3.5 L5R Basic Feats

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Feats

These feats are generally able to be selected by any character that meets the appropriate prerequisites. These feats are part of my larger 3.5 Update project. ---Shisumo no Shiryo

General Feats

Balance

Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Iaijutsu Focus checks and a +1 bonus to Will saves.

Special: Matsu characters may not take this feat.

Ichi Miru

Requires: Diplomacy 5 ranks, Listen 5 ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks, Spot 5 ranks.

Benefit: You gain a +4 competence bonus to Sense Motive checks. This bonus is +6 instead if you have any levels of the courtier class.

Kitsuki's Method

Requires: Void Use, Search 6 ranks, Sense Motive 6 ranks.

Benefit: You may spend any number of Void Points on Spot, Search and Sense Motive rolls. Each Void Point you spend in this way gives +4 Void bonus to the roll instead of the standard +2.

Special: This is a Technique feat for Dragon Clan characters.

Perceived Honor

Requires: Int 13.

Benefit: You may adopt the appearance and behavior of an honor rank one higher than your own. While you maintain the appropriate code of behavior, all magical effects that effect or are dependent upon your honor rank use this new, higher rank, rather than your true rank. You may choose to begin or end the effects of this feat as a free action on your turn. You cannot emulate an honor rank higher than 4. Artifacts or magical items with a caster level at least 5 levels higher than your character level are not fooled by this feat.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Political Maneuvering

Requires: Diplomacy 10 ranks, Sense Motive 10 ranks.

Benefit: As a standard action, you may make a Sense Motive check against a person to whom you are speaking (DC 15 + target's character level or Hit Dice). If this check is successful, you determine how to make the target believe his or her current course of action is dishonorable. You may then convince the target by making a successful Diplomacy check, resisted by the target's Sense Motive or Diplomacy check. If you succeed, the target must change his or her attitude or actions as you determine, lose 5 points of honor, or be unable to act for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. Attacks by you or your allies against the target or his or her allies negate this effect. This feat cannot affect creatures with no understanding of honor, higher honor than you, or who cannot understand your words.

Student of the Arts

Benefit: Choose one Craft or Profession skill. You gain +2 to checks with that skill and +2 to Perform checks.

Tactician

Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to Knowledge (war) and Battle checks.

Tattoed

Requires: Void Use.

Benefit: You may take Tattoo abilities from the Tattooed Monk prestige class as kiho feats. Your class level for these feats is equal to one-half your character level. If the ability has a level requirement, you must meet it with your full character level, and these requirements are increased by 5. You can never take levels in the Tattooed Monk prestige class, and may not select this feat if you already have one or more levels in the Tattooed Monk prestige class. Your maximum number of Tattoos is equal to your maximum Void Points.

Versatile

Benefit: Choose either two non-class skills or one non-class skill. Those skills become class skills for you. If you choose only one non-class skill, you gain a +2 bonus to checks with that skill as well.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you may choose one or two new skills.

Way of the Land

Benefit: You may either learn this feat in a general or a specific form. If you learn it in the general form, you gain a +2 bonus to Survival and Knowledge (geography) checks. If you learn it in the specific form, choose one area detailed in the Geography chapter of Rokugan (any area smaller than the lands of a Great Clan, as identified by a specific entry in the chapter). You gain a +8 bonus to Survival and Knowledge (geography) checks while in that area.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. The effects of the general and specific forms stack, but you may only take the general form once. Each time you select the specific form, it applies to a different geographical area.

Weapon Group (Bojutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the quarterstaff, jo staff, and pipe.

Special: If you also posses the Weapon Group (Nofujutsu) Feat, you gain proficiency in the nunchaku and tonfa as well. If you have the Weapon Group (Exotic Weapons) Feat, you gain proficiency in the sang kauw as well. Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Exotic Weapons)

Benefit: You are proficient with exotic versions of traditional Rokugani weaponry, such as scimitars or sang kauw.

Special: Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Kenjutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the katana (bastard sword), wakizashi (short sword), and no-dachi (greatsword).

Special: If you also possess the Weapon Group (Exotic Weapons) Feat, you gain proficiency with the scimitar as well. If you also possess the Weapon Group (Ninjutsu) Feat, you gain proficiency with the ninja-to as well. If you also possess the Weapon Group (Nofujutsu) Feat, you gain proficiency with the parangu as well. Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Kyujutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the bow, longbow, and their composite versions.

Special: If you have the Weapon Group (Ninjutsu) Feat, you also gain proficiency with the han-kyu. Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Ninjutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the blowgun, nageteppo, and shuriken.

Special: If you have the Weapon Group (Kyujutsu) Feat, you also gain proficiency with the han-kyu. If you also possess the Weapon Group (Kenjutsu) Feat, you gain proficiency with the ninja-to as well. Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Nofujutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the club, kama, and siangham.

Special: If you posses the Weapon Group (Bojutsu) Feat, you gain proficiency in the nunchaku and tonfa as well. If you also possess the Weapon Group (Nofujutsu) Feat, you gain proficiency with the parangu as well. Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Onojutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the handaxe, battleaxe, and greataxe.

Special: Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Subojutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the club, greatclub, light hammer and warhammer.

Special: Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Tantojutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the dagger, jitte, and sai.

Special: Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Weapon Group (Yarijutsu)

Benefit: You are proficient with the shortspear, long spear, naginata, nagimaki, sodegarami and sasumata.

Special: Fighter and samurai characters may select this feat as a fighter or Technique bonus feat.

Generic Technique Feats

Armor Focus

Requires: Proficient with chosen armor.

Benefit: Choose specific type of armor, such as lamellar armor, with which you are proficient. When wearing that type of armor you gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time, its effects apply to a different type of armor.

Daisho Specialization

Requires: Samurai level 1+, BAB +5, Weapon Focus (katana or wakizashi), Void Use

Benefit: Select your katana or your wakizashi, for which you must already have the Weapon Focus feat. You gain a +2 bonus on damage rolls when using that weapon. This is not cumulative with Weapon Specialization.

Special: You may take this feat twice, once each for your katana and your wakizashi.

Depths of the Void

Requires: Void Use.

Benefit: Your maximum Void is increased by 3.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Greater Daisho I

Requires: Samurai level 13+.

Benefit: When this feat is taken, you may spend 400 experience points to awaken one of the swords of your daisho, causing it to become an intelligent item. Both the katana and wakizashi may be enhanced in this fashion, but you must pay for and roll each weapon’s abilities separately. Item powers and special purpose dedicated powers are determined randomly using the tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Details of an ancestral item’s special purpose are left to the GM, but are always appropriate to your personal code of honor.

Your awakened weapon gains a permanent +1d2 bonus to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma and two lesser abilities.

Greater Daisho II

Requires: Samurai level 15+, Greater Daisho I.

Benefit: As Greater Daisho I, but you must pay an additional 600 experience, and your awakened weapon gains a permanent +1d4 bonus to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, one lesser ability and speech. These bonuses are cumulative with previously gained abilities.

Greater Daisho III

Requires: Samurai level 17+, Greater Daisho I, Greater Daisho II.

Benefit: As Greater Daisho I, but you must pay an additional 1200 experience, and your awakened weapon gains a permanent +1d6 bonus to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, one lesser ability and one greater ability. These bonuses are cumulative with previously gained abilities.

Greater Daisho IV

Requires: Samurai level 19+, Greater Daisho I, Greater Daisho II, Greater Daisho III.

Benefit: As Greater Daisho I, but you must pay an additional 1400 experience, and your awakened weapon gains a permanent +1d2 bonus to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, one greater ability and one special purpose dedicated power. These bonuses are cumulative with previously gained abilities.

Know the School

Requires: Knowledge (chosen clan) 2 ranks.

Benefit: Choose a Great or Minor Clan. You gain a +1 competence bonus to Sense Motive checks, Battle checks, Bluff checks, melee attack rolls and melee damage rolls against members of that Clan. You also gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC against members of that Clan.

Special: You make take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time it applies to a different Clan.

Multiple Schools

Requires: DM permission.

Benefit: Choose a Clan other than your own. You gain a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks with members of that Clan, and may choose Technique Feats, Secret Spells and Courtier abilities as though you were a member of that Clan.

Soul Forge

Requires: Iron Will or ancestral daisho class ability, masterwork weapon.

Benefit: Select one type of weapon, of which you have a masterwork version. You may bond with that item in the same fashion as the samurai’s ancestral daisho class ability, and may enhance it through the expenditure of valuable items and meditation in the same way. This feat otherwise follows all the rules for the ancestral daisho class ability, and you are considered to have the ancestral daisho class ability for the purposes of meeting prerequisites if you did not already do so.

You may only have one enhanced weapon at a time, not counting any weapons enhanced through the actual ancestral daisho class ability.

Void Use

Benefit: You may have and spend Void Points, and your Void Point maximum is set to 2. Before making an attack roll, saving throw or skill check you may spend a Void Point to gain a +2 Void bonus to the roll. As a free action on your turn, you may spend a Void Point to gain a +2 Void bonus to AC until the beginning of your next turn. You may not spend more than one Void Point in these fashions. Void bonuses always stack. A frightened or panicked character may not spend Void Points. A full night's rest returns your Void Points to maximum, as does an hour's meditation and a Concentration check (DC 15). Unless otherwise specified, any use of Void Points is an extraordinary ability.

Special: You may take this feat in lieu of an Ancestor Feat if using the optional Ancestor Feat rules from Oriental Adventures.

Special Magic and Item Creation Feats

Chosen By the Kami

Requires: Shugenja level 1+.

Benefit: You may raise your shugenja level after taking levels in another class, as long as your shugenja level is equal to or greater than your level in all other classes. You gain shugenja as a favored class.

Normal: You may only return to the shugenja class after multiclassing in the case of prestige classes with a divine spellcasting requirement.

Craft Crystal Weapon

Requires: Crab or Scorpion clan, Caster level 7+, Craft Magical Arms and Armor, Craft (weaponsmithing) 1 rank.

Benefit: You may craft weapons out of Kuni crystal. You must first do so by creating the weapon using the standard Craft rules (A Kuni crystal weapon adds 400 gp to the listed price of the weapon and has a Craft DC of 20), and then by enhancing it with magic, which takes one day for every 1,000 gp in the price of its magical features. You must spend 1/25 of its features’ total price in XP and use up raw materials costing half its base cost.

Craft Tsangusuri

Requires: Crane clan, Caster level 1+, Int 13, appropriate Craft skill 1 rank.

Benefit: You may make tsangusuri, one-use talismans, of any spell you know of 3rd level or lower. You must provide any material components, XP or foci the spell requires.

The talisman has a base cost of the spell level times the caster level times 50 gp (0-level spells count as ½ level). You must spend 1/25 of this base price in XP and use up raw materials costing half this base price. A talisman’s market value is equal to this base price. Creating the tsangusuri takes one day for every 1,000 gp in its base price.

Special: Tsangusurui that inflict hit point or ability damage have a 10% chance per point of damage inflicted of attracting a kansen.

Elemental Versatility

Requires: Shugenja level 6+, Void Use.

Benefit: You may cast and learn spells from the element opposed to your element focus. These spells use up a spell slot three levels higher than their actual level, and you must learn them as though they were three levels higher as well.

Normal: Shugenja cannot learn or cast spells from the element opposed to their focus element.

Enhance Wards

Requires: Must be able to cast glyph of warding.

Benefit: The spells greater glyph of warding and guards and wards are added to your shugenja spell list as 6th level spells of all elements. You must learn these spells normally, but may do so in place of a school spell. When casting a spell glyph, you may place any damaging spell you know into the glyph, even if it of higher level than the glyph would normally allow. If the damaging spell is higher than the level of the glyph of warding, the glyph uses up a spell slot equal to the level of the damaging spell. When casting a blast glyph, you may increase the spell's level by one to increase the blast damage (and damage maximum) by 1d8.

Innate Ability

Requires: Shugenja level 1+.

Benefit: Choose three spells that you can cast as a shugenja. You no longer require an ofuda as a divine focus to cast those spells. If you choose to use an ofuda while casting those spells, your caster level is increased by one.

Special: This feat may be taken multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time it is taken, you choose three different spells.

Ishiken-do

Requires: Phoenix clan, Shugenja level 1, Void Use.

Benefit: You may use and learn Void spells, and may take these spells in place of your school spells. If you choose to enter the Void Disciple prestige class, you may ignore one of the feat criteria (either Heighten Spell or Spell Penetration) needed to enter.

Special: This feat may only be taken at first level.

Kage Yakiin (Shadow Brand)

Requires: Scorpion Clan.

Benefit: You suffer no movement penalties when attempting to hide in areas of dim lighting or darkness. If you use Bluff to create a diversion to hide, you suffer no penalties on your Hide check. Hide and Move Silently are always class skills for you. If your shadow brand is exposed to sunlight (natural sunlight only, not the effects of a daylight spell, for example), you take 1 point of damage per round until it is covered. You may not take the Depths of the Void feat, and may not take this feat if you already have Depths of the Void.

Kitsu Blood

Requires: Lion Clan, Kitsu family, Kitsu shugenja level 1+.

Benefit: You may communicate telepathically (though you still need a common language) with any creature in a 100-foot radius that has the spirit subtype. Once per week you may perform an augury that requires no material components by visiting and praying at an ancestral shrine.

Maho Focus

Requires: You must be able to cast at least one maho spell.

Benefit: The save DC of all your maho spells is increased by 1. This stacks with the benefits of the Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus feats.

Meishodo

Requires: Unicorn Clan, Shugenja level 5+.

Benefit: You may make and use meishodo, spell "shortcuts" known only to the Unicorn Clan, of any spell you know of 5th level or lower. Crafting a meishodo amulet takes one day for every 1,000 gp in its base price. The base price of a meishodo amulet is the spell level times the caster level times 150 gp (0-level spells count as ½ level). You must spend XP equal to 1/25 of this base price, and use up raw materials equal to half this base price. The caster level of a meishodo amulet is always the lowest possible caster level able to cast the stored spell. Metamagic feats (except Heighten Spell or Quicken Spell) can be added to the spell when it is created, raising the spell level, but do not affect the caster level. A spell with a casting time longer than 1 full round cannot be made into meishodo.

Using a meishodo amulet is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The user must possess the Meishodo feat, and expend a spell slot equal to the spell level (including any metamagic feats attached to the stored spell), along with any costly or XP components of the spell. The user need not know the spell or the metamagic feats involved in the amulet’s creation, but they must be on the user’s spell list. Save DCs are always 10 + the spell’s level (ignoring any metamagic feats) + the ability modifier of the minimum ability score needed to cast the spell’s base level.

Pure Blood Magic

Requires: Phoenix or Unicorn Clan, the ability to cast spells as a shugenja.

Benefit: As you cast a spell you may inflict a number of points of damage equal to the spell's level on yourself in order to increase your caster level by 1 or the spell's save DC by 2. You need not make Concentration checks while damaging yourself in this fashion. You must have a slashing weapon at hand to use this feat. Each time you use this feat, you have a 1% per point of damage inflicted chance of attracting a kansen.

Pure Kitsu Blood

Requires: Lion Clan, Shugenja level 1+.

Benefit: Spells with the [Ancestor] descriptor are always spells of your element focus, and you may take them in place of your school spells.

Ritual Magic (Metamagic)

Requires: The ability to cast divine spells as a shugenja.

Benefit: You may use the Ritual Magic rules (see Rokugan) to modify a spell's effect if you have assistants casting with you. The spell uses up a slot three levels higher than the spell's level, and using this feat doubles the casting time after all other modifications (including the longer casting time for using a metamagic feat).

Steady Soul

Requires: Monk, inkyo, or shugenja level 1.

Benefit: Choose either the monk or inkyo class. You may freely multiclass between that class and the shugenja class.

Normal: You may only return to the shugenja class after multiclassing in the case of prestige classes with a divine spellcasting requirement.

Special: You may only take this feat at first level.

Superior Element Focus

Requires: Shugenja level 1+.

Benefit: Add +1 to the save DC of all spells from your Element Focus. This stacks with the Element Focus class ability, but not with the effects of the Spell Focus or Greater Spell Focus feats.

Taint Binding

Requires: Shugenja level 4+.

Benefit: You may turn or damage creatures with the Shadowlands Taint as a good cleric turns or destroys undead by strongly presenting a piece of crystal or jade. You must expend a spell slot to use this ability. The spell slot expended replaces your Charisma modifier when making your turning check and rolling turning damage. Use your shugenja level as your effective cleric level. If your turning check indicates you would destroy a creature, you do 1d8 per shugenja level worth of crystal or jade damage (determined by the item used) to the creature instead. This is a supernatural ability.

Special: If assisting the caster of binding spell, you may expend a 1st level spell slot rather than casting suggestion.

Travel Magic

Requires: Unicorn Clan, character level 1, Wis 15.

Benefit: Your base speed is increased by 5. Your maximum weight and range for spells with the [Teleportation] descriptor are doubled.

Special: This feat may only be taken at first level, but may be taken in lieu of an ancestor feat.