Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 akaddk Mar 14, 2015 23:31:04	Keen Mind +1 to Intelligence. Advantage on Intelligence ability checks for skills you are not proficient in. Can choose one of each level of spell that can be cast to be memorised, eliminating the need for it to be prepared.   Linguist +1 to Intelligence. Can speak, read, & write all standard languages and can choose to learn two additional exotic languages. On encountering an unknown written language, the character with this feat can decipher one page or the equivalent for every ten minutes of uninterrupted study. When encountering an unknown spoken language, the character can attempt to communicate with a successful Insight check with a DC of 15.   Any thoughts?
#2 EmpactWB Mar 15, 2015 0:23:07	The last benefit of Keen Mind is useless to non-casters and casters that don't prepare spells, whereas the original feat is applicable to anyone. The narrower focus of the feat makes it less appealing to me in general even with the broader mechanical application of the advantage.   The expansion of the Linguist feat to encompass so many languages is okay, but a party could easily have all the standard languages covered anyway, so it seems a bit overkill. I don't really think it's reasonable to decipher unknown writing in that fashion; there's a reason the Rosetta Stone was such a big deal for translation. The spoken language bit I would tend to allow at my table without the feat, assuming none of my players automatically assume that "isn't speaking a language you know" = "fair game to kill and rob".   All in all, they could be good for specific games/game styles, but I prefer the original versions.
#3 akaddk Mar 15, 2015 1:12:39	EmpactWB wrote:
#4 Macv12 Mar 15, 2015 2:21:50	Advantage on checks is even better than proficiency at low levels, and goes to being similar or slightly worse later on. You may as well give them proficiency in all INT skills.   Can't think of anything right now, but INT is close to useless to anyone except INT casters. I would love a feat that made INT more generally useful. Maybe something along the lines of adding your INT modifier to some d20 rolls?   Extra prepared spells is actually not bad, since there are already feats that only apply if you have spells.   No suggestions for Linguist. Language barriers are an extremely niche obstacle that I feel most DMs ignore. I feel like if a character really wants to be good at languages, they can just have that as a background benefit and not spend a feat on it. Maybe wrap languages into the Skilled feat. Or, even mash Linguist and Keen Mind together; not like they're going to unbalance a character that way.
#5 akaddk Mar 15, 2015 3:01:27	Macv12 wrote:
(Reply to #3) AaronOfBarbaria	akaddk wrote:
#7 akaddk Mar 15, 2015 5:23:00	Keen Mind   +1 to intelligence Can choose one skill to permanently add the character's Intelligence modifier to in addition to the normal ability modifier used for the skill. Can use the character's Intelligence modifier for initiative instead of Dexterity.