Feats (4E)

4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons

New feats.

These feat descriptions can be moved to separate pages once layout and templates have been finalized.

Heroic Tier Feats

Alter Form (Genre)

Prerequisites: Elemental, Fey, Shapechanger, Primal, or Arcane racial keyword or a power with the primal or arcane origin. Benefit: Once per day as a standard action you change shape into any shape of the same basic build and size, but not a specific individual. This shape resembles you, and can be recognized with an Insight roll against a DC of your Bluff +10. You are not limited to types of creatures that exist. You must keep the same form for the entire duration, but can end the effect as a minor action. See Monster Manual p. 280 for more on Change Shape.

Notes: This feat often serves as an introduction to the polymath paragon path.

Animal Companion

Prerequisite: Trained in Nature

Benefit: You have an animal companion of unusual strength and toughness. Select a beast of helpful attitude and with an Intelligence of 3 or less and of a level no higher than your own. This creature will serve you to the best of its ability. It will move as you move, always returning to your side unless you order it to stay in a specific place. This is the only action it can perform on its own. It can serve as a mount, pet, companion, and beast of burden. In a fight, it will stay next to you, possibly acting as cover and as a hindrance to enemies, but it cannot attack and will not take opportunity attacks (except if you have Mounted Combat and it has an appropriate mount power). It acts on your initiative, to follow you. As a minor action, you can order it to stand still, come to you, or take a minor action, but it cannot follow complex orders.

The animal companion starts with the game statistics of a regular animal of its kind. For every level you are higher than the animal companion, it gains one point to all attacks and defenses, as well as eight hit points.

If your animal companion is killed, you will want to retrain this feat.

Animal Guard

Prerequisite: Animal Companion

Benefit: Your animal companion can make opportunity attacks. Once per round as a minor action, you can order it to take a standard or minor action, including attacks. You cannot order it to charge or to move – it will follow you just as an animal companion does.

Battle Rogue [Rogue]

Prerequisite: Sneak attack ability.

Benefit: You can use any weapon or attack with rogue powers and Sneak Attack.

Campaign: This opens up many multiclass options for rogues.

Beast Master

Prerequisite: Animal Guard

Benefit: You can order your animal companion to move or charge. As a minor action, you can order it to take a standard, move, or minor action, but it can only take the normally allowed number of actions each round. You can give it orders as long as it remains within hearing. If it is not adjacent to you and you do not give it an order, it will take move actions as needed to return to your side.

Cantrips

Prerequisite: Trained in Arcana

Benefit: You learn all the wizard cantrips.

Comment: This should probably be as encounter powers rather that at will (given the way multiclassing works in 4E). Cantrips are not that powerful, so keeping then as at-will powers should be fine.

Channel Divinity [Cleric, Paladin]

Prerequisite: Channel Divinity feat or class feature

Benefit: You learn the channel divinity power of a god you worship.

Special: A cleric can worship several gods, and can learn this power several times. Each time, you learn the channel divinity power of another god you worship.

Comment: This is a generic feat that replaces the specific channel divinity feats with a single unified feat; moving the deity-specific channeling powers into the description of the religions.

Dread Strike [Warlock]

Prerequisite: Warlock

Benefit: You can use any warlock ranged attack power as a melee attack power instead.

Favored Channel

Prerequisite: Trained in Religion, patron god

Benefit: You can use your patron god’s channel divinity power once per day. If you have multiclassed into a class with the divine channel ability, you can use any of the divine channeling abilities of that class as well, but you can only channel divinity a total of once per day.

Fencing (Genre)

Prerequisite: Dex 13. Benefit: When wielding a single light blade in one hand and not using a shield or two weapons, you get a plus one shield bonus to armor class and reflex defense. You can still wield an implement or missile weapon in the off hand.

Harrow Reading

Prerequisites: You (both player and character) must have access to a Harrow deck.

Benefit: During a long rest, you can make a harrow reading, and the effects apply until the next long rest. Use the technique described on p. 3 of the Harrow divination book. If a card appears as a true match, one ally taking part in the reading receives a power bonus on (or against) a single action. You activate this bonus as a free action. If an ally’s role card appears in the reading, that character gains an additional action point, and also gains the suit bonus until the end of his next round after spending the action point.

• Hammer Target gains a +2 power bonus to Fortitude defense and melee attack rolls until the end of the encounter.
• Key Target gains a +2 power bonus to one ranged attack roll.
• Shield Target gains target gains a +2 power bonus to one close attack roll.
• Star Target gains a +5 power bonus to Insight and Perception.
• Book Target gains a +2 power bonus to one area attack rolls.
• Crown Target gains a +2 power bonus to any one skill check.

Heavy Thrown Mastery

'Benefit: When using a heavy thrown weapon with a power that normally bases its attack roll and damage on Dexterity, you instead use Strength.

Improved Channel Divinity

Prerequisite: Channel Divinity feat or class feature

Benefit: You are not limited to using the Channel Divinity class feature once per encounter. You can still use each channel divinity power only once per encounter, but you can use all your channel divinity powers each encounter.

Lore

Benefit: As a standard action you can make a knowledge check, even if you already failed at this same knowledge check.

Polymath

Benefit: You gain a new talent at each level.

Notes: Should only be used if the campaign uses the talent and profession options below.

Practiced Defense (Genre)

Benefit: As long as you are wearing only cloth armor, you gain a bonus to armor class of one point plus another point for each type of armor you are proficient in.

Special: Shields are not armor and shield proficiency feats are not armor proficiency feats.

Rapid Reload

Benefit: Reload time for weapons is reduced one step. Reload minor become reload free and reload standard becomes reload minor.

Ritual Extension

Prerequisite: Ritual Casting.

Benefit: When you cast or support a ritual with a duration of 1 hour or more, the duration of the ritual is extended to 24 hours. Rituals without a fixed duration are not affected. This increases the cost of ritual components by +100%.

Ritual Multitarget

Prerequisite: Ritual Casting.

Benefit: When you cast or support a ritual that normally affects only the caster, or that affects a limited number of allies less than eight, now affects up to 8 targets. This increases the cost of ritual components by +100%.

Staff Mastery

Prerequisite: Con 13, proficient with the staff, medium size or larger.

Benefit: You can use a staff as if it were two separate melee weapons, each with the Off-Hand quality and dealing normal staff damage. You can use feats and powers requiring two weapons with a staff. You gain the benefit of the Two Weapon Defense feat when you wield a staff.

Sword Implement [Wizard]

Prerequisites: Wizard.

Benefit: Choose an arcane implement, whether the wand, staff, or orb. You can use a longsword as if it were that type of arcane implement.

Notes: This feat often serves as an introduction to the wizard of the spiral tower wizard paragon path.

Unarmed Combat (Genre)

Benefit: You gain a +2 proficiency bonus with unarmed attacks. Your unarmed attacks deal 1d6 + Strength modifier damage.

Comment: The proficiency bonus and damage is lower than the monk conversion note. This makes the character a skilled brawler, but it is clearly worse than weapons even at low levels.

Weapon Finesse (Genre)

Prerequisite: Dex 13

Benefit: When using a light blade or unarmed attack, you can substitute your Dexterity bonus for your Strength bonus for the hit and effect lines of powers and basic attacks.

Weapon Training

Benefit: You gain proficiency in all simple and military weapons.

Comment: This might seem overly useful, but actually is rarely attractive compared to simply learning a superior weapon.

Paragon Tier Feats

Flashing Blade

Prerequisites: Dex 17, Str 13

Benefit: If you miss with a melee attack with a rapier and you wouldn’t otherwise still deal damage on the miss, you deal damage to your original target equal to your Dexterity modifier. This damage receives no modifiers or other benefits you normally gain on weapon damage.

Comment: This is the equivalent of Scimitar Dance for rapier. The ability prerequisites have been changed to fit light blades.

Epic Tier Feats

Threatening Reach

Prerequisite: Str 17, Wis 17

Benefit: You have threatening reach with reach weapons.

Multiclass Feats

Human Versatility

Prerequisites: Human, any class-specific multiclass feat, 6th level.

Benefit: Replace one of your at-will powers with one from your multiclass.

Comment: This works with paragon multiclassing since it would still leave a human with at least one at-will power from his base class.