So, I made this really cool feat for barbarians, but I wasn't exactly sure how to make it specifically for barbarian. Anyway this feat is called "Down With Me" because the feat is a last chance effort for the barbarian to kill someone/something as the fall unconscious. I'm just looking to get some publicity and please send some feedback if you decide to take a look or add.
Well, when your character falls unconscious or to 1 hp, you can deal a 1d20+4 to all enemies within normal attack range, and if the enemies are below half, the damage becomes 1d20+8. Your character also needs to be wielding a slashing weapon.
Maybe have it read something like "When your character would fall to 0 hp they may take an attack action before falling unconscious." That way it grants what you want without being over powered. (This feat would be over powered for anyone that took variant human and could choose this as their starting feat). -it's also pretty strong at lvl 4 when they have the option to take a feat or increase ability scores.
Having it worded like that gives a small advantage to half-orcs since technically they'd be able to drop to 0 twice due to their racial ability.
You can also make there be a Strength or Dexterity requirement of 15 to ensure the feat is given to just melee classes (although I think this feat would be fine for any class).
Speaking from the perspective of a moderator who processes public homebrew - every single time someone publishes homebrew, it is manually reviewed by someone - we're really trying to get people to test and work on their homebrew until they happy with it BEFORE hitting the publish button. If you could do that it would be a tremendous help. :)
So why do you want this to be a feat just for Barbarians as opposed to any melee fighter?
How about this...
Unconquerable:
The first time you would take damage that would reduce you to 0, you can use your reaction to interrupt that action to make a sweeping attack against any enem(y/ies) within your weapons reach. This attack automatically succeeds dealing the weapons normal damage + half your level (rounded up). You immediately receive one level of exhaustion but negate the damage of the interrupted action. Once you have used this feature you cannot use it again for 1d4 days.
So why do you want this to be a feat just for Barbarians as opposed to any melee fighter?
How about this...
Unconquerable:
The first time you would take damage that would reduce you to 0, you can use your reaction to interrupt that action to make a sweeping attack against any enem(y/ies) within your weapons reach. This attack automatically succeeds dealing the weapons normal damage + half your level (rounded up). You immediately receive one level of exhaustion but negate the damage of the interrupted action. Once you have used this feature you cannot use it again for 1d4 days.
I like the attack idea, but I am more inclined to be take an additional action when dropped to 0 once per day, might be worth it to use it to run trying to get through a door you are holding against a horde... It just makes me think cool cinematic events. Besides then it scales with classes with extra attacks making it a very potent limited use ability.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
So why do you want this to be a feat just for Barbarians as opposed to any melee fighter?
How about this...
Unconquerable:
The first time you would take damage that would reduce you to 0, you can use your reaction to interrupt that action to make a sweeping attack against any enem(y/ies) within your weapons reach. This attack automatically succeeds dealing the weapons normal damage + half your level (rounded up). You immediately receive one level of exhaustion but negate the damage of the interrupted action. Once you have used this feature you cannot use it again for 1d4 days.
I like the attack idea, but I am more inclined to be take an additional action when dropped to 0 once per day, might be worth it to use it to run trying to get through a door you are holding against a horde... It just makes me think cool cinematic events. Besides then it scales with classes with extra attacks making it a very potent limited use ability.
Yeah, you could alter it to an action, but I was refining what the OP had created. I would call it something else if it granted an action...
Premonition
You have a limited ability to see into your own fate. The first time you would take damage that would reduce you to 0, you can use your reaction to interrupt that action granting you an action. If you take the attack action all hits automatically succeed dealing the weapons normal damage + half your level (rounded up). You immediately receive one level of exhaustion but negate the damage of the interrupted action. Once you have used this feature you cannot use it again for 1d4 days.
Why make all the attacks succeed that seems silly, make them normal attack rolls. No need to give them extra damage, no need to make them survive the initial damage. Make it a once per day and it would be a pretty okay thing to have.
Going down Swinging
Once per day when damage would otherwise drop the character to 0 hitpoints, gain an extra Action immediately. Immediately after taking the extra Action the character falls unconscious and must make death saving throws as normal. This feature recharges after taking a long rest. When taking this feat gain +1 to CON, STR, or DEX.
It isn't really necessary to add a whole heap of negatives to a feat. Keep it simple.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
We don't want to grant an action, only an attack action. If we grant the action it enables the player to do something else not having to do with combat which could be very overpowered (using an item).
Also I do believe it'd be a good idea to still have the player roll to hit. The whole feat is to survive dropping to 0, the extra attack is only a bonus.
As for ability bumps, I don't think those are necessary, this feat is fine power-wise without it.
If you would drop to 0 health points you instead negate the damage and may use your reaction to make an Attack of Opportunity on a creature within range. You may only do this once per long rest.
So, I made this really cool feat for barbarians, but I wasn't exactly sure how to make it specifically for barbarian. Anyway this feat is called "Down With Me" because the feat is a last chance effort for the barbarian to kill someone/something as the fall unconscious. I'm just looking to get some publicity and please send some feedback if you decide to take a look or add.
Kill someone/something as they fall unconcious, does not mean they survive (aside from just going unconscious) rather they still drop to 0 hitpoints. The reasoning behind me suggesting a normal action is to A: Allow it to scale with up front fighters that have the extra attack action and B: Allow non up front fighters to be able to get use from the feat as well, by casting a cantrip or something similar C: For anyone you would be able to take a Dash action and make a last ditch effort to get to a place of safety.
@Tyrannosary who is this "we" you speak of?
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The we I am referring to is us as a collective group.
Fighters already scale well with their extra attacks through level up. We don't want to double their already increased attacks, they only need one extra attack if we wish to keep it balanced.
Non up-front spell casters would still be allowed to effectively use the feat, they can cast spells for their Attack of Opportunity.
Lastly, if we want to enable them to dash (because I agree, that would be balanced), we can reword it to this:
If you would drop to 0 health points you instead negate the damage and may use your reaction to make an Attack of Opportunity on a creature within range or take the Dash action. You may only do this once per long rest.
for something that is only used once per day, and has a very specific trigger (falling unconscious) I don't think it is out of the question to give them something akin to an action surge effect. In comparison to something like Sharpshooter, Heavy weapon master which comes into play multiple times per session (assuming there is combat of course) I feel it HAS to be a spectacular moment to be worth the pick. That also segues into why I feel you would still get a +1 to a physical stat because that would balance out the potential for not getting to trigger the on death effect, because that is always active, and useful.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
You've convinced me to change my mind about the stat bump. If there is a stat bump for this I would suggest a +1 to constitution since that's the stat that keeps our beloved characters alive. Constitution is also relevant to all character class types. Useful to all characters for health and useful to spellcasters for concentration.
You've also convinced me about using your reaction to take an action. I realized I was so worried about the player using an item and turning OP or creating mass destruction that I didn't realize the player could do that anyways during a previous action...
So now we'd have something like this:
+1 Constitution, If you would drop to 0 hit points you instead negate the damage and may use your reaction to take an action. You may only do this once per long rest.
@FearfulTiefling what do you think of the discussion? Does it fall in line with what you were hoping to accomplish with a feat? I think it is something I would allow my players to use.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
- The first time you would take damage that would reduce you to 0, you can use your reaction to interrupt that action granting you an immediate action. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Aaron, I feel the use of a reaction is unnecessary and potentially limiting. There would be nothing worse then getting an opportunity to use this feat and have already made a reaction to something and miss out. The flip side is never using your reaction just in case you might take fatal damage, which also does not sound like fun.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I think it is necessary for you to use the reaction in order to use the feat. However the way Aaron worded the second part of the feat it sounds like you're only allowed to prevent damage cause by an action. This feat is meant to save you from death by actions, bonus actions, traps, etc.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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So, I made this really cool feat for barbarians, but I wasn't exactly sure how to make it specifically for barbarian. Anyway this feat is called "Down With Me" because the feat is a last chance effort for the barbarian to kill someone/something as the fall unconscious. I'm just looking to get some publicity and please send some feedback if you decide to take a look or add.
Thank you.
What does it do?
Well, when your character falls unconscious or to 1 hp, you can deal a 1d20+4 to all enemies within normal attack range, and if the enemies are below half, the damage becomes 1d20+8. Your character also needs to be wielding a slashing weapon.
Maybe have it read something like "When your character would fall to 0 hp they may take an attack action before falling unconscious." That way it grants what you want without being over powered. (This feat would be over powered for anyone that took variant human and could choose this as their starting feat). -it's also pretty strong at lvl 4 when they have the option to take a feat or increase ability scores.
Having it worded like that gives a small advantage to half-orcs since technically they'd be able to drop to 0 twice due to their racial ability.
You can also make there be a Strength or Dexterity requirement of 15 to ensure the feat is given to just melee classes (although I think this feat would be fine for any class).
Thank you for the advice. This is actually my first custom feat. I'll let you know when it goes public again.
I cant take it down...
Speaking from the perspective of a moderator who processes public homebrew - every single time someone publishes homebrew, it is manually reviewed by someone - we're really trying to get people to test and work on their homebrew until they happy with it BEFORE hitting the publish button. If you could do that it would be a tremendous help. :)
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Alright. Thank you Mr/Ms/Mrs moderator
So why do you want this to be a feat just for Barbarians as opposed to any melee fighter?
How about this...
Unconquerable:
The first time you would take damage that would reduce you to 0, you can use your reaction to interrupt that action to make a sweeping attack against any enem(y/ies) within your weapons reach. This attack automatically succeeds dealing the weapons normal damage + half your level (rounded up). You immediately receive one level of exhaustion but negate the damage of the interrupted action. Once you have used this feature you cannot use it again for 1d4 days.
I like the attack idea, but I am more inclined to be take an additional action when dropped to 0 once per day, might be worth it to use it to run trying to get through a door you are holding against a horde... It just makes me think cool cinematic events. Besides then it scales with classes with extra attacks making it a very potent limited use ability.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Yeah, you could alter it to an action, but I was refining what the OP had created. I would call it something else if it granted an action...
Premonition
You have a limited ability to see into your own fate. The first time you would take damage that would reduce you to 0, you can use your reaction to interrupt that action granting you an action. If you take the attack action all hits automatically succeed dealing the weapons normal damage + half your level (rounded up). You immediately receive one level of exhaustion but negate the damage of the interrupted action. Once you have used this feature you cannot use it again for 1d4 days.
Why make all the attacks succeed that seems silly, make them normal attack rolls. No need to give them extra damage, no need to make them survive the initial damage. Make it a once per day and it would be a pretty okay thing to have.
Going down Swinging
Once per day when damage would otherwise drop the character to 0 hitpoints, gain an extra Action immediately. Immediately after taking the extra Action the character falls unconscious and must make death saving throws as normal. This feature recharges after taking a long rest.
When taking this feat gain +1 to CON, STR, or DEX.
It isn't really necessary to add a whole heap of negatives to a feat. Keep it simple.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
We don't want to grant an action, only an attack action. If we grant the action it enables the player to do something else not having to do with combat which could be very overpowered (using an item).
Also I do believe it'd be a good idea to still have the player roll to hit. The whole feat is to survive dropping to 0, the extra attack is only a bonus.
As for ability bumps, I don't think those are necessary, this feat is fine power-wise without it.
If you would drop to 0 health points you instead negate the damage and may use your reaction to make an Attack of Opportunity on a creature within range. You may only do this once per long rest.
Kill someone/something as they fall unconcious, does not mean they survive (aside from just going unconscious) rather they still drop to 0 hitpoints. The reasoning behind me suggesting a normal action is to A: Allow it to scale with up front fighters that have the extra attack action and B: Allow non up front fighters to be able to get use from the feat as well, by casting a cantrip or something similar C: For anyone you would be able to take a Dash action and make a last ditch effort to get to a place of safety.
@Tyrannosary who is this "we" you speak of?
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The we I am referring to is us as a collective group.
Fighters already scale well with their extra attacks through level up. We don't want to double their already increased attacks, they only need one extra attack if we wish to keep it balanced.
Non up-front spell casters would still be allowed to effectively use the feat, they can cast spells for their Attack of Opportunity.
Lastly, if we want to enable them to dash (because I agree, that would be balanced), we can reword it to this:
If you would drop to 0 health points you instead negate the damage and may use your reaction to make an Attack of Opportunity on a creature within range or take the Dash action. You may only do this once per long rest.
for something that is only used once per day, and has a very specific trigger (falling unconscious) I don't think it is out of the question to give them something akin to an action surge effect. In comparison to something like Sharpshooter, Heavy weapon master which comes into play multiple times per session (assuming there is combat of course) I feel it HAS to be a spectacular moment to be worth the pick. That also segues into why I feel you would still get a +1 to a physical stat because that would balance out the potential for not getting to trigger the on death effect, because that is always active, and useful.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I see what you mean now.
You've convinced me to change my mind about the stat bump. If there is a stat bump for this I would suggest a +1 to constitution since that's the stat that keeps our beloved characters alive. Constitution is also relevant to all character class types. Useful to all characters for health and useful to spellcasters for concentration.
You've also convinced me about using your reaction to take an action. I realized I was so worried about the player using an item and turning OP or creating mass destruction that I didn't realize the player could do that anyways during a previous action...
So now we'd have something like this:
+1 Constitution, If you would drop to 0 hit points you instead negate the damage and may use your reaction to take an action. You may only do this once per long rest.
I can get behind that/
@FearfulTiefling what do you think of the discussion? Does it fall in line with what you were hoping to accomplish with a feat? I think it is something I would allow my players to use.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Unconquerable:
- You Gain a +1 to CON
- The first time you would take damage that would reduce you to 0, you can use your reaction to interrupt that action granting you an immediate action. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Seems solid.
Aaron, I feel the use of a reaction is unnecessary and potentially limiting. There would be nothing worse then getting an opportunity to use this feat and have already made a reaction to something and miss out. The flip side is never using your reaction just in case you might take fatal damage, which also does not sound like fun.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I think it is necessary for you to use the reaction in order to use the feat. However the way Aaron worded the second part of the feat it sounds like you're only allowed to prevent damage cause by an action. This feat is meant to save you from death by actions, bonus actions, traps, etc.