Talk:Traits (4E)

Basics

Talents come in three basic types; persona, subplots, and perks. Personal talents affect yourself and your abilities, and include all professions. Subplots have an effect on the story, and is an invitation to the DM to weave stories around your character; it is a statement of interest in a certain type of plot. Perks are social advantages your character enjoys in the game world. Many of them invite to subplots as well, especially political ones, but not as directly as subplot talents do.

I had an idea that the if the professions were called talents maybe the talents could be called gimmicks? --TexaS 10:54, 17 December 2008 (CET)

Heroic Talents

Cause

Perk

Benefit: You are a champion for a certain cause, and know among others dedicated to and against this cause. This gives you a set of friends and enemies depending on the exact cause you choose when taking this talent. Causes can be religious creed

Cute

Perk

The discussion so far went against subdividing cute further. Still, as the complimentary talent to Awe, cute does assume a certain degree of passiveness and/or lack of respect. --Starfox 17:06, 17 December 2008 (CET)

Should these variants exist alongside cute, or should you choose between them when you pick cute? Are these three variants enough? If you have to choose you have to have more, like charming and beautiful. I don't like the idea that a talent many picks has to be split up. It's like every feat or skill that more than one character picks has to be split up. "Oh no, you picked perception too, well I'm better at eyesight, you have to be better at listening or smelling." --TexaS 10:46, 12 December 2008 (CET)

Isn't this solved with no change? --TexaS 10:54, 17 December 2008 (CET)

Benefit: Being cute makes it easy for you to get into social events, make acquaintances, and generally be very popular in a non-domineering sort of way. There is something about you that makes others care for you. People who would ordinarily be hostile might capture ore use you instead of killing you.

• Adorable: You inspire others to take care of you. This often goes with a somewhat infantile presence. As long as you stay somewhat subdued or submissive you can expect many people to give you favorable treatment, with minor gifts, favors, and treats.
• Alluring: You have a mystery about you that is appealing to others. By remaining silent and aloft, you inspire others to think about you and perhaps even approach you. Once they get to know you, they will slowly realize what is under the surface and the allure is replaced by other feelings. This can be bad if there is nothing beneath.
• Perky: You have an upbeat personality and your antics are generally taken in a positive way. This cheers up those around you and contributes to a positive atmosphere. You often serve to inspire others to action, though sometimes not into doing what you want them to.

Spin Yarn

Personal

Prerequisite: Trained in Bluff.

Benefit: By continually speaking, you may keep your audience captive with outrageous tales, distracting them. You can keep this up beyond all reason. You must first engage the victim in conversation, and then make a Bluff roll against the targets' passive Insight. You can target several people at once with no penalties, but use the highest value in the audience for a difficulty. A successful roll lets you keep telling the story for five minutes before you need to make a second roll.

Combat, an alarm, and other direct threats and immediate situations will break your hold on people. You might have to use your Spin Yarn on someone who comes to interrupt, or lose your audience.

Paragon Talents

Haunted

Perk

Benefit: You are a magnet for spirits and poltergeist events. Odd but minor things happen near you; milk goes sour, animals walk on their hind legs, apparitions appear, and ghostly voices bemoan their fate. This gives you a solid reputation as a spooky person whose interests are not to be crossed; ordinary people dare not oppose your interest, tough they might petition lords and heroes to help them if you become an acute threat. Even persons of import show you a mix of fear and respect, but more guardedly. Overusing respect earned this way can backfire.

Epic Talents

At this level you approach absolute power as an independent monarch or other great leader. Granting such powers is always at the discretion of the DM, who should be consulted before taking these feats. If your area of expertise is the focus of the campaign, you should expect to have to work for your advancement; becoming the king might be the focus of a campaign. In other games, this is just a backdrop, a wayside honor largely irrelevant to your adventuring activities; in this case it is usually easier to gain power, but the impact is also much less.

Epic talents often give worldwide influence, but this influence is vague. If you want direct influence in a smaller area, it is generally wise to hold on to your paragon talents. If you retrain those, you are assumed to have retired from such lower positions in order to enjoy the benefits of your new exalted position, leaving day-to-day activities (and the influence they bring) to someone new.

Archpriest

Perk

Benefit: You are the titular head of your religion, and can give orders to bishops. Your word is law in religious matters, tough it takes tact and diplomacy to get the law implemented across the world.

Chancellor

Perk

Benefit: You are the prime minister of a major power, responsible for day-to-day policy decisions and in charge of the judicial, financial, and diplomatic corps.

Epic Adventurer

Perk

Prerequisites: Trained as a Celebrity.

Benefit: You are recognized for your superior class abilities. Whether you are known as an archmage, legendary thief, or master of dragons. Whatever your abilities they have given you world-wide recognition. You can associate with royalty as an equal, and your personal influence is that of a small nation.

King

Perk

Benefit: You are the lord of a county. You might bear a different title and your powers might not be absolute, but you are the final executive authority of a nation, if not a major power.

Magical Locus

Perk

Benefit: The mark of a saint or archmage, you embody a magical phenomena to such a degree that supernatural effects happen spontaneously up to a mile away from you. Choose one type of effect such as plants growing in barren soil, the dead reanimating, the sick getting cured, or supernatural creatures of a certain type manifesting. You have no direct control over this, but effects are generally benign to you and your interests. The level of such events is on the heroic scale and around 20 levels below your own.

Marshal

Perk

Benefit: You command the military forces of a major power; a large nation or military alliance. You can call a levy and demand armies from regional lords and allies.

Mogul

Perk

Benefit: You are a master of professional and commercial ventures, a merchant lord or guilder of worldwide repute. Wherever you go, members of your profession come out to greet you and seek your aid and advice. You do not hold direct authority, but your influence can drive nations bankrupt.

Shadow Lord

Perk

Benefit: You are a master of plots and secrets; aware of and in a position to manipulate several Masterminds, either because you are their shadow mentor, or because you have spies planted in their organizations. Your information network is vast, and you can cause all kinds of events all over the world, but you have little direct control over what your minions do; such control would jeopardize security.

Prophet

Perk

Benefit: You receive direct guidance from a supernatural source - or at least people believe you do. Strangers treat you as the emissary of a god - or demon. If you are also a Medium, your visions are genuine, and the power level of the spirits guiding you has increased manifold; you now hear the voice of past kings, primordials and demon princes, archfey, or gods. If you are also an Oracle your visions are frequent.

Notes: There is a danger in playing a genuine prophet; you are a tool of fate and lose some control over your character. In many cases, it is more interesting to play a false prophet or one at odds with his visions, who sees but does not fully believe. In other cases, the DM might simply let you decide what your visions are.

Visionary

Subplot

Benefit: Your ideas run like wildfire trough the world. Whether the listener knows who spoke them or not, your views and ideas spread rapidly, possibly changing the life of millions. If you express dislike for something, it comes under immediate public scrutiny. If you express a preference for something, it is likely to garner followers and grow into a popular movement.