A Rough Sketch of Skill Feats

[Prak]

So basically we need a feat that makes the game wuxian? I actually once used jump to great effect, jumping from outside a monstrous scorpion's reach, over it's claws, and onto it's stinger... yes it took one hell of a check, but I made it, and it's pretty much the only time I've used geometry outside of the classroom... but I imagine that this is besides the point...

[Iaimeki]

1197241847[/unixtime]]A good feat based around Jump needs to address the problem that the skill stops being useful when everyone starts flying.

I'd turn this around, myself: the problem is that flying arrives too damn early. It's possible to fly at level 1, standard at level 5, and everything flies at level 10. Climb and Jump are never good because you always end up flying wherever you need to be.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

This seems like a clear fix to me, although requiring a suspension of disbelief:
Add flying into the Jump feat, something like:
"You can fly with perfect maneuverability for one round as part of a move action if you succeed on a DC 20 Jump check"

[Fwib]

Probably best for a feat like that to go:

Jump bonus -> jump/run up walls -> glide through air -> lower maneuverability flight -> perfect flight (with appropriate restrictions, like duration and jump DCs)

or something, no?

[JonSetanta]

Instead of perfect flight, how about just a Wuxia-like constant "Air Walk"?

A good example of this taken to the extreme would be those villains in OnePiece that wore suits, the monk-like peeps that captured Robin.
One of them turned into a half-leopard, and demonstrated their shared skill of kicking the air once every few seconds to remain aloft.

Probably a combination of really strong "jump" and lightening the body with chi, just like in the Chinese movies.
And in a setting where Wizards bend space-time to teleport, this kind of thing really should be possible around L10-11.

So IMO the progression would be jump-enhancement (like ninjas in Ninja Scroll or Naruto) -> wall-rebounding (Shinobi video game, anyone? heh) -> Wuxia air-running for a few rounds at a time (and Feather Fall effect) -> jumping over mountains, ala Exalted (OK yeah, it left me impressed.. maybe just big hill jumping)

[Fwib]

That's good, but how do you distinguish air-walk from perfect flight?

Or do you do it like this:

Walk of the Clouds(Su)
With a DC?? jump check (and/or a DC?? balance check)? the character can now run upon the air. (blah blah, fluff about chi...) The character gains flight, with good* maneuverability at his base land movement speed.

*(good, so that when he runs up invisible stairs in the air, or whatever, he doesn't do it faster than on the ground)

[Surgo]

Probably best for a feat like that to go:

Jump bonus -> jump/run up walls -> glide through air -> lower maneuverability flight -> perfect flight (with appropriate restrictions, like duration and jump DCs)

or something, no?

Sounds about right to me, though if perfect flight is coming at a later level I don't see why a lot of restrictions are needed.

[JonSetanta]

Yeah the Jump check to do such things is really just extra.
IMHO, if a character takes a Jump-enhancing feat, they shouldn't even need to make Jump checks for the supernatural stuff later.

[Captain_Bleach]

Flight in D&D isn't that big of a deal; it shouldn't even have a level adjustment. When you can cast Reduce Person on yourself as a Halfling Wizard and ride on your Hawk Animal Companion, there is no point in trying to penalize monsters or races for being able to fly all day long.

[JonSetanta]

heh
There was an assassin in the early Dragonball chapters/episodes that flew by throwing a stone pillar and riding it to his destination.

I wonder...

[Surgo]

I'm about to add these to the Frank & K pdf, and here's a few potential issues I caught while reading them:

Alertness:
I would switch the 14/19 rank abilities. Blindsense is ungodly awesome, and the 19 rank ability isn't really that great at all when you have blindsense.

Animal Affinity:
How often can you use the 14 rank ability? Once per day? At will?

Battlefield Surgeon:
The 19 rank ability seems really excessively expensive. I understand that you want it a bit more expensive than True Resurrection, but True Resurrection is half the cost of that, doesn't have a 24 hour limit, and can affect those things that this ability cannot.

Con Artist:
The rank 4 ability -- don't you mean bonus on Bluff checks, not Diplomacy checks? And maybe it should be ranks in the skill, because you can push up your bonus on checks disgustingly high.

Cryptographer:
This seems rather weak. I know that Decipher Script is a weak skill anyway, but that should mean that the feat transforms it into something you'd actually want to spend ranks in.

Deft Fingers:
The rank 4 ability means that someone will hide as many daggers as they want somewhere on their person, draw one, throw/attack, drop (free action), draw another, throw/attack, drop, etc., and have their opponent denied their dexterity bonus on all of the attacks. I don't think that this is intentional.

Dreadful Demeanor:
For the 19 rank ability, how long are they cowered for?

Ghost Step:
From first blush, the rank 19 ability looks...rather powerful. I'm not saying it is, because I really don't know if that's level appropriate when you hit level 16 or not. I'm just saying an explanation of why that's cool at level 16 or a second opinion would be really cool.

Investigator:
I'm not really sure how often it comes up in game, so I'd say that this is kind of wimpy until you get the rank 19 ability (at which point it's pretty cool).

Item Master:
* The rank 14 ability should be changed to work with the 8-magic-item limit, instead of slotted magic items.
* When you use the rank 19 ability, does anything special happen for spells that have costly material components? (By Book of Gears, we have no XP components anymore so that's not an issue.)

Leap of the Heavens:
We already discussed this one.

Legendary Wrangler:
I have nothing bad to say about this one. I just want to mention it specifically because it's so damn cool.

Magical Aptitude:
Seems good, but is there a different option for this feat without the counterspell abilities? I ask because I have my own counterspell [metamagic] feat forthcoming

Many Faced:
The rank 14 ability seems majorly weak for something you get at level 11, especially because a Hat of Disguise does this as a standard action anyway. Might I suggest emulating polymorph self for the rank 14 ability?

Persuasive:
Is this necessary? Diplomacy is a hideously powerful skill as it is; I seriously don't think a feat to make it even better is a good idea.

Professional Luddite:
According to the Book of Gears, you can already disable existing magical effects with Disable Device. You talked about this under the Disable Device entry, though. So it should be alright.

Steady Dance:
* Rank 9: What does it mean if your opponent is balancing?
* Rank 14: Balance DCs don't get too high to begin with, so this doesn't seem useful.

Super Scaler:
Climb is useless when everyone starts flying. Same problem as Jump. This feat needs to somehow make Climb continue to be useful.

Swim like a Fish:
The rank 19 ability means that you're never going to get hit if you're in an underwater campaign and you reach level 16. That seems really excessive.

[CalibronXXX]

Alertness: level eleven is the right time to gain Blindsight, push it off until 16 and it's both relatively weak and far out of reach in most campaigns.

Ghost Step: it's fine.

Legendary Wrangler: I agree. Add this to a Blitzing, Whirlwinding, TWFer and you've got something really special at sixth level. Thrown in combat school and a high strength and it's just evil.

Many Faced: being non-magical makes this ability stronger than it may seem.

Professional Luddite: You can disable some persistent magical effects with just disable device, for example Force Cage but nor Spike Stones, this ability opens up new possibilities.

Steady Stance: Opponents must make balance checks in difficult terrain, this means they are balancing; also epic balance.

Swim Like a Fish: I disagree that this is excessive for level 16.

[Surgo]

Okay, here's some changes I propose to the skill feats. This is the last thing I need to do before I publish version 0.4 of the Frank & K pdf, so I'd like some fast feedback.

Animal Affinity:
- The rank 14 ability is usable at will.

Battlefield Surgeon:
- The rank 19 ability costs the same as a True Resurrection.

Con Artist:
- Change the text in the rank 4 ability from "bonus on Diplomacy checks" to "your ranks in the Bluff skill".

Cryptographer:
I don't even know. This isn't really good until the rank 19 ability. Needs new ideas.

Deft Fingers:
- Add "This only works once per round." to the end of the rank 4 ability.

Dreadful Demeanor:
- Add "This effect lasts until they lose sight of you, plus one round." to the end of the rank 14 ability.

Investigator:
Again, I don't even know. Needs some new ideas. Perhaps Arcane Sight would be useful here?

Item Master:
- Add "If the spell being cast has an expensive material component, you must have that component on hand. It is used up in the casting as normal." to the end of the rank 19 ability.

Leap of the Heavens:
Just remove it. This needs to be replaced with something better that can make Jump into a useful skill, like Expert Counterfeiter did with Forgery.

Magical Aptitude:
It works, I guess, but I'd still like an alternate version. I'm just not sure what to put there.

Persuasive:
- The rank 9 ability is a bit long; can this be rewritten into something shorter and mostly equivalent?

Super Scaler:
Again, just remove this. Needs to be replaced by something that makes ranks in Climb worth having.