Two feats: Primer and planar

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Almighty Watashi's picture
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Two feats: Primer and planar

To make a game have more feeling like the old planescape, I decided to give a free feat to everyone. They,re supposed to work like this:

Primer
+4 vs. banishing (if a spell also does something else, banishing possibility happens only if the victim fails it's save by 4)

Planar
Portal spotting (find portals like rogue finds traps or elf finds secret passages)
Knowledge[planes] as a class skill

This makes a few problems:
1) On higher levels, portal spotting loses it's use (anyone can just teleport around) and protection from banishing helps a lot
-I don't know anything about this because I never played on such high levels, this is only the advice I've been given

2) What about spellcasters? I can give any free knowledge to a cleric but wizard has already got all of them. What can I give to a wizard?

Currently, everyone likes the "planar" feat better because there's no true wizards and they could all use knowledge[planes] to know things about outsiders and enviroment, but I'm still scared of disbalancing the game in the future

Should I add something weak but enjoyable to the planars (altough, "not a primer" is almost like a courtesy rank in the planes Laughing out loud) just to make things even?

eldersphinx's picture
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Two feats: Primer and planar

'Almighty Watashi' wrote:
To make a game have more feeling like the old planescape, I decided to give a free feat to everyone. They,re supposed to work like this:

Primer
+4 vs. banishing (if a spell also does something else, banishing possibility happens only if the victim fails it's save by 4)

Planar
Portal spotting (find portals like rogue finds traps or elf finds secret passages)
Knowledge[planes] as a class skill

This makes a few problems:
1) On higher levels, portal spotting loses it's use (anyone can just teleport around) and protection from banishing helps a lot
-I don't know anything about this because I never played on such high levels, this is only the advice I've been given

2) What about spellcasters? I can give any free knowledge to a cleric but wizard has already got all of them. What can I give to a wizard?

Currently, everyone likes the "planar" feat better because there's no true wizards and they could all use knowledge[planes] to know things about outsiders and enviroment, but I'm still scared of disbalancing the game in the future

Should I add something weak but enjoyable to the planars (altough, "not a primer" is almost like a courtesy rank in the planes Laughing out loud) just to make things even?


I'd say overall power balance between the two feats is fine. If a prime survives long enough for a +4 versus banishing to be useful, more power to them - and players who insist that 'portal spotting is useless because everyone can teleport anywhere anyway' need a quick trip to a demiplane or Abyssal layer warded against teleportation to snap them out of their complacency. Cool

As for the 'what to replace Knowledge (the Planes) with' issue, I'd actually recommend the Search skill, across the board. Neither bards, nor clerics, nor wizards (the three base classes that get Knowledge (the Planes) as a class skill) receive this skill, and granting it to them as a class skill makes portal searching that much more useful. Something like Gather Information or Sense Motive could also work for wizards (though a bard already receives both of these, as well as all Knowledge skills - s'why I thought of Search. Oddly enough, the SRD I'm referencing doesn't list it as a class skill.)

Hope this helps!

Almighty Watashi's picture
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Two feats: Primer and planar

Oh my god, this makes sense :shock:

Thanks Smiling, I'm definitely using this Smiling :)

Anarch's picture
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Joined: 2004-05-19
Two feats: Primer and planar

I'm using the existing descriptor of Planar in the PSCS as a template for such creatures with a slight modification -- Spot for portals at DC 18, Search at DC 10, requires a conscious effort to detect unless the portal is either very large or very open -- and your idea for a Prime template as above.

On which note: did anyone ever come to an official conclusion about what happens with the interaction between the Outsider type, the Extraplanar subtype and banishment-style effects in PS?

Rhys's picture
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Joined: 2004-05-11
Two feats: Primer and planar

Any and every creature gains the (Extraplanar) subtype when it is off its home plane, for as long as it is off its home plane. A creature's home plane is the plane on which it was born, created, etc. Outsiders are not any more succeptible to banishment effects than other creatures, necessarily, although their planar nature makes them more likely to venture off-plane and therefore open themselves up to such an effect.

At least, that's my take on things.

Anarch's picture
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Joined: 2004-05-19
Two feats: Primer and planar

'Rhys' wrote:
Any and every creature gains the (Extraplanar) subtype when it is off its home plane, for as long as it is off its home plane. A creature's home plane is the plane on which it was born, created, etc.

So, for example, a tanar'ri could banish a party of PCs adventuring in the Abyss back to their respective planes of origin? Hmmmm... seems interesting...

Almighty Watashi's picture
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Joined: 2004-11-22
Two feats: Primer and planar

'Rhys' wrote:
Outsiders are not any more succeptible to banishment effects than other creatures, necessarily

Right, you cannot banish a creature off it's home plane. Where do you banish a baatezu when on baator? To baator? Laughing out loud

Almighty Watashi's picture
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Two feats: Primer and planar

'Anarch' wrote:
So, for example, a tanar'ri could banish a party of PCs adventuring in the Abyss back to their respective planes of origin? Hmmmm... seems interesting...

Yes, anyone can banish extraplanars and there's not a big chance of a player fighting on his home plane often. That's why the +4 vs. banish might be a bit powerful :oops:

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