New Feats

Contributed by: Most of these feats are taken from the Hyborian Age PBEM by Howard (gmredux@yahoo.com). Additional feats by Thulsa (

). Note that the description of feats is subject to change as a result of playtesting and feedback.

Animal Sacrifice [Metamagic]

You can sacrifice an animal or other non-sentient living being at the culmination of a spell, consuming its life-force in order to enhance your magic.

Benefit: The caster must kill the animal while casting the spell. Because casters must concentrate on the spell, the animal must be unconscious, bound or otherwise immobile. By taking this feat, the caster is allowed to take a full-round Coup de Grace attack against one helpless animal while casting a spell. If the sacrifice is completed, the caster's effective level is increased by 1 for every 2 hit dice of the animal, applied to the spell being cast only. Some spells may require a specific type of sacrificial animal, particularly high-level spells.

Expert Armor Use [Special]

Benefit: When wearing medium or heavy armor, for purposes of movement you may treat the armor as if it were one category lighter (ie. banded armor is treated as Medium armor and a breastplate is treated as if it were Light armor). This only affects movement. Armor penalties, arcane spell failure and weight are all unaffected.

Expert Shield Use [Special]

Benefit: You gain a +1 competence bonus to your shield's AC value in combat. This feat can only be taken once.

Favored Beast [General]

You can pick a certain class of animal, beast or magical beast that you have a special rapport with (apes, avians, horses, canines, fish, etc).

Benefit: You gain a +2 insight bonus when dealing with the selected class of animal or beast. You gain this bonus for all Animal Handling, Animal Empathy, Ride (if applicable) and other appropriate rolls, as determined by the GM. You may take this feat more than once and its effects stack if applied against a previous class of beast.

Favored Enemy [General]

Benefit: You gain a +2 insight bonus against a class of enemy: either a specific race (including its subraces) or organization (worshippers of Set, the Black Circle, etc.). This bonus applies to attack, damage, Spot, Listen, Bluff, Sense Motive and Tracking and any other applicable rolls the GM may think valid. You may inflict the extra damage even against creatures that are normally immune to such things (such as undead or constructs). You may take this feat more than once, and its effects stack if applied against a previous class of enemy.

Favored Land [General]

Benefit: You gain a +2 insight bonus when operating in a specific terrain type (mountain, plains, desert, forest, jungle, hills, swamp, ocean/coast, tundra/ice field, urban). You gain this bonus on all Tracking attempts, Hide, Move Silently, and Wilderness Lore rolls. You may take this feat more than once and its effects stack if applied against a previous class of terrain.

Fleet-Footed [General]

Benefit: You may add 10 feet to your base movement rate when you are wearing Light or Medium armor. This benefit stacks with any other movement increase. You do not gain the benefit in Heavy armors.

Iron Skin [General]

As a result of living in an extreme environment, punishing training or simply surviving enough battles with enough scars, you are extraordinarily tough and able to shrug off blows that would fell a lesser person.

Benefit: You gain a +1 natural bonus to AC. This feat may be stacked up to three times. You can gain no other benefit past a +3 total bonus from this feat.

Light Sleeper [General]

Benefit: Characters with this feat spend only one round to wake up from sleep (those without the feat usually spend at least 1d3 rounds to become aware of their surroundings).

Night Eyes [General]

You have excellent night vision, and can see almost as well in shadows and dim light as you can during the day.

Benefit: You gain the Lowlight Vision trait and can see twice as far at night as normal. You can not see in the total absence of light, however, and you cannot see in color (unlike standard racial Lowlight Vision) – you see in monochrome.

Orrery Astrology [Metamagic]

By watching the stars and planets, and by understanding the movements of the Inner and Outer Planes (ref. Manual of the Planes, p217, the Orrery Cosmology), you have learned to enhance your magic.

Benefit: Spend one hour in contemplation and study. At the end, make a successful Knowledge (Astrology) check against DC 20 (you may not take 10 or 20 on this check). Retries are not permitted. A success increases your effective caster level by +1 for 24 hours.

Sacrifice [Metamagic]

You can sacrifice a human being at the culmination of a spell, consuming the victim's life-force in order to enhance your magic.

Benefit: Casters must kill the victim while casting the spell. Because casters must concentrate on the spell, the victim must be unconscious, bound or otherwise immobile. By taking this feat, the caster is allowed to take a full-round Coup de Grace attack against one helpless foe while casting a spell. If the sacrifice is completed, the caster's effective level is increased by 1 for every hit dice of the victim, applied to the spell being cast only. Some spells may require a specific type of sacrificial victim, particularly high-level spells.

Trackless Step [General]

Constant honing of your skills and an understanding of how you can be tracked has left you with the ability to move like the wind over the landscape, avoiding the leaving of any tracks.

Prerequisite: Wilderness Lore 12 ranks, Move Silently 12 ranks, Dex 15+, Track feat.

Benefit: You gain the permanent ability of pass without trace, and leave no mark on the ground when you walk whenever you will it.

Wild Passage [General]

You are keenly attuned to your environment, and can find ways to slip past the most gnarled foliage, or traverse the most rugged terrain.

Benefit: You gain the druid ability to ignore movement penalties associated with non-magical natural barriers. You cannot ignore magical effects, however.