#feats

(art by LittleWelshArtist on DeviantArt)

Before there were style feats, there was a series of feats for monks and unarmed builds that didn’t have a name or special rules, but still evoked the idea of special martial techniques. Some of them even had “style” in the name. It’s pretty clear from the fact that some of these were in the core rulebook that A. The writers liked the idea of martial artists having more special techniques than just stunning fist and quivering palm, and B. They really wanted to express martial arts styles somehow, but hadn’t fully figured it out yet. Heck, give it a few more years, and we wouldn’t have had to wait for Starfinder 1e and later Pathfinder 2e to get martial artists using their ki to do their best Dragonball Z/fighting game impression with flight and energy blasts and such.

But it is those early technique feats that we’ll be focusing on today and the sort of tricks and debuffs that they could deliver with them, among other things. If you pay attention, you might even see in them the precursors of a few other things that bore fruit in Second Edition too, such as martial art styles including special strikes with their own damage type when one enters the stance for one.

Obviously, most of these require Improved Unarmed Strike to even take in the first place, either by way of the feat or by being a monk or brawler. A few others require Stunning Fist as well.

The first set of these are Scorpion Strike, which lets the warrior target the limbs to hamper speed, followed by Gorgon’s Fist to stagger them. Next up is Medusa’s Wrath, which if a follow-up granting extra attacks to a hindered foe. Finally, there is Cockatrice Strike, that can actually turn a foe to stone on a lucky strike against a hindered foe, dipping into actual supernatural territory.

Next up is Adder’s Strike, which allows them to effectively use poison on their unarmed strikes without poisoning themselves, as well as Pinpoint Poisoner, that adds darts to the mix.

Inspired by the devils of hell, there are also several techniques named after them. Belier’s Bite gives them training on dealing bleeding wounds. Next is Hamatulatsu, which lets them deal stabbing wounds with stiffened fingers, followed by Hamatula Strike, which lets them grapple and hold foes they’ve stabbed, and Hamatula Grasp, that improves the harm they do.

Other techniques are more mundane, like the Ki Throw line, Punishing Kick, Perfect Strike, and so on.

Others are blatantly supernatural, such as Nightmare Fist, Nightmare Weaver, and Nightmare Striker, which improve the ability to fight in darkness, intimidate foes while creating magical darkness, and punish foes marked by faerie fire, all of which makes sense as a martial art created for and by the drow.

Stepping aside from those requiring knowledge of punching, Spider Step and Cloud Step are both monk only feats that are clearly special techniques, allowing the monk to run on walls and even air briefly.

Rescuer Hombrew Class for Pathfinder 1st Edition (version 2)

This document comes with the following:

A new player class, the Rescuer.

Favored class options for every race that I know exists in the game, plus options for homebrew races created by @thecreaturecodex .

Rescuer archetypes, including: the Lifewarden, the Lifeguard, the Wealthy Philanthropist, the Firefighter, and the Babysitter.

15 new feats!

6 new magic items!

Figured I'd share them with y'all's, since I'm proud of them.

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Unconventional Companion

Prerequisite:

Character Level 07, Any class which gains animal companion. You would not gain an Unconventional Companion until you gained one via your class, and they would advance as you do per your class.

Instead of taking on an animal or magical creature as a companion, you have somehow managed to take on a person. They start as a level 01 NPC character and a level 1 companion. They gain companion levels and abilities as you level. At level 4 you may change the NPC level into a PC level. Every four levels after, they gain another PC level. Young characters do not gain further PC levels until they are no longer young.

If they are abused or mistreated by you, they will leave, retaining all the abilities they gained while serving as your companion. If this happens, you may not take another companion until you have redeemed yourself. If you drive them away for their own protection, they will return to you when it is safe to do so. They cannot gain levels independently of you until they reach level 05 or you release them.

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Unconventional Familiar

Prerequisite:

Character Level 07, "Gain Familiar" feat or any class which gains a familiar. You would not gain an Unconventional Familiar until you gained one via your class, and they would advance as you do per your class.

Instead of taking on an animal or magical creature as a familiar, you have somehow managed to take on a person. They start as a level 01 NPC character and a level 1 familiar. They gain familiar levels and abilities as you level. At level 4 you may change the NPC level into a PC level. Every four levels after, they gain another PC level. Unconventional Familiars may not take this feat, nor may they take Unconventional Companion, Leadership, nor any feat that provides Leadership. Young characters do not gain further PC levels until they are no longer young.

If they are abused or mistreated by you, they will leave, retaining all the abilities they gained while serving as your familiar. If this happens, you may not take another familiar until you have redeemed yourself. If you drive them away for their own protection, they will return to you when it is safe to do so. They cannot gain levels independently of you until they reach level 05 or you release them.

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Know It in Your Gut

You don’t know the truth of something in your head, you know it because you’ve lived life. You don’t always have the right words for explaining it to other people. Use Wisdom for your Knowledge checks rather than Intelligence. If you want to explain something you know to the rest of the party, you need to succeed on a Diplomacy check with a DC equal to the Knowledge check. If you fail by five, you can get the general concept across. If you fail by ten, you can get the basic concept across. More than that, and you just can’t find the right words for it.

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Sucker for a Pretty Face (Flaw)