Feat

This article introduce some new feats and has changes to existing ones.

Background Feats

High Nobility

Prerequisite: Nobility; must be taken at first level.

High Nobility implies the character has been with more pressure to perform well. It may be from a Count or higher family, or a lower family with high ambitions for their children.

The character is granted the ability to read and write Lingua, to speak Noble, Royal and an additional language of her choosing. The Nobility skills become class skills. If her class already has one or more skills as class skills, she instead gains a +2 bonus for that skill instead of +1. In addition she also recieves a +1 bonus in Appraise, Perception, Sense Motive and Ride. A character with the Nobility feat gain a +2 bonus on his Leadership Modifier. She recieves a -3 penalty when trying to make a Disguise or to act as someone other than a Noble person.

Nobility

Prerequisite: Noble blood (Baronet and up, see Gentry) or of very rich (near-noble) merchant stock.

Mainly a NPC feat. Growing up in noteworthy Nobility , you have received years of training from a tutor/tutors or attended some sort of boarding school and learning useful things on the way. The life of a Noble person does not come without strings, however, so there is always some sort of obligation or inconvenience associated with it.

The feat represent the early training received to fit in Noble circles. The feat grants the character the ability to speak Common with a Noble accent (essentially the language 'Noble'), read/write Lingua as well as a +1 skill bonus for one Craft skill, Diplomacy, Knowledge (History, Local, Nobility and Religion) and one Perform skill. She may replace the bonus for both Craft and Perform or just Diplomacy with Handle Animal. A character with the Nobility feat gain a +1 bonus on his Leadership Modifier. She recieves a -1 penalty when trying to make a Disguise or to act as someone other than a Noble person.

The obligation or inconvenience is choosen by the DM and may not be immediately obvious to the character who takes this feat but can be something like an obligation to marry a particular other Noble person, carry out an important task, etc. This obligation will likely be time-limited and it will be hard to delay carrying out whatever is needed or risk your family losing face (which in turn could mean someone from your family may want to harm you).

Mage College (free)

Prerequisite: Nobility or Mage class (Wizard, Sorcerer, etc)

Having gone through the basic training at the Sickle to become a Hypernatural Manipulator (junior mage) you have gathered a fair bit of knowledge and skills. This, however, comes at a price.

Gain one of the exotic languages of your choice and gain a +1 bonus to Craft (Mathematics, Alchemy), Knowledge (Arcana, History, Local, Nobility, Planes, Religion), Profession (cleaner), Spellcraft and Use Magic Device. Skill bonuses do not stack with Nobility. The feat also provides proficiency in club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, and quarterstaff.

This feat also grants the ability to cast spells from a Spellbook or Scroll without learning the spell. This still requires the character to have spell slots in order to use it.

Having gone through mage college also means full registration with the Sickle and a requirement to donate magical power to the guild on a daily basis, into a provided Power Extractor that also needs emptying and delivering to the guild. Furthermore, unless you come from a Noble House, you will be required to complete several years of magical research to gain the Diploma of the Magus and you are not free to do many things without guild permission, such as extensive travel or to use magic in a way that could harm the guild. Displeasing the guild will be most unpleasant.

Note: This feat does not require the character to expend one of her feats. It is a feat and a flaw baked into one. It does, however, count towards the maximum flaws a character is allowed.

Metamagic Feats

Metamagic feats that use Sparks or Twinkles rather than spell slots can be spontaneously added to spells during casting. Though this increase the casting time to a full round, as normal.

Any feat-based checks using Sparks or Twinkles is done as a standard action (unless otherwise stated) and is considered to be spellcasting for all extents and purposes.

Absorb Residue

See the Residue Tables for more details!

If you encounter spell residue, you can attempt to absorb it. Any whole Twinkles absorbed becomes available to use for the next 24 hours. It's a full-round action to use the feat, and you need to expend two Twinkles to use it. It's possible to absorb multiple residues at the same time for better intake.

Make a Spellcraft check against DC15. Success means you absorb half the Twinkles available in a 15 feed diameter circle around you (or DC 20 for a specified set of magical debris). Every 5 points higher absorbs half of what is left over (result of +5 absorbs 3/4; +10 absorbs 7/8, etc) and every 5 points lower absorbs half as many points (result of -5 absorbs 1/4, etc), rounded down. The caster always gets at least 1 Twinkle if she succeeded on the check if there is at least one Twinkle available.

Spell Trickery

Spell Trickery (power)

By spending 3 Sparks per spell level, the caster hides the magical aura with Spell Trickery (power). Additional Sparks can be used to power the spell's camofluage; one Spark adds +1 to the roll.

Spell Trickery is about fooling or thwarting other casters and has little or no impact on non-casters. The two methods a caster can choose between are by using strong ties in the magical wave (power) or using detailed work in order to manipulate spells (intrication). The two methods are opposite to one another and one is weak against the other, granting a +10 bonus to attempts made against trickeries made by the opposing method. A caster can also choose to specialize in both, making both powerful and intricate manipulations, making it much harder to see through.

Spell Trickery (intrication)

By spending 1 Spark and an extra move action per spell level while casting (or an extra 5 minutes while preparing), the caster hides the magical aura with Spell Trickery (intrication). Additional time can be used to intricate the spell's camofluage; one move action (or an extra 5 minutes while preparing) adds +2 to the roll. Example: a level 1 spell intrication will take one full-round action and one move action in the next round. The caster is continuously casting and any interruptions are handled as normal.

When casting a spell (or when preparing one) the caster can weave the spell harder to detect by effectively tie up the magical aura created by the spell. Would-be investigators detect them as old spell residue (if they see it at all) instead of active spell auras. This feat also allows the caster to detect other casters' spell trickery while using the spells Detect Magic or See Magic.

Whenever the trickery is used, the caster makes a Spellcraft roll. This becomes the DC to detect the residue at all. If detected, a caster without any Spell Trickery feat will see the spell as spellcast residue (though it's possible she can determine it's a real spell by normal Spellcraft means). Succeeding on the roll will outline a faint aura, and tell the investigator the amount of Twinkle residue the spell would have in the first Halflife Period if it was actually cast. Attempting to absorb the Twinkles will appear to work for the investigator (absorbing none), and the spell will become entirely invisible to her for 10 minutes (other investigators get +10 DC to detect the aura for the duration).

A caster with Spell trickery, however, might automatically detect that it's a spell, or make separate attempts to determine if it may be a live spell if her roll is at least 5 greater than the DC. To determine which spell is hidden (without normal Spellcraft attempts), the DC is detect DC + 5 + spell level.

A spell can be hidden by a combination of both power and intrication. If so, use the highest roll which will then not have an "opposite method".

If an investigating caster has both Spell Trickery (power) and (intrication), she can make a combination roll, using one dice for each method. The dice that has the opposing method to its target gets the normal +10 bonus, and the highest total roll is used. Should the hidden spell be double-weaved, use the highest result, but no bonus.

If used while making a magic trap, add 1/10 (round down) of the result to the trap DC.

This feat can be taken twice: Once for each specialization.

Invisible Spell

As described in Cityscape (p61) with a small change. It uses the normal spell slot and 1 Twinkle per spell level (level 0 spells count as 1) either at casting or preparation to make the visual effect of a spell invisible. All other sensors still apply, as does magical detection.

Deceptive Spell

As described in Cityscape (p60). It uses a spell slot higher than the normal spell, but the spell looks like it's originating from some other place than normal.

Residueless Spell

You tie in the magical knots so effectively that you leave less residue. To halve the amount of residue, spend one Spark during casting or preparation. This can be done multiple times as long as the caster has Sparks to use.