills are going to get more attention, rather than just focusing attack/damage/AC/Initiative).

*Better entry requirements. I can't believe I forgot to consider ranks in Knowledge (Planes) as a potential prerequisite :blush but I will still want some other, more individual requirements to make it a list of "Bytopian feats that happen to be Planar" and "Gehennan feats that happen to be Planar," as opposed to a bunch of "Planar feats that happen to be Bytopian/Gehennan…" Any ideas? Taken care of! Durazno from the GiantITP forums came up with a very good idea for an entirely new character feature called "Planar Affinity," and I think I've found a way to make it work:

In order to claim Affinity for Prime Material, the Outlands, or one of the 16 Alignment Planes as a character feature, you must either:

1) Belong to an Outsider race corresponding to an appropriate alignment
2) Be a Cleric, such that either you and/or your deity is of an appropriate alignment
3) Go to the plane and complete a specific ritual (easier/faster when aided by either of the above)

The planes that each alignment is appropriate for being:
(click to show/hide)

As such, Outsiders and/or Clerics have natural affinities for quite a few of the Planes, but anybody can collect permanent affinities for any of them.

Somebody who loses affinity for a Plane keeps all of their current feats requiring affinity for that Plane, but cannot acquire new ones for the same Plane without regaining the proper affinity in some way.

I’d like to note, and I take it as a good thing, that redeemed Fiends / corrupted Celestials can develop an absurd level of flexibility with this system:

A Succubus (affinity for Pandemonium, Carceri, The Abyss)…
Who becomes a Lawful Neutral Cleric (affinity for Mechanus, Acheron, Arcadia)…
Of a Lawful Good deity (affinity for Arcadia, Mount Celestia, Bytopia)…
Now only needs to go to half of the 16 Alignment Planes (Baator - Hades, Elysium - Arborea - Limbo) to do anything personally, instead of almost all of them.

NOTE: The Outlands have no alignment, so no Outsiders and/or Clerics can claim natural Affinity. The only way to claim Outlands Affinity is by completing the ritual.

Prime Material has no alignment either, so natural Affinity is claimed by Druids and/or Native Outsiders (not alignment specific), as opposed to Clerics and/or non-Native Outsiders (alignment specific).

Performing the ritual: requires going to the Plane you seek Affinity for, and entails completing 3 skill checks from among the following options: Autohypnosis, Concentration, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Planes), and Knowledge (Religion).

The DC for each check starts at 15. For each time that you have already completed a ritual check in a specific skill, the DC increases by 5 in order to use the same skill again instead of adding a different one.

Each attempt costs materials - exact nature TBD - worth 100 gp x the DC of the check.

When you make a skill check for the ritual, an ally who already has affinity for the Plane that you are seeking may choose - at some extra cost TBD - to make her own check in the same skill at the same time. Her result is not applied to the ritual itself, but is divided by 10, rounded down, and added as a bonus to your own roll.

---

For specific feats that I'm thinking about adding:

*I'll definitely add an Arborean feat about resisting/dispelling compulsions (since they care more about the reason to do something than they do about the person telling them to do it).

*I imagine that Arcadia's conformist communities primarily use force of numbers to ensure that conflict doesn't start in the first place (as opposed to Acheron, which uses force of numbers to destroy enemies instead of just scaring them), but I'll definitely add find more ways to represent that than just the AC bonuses.

*I'll definitely add Limbo feats based on Conjuration/Transmutation.

*I was thinking about making a Pandemonium feat about resisting sonic damage and/or strong winds, but now I'm also thinking about making another one about convincing people to take dangerous risks (since I imagine Pandemonium as being the frat boys like Tyler Durden or Barney Stinson, spending their lives consumed by the tempests of their own appetites and convincing everybody around them to risk their health and safety on dangerous "games").

---

Anything else I could/should consider?
« Last Edit: April 03, 2014, 08:46:42 PM by BeldakSerpenthelm »