Post/Author/DateTime	Post
RevIron 09-20-05, 04:02 PM	My next campaign requires all Gnomes to have Improved Feint, I've also given them all Combat Expertise as a bonus feat. To balance it out I've also given the other races two extra feats as racial traits: Humans: Track, Blind-Fight Dwarves: Toughness, Endurance Elves: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot Half-Elves: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot Half-Orcs: Endurance, Die-Hard Halflings: Acrobatic, Lightning Reflexes What do people think - and what should I add to monsters to make them equal? (Evil Temple Scenario - so any Undead/Evil Outsider suggestions especially welcome) My main reason for posting this is to see if anyone tries it as a "Break This Houserule" over in Character Optimization
Jerks 09-20-05, 04:14 PM	That's a lot of feats. Is there a reasoning behind focusing on Gnomes? This reduces the value of the human bonus feat somewhat, but I think if you go this rout you should go ahead and let humans select their own bonus feats, and give half-elves and orcs one feat and let them select the other one.
RevIron 09-20-05, 04:46 PM	The BBEG is a Gnome who needed Improved Feint as well as all the feats he had - and most of the players want the chance to play a Gnome given our regualar DM has a house rule of "No Gnomes". As for what you say - well this is in addition to all the standard racial traits - so Humans still get the standard Bonus Feat of players choice - they just get these feats as well but what you say has merit - maybe a list of racially acceptable feats for Half-Orcs and Half-Elves to reflect their non-human parent and the other having free choice, but humans still wouldn't get to choose all three feats - they'll need blind fightning not having low-light vision. I don't think it will make too much difference though - I believe one person wants to be a Gnome Bard and a Dwarf Fighter (two PCs per player because it's a six character adventure with three players - all the encounters have been bumped up to be a challange on that basis), one of the others will probably go Halfling Rouge and Elf Wizard or Cleric and the third likes Psionic Characters - I'm going to suggest Dwarf Psychic and Half-Orc non-caster. Of course I still need some ideas for making 'Mindless' Undead equally more powerful as well as Feat suggestions for the other Undead and Evil Outsiders
Leach 09-20-05, 05:25 PM	If you have access to the Libris Mortis, I suggest looking there for undead abilities. Not only do they have nifty undead feats (such as positive energy resistance, or a whole string of feats that lets necromancer create more powerful undead, even ones that explode upon being destroyed), but it has tons of nice undead monsters and variants on them. The Entropic Reaper is my personal favorite, but at CR 16 (18?), it's probably too high to start them on. If you DON'T, however, then there are some simple tricks that don't even involve feats. For example, just bump stats up some, or give all undead max HP. Or create an item that auto-revives an undead unless it's removed from the body within 1d4 rounds. (Obviously a very powerful item, but a very useful one, too. Imagine the looks on their faces when the skeleton they just shattered pulls itself back together with full HP.) Hope that helps.
FlameLover 09-20-05, 11:10 PM	Why not just give the BBEG the feat. Why should all Gnomes have it? But if you are sure you want to give 2 extra feats then just treat the party as 1 level higher for XP, EL, CR, whatever. Just put them up against level 2-worthy opponents.
3doorsfan 09-21-05, 12:57 AM	why not just give the gnomes improved feint (and by the way they dont have to meet the prerequisites if its a bonus feat) instead of thier spell-like abilities. btw look at the ranger and the monk - they get all sorts of bonus feats without qualifying for them
Millennium 09-22-05, 12:53 PM	I'm inclined to agree with the others here. Why not just bend things a bit and give the BBEG the feat? Or if you really want to stay technically within the rules, why not give him some kind of magic item or weapon which confers the feat's benefits? This seems a lot simpler than trying to add more bonus feats to races. This is an honest question. Is there a particular reason that all gnomes need to have Improved Feint in your campaign, other than that the BBEG has it?
RevIron 09-22-05, 01:57 PM	Reason all gnomes need Improved Feint? Effectively it amounts to the statment: I've already given my players that list and a lot of Gnomes without the Feat needed the ability to Feint as a moved action, so I thought at the time this was the best way to handle it. As for giving them all Combat Expertise - well with hindsight that was a mistake but it's too late to fix.
Jerks 09-22-05, 06:20 PM	You could always recind the bonus feats from your players. They'll understand. Things like this are bound to change, and if the players are your friends (which they usually are...I've never played with people I didn't know for a while) then it shouldn't be an issue.