Creating Feats
From D20advanced
Players and Gamemasters may want to expand the list of feats in d20 Advanced by coming up with their own. Some general guidelines for new feats include:
- A feat improving common die rolls should only add a +2 bonus.
- A feat improving a narrowly defined or uncommon die roll can add up to a +5 bonus.
- A feat improving a single skill should generally add +5, while feats improving two skills should add +2 to each. Such skill bonuses count against the power level limit on skill ranks.
- A feat cannot apply a bonus to a roll more than once for any given roll.
- A feat can negate up to a –5 penalty from an action. This includes things like the various challenges.
- A feat can allow a character to ignore some of the restrictions on an action (such as Blind-Fight).
- A feat can allow a character a bonus action by succeeding at some other action (such as downing an opponent with Takedown Attack). The bonus action should be specified rather than an open-ended "free" action.
- A feat can allow a character to substitute one skill check for another in certain circumstances.
- A fortune feat allows characters to spend Hero Dice in different ways (as with Seize Initiative and Ultimate Effort).
Some of the things new feats should not (or need not) do include:
- Provide a general bonus to an ability score, skill, attack bonus, defense bonus, or resistance. Characters can already acquire these by spending additional character points on those traits.
- Provide a variable bonus based on another trait, such as adding the character's Intelligence bonus to attack rolls or Wisdom bonus to Defense. This grants a potentially huge bonus to some for a bargain price (1 point). (A feat where one trait substitutes for another is more acceptable, provided the two traits are roughly equivalent.)
- Grant a benefit greater than another similar trait for less cost.
As always, the Gamemaster has the final say whether or not a particular feat is suitable, and may veto any proposed feat, or request the player modify it to make it acceptable.
FX as Feats
At the GM's discretion, an FX with a final cost of 1 character point can be made into a feat. The difference is primarily stylistic, since it doesn't affect the trait's cost or usage whether it's called a feat or a power. The key difference is the new feat cannot be nullified, but also can't be used in conjunction with extra effort; it's a permanent capability—a feat and not an actual "FX." It also has different descriptors, which can affect interaction with other traits.
Players and Gamemasters can use various minor FX to create new feats, particularly if the GM has decided to restrict the availability of FX in the campaign. In fact, for a low-powered action-hero game of d20 Advanced, the Gamemaster may choose to allow only 1-point FX, treating them all as feats (some of which characters may be able to acquire in ranks) and disallowing all other FX.
