Feats

Feats are special talents that a Character can possess.

Feats usually come in two levels. The first time a Feat is chosen, the benefits of the first level are gained. The second time it’s chosen, the benefits of the second level are added to those of the first.

A new Character chooses one Feat of any kind. Warriors and Partial Warriors select another combat-related Feat (marked with a (C)). Experts and Partial Experts select another non-combat-related Feat.

Alert (C)

You are keenly aware of your surroundings and virtually impossible to take unaware.

• Level 1: Gain Notice as a Bonus Skill. You cannot be surprised, nor can others use the Execution Attacks on you. Add a +1 bonus to your side’s initiative roll, though multiple Alert Characters don’t stack this bonus.
• Level 2: You always act first in a combat round unless someone else involved is also this Alert.

Armored Magic (C)

Usable only by Mage heroes who would otherwise be prevented from casting spells or using arts while armored, this Feat reflects special training in channeling magic through the hindering materials of conventional armor.

• Level 1: You can cast spells or use arts while wearing armor that has an Encumbrance value of no more than two. You can use a shield while casting, provided your other hand is empty for gesturing.
• Level 2: You can cast spells while wearing armor of any Encumbrance. You’ve also learned to cast spells while both your hands are full, though not bound.

Armsmaster (C)

You have an unusual competence with thrown weapons and melee attacks. This Feat’s benefits do not apply to unarmed attacks or non-thrown projectile weapons. This Feat’s bonuses also don’t stack with Deadeye or other Feats that add a skill’s level to your damage or Shock.

• Level 1: Gain Stab as a Bonus Skill. You can Ready a Stowed melee or thrown weapon as an Instant Action. You add your Stab to a melee or thrown weapon’s damage roll or Shock damage, assuming it has any to begin with.
• Level 2: The Shock from your melee attacks always treats the target as if they have AC 10. Gain a +1 bonus to hit with all thrown or melee attacks.

Assassin (C)

You are practiced at sudden murder, and have certain advantages in carrying out an Execution Attack.

• Level 1: Gain Sneak as a Bonus Skill. You can conceal an object no larger than a knife from anything less invasive than a strip search. You can draw or produce this object as a Free Action, and your point-blank thrown or melee attacks made during a surprise round with it cannot miss the target.
• Level 2: You can take a Move Action on the same round as you make an Execution Attack, closing rapidly with a target before you attack. You may split this Move Action when making an Execution Attack, taking part of it before you murder your target and part of it afterwards. This movement happens too quickly to alert a victim or to be hindered by bodyguards.

Close Combatant (C)

You’ve had all too much practice at close-in fighting and desperate struggles with drawn blades. You’re extremely skilled at avoiding injury in melee combat, and at level 2 you can dodge through a melee scrum without fear of being knifed in passing.

• Level 1: Gain any combat skill as a Bonus Skill. You can use knife-sized thrown weapons in melee without suffering penalties for the proximity of melee attackers. You ignore Shock damage from melee assailants, even if you’re unarmored at the time, but invoking this benefit disrupts any spellcasting you might do that round due to the need for violently active evasion.
• Level 2: The Shock damage from your melee attacks treats all targets as if they were AC 10. The Disengage combat action is treated as a Free Action for you.

Die Hard (C)

You are surprisingly hard to kill. You survive injuries and bear up under stresses that would incapacitate a less determined hero.

• Level 1: You gain an extra 2 maximum HP per level. This bonus applies retroactively if you take this Feat after first level. You automatically stabilize if Mortally Injured, provided you have not been incinerated, dismembered, or otherwise torn apart.
• Level 2: The first time each day that you are reduced to zero HP by an injury, you instead survive with 1 HP. This ability can’t save you from large-scale, instantly-lethal trauma.

Deadeye (C)

You have a gift with ranged weapons. While this talent most commonly applies to bows, it is also applicable to thrown weapons or other ranged weapons that can be used with Shoot. For thrown weapons, you can’t use the benefits of Armsmaster at the same time as Deadeye.

• Level 1: Gain Shoot as a Bonus Skill. You can Ready a Stowed ranged weapon as an Instant Action. You may use a bow or two-handed ranged weapon even when an enemy is within melee range, albeit at a -4 hit penalty. You add your Shoot to a ranged weapon’s damage roll.
• Level 2: You reload crossbows or other slow-loading weapons as a Free Action, provided they don’t take more than a round to reload. You use ranged weapons in melee without penalty. Once per Turn, as a Free Action when target shooting at an inanimate, non-creature target, you automatically hit unless you roll a 2 on your Shoot check or the shot is physically impossible.

Gifted Chirurgeon

You have an unusual gift for saving Mortally Injured allies and quickening the natural recovery of the wounded in your care.

Gain Heal as a Bonus Skill. You may attempt to stabilize one Mortally Injured adjacent person per round as a Free Action. When rolling Heal checks, roll 3d6 and drop the lowest die. You heal twice as many HP as usual when applying first aid after a battle.

Impervious Defense (C)

Whether through uncanny reflexes, remarkable luck, supernatural heritage, or magical talent, you have natural defenses equivalent to high-quality armor. The benefits of this Feat don’t stack with armor, though DEX and shield modifiers apply.

• Level 1: You have an innate AC of 14 plus 1/3rd of your character level, rounded up.
• Level 2: Once per day, as an Instant Action, you can shrug off any single weapon attack or physical trauma inflicted by a foe. Environmental damage, falling damage, or other harm that couldn’t be forfended by strong armor cannot be resisted this way.

Impostor

You are exceedingly skilled at presenting yourself as something you are not, including disguises, voice mimicry, and lightning-fast wardrobe changes.

• Level 1: Gain Sneak as a Bonus Skill. Once per Turn, reroll any failed skill check or saving throw related to maintaining an imposture or disguise. Create one false identity of no great social importance; you can flawlessly pretend to be that person, such that only extremely persuasive proof connects you with it. You can change this identity with a week’s worth of effort in building a new one.
• Level 2: You can alter your clothing and armor such that a single Main Action lets you swap between any of three chosen appearances. In addition to your original false identity, you can establish a new false identity in each city or significant community you spend at least a day in.

Nullifier (C)

Something about your hero interferes with easy use of magic on them. It may be a strangely powerful birth blessing, a particular supernatural bloodline, or simple occult incompatibility. This Feat cannot be taken by Mages or Partial Mages.

• Level 1: You and all allies within 20ft gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws against magical effects. As a Free Action, you feel the presence or use of magic within 20ft of you, though you can’t discern details about it or the specific source. The first failed saving throw against a magical effect you suffer in a day is converted into a success.
• Level 2: Once per day, as an Instant Action, you are simply not affected by an unwanted magical effect or supernatural monstrous ability, even if it wouldn’t normally allow a saving throw. Immunity to a persistent effect lasts for the rest of the Turn.

Shocking Assault (C)

You’re extremely dangerous to enemies around you. The ferocity of your melee attacks stresses and distracts enemies even when your blows don’t draw blood.

• Level 1: Gain Brawl or Stab as a Bonus Skill. The Shock damage of your weapon treats all targets as if they were AC 10, assuming your weapon is capable of harming the target in the first place and the target is not immune to Shock.
• Level 2: In addition, you gain a +2 bonus to the Shock damage rating of all melee weapons and unarmed attacks that do Shock. As usual, regular hits never do less damage than this Shock would do on a miss.

Specialist

You are remarkably talented at a particular skill. Whether a marvelous cat burglar, a famed athlete, a brilliant scholar, or some other savant, your expertise is extremely reliable. You may take this Feat more than once for different skills.

• Level 1: Gain any skill as a bonus, except for Magic, Stab, Shoot, or Brawl. Roll 3d6 and drop the lowest die for all skill checks in this skill.
• Level 2: Roll 4d6 and drop the two lowest dice for all skill checks in this skill.

Spirit Familiar

You have a minor spirit, devil, construct, magical beast, or other creature as a devoted companion. While its abilities are limited, it is absolutely loyal to you.

• Level 1: Choose a form for your familiar no smaller than a cat nor larger than a human. It has the traits and abilities of an entity created by Summon Familiar but may be summoned or dismissed as a Main Action, appearing within melee range of its owner. It cannot carry objects with it during its vanishment aside from the clothing natural to its shape. It has no need for food, water, or sleep. If killed, it vanishes and cannot be re-summoned for 24 hours. Once per day, it can refresh one point of Committed Effort for you.
• Level 2: Pick two benefits from the list below for your familiar. This level may be taken more than once, adding two additional options each time.
  • It has HP equal to three times your level
  • It gains the ability to attack with a attack bonus equal to half your level, rounded up, doing 1d8 damage on a hit with no Shock
  • It gains a +1 skill check bonus and can apply it to a range of situations equivalent to one normal human profession
  • It gains another shape of your choice which it can adopt or discard as a Free Action
  • It can hover or fly at its usual movement rate
  • It can communicate freely with others in any language you know

Trapmaster

You have uncommon expertise in handling traps and snares, both mundane ones and the magical perils sometimes found in dungeons or the lairs of sorcerers. You know how to improvise traps with materials you easily carry.

• Level 1: Gain Notice as a Bonus Skill. Once per Turn, reroll any failed saving throw or skill check related to traps or snares. Given five minutes of work you can trap a portal, container, passageway, or other relatively narrow space with foot snares, caltrops, toxic needles, or other hazards. Non-lethal traps cause the first victim to trigger it to lose a round of actions while dangerous ones inflict 1d6 damage plus twice the character’s level, with an appropriate saving throw for half. Only one such improvised trap can be maintained at a time. More fearsome traps may be laid with congenial circumstances and the GM’s permission.
• Level 2: You know secrets for unraveling even magical traps or arcane hazards that would normally require a wizard to dispel them. Once per Turn, your efforts count as a Dispel Magic spell against the trap or hazard, cast as if a Mage of twice your level, with any relevant skill check being INT/Notice or DEX/Notice. This ability can be used against any stationary magical effect that’s susceptible to being dispelled by Dispel Magic.

Unarmed Combatant (C)

Your empty hands are more dangerous than swords in the grip of the less gifted. Your unarmed attacks are counted as melee weapons when it comes to binding up opponents wielding bows and similar ranged long arms, though you need at least one hand free to do so.

• Level 1: Gain Brawl as a Bonus Skill. Your unarmed attacks become more dangerous as your Brawl skill increases. At level 0, they do 1d6 damage. At level 1, they do 1d8 damage. At level 2 they do 1d10, level 3 does 1d12, and level 4 does 1d12+1. At Brawl:1 or better, they have the Shock quality equal to your Brawl skill against AC 15 or less.
• Level 2: Even on a miss with a Brawl attack, you do an unmodified 1d6 damage, plus any Shock that the blow might inflict on the target.

Valiant Defender (C)

You are a bodyguard, shieldbearer, or other gifted defender of others, accustomed to the roil of bloody battle and desperate struggle. You have an exceptional ability to shield your allies from the attacks of those who would slay them.

• Level 1: Gain Stab or Brawl as a Bonus Skill. Gain a +2 on all skill checks for the Screen Ally combat action. You can screen against one more attacker per round than your skill would normally allow. Once per round, you can Screen Ally against even intangible spells or magical attacks or bodily shield them from an area-effect explosion or magic. Such attempts require the usual successful opposing skill check, with the assailant using their Magic skill.
• Level 2: The first Screen Ally skill check you make in a round is always successful. Gain +2 AC while screening someone. You can screen against foes as large as ogres or oxen.

Whirlwind Assault (C)

You are a frenzy of bloody havoc in melee combat, and can hack down numerous lesser foes in close combat… assuming you survive being surrounded.

• Level 1: Gain Stab as a Bonus Skill. Once per Turn, as a Free Action, apply your Shock damage to all foes within melee range, assuming they’re susceptible to your Shock.
• Level 2: The first time you kill someone in a round with a normal attack, either with its rolled damage on a hit or with the Shock damage it inflicts, instantly gain a second attack on any target within range using any Ready weapon you have.