The Gaming Den

I liked the idea of scaling feats from Races of War; a feat should be powerful, versatile, and unique enough to give a character enough options useful at all levels. Dragonmark feats from Eberron go halfway. The per-day spell-like abilities vary wildly in usefulness, from Prestidigitation to Overland Flight. If a Halfling Rogue sinks one of his seven feats on a Dragonmark of Hospitality, it should give something with more punch than +2 Diplomacy and purify food and drink 1/day.
In my alternate system, there is no hierarchy or “feat tree” for Dragonmarks. Dragonmark feats scale by character level, providing a new benefit at 1st, 6th, 11th, and 16th level, with a transformation into least, lesser, greater, and siberys dragonmark shape at these points. All spell-like abilities have a caster level equal to character level. You still need to pay experience points and material components for spell-like abilities. You don’t have to be 1st level to take them, and only one Dragonmark feat can be taken for a character.
Due to the emerging presence of aberrant dragonmarks, it is possible for people outside the "typical races" to be able to manifest dragonmarks. This is of great concern to the Houses.


Mark of Detection
Your Dragonmark makes you good at analyzing threats and finding clues.
1st: You can cast Detect Magic at will and Identify 4/day.
6th: You have blindsense out to 60 feet.
11th: You are under a constant Detect Scrying effect.
16th: You are under a constant True Seeing effect.

Mark of Finding
Your Dragonmark gives you the edge in tracking down people, places, and objects.
1st: You gain Woodland Strike, as the Druid ability, and can cast Know Direction at will.
6th: You ignore concealment short of total concealment and can cast Locate Creature 2/day.
11th: You can roll a Spot check opposed by a caster level check to penetrate magical concealment.
16th: You can cast Discern Location 2/day.

Mark of Handling
Your Dragonmark gives you a special bond with animals.
1st: You gain Animal Empathy as a Druid (or a +3 bonus if you already have it) and can cast Detect Animals or Plants at will.
6th: Animals and plants under your care or which you summon get +4 Strength and Constitution and a constant Magic Fang. You also gain the Scent extraordinary ability.
11th: You can cast Commune with Nature at will.
16th: Animals and plants under your care or which you summon get +8 Strength and Constitution, a constant Greater Magic Fang, and a +30 speed to all of their movements.

Mark of Healing
Your Dragonmark brings relief and succor to the injured and diseased.
1st: You suffer a penalty for using improper tools with the Heal skill or treating yourself. Once per day per patient, you can restore a number of hit points equal to your ranks in the Heal skill. You can cast Cure Disease and Neutralize Poison 1/day each.
6th: You are immune to all non-magical diseases and can cast Restoration 4/day. You heal an additional 10 hit points with your Heal Skill.
11th: You are immune to all non-magical poisons and are under the constant effect of Death Ward. You heal an additional 50 hit points with your Heal Skill (doesn’t stack with 6th level ability).
16th: You can cast Resurrection at will. You heal an additional 100 hit points with your Heal Skill (doesn’t stack with 11th level ability).

Mark of Hospitality
Your Dragonmark powers make you an excellent homemaker/chef.
1st: Any shelters you maintain provide the effects of endure elements to its occupants. You can cast Unseen Servant at will.
6th: You can cast Purify Food and Drink at will. Ingested poisons and disease fade out of existence when they come into contact with food and drink prepared by you. Also, any number of people in a shelter you maintain is under the benefit of a Sanctuary effect should you so desire.
11th: You can cast Heroes’ Feast at will. It still takes an hour to prepare.
16th: You can cast Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion at will. Shelters you maintain are immune to all forms of non-magical damage.

Mark of Making
Your Dragonmark grants you inspiration at the forge.
1st: When you take ranks in Craft, you effectively take 1 rank per point in every Craft skill. You can cast Mending at will. Once per day per construct, you can heal a number of hit points equal to your ranks in Craft.
6th: Equipment you maintain gain 10 additional hit points and energy resistance 10 of your choice (armor with energy resistance applies to the wearer as well). You can grant this effect to a number of pieces of equipment equal to your character level. You heal an additional 10 hit points with your Craft skill (doesn’t stack with 1st level ability)
11th: You are skilled at creating ferrous metals. By spending an additional 1,400 gp on a weapon’s creation, the weapon is treated as silver, cold iron, byeshk, and adamantine for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. You heal an additional 50 hit points with your Craft skill (doesn’t stack). You can cast fabricate 4/day.
16th: You are proficient with all weapons and armor, and all armor and shields you use have an armor check penalty and arcane spell failure of 0. You heal an additional 100 hit points with your Craft skill (doesn’t stack).

Mark of Passage
Your Dragonmark gives you magical mobility.
1st: You can cast Mount at will.
6th: You gain a Fly speed equal to your base land speed. It's supernatural in origin.
11th: You can cast Teleport 3/day.
16th: You are under the constant effects of Freedom of Movement.

Mark of Scribing
Your Dragonmark makes you an expert linguist.
1st: You are under a constant Read Magic effect.
6th: You are under a constant Tongues effect.
11th: You can weave together sentences with such sublime alacrity that they leave lesser minds stunned. Opponents within 60 feet of you must make a Will Save (DC= 10 + ½ your level+ Int modifier) or be confused as per the spell. You can only use this ability 4 times per day, and it only works on creatures that have an Intelligence score of 3 or higher and can speak a language.
16th: You can cast Symbol of [Blank] spells at will and pay half their cost in material components.

Mark of Sentinel
Your Dragonmark helps you ward off damage and negative effects, be they directed at others or yourself.
1st: You may deflect arrows directed at targets adjacent to you as per the PHB feat.
6th: You gain the Edge against opponents with a lower combined armor and/or natural armor bonus.
11th: You and adjacent allies get Energy Resistance of a certain type equal to your character level. This type can be changed once per round.
16th: You grant allies within 30 feet of you the benefits of Death Ward and Mind Blank.

Mark of Shadow
Your Dragonmark’s powers are well-suited to sneaky activities.
1st: You can cast Disguise Self at will. Other characters with this Dragonmark see right through the spell-like ability (and so can you!)
6th: You’re good at covering up the stumbling movements of your allies. Allies within 30 feet of can choose to use the results of your Hide and/or Move Silently rolls. They cannot use the special effects of class features or feats they do not have (such as hide in plain sight or Ghost Step).
11th: You can cast Whispering Wind at will by using a woodwind-based musical instrument (flute, reed instruments, etc).
16th: You can cast Shadow Walk at will.

Mark of Storm
Your Dragonmark gives you power over the weather.
1st: You ignore weather-based conditions for the purposes of Concentration, Listen, and Spot checks and the effects of concealment. You are under the constant effects of Endure Elements.
6th: Once every ten minutes, you can transform yourself into a whirlwind as per the Air Elemental ability. You can cast Feather Fall at will.
11th: You can shoot strong blasts of air out of your hands by waving them. The effect functions as Gust of Wind, except that it has the force of a windstorm.
16th: You can cast Control Weather at will.

Mark of Warding
Your Dragonmark is a built-in magic burglar alarm.
1st: You can designate a restricted area as your ward. It can be as small as a treasure chest or as large as a mansion. If the ward is owned by someone else, the owner must be willing for you to apply the effects. The ward is protected by an Alarm spell which renews every 24 hours. Additionally, you have the Edge against anyone who compromises the security of your ward. You can have a number of wards equal to your character level.
6th: You are under the constant effects of See Invisibility, and you gain an additional 60 feet of darkvision.
11th: Any opponents within 60 feet of you are affected by Dimensional Anchor (Save DC 10 + ½ your level + Cha mod). Your ward is under the benefits of Nondetection.
16th: You gain Spell Resistance equal to 15 + character level. Your ward is under the benefit of Dimensional Lock. You can cast Discern Location 3/day on any items or people stolen or kidnapped from the ward.

What do you think? Too weak? Too powerful? Not unique and special enough?

The racial requirements suck. Nix 'em. if need be, do up some fluff about how no one quite understands how or why these show up. Stipulate you can only have one mark feat.

Also, written consent? Why the hell would that matter? "If the other person is willing" can work.

The abilities ARE all over the place. The one that I really notice is that Mark of Passage. Flight? Hells yeah.

Maxus wrote:1. The racial requirements suck. Nix 'em. if need be, do up some fluff about how no one quite understands how or why these show up. Stipulate you can only have one mark feat.

2. Also, written consent? Why the hell would that matter? "If the other person is willing" can work.

3. The abilities ARE all over the place. The one that I really notice is that Mark of Passage. Flight? Hells yeah.

1. Done and done!

2. The Kundarak family of Dwarves is a huge banking house, and people open up accounts to have their money and goods stored in Kundurak vaults. Changed it to willing.

3. Should I change the ability, or leave it as it is?

In case of the former, how's this alternate ability?

You gain the Edge against any opponent with a lower speed than your own. You can also make short dimensional jumps: you can teleport 10 feet times your character level as a move action 3/day.

No, no, It's fine. It's just...well, these feats are all over the place. There's not much reason to take that hospitality mark unless you did something like Koumei's Warmage "Instant Food/Water" thing with the ability to whistle up a Tiny Hut, too.

As it is...Passage and Shadow are the big ones. Detection's Blindsense is interesting, Finding's see-through-magical-conceal is neat, Sentinel has some neat stuff in there. Scribing is cool as a flavor ability--always-on Tongues is a pretty neat ability for a character that changes out they interact with the world. Of course, so is at-will Disguise Self and freaking flying.

I like abilities like that.

The rest just aren't worth taking--well, Making's "Armor Check Penalty and Arcane Spell Failure = 0" is kinda cool.

The repairing and healing uses might be better off with no caps; and instead a mechanic and a first-aid timer. In the "golden hour" first aid can make a big deal.

I'd seriously simplify these to "make a check per 10 minutes of first aid/repair; heal that much damage; this costs you the HP healed in silver; for bandages, tools, parts".

The ten-minute cost in time helps to mitigate over-use; and having a system where the first 60 minutes provide optimal healing (as much as x4 the skill check result) compared to after those golden 60 minutes (maybe 1/2 check result if in the field; and normal results with a properly equipped/stocked place to do the work)

Also, I'm fine with items being costed retroactively from the character's currency.

The "medic" always carries a fully stocked kit; the 'costs' are what is used up and will be needed to be replenished in the next town. I'm also fine with PCs having a "medic mule" or "portable mechanic wagon" that simply has "10,000 gp in bandages, stitches, chirougen tools, salves, medicine and etc." or "40k gp in Warforged-approved kneadable epoxy repair putty"; and just not give a damn about actually unnecessary details, like if you bought fifty bandages or fifty-five in the last town; or if your fingers have gotten too tired to continue repairing Frankenstein-Golem-Droids.

The false caps aren't explained, and don't work well in a game where players can get almost unlimited magical healing; while mundane healing has a per day cap.

Things like Dragonmarks, which are one per character, and better than the average feat should never have an unlimited healing effect, because it's pretty much a fuck you to the one player who then has to spend a feat to give everyone infinite healing.

Effectively, they don't get a choice in their Dragonmark feat, and they have to be the Cleric, in the most derogatory manner I could possibly mean that.

So your healing feat should A) Not treat not unlimited healing like an ability at all, like, healing a person once per day is seriously FR 5, and worth shit, don't make it count at all against the power of the feat. B) But should also not grant unlimited healing, because if it's the best way to get that, then someone will have to spend a feat on it, and be fucked compared to the rest of the party.

At the very worst, feats that grant you infinite healing should have other features, and not exclude a bunch of other feats. IE, spending a feat slot is one thing, but spending a feat slot plus giving up feat choices in your past and future feat slots is too damn much.

Ideally of course, you will build infinite healing into the system as assumed, IE, everyone knows that having an infinite supply of Healing Wands actually costs nothing to the party. Because then no one has to sacrifice anything.

The Marshall Base Class in the Tomes can do healing-like stuff a number of times per day equal to 3 + Charisma modifier.

Maybe we should do something like that with Heal?

Also, what does FR 5 stand for?

Libertad wrote:The Marshall Base Class in the Tomes can do healing-like stuff a number of times per day equal to 3 + Charisma modifier.

Maybe we should do something like that with Heal?

Also, what does FR 5 stand for?

I'm pretty sure it's Fire Resistance.

Libertad wrote:The Marshall Base Class in the Tomes can do healing-like stuff a number of times per day equal to 3 + Charisma modifier.

A single level class ability is worth less than a feat. And that's not even the only class ability that the Marshal gets at that level.

Infinite healing is already a part of the system in 14 different places before even getting into Tomes, which grants it as a side effect to the Barbarian, and as the level 1 ability to Dark Leaf Armor (under Sinister's version) which wouldn't even be bad armor if it didn't have that.

What I am advocating is that non infinite healing be not even counted as an ability at all unless it's in combat worthy, and that infinite healing be evenly distributed across the party, not have a single character be "The Cleric" in order to get it.

When one guy has to pick his only stance for two levels as the infinite healing one, and no one else has to do anything, that guy is screwed. When everyone has to spend a feat on Tomb Tainted Soul so that the Dread Necro can heal them, that's kinda party fair.

Now, Tome power level is higher than either of those, and that's totally fine, which is why giving not infinite healing as a large part of a feat is bad. But also why giving infinite healing for feats that are (supposed to be) more powerful than other feats, but limited to 1 per character, is not really acceptable either. Because then someone has to take the Healing Dragonmark, and that guy gets less choice in his character then everyone else.

How about this as a Heal skill bonus hit points replacement:

The Dragonmarked individual subconsciously heals others around him. Allies within 30 feet gain Fast Healing 2.

At 6th level, it improves to 5. At 11th level, its range improves to 60 feet. At 16 level, it improves to 20, and it converts half of lethal damage into nonlethal damage.

It's infinite healing distributed across the party. It's most effective outside of combat because the value is too low to matter when you're getting wailed on by dragons and barbarians.

@ Healing change, it still forces someone in the party to grab the 'infinite healing' option.

The problem with these feats is the same problem I have with the armor abilities. They are all over the place. Some of these feats are considerably stronger then others. Some of them are big buffs for specific niches(Handling) while some are useful on any character(Healing) while some are useless on nearly any character(Scribing/Warding). What is the balance point?

Libertad wrote:How about this as a Heal skill bonus hit points replacement:

The Dragonmarked individual subconsciously heals others around him. Allies within 30 feet gain Fast Healing 2.

At 6th level, it improves to 5. At 11th level, its range improves to 60 feet. At 16 level, it improves to 20, and it converts half of lethal damage into nonlethal damage.

It's infinite healing distributed across the party. It's most effective outside of combat because the value is too low to matter when you're getting wailed on by dragons and barbarians.

As I said, breaks my rule about having one person more invested in healing than everyone else.

Some guy will have to be the Cleric, and that's still wrong.

The healing and making marks need an action type on their first ability. E.g. "Once per day per patient, you can restore a number of hit points equal to your ranks in the Heal skill as a standard action."

Realized that area effect fast healing is so strong of an option that you'd be foolish not to take it.

As for the balance point, my intent is to balance them against existing [Combat] and [Skill] feats in the Tomes.

The thing with the Dragonmarks is that some of them as presented are more useful for adventurers than others. In the ECS, the Mark of Hospitality just doesn't have as much utility potential as the Mark of Making. The Mark of Handling was best for Druids and didn't give as much to other classes. The Dragonmarks were more intended for how a unique magical bloodline can give rise to specialized industry and businesses to dominate Khorvaire.

As for Kaelik's concern, what about the option of being able to manipulate and stifle living creatures in addition to healing? People with the Mark can do stuff like contagion for germ warfare, or being able to "drain" life force vampire-style by diverting positive energy to another or cutting off its flow? It's more offensive-minded and isn't purely a "healbot" role.

Yeah, the powerlevel for these feats seems about as sporadic as is average for community Tome feats.

And, for what it's worth, I think that racial requirements should probably stay in for most any game using these feats that's actually set in Eberron.

How would you guys rate the Dragonmarks in terms of power/utility, using the existing Combat and Skill feats as a benchmark?