Feats

Heroes of Horror Feats

*Only intelligent creatures of evil alignment can acquire vile or tainted feats

ARCHIVIST OF NATURE []

In addition to your studies of the darkness, you have spent time studying giants and fey.

Prerequisite: Dark knowledge.

Benefit: You can use your dark knowledge on giants and fey. You use Knowledge (nature) for dark knowledge checks regarding these two creature types.

Normal:Without this feat, a character with dark knowledge can only use that class feature on aberrations, elementals, magical beasts, outsiders, and undead.

BANE MAGIC []

Your spells deal extra damage to a particular type of creature.

Benefit:When you cast a spell that deals damage against a specific creature type, you deal an extra 2d6 points of damage. For example, a giant bane lightning bolt cast by an 8th-level caster would deal the usual 8d6 points of damage to any nongiant in its path but would deal 10d6 points of damage against giants. This feat has no effect on spells that do not deal hit point damage, and the source and type of the damage remains the same. This feat cannot be used to increase the amount of healing dealt to undead by inflict light wounds and similar spells, but it can add to the damage dealt by casting cure light wounds on an undead creature.

Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, you must apply its effects to a different type of creature: aberrations, animals, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, giants, humanoids, magical beasts, monstrous humanoids, oozes, outsiders, plants, undead, or vermin. If you choose humanoids, you must select a particular type of humanoid, such as dwarf or orc. An aberration-specific version of this feat first appeared in Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations.

BLOOD CALLS TO BLOOD

Exploring the latent potential in your blood due to your fiendish descent, you learn how to better adapt to the mystical attacks of your forebears.

Prerequisites: Spontaneous arcane caster, must be descended from a fiend.

Benefit: Against the attacks, spells, and spell-like abilities of fiends (evil outsiders) and half-fiends, you gain a +2 bonus on your saving throws. This bonus does not apply against the assaults of opponents of any other kind.

CORRUPT ARCANA [TAINTED]

You can prepare and cast corrupt spells.

Prerequisites: Spontaneous arcane or divine caster, mild depravity.

Benefit: If you have access to a corrupt spell in written form—on a scroll, in a spellbook, or in a tome of forbidden lore—you can prepare it in the same way that a wizard or cleric would. The prepared corrupt spell remains in your mind and occupies one of your daily spell slots until you cast it or change it. A prepared corrupt spell uses a spell slot of the spell’s normal level, and you must pay corruption costs as normal for casting the spell. Any corrupt spells you prepare by using this feat do not count against your total spells known, just your spells per day.

CORRUPT SPELL FOCUS

All spells you cast that have a corrupt component (such as call forth the beast*, master’s lament*, or chain of sorrow*) are more potent than normal.

Prerequisite: Any nongood alignment.

Benefit: You add +1 to the DC for all saving throws against any spells you cast that have a corrupt component.

DEBILITATING SPELL [TAINTED]

By calling upon the taint within, you add a malign power to your offensive spells.

Prerequisites: Surge of Malevolence, moderate taint.

Benefit: This feat adds the evil descriptor to a spell. Furthermore, if the spell deals any physical damage to a subject, the target also takes either 2 points of Constitution damage (if your corruption is higher than your depravity) or 4 points of Wisdom damage (if your depravity is higher than your corruption). If you have an equal level of corruption and depravity, choose which sort of damage you wish to deal. You can use this ability twice per day if you have moderate taint and four times per day if you have severe taint.

Special: You must declare whether you are using this feat before making your attack. If you use this feat on a creature immune to the ability damage, that daily use of the feat is still expended. You cannot combine this feat with Debilitating Spell on a single attack (for example, with a touch attack spell). If you have both feats, you must elect to use one or the other on a given attack.

DEFORMITY (SKIN) [VILE]

Due to a regimen of deliberate abuse, you have roughened your skin until it has grown as coarse and tough as rhino hide.

Prerequisites: Evil alignment, Willing Deformity.

Benefit: You gain a +1 natural armor bonus.

Special: You can take this feat more than once. Its effects stack.

DEFORMITY (TALL) [VILE]

Through long and painful stints on the rack, bolstered by the surgical implantation of various splints and struts, you have stretched yourself to well over 7 feet in height.

Prerequisites: Evil alignment, Willing Deformity, Medium size.

Benefit: Even though you are still technically a Medium creature, your improved height and lanky limbs grant you an additional 5 feet to your reach, thereby allowing you to strike nonadjacent squares with nonreach weapons.

Special: You are a larger and clumsier target than you were before undergoing the height extension, giving you – 1 to your AC. You also take a –2 penalty on Hide checks.

DEFORMITY (TEETH) [VILE]

By filing your teeth to points and brutalizing your gums, you gain a hideous smile full of razor-sharp teeth that enable you to make a grisly bite attack.

Prerequisites: Evil alignment, Willing Deformity.

Benefit: You gain a bite attack that can be used as a natural weapon to deal damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier. If you attack with other weapons, you can use your bite as a secondary attack (taking a –5 penalty on your attack roll) for 1d4 + half Strength modifier damage. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus on Intimidate checks.

DEFORMITY (TONGUE) [VILE]

Through protracted self-mutilation that involves frequently piercing your tongue and dipping it in acid, your tongue becomes hideous to behold but oddly sensitive to the environment.

Prerequisites: Evil alignment, Willing Deformity.

Benefit: You gain the ability to sense your surroundings by taste, much as a serpent can. You gain the blindsense ability out to a range of 30 feet.

DISEASE IMMUNITY []

Whether due to prolonged exposure or natural hardiness, you have grown immune to some diseases and resistant to all others.

Prerequisite: Constitution 13.

Benefit: You are immune to one specific type of disease, such as the red ache or mummy rot. In addition, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on saving throws against other diseases (including magical diseases). You recover points lost to ability damage from disease at double the normal rate (2 points per day, rather than 1). If someone with the Heal skill (including yourself) uses your blood to help someone with the disease to which you are immune, the diseased character automatically makes his saving throw to recover. If your blood is used to aid in the healing of someone with any other disease, it provides a +4 bonus on the Heal check.

Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Each time you take it, you become immune to a new disease. The +2 circumstance bonus against other diseases does not stack with itself, since the circumstances of each disease immunity are essentially the same.

DRACONIC ARCHIVIST []

In addition to your studies of the darkness, you have spent time studying dragons and constructs.

Prerequisite: Dark knowledge.

Benefit: You can use your dark knowledge ability on dragons and constructs. You use Knowledge (arcana) for dark knowledge checks regarding these two creature types.

Normal:Without this feat, a character with dark knowledge can use that class feature only on aberrations, elementals, magical beasts, outsiders, and undead.

DREAMTELLING []

You can use your Knowledge (the planes) skill to interpret your dreams or the dreams of others, thus gleaning useful information and insights.

Benefit: You can interpret the basic symbolism of a dream to figure out what sorts of concerns or fears are likely to have inspired it. Attempting to garner insight into future events, or events occurring elsewhere, by reading the prophetic images of a dream adds +10 to +20 to the base DC, depending on how obscure the omens are. The DM must decide if a dream contains prophetic imagery; a sufficiently high roll might glean some information even if the dream was not overtly oracular. Making the DC required to interpret a dream grants information comparable to an augury spell (see page 202 of the Player’s Handbook). Exceeding the required check by 10 or more offers information comparable to a divination spell (see page 224 of the Player’s Handbook). Exceeding the required check by 20 or more offers information comparable to a commune spell (see page 211 of the Player’s Handbook).

Even if your result was not high enough to enable you to read prophetic images, the result might be sufficient to interpret basic symbols and events. Thus, a check result of 18 is insufficient to foretell the future but still grants some information about cultural details or concepts. You can use this feat to determine what effect injuries received in a dreamscape are likely to have on you once you return (DC 15), or whether an item or location was created by the dreamer or brought in from outside (DC 20); see Chapter 3 for information on adventuring within dreamscapes.

Finally, this feat allows Knowledge (the planes) to function in place of Survival when used within a dreamscape. This skill can be used to retrace your steps and return to a known person’s dream, or to attempt to track a creature across the dreamscape.

Action: Dreamtelling requires careful analysis of bizarre images and events. If you are trying to interpret your own dream, you must cogitate on it for a number of minutes equal to 30 minus your Intelligence modifier. If you wish to analyze someone else’s dream, that person must first describe it to you in great detail, adding an additional 10+1d10 minutes to the process.

Try Again: No. The check represents your ability to interpret that particular dream. You can attempt to interpret other dreams the same individual has later, but you get only one attempt per dream. Similarly, you have only one attempt to determine whether an item is native to a particular dream.

Special:Most campaigns are not set up to interact with the dream world. Hence, this feat is only available if the DM specifically states that he or she has decided to allow it in his or her campaign.

ELDRITCH CORRUPTION [TAINTED]

You can add power to your spells or spell-like abilities at the expense of your companions’ health.

Prerequisites: Any one metamagic feat, moderate depravity.

Benefit: You can enlarge, extend, heighten, or widen a spell, as though you had the appropriate metamagic feat, without increasing the spell level or, for spontaneous casters, casting time. You can apply any number of these metamagic effects to a spell in this way; if you choose heighten, then that spell’s level is heightened by up to two levels.

For each level of metamagic you apply, one of your allies takes 2 points of Constitution damage. In this case, “ally” is defined as someone who knowingly and willingly fights alongside you against a common foe, or who otherwise considers you a trusted companion. You decide, when casting the spell, which ally takes the Constitution damage. You cannot select an ally immune to Constitution damage or an ally without a Constitution score. For purposes of this spell, you cannot designate a summoned or charmed being as your ally. You can use this feat three times per day.

Special: You can select this feat more than once. Each time you do, you gain an additional three uses per day.

FONT OF LIFE []

Your life-force is strong enough to make you highly resistant to all forms of energy drain and level loss.

Prerequisite:Must be a living creature.

Benefit:Whenever you are struck by an attack that drains energy or bestows negative levels, you gain an immediate saving throw to resist the effect at the standard Difficulty Class of the attack. If this initial save is successful, you avoid any negative levels but you still suffer any other effects of the attack or spell. If this save fails, the attack proceeds as if this roll had never been made (meaning you still receive whatever save to which you’re normally entitled).

FORBIDDEN LORE [TAINTED]

You gain hideous insights into subjects not meant to be understood by mortal minds.

Prerequisites: Bardic knowledge or lore, mild depravity.

Benefit:When you make a bardic knowledge or lore check, you add a bonus to the check if the question touches on supernatural, horrific, tainted, or otherwise forbidden subjects (at the DM’s discretion). Add a +2 bonus if you are mildly tainted, a +4 bonus if you are moderately tainted, and a +6 bonus if you are severely tainted.

GREATER CORRUPT SPELL FOCUS []

Your corrupt spells are now even more potent than they were before.

Prerequisites: Corrupt Spell Focus, nongood alignment.

Benefit: You gain an additional +1 to the DC of all spells you cast that contain a corrupt component. This stacks with the bonus gained from the Corrupt Spell Focus feat, for a total of +2.

HAUNTING MELODY []

You can use your music to inspire fear.

Prerequisites: Bardic music, Perform 9 ranks.

Benefit:When you sing or use some other Perform skill, you can inspire fear in enemies within 30 feet of you. Any opponent in range must succeed on a Will saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your bard level + your Cha modifier) or become shaken for a number of rounds equal to your ranks in the Perform skill. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.

Special: Using this ability counts as one of your daily uses of bardic music.

IMPROVED ONEIROMANCY []

With the Improved Oneiromancy feat, you gain additional dream-related spellcasting abilities.

Prerequisites: Dreamcasting, Oneiromancy, spellcaster.

Benefit: Your spell list expands to include a number of dream-related spells (all described later in this chapter), regardless of what sort of caster you might be. You must still learn or prepare these spells normally; they are added to your class list, not necessarily to the list of spells you personally know. 1st Level: restful slumber 4th Level: dream walk, manifest desire, manifest nightmare 5th Level: dreaming puppet 7th Level: dream sight

LUNATIC INSIGHT [TAINTED]

Your madness grants you insight and knowledge.

Prerequisite:Mild depravity.

Benefit: Due to unpredictable flashes of insight, you are considered trained in all Knowledge skills, even if you have no ranks in them. You also gain a +2 morale bonus on initiative rolls and to resist mind-affecting spells and abilities.

Normal: Knowledge skills cannot be used untrained.

MAD FAITH [TAINTED]

Your depravity has twisted the connection between you and your patron deity. You suffer flashes of insight interrupted by flashes of madness.

Prerequisites: Ability to cast 1st-level divine spells, mild depravity.

Benefit: You gain a bonus 1st-level divine spell per day. If you have moderate depravity, then you also gain a 2nd- level divine spell per day. If you have severe depravity, then you also gain a 3rd-level divine spell per day. However, it takes twice as long for you to pray for your spells each day.

MASTER OF KNOWLEDGE []

You have spent most of your life in study, and it comes naturally to you now.

Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to all Knowledge skill checks.

ONEIROMANCY []

You gain a number of abilities and advantages related to dreams and magic.

Prerequisites: Dreamtelling, ability to cast spells of any sort.

Benefit: Oneiromancy grants you a number of interrelated bonuses. First, when casting spells in a nightmare realm, your spells always work as normal; you do not risk the same mishaps that other casters experience. Second, while in the dreamscape, you are considered to have Spell Focus (enchantment) and Spell Focus (illusion), due to your ability to manipulate the thoughts of dreamers and the stuff of dreams. If you already have Spell Focus in one or both of these schools, the DC bonus to saves stacks so long as you remain within the dreamscape. Third, you can target your offensive spells at a target’s dream self, rather than his physical form.

Because this deals mental damage only, it transforms all damage dealt by that spell into nonlethal damage. This effect functions only on creatures that both sleep and dream: Constructs, plants, undead, and elves are immune to this effect. Only spells that target a single creature or specific number of creatures benefit from this effect; you cannot apply it to spells that target an area.

Special: Because you are more tightly connected to the world of dreams, you are more susceptible to certain types of mental manipulation. You take a –1 penalty on saves against enchantment and illusion spells and effects when in the physical realm. If you are slain while mentally traveling the dreamscape, your physical body dies, whether or not this is the case for most travelers.

Normal: Casters in nightmare realms have a chance of mishap when casting spells. In some instances, those who die in the dreamscape experience effects other than death in the real world. See Adventuring in Nightmare Realms in Chapter 3.

PURE SOUL []

Your faith or purity of mind overrides the evils within you. You are immune to taint.

Prerequisites: Any nonevil alignment, no taint.

Benefit: You do not gain taint.

SPIRIT SENSE []

You can see and communicate with the souls of the recently departed.

Prerequisites:Wisdom 12, must have had a near-death experience (that is, must have fallen below 0 hit points).

Benefit: You can see the spirits of creatures who have died within a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom bonus. For instance, if your Wisdom is 17 (+3 bonus), you can see the spirits of creatures that have died within the past 3 minutes. You can speak with these spirits, but you gain no special ability to command them or to communicate with them if you do not share a language. These spirits are not creatures per se and cannot be harmed or affected in any way, magical or otherwise. In addition, you gain a +4 circumstance bonus on Listen or Spot checks made to detect incorporeal creatures.

SURGE OF MALEVOLENCE [TAINTED]

You empower yourself by drawing on the taint within.

Prerequisite:Mild taint.

Benefit: Once per day, you can add a bonus on any single attack roll, saving throw, or check. You must make the decision to add the bonus before you roll the die. The amount that you add varies, based on your corruption. If you have mild corruption, then the bonus is equal to +3. If you have moderate corruption, then the bonus is equal to +6. If you have severe corruption, then the bonus is equal to +9.

TAINTED FURY [TAINTED]

You can channel your physical corruption into a state of fury.

Prerequisites: Constitution 13, moderate corruption.

Benefit: Embracing the corruption within your body, you can enter a state of tainted fury. In this state, you gain a number of hit points equal to your corruption score. These hit points are not lost first like temporary hit points; when your tainted fury ends, you must subtract this number from your hit point total. During your tainted fury, you can declare one melee attack to be a tainted smite and add half your corruption score to the damage dealt by that attack. If you strike a creature immune to the effects of taint (such as an undead creature or a creature with the Evil subtype), that tainted smite is expended but deals no additional damage.

Your tainted fury lasts for a number of rounds equal to your corruption score. When it ends, you must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + your corruption score). If you fail this save, you take 1d6 points of Constitution damage and are sickened for 1 minute.

TOUCH OF TAINT [MONSTROUS]

One of your attack forms that normally deals ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain can also deal corruption or depravity.

Prerequisites: Natural attack that deals ability damage (including poison), ability drain, or energy drain.

Benefit: Choose one of your natural attacks that deals ability damage or ability drain or bestows negative levels. That attack now increases the target’s corruption or depravity score by 1 point along with the ability damage or drain it deals. If your attack deals ability damage or drain to a physical ability score (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution), it now also increases the target’s corruption score. If the attack deals ability damage or drain to a mental ability score (Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma), it now also increases the target’s depravity score. If the attack bestows negative levels, you can choose whether it increases a specific target’s corruption or depravity score. If the attack you choose bestows more than one negative level, it now increases the target’s taint score by 2 points. You can choose to have it increase a target’s corruption by 2 points, increase a target’s depravity by 2 points, or increase each score by 1 point.

UNNATURAL WILL []

You have learned to focus your force of personality and inner strength to stand against fearful circumstances.

Prerequisites: Charisma 12, Iron Will.

Benefit: Add your Charisma modifier to all Will saves against fear effects. This bonus stacks with any Wisdom bonus you might have to Will saves.

Special: This feat is used by dread witches to resist the negative effects of fear while still empowering their mystical abilities.

WILLING DEFORMITY [VILE]

Through scarification, self-mutilation, or supplication to dark powers, you intentionally mar your own body.

Prerequisite: Evil alignment.

Benefit: You gain a +3 bonus on Intimidate checks.