Perk Suggestion Thread

[Draugir]

Fighter Perk: Grappler

Some warriors sacrifice brute strength for clever combat maneuvers. They might not be the one that slay the dragon, but they will be the one that exposed its vulnerability for someone else to strike that critical blow. True tacticians understand the importance of this role.

lvl 1: Called Shot
lvl 5: -2 DMG, +1 AB
lvl 8: +1 AB, 2DR

[Draugir]

Rogue Minor Perk: Charlatan

You have always enjoyed convincing others of your talents in fields you know little about. It brings you pride when your true talent convinces others to grant you the occasional reward. Those who see through your lies however, have little respect for you.

+3 bluff, gain a completely random trinket each reset, merchants will have a less favorable reaction to you

[Egon the Monkey]

The fact Bards now get 6 Skill Points a level makes a stealth bard actually feasible at last. I'm excited to give it a go in future! And yet although there's a good selection of martial perks, there's no stealth ones. They're all a bit of an afterthought if you want to play a sneaky bard.

Bard Perk: Whisper
The gossip in the shadows. The raconteur telling dangerous stories of stealth and guile.
+2 Hide and Move Silently

[Egon the Monkey]

I tried a sonic-spell focused bard last chapter. Even with 2d8+level Sound Bursts, the trouble was the lack of spell slots and Multi-Attribute Dependency. It definitely wasn't worth 2 feats to get the cool GSF bonus on Wounding Whispers, given how few casts per day you get. might as well have Extra Music and Curse Song and do the same thematic thing but more often! Caster bard is a bit more appealing with the Arcane Armour Training, and again, it seems like a fun future idea. But there's no perk that really supports it. Despite the fact bards now have a damage cantrip and some fun new direct damage spells.


Satirist
"Sticks and stones may break your bones, but my words hurt you more"
Vicious Mockery: Now does 1d8+1 damage
Bonus Feat: Spell Focus: Evocation.

Getting SF Evocation for free would open up use of the Bard AOEs. It also avoids being cheesy, as Evocation doesn't have any long-duration 'fuck you' spells for Bards like Enchantment or Necromancy have.

[Draugir]

Fencer Lunge Techniques

Pierce the Back
Grants 1d6 sneak attack. Can be taken any number of times.

Heightened Velocity
Grants a permanent 20% concealment

[Egon the Monkey]

Favoured Enemy: Aberration could use a tune-up
It feels like a Perk that's scaled for Chapter 4, where Aberrations were common because it was the Underdark. Thanks to the Board, I've had a look at a bunch of quests and none of them obviously mentioned Aberrants so far. And I've been exploring and questing a bit and not spotted any, even on Tracking, except Nyths and very occasionally Eyeballs. I took the FE for flavour reasons and because I thought it might be fun vs Horrors if those were a regular enemy.

Compare this perk to other non-player-race ones. Many of them feel like 2 Feats' worth of stuff. Aberration feels like 1 weak Feat's worth:

• Monstrous Humanoid. That's an absolute cracker with all these gnolls etc around, plus of course the 5% physical DI (cool, -1 dmg from most common sources), +5% increased movement and +1 Fort.
• Vermin. Lots of nasty vermin around and a popular Spider quest. Lots of enemies with onhit Poison, Cloud of Bewilderment, Stinking Cloud etc so +4 vs Poison slaps. +1 Reflex to a weak save is very good, Spell Immunity: Web lets you use items of that to fight in, and +AB/AC/Spot/Listen in the Gutters is alright, but sounds great for the right sort of PvP.
• Undead. There's always loads of undead and Negative damage, so 10% Negative Damage Immunity is nice. And everyone loves +2 Death and Negative saves as Death, Level Drain, STR drain etc. instantly ruin your day. Not bad for PvP either as those are all things a Necromancer uses. +1 Divine vs Undead is just the icing on the cake vs damage-resistant bastards.
• Aberration: +1 Will, +2 Concentration, +2 Heal.

You can see you get a lot more general-use bang for your Perk with some of the more PVE-useful FEs. As it looks like Heal no longer contributes to Herbalism checks, I reckon there's going to be fewer rangers benefiting from that or even training it.

So, since the mechanical 'unblockable' Drowning, Resting etc effects aren't Magic Damage any more but True Damage. And since Nyths chuck out Magic Missiles, and I'm going to take an educated guess that some of the horrors from beyond the stars do Astral Damage as it's thematic. What about 10% Damage Immunity to Astral and Magic Damage? It's not something you could have coded in previously, but the new damage types make it possible.

[Draugir]

Fighter Perk: Wrecker

You don't care about aiming for your foe's weak spot. You care for consistent damage. Strike as hard as possible, no matter where you hit them.

Level 1: you can no longer deal critical damage. +2 damage

level 5: you always deal maximum weapon damage

level 8: +2 damage, +10% physical immunity

Fighter Perk: Whack of all trades

Versatility is important for a warrior. That is why you make it a habit of training with a different kind of weapon each day. You know that that by being familiar with all different kinds of weapons, you know how best to use each of them to their advantage.

level 1: you no longer have access to the feats 'weapon focus', 'weapon specialization' and 'improved critical'. Instead you gain all of these feats for one randomized weapon group each reset.

level 5: +3 discipline, +3 concentration

level 8: You gain additional advantages using weapons of a specific weapon group:

Axes: +3 vampiric healing, +15% physical immunity
Heavy Blades: Improved critical threat, +2 will
Light Blades: 15% concealment, +2 damage, +2 Reflex, wounding on hit
Close Quarters: +2 damage, +1 ab, +2 DR
Maces and Flails: When you strike a foe they have to make a fortitude save of your fighter lvls + ½ your int lvls or become stunned
Hammers and Clubs: +1 AC, +2 fortitude
Polearms: +20% movement speed, improved initiative, improved disarm
Ranged: +1 AB, called shot, +2 damage

edit: okay, I realize some of these things are a little overpowered. And another thing I didn't take into account at all is dual wielding when I wrote this a little fast.

Still, I think the perk would add some interesting flavor. Perhaps it could also get a better name but that was the best I could come up with, since weaponmaster is taken.

[The Crimson Magician]

Barbarian Perk Suggestion

Raider

Level 1

• +3 Search
• Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat
• Ambidexterity as a bonus feat
• While raging, gain no bonus to Strength
• While raging, gain +2 Attack Bonus and +2 Slashing Damage

Level 5

• +3 Navigation
• While raging, Attack Bonus and Slashing Damage are increased by 1 for each even step of the barbarian's base Charisma modifier. (14 and 16 CHA yield 3 total Attack Bonus and Slashing Damage, 18 and 20 CHA yield 4 total Attack Bonus and Slashing Damage, etc)

Level 8

• +3 Archaeology
• Called Shot as a bonus feat
• While holding a torch, gain +2 dodge AC