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## New Tome-style feat: Timeless Guardian [Paragon]

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Nihlin
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Post by Nihlin » Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:40 am

> RiotGearEpsilon wrote:I guess I'm having difficulty thinking of what 'appropriate to level' means in the context of these sorts of abilities.

Okay, so you want to be a sort of scouting beacon with this? The watcher in the darkness? Let's assume that's the case, bearing in mind that we still need to hash out the finer points of what exactly Fantasy Angel Solid Snake does as part of this team that we're getting together.
So, anyway, level-appropriate would mean that you can find what you're watching for, with increasing power and utility. Ideally, you can also communicate this information in some meaningful and useful way.
Off the top of my head, I note that, by level 6, you can be fighting or have already fought enemies that are incorporeal, invisible, capable of burrowing or earth-gliding, and shapechanging. That's a lot of stuff to cover, so handing out things on the level of Mindsight or Blindsight by that point isn't unreasonable. There's also the less-arbitrarium-filled option of letting you use spot and listen checks to achieve the same.
By level 9, someone could cast Rary's Telepathic Bond or an equivalent. So, I think the level 11 ability needs to be at least that good, and possibly better. For example, an information network that allows your allies to share your senses and perhaps perception-related check modifiers if you're close by.
At the end of the day, you need to have a solid chance of finding level-appropriate enemies that are normally hard to detect or impossible, and you need to be able to do something with this information that is distinctive and interesting.
More on this later.
Last edited by Nihlin on Sat Jul 19, 2008 7:43 am, edited 2 times in total.
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RiotGearEpsilon
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Post by RiotGearEpsilon » Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:04 am

It strikes me that this could function as a particularly esoteric Skill Feat based around Spot.
The communicative aspect could be a sort of magical ritual. Perhaps it requires some set-up, some sort of sympathetic magic.
I'll whip up another draft sometime tomorrow. I think I'm liking this new take on it.
Last edited by RiotGearEpsilon on Sat Jul 19, 2008 9:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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RiotGearEpsilon
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Post by RiotGearEpsilon » Sun Jul 20, 2008 2:29 pm

Fluffy advantages are each linked to a fluffy disadvantage, and they are given in italics to separated them from the significant mechanical advantage at each tier.
UNBLINKING GUARDIAN [SKILL]
Whether through an inhuman bloodline or through mastery of esoteric secrets, you have learned the ways of those wardens who stand on the border of the world and stare in to the darkness beyond, waiting for the horrors to come.
Spot ranks:
0: You no longer need to sleep, and as such, you do not dream. When you use abilities granted by this feat, your eyes swim with unnatural motion and color. As a standard action, you can enter a Warden's Trance, which lasts until you move, or are moved, from your position. While trancing, you have a +3 bonus to Spot and Listen checks.
4: You no longer need to eat, though you do need water. You can no longer taste food. The abilities that previously required trancing to be used are now always active or usable.
While trancing, you enjoy Darkvision out to 60 feet, plus 5 feet per level.
You can now mark allies equal to your Spot ranks. This requires you to mark them with your blood, but they remain your designated allies even if the mark is removed. While you are in trance, you can communicate with your allies as if you had an active Message spell connecting you and them, though they cannot communicate with you.
9: You no longer need to drink, nor will you be able to understand the nutritional needs of others. The abilities that previously required trancing to be used are now always active or usable.
While trancing, you can See Invisible and Detect Scrying, as per the spells, as supernatural abilities. You can also use Clairvoyance as a spell-like ability, though you must place the magical sensor at a point you can see (with this ability, if necessary) with an open path between you and the sensor (as per a Message spell) no more than Close range in length.
While you are trancing, if your Spot or Listen check would be sufficient to detect something if they had no cover or concealment, but fails to detect them due to that cover or concealment, you know its location, whether it is animate, and whether it appears hostile towards you or your allies, but nothing else.
While you are trancing, you and your marked allies can communicate with each other as per a Message spell, except that it ignores barriers entirely. If you are not surprised by an approaching enemy, neither are they, unless you choose to allow them to be.
14: You no longer need to breathe, nor do you unless prompted, which most find unsettling and unnatural. The abilities that previously required trancing to be used are now always active or usable.
While trancing, you have True Seeing, as per the spell, as a supernatural ability.
While trancing, you and your marked allies have a Telepathic Bond, as per the spell. If you perceive something, they do as well. This never causes disorientation or nausea, but it can be disturbing.
19: The abilities that previously required trancing to be used are now always active or usable.
While trancing, you have Foresight, as per the spell, as a supernatural ability.
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RiotGearEpsilon
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Post by RiotGearEpsilon » Sun Jul 20, 2008 2:30 pm

I need to find a way to make this shorter.
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RiotGearEpsilon
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Post by RiotGearEpsilon » Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:03 pm

Fluffy advantages are each linked to a fluffy disadvantage, and they are given in italics to separated them from the significant mechanical advantage at each tier.
UNBLINKING GUARDIAN [SKILL]
Whether through an inhuman bloodline or through mastery of esoteric secrets, you have learned the ways of those wardens who stand on the border of the world and stare in to the darkness beyond, waiting for the horrors to come, without hesitation or pause for millions of years.
Spot ranks:
0: You no longer need to sleep, and as such, you do not dream. When you use abilities granted by this feat, your eyes swim with unnatural motion and color. You have a +3 bonus to Spot checks.
4: You no longer need to eat, though you do need water. You can no longer taste food. You enjoy Darkvision out to 60 feet.
You can mark a number of allies equal to your Spot ranks. This requires you to mark them with your blood, but they remain your designated allies even if the mark is removed. You can communicate with your allies as if you had an active Message spell connecting you and them, though they cannot communicate with you.
9: You no longer need to drink, nor will you be able to understand the nutritional needs of others.
For a -5 to your spot check per ability used, you can do any of the following:
* 'Bend' your vision up to ninety degrees to see around a corner.
* See Invisible as per the spell.
* Ignore cover and concealment, though you can now only sense the size and location of creatures, and whether they are clearly hostile towards you.
Marked allies who are in battle with you aren't surprised by any enemies that you aren't surprised by.
14: You no longer need to breathe, nor do you unless prompted, which most find unsettling and unnatural.
You have True Seeing, as per the spell, as a supernatural ability.
You and your marked allies have a Telepathic Bond, as per the spell. They know all that you perceive, and so effectively share the results of your Spot, Listen, and Search checks without you having to communicate them consciously. You can with-hold this knowledge at will.
19: You no longer age, nor can you be aged.
You have Foresight, as per the spell, as a supernatural ability. This is not shared with your allies, but your Telepathic Bond makes informing them easily.
Last edited by RiotGearEpsilon on Sun Jul 20, 2008 7:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Aktariel
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Post by Aktariel » Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:48 pm

Alright.
That last feat is finally at a point where I'd say, "I'd hit that." It's pretty mechanically tasty, and nicely flavorful.
Oh, and what do you have to do make us happy in terms of numbers? Walk to crazytown and back.
With no shoes.
One little nitpick: you still have a line in there about trancing under the rank 19 ability.
<something clever>
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RiotGearEpsilon
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Post by RiotGearEpsilon » Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:37 pm

Nihlin, I'm assuming you're my GM in this. Is this feat okay w/ you in it's most recent form?
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Nihlin
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Post by Nihlin » Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:00 pm

I'm liking it. Seeing through cover allows you to detect burrowing and other such tricky things, and See Invisibility combined with that allows you to detect ghosts and such hiding out in walls. You can use the ignore concealment option to pierce Darkness effects. It's surprisingly broad in application, without requiring a laundry list of special arbitrary senses.
Good work. My only addition would be turning the darkvision into a +60' boost, so that creatures that don't have it at all still get 60' darkvision and creatures with darkvision already get the benefit of increased range.
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RiotGearEpsilon
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Post by RiotGearEpsilon » Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:36 am

Accepted. Editing the initial post, including your proposal, and integrating it in to my character sheet.
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