What are your thoughts on free feats which have pros and cons. For example,
Anxiety -- You gain advantage on initiative for the first round of combat, but when you take a long rest, you roll a 1d6 and gain no benefit if you roll a 1
Haunted -- You can roll a Persuasion skill check vs undead, but must roll at disadvantage when rolling Persuasion against the living and people can sense there is something off (not necessarily evil) about you
Temperance -- +4 on social skills vs the Lawful, -4 on social skills vs the Chaotic
I suppose there might be some people who would like to roleplay flaws like that, but I don't think the flaw system translates well to D&D without a lot of buy-in. Also, the downsides listed are much stronger than the positives. Personally, I'd never volunteer for something that could deny me long rests or give me permanent disadvantage in most social encounters.
There are cursed objects that impose restrictions like the ones above, and those can be fun if they are A) counterbalanced with good buffs, or B) the impetus of a quest to remove said curse. But like I said, certain people might feel differently.
If you allow someone to go "those feats are free so I'll stack ten of them on my character" you're likely to see unwanted side effects, but if you limit it to one or two you're not likely to break anything. Just make sure not to introduce mechanics that would be super annoying to deal with (for example, anxiety would probably just mean people spend an extra day resting any time it triggers).
Anxiety: there are people whose bodies are in a more constant fight/flight mode and arguably their adrenaline/cortisol levels (sorta inverted to the normal population) produce types more like to move toward the explosion or gunfire or violence instead of freezing or running away (something one could see as something that would give someone advantage on initiative). While personalities with those conditions sometimes manifest behaviors that can be classified as anxiety, giving "anxiety" the advantage to initiative doesn't seem to really understand anxiety which tends to lead to more paralysis than initiative taking. If someone wanted to play a character who was a bit amped or overclocked in the neuroadrenaline dept, I'd point them to the Alert feat.
Haunted: too much going on, and ill defined. I don't know if you take the traditional definition of haunted in regard to the supernatural (plagued by spirts etc) and turn that into a advantage in persuading undead, and I don't know why it would. Your life is marked by being harassed by the undead, but despite that harassment you have a knack for bending their ear? It's like the effort is to create some sorta mechanical edge lord. Plus the benefit of _persuading_ the undead vs the consequences of having disadvantage with more common living beings you're more likely to encounter in your day to day seems like a poor trade off ... and let's remember persuasion effects are not dominate monster. Look at Phantoms and College of Souls subclasses and extrapolate from there if you want to develop a haunted feat available to everyone.
Temperance? +4/-4 mods? Because of self-restraint or proclamations of abstinence from vices? That's an immodest proposal. Maybe pull something from one of the more courtly Paladin oaths. How do you as a DM make sure temperance is actually practiced and what does the DM do if the PC takes temperance but actually plays a rake's turn?
Overall I think I see what you're trying to do in offering let's call them "compromised feats"; but as mentioned in this thread, I don't think they balance the way you think they do, and the hindrance factor actually outweigh the benefit.
Thank you all for your replies. I feel that I accidentally caused you to focus on the wrong thing. I wrote those example feats off the cuff. I'm aware that they need more time in development. What I intended for you to focus on was the idea of feats which have positive and negative aspects and, so, are a net zero gain. Then, offering those feats for free.
While I did not previously state as such, the idea was to give non-humans the ability to choose up to two and humans no more than three.
If you allow someone to go "those feats are free so I'll stack ten of them on my character" you're likely to see unwanted side effects, but if you limit it to one or two you're not likely to break anything. Just make sure not to introduce mechanics that would be super annoying to deal with (for example, anxiety would probably just mean people spend an extra day resting any time it triggers).
Yeah, also, maybe the feats could be maybe like dark gifts from evil deities with being both a blessing and curse.
Like the things inn VRGtR.
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Anxiety -- You gain advantage on initiative for the first round of combat, but when you take a long rest, you roll a 1d6 and gain no benefit if you roll a 1
You have to be a bit mindful when making stuff like this. The con is either going to do absolutely nothing, or be so harmful that could easily end up in character death.
If you want to look at some official content that is basically a pro/con feat, look at the dark gifts in Van Richtens. They are definitely meant to be an overall benefit but it will give you a few examples to look at and compare to.
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What are your thoughts on free feats which have pros and cons. For example,
Anxiety -- You gain advantage on initiative for the first round of combat, but when you take a long rest, you roll a 1d6 and gain no benefit if you roll a 1
Haunted -- You can roll a Persuasion skill check vs undead, but must roll at disadvantage when rolling Persuasion against the living and people can sense there is something off (not necessarily evil) about you
Temperance -- +4 on social skills vs the Lawful, -4 on social skills vs the Chaotic
I suppose there might be some people who would like to roleplay flaws like that, but I don't think the flaw system translates well to D&D without a lot of buy-in. Also, the downsides listed are much stronger than the positives. Personally, I'd never volunteer for something that could deny me long rests or give me permanent disadvantage in most social encounters.
There are cursed objects that impose restrictions like the ones above, and those can be fun if they are A) counterbalanced with good buffs, or B) the impetus of a quest to remove said curse. But like I said, certain people might feel differently.
If you allow someone to go "those feats are free so I'll stack ten of them on my character" you're likely to see unwanted side effects, but if you limit it to one or two you're not likely to break anything. Just make sure not to introduce mechanics that would be super annoying to deal with (for example, anxiety would probably just mean people spend an extra day resting any time it triggers).
Anxiety: there are people whose bodies are in a more constant fight/flight mode and arguably their adrenaline/cortisol levels (sorta inverted to the normal population) produce types more like to move toward the explosion or gunfire or violence instead of freezing or running away (something one could see as something that would give someone advantage on initiative). While personalities with those conditions sometimes manifest behaviors that can be classified as anxiety, giving "anxiety" the advantage to initiative doesn't seem to really understand anxiety which tends to lead to more paralysis than initiative taking. If someone wanted to play a character who was a bit amped or overclocked in the neuroadrenaline dept, I'd point them to the Alert feat.
Haunted: too much going on, and ill defined. I don't know if you take the traditional definition of haunted in regard to the supernatural (plagued by spirts etc) and turn that into a advantage in persuading undead, and I don't know why it would. Your life is marked by being harassed by the undead, but despite that harassment you have a knack for bending their ear? It's like the effort is to create some sorta mechanical edge lord. Plus the benefit of _persuading_ the undead vs the consequences of having disadvantage with more common living beings you're more likely to encounter in your day to day seems like a poor trade off ... and let's remember persuasion effects are not dominate monster. Look at Phantoms and College of Souls subclasses and extrapolate from there if you want to develop a haunted feat available to everyone.
Temperance? +4/-4 mods? Because of self-restraint or proclamations of abstinence from vices? That's an immodest proposal. Maybe pull something from one of the more courtly Paladin oaths. How do you as a DM make sure temperance is actually practiced and what does the DM do if the PC takes temperance but actually plays a rake's turn?
Overall I think I see what you're trying to do in offering let's call them "compromised feats"; but as mentioned in this thread, I don't think they balance the way you think they do, and the hindrance factor actually outweigh the benefit.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thank you all for your replies. I feel that I accidentally caused you to focus on the wrong thing. I wrote those example feats off the cuff. I'm aware that they need more time in development. What I intended for you to focus on was the idea of feats which have positive and negative aspects and, so, are a net zero gain. Then, offering those feats for free.
While I did not previously state as such, the idea was to give non-humans the ability to choose up to two and humans no more than three.
Yeah, also, maybe the feats could be maybe like dark gifts from evil deities with being both a blessing and curse.
Like the things inn VRGtR.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.You have to be a bit mindful when making stuff like this.
The con is either going to do absolutely nothing, or be so harmful that could easily end up in character death.
If you want to look at some official content that is basically a pro/con feat, look at the dark gifts in Van Richtens. They are definitely meant to be an overall benefit but it will give you a few examples to look at and compare to.