Foursaken Bonds
It’s Romance Week, and, as I explained in my Dark Designs article earlier this week, one of the hallmarks of romantic fantasy is the stress on interpersonal relationships between the characters. In that spirit, here are some feats for 4e designed to bring a little mechanical oomph to back up those important character relationships. As a special note, these feats are likely to tread a little more on the DM’s territory than most, more or less by necessity, so more than with most feats you should really check with your DM before taking any of these feats.
Revenging Bond
Benefit: When you take the Revenging Bond feat, choose a single character to which Revenging Bond applies. Whenever that character becomes bloodied, you gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls against the creature that bloodied that character for the remainder of the encounter.
At 11th and 21st levels, you may choose an additional character to which Revenging Bond applies. If you do not, you may instead increase the bonus to a previously chosen character by an additional +2 (so a 21st-level character could have a +6 bonus with one character, a +4 bonus with one character and a +2 bonus with another, or a +2 bonus with three different characters). The chosen characters may be PCs or NPCs.
Nemesis
Benefit: When you take the Nemesis feat, choose a single character to be your nemesis. This character can be an NPC or another PC. You gain a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made against your nemesis.
At 11th level this bonus increases to +5, and at 21st level it increases to +7. If your nemesis dies, you may choose a new character to be your nemesis the next time you level up.
Rival
Benefit: Your DM chooses or creates a single character who serves as your rival. Your rival delights in thwarting your plans and showing you up, and is generally infuriatingly good at it. Your rival gains a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made against you, and a +6 bonus on any opposed skill checks made against you. If your rival is ever slain, your DM should introduce a new rival after the next time you level up.
At 11th and 21st levels, your rival’s bonus to attack and damage increases by an additional +2, and his bonus to opposed skill checks increases by an additional +4.
When you take this feat, choose two other feats for which you qualify. You gain those feats.
Collector of Favors
Benefit: You gain a +5 bonus on a Diplomacy roll of your choice. You must declare that you are using the bonus before the roll is made. Each time you level up, you gain an additional use of this ability. While you may accrue as many “extra bonuses” as you like, only one such bonus may be applied to any given Diplomacy roll.
At 11th level, the bonus increases to +10. At 21st-level, the bonus increases to +15.
Sworn Protector
Benefit: When you take the Sworn Protector feat, choose a single character to be your ward. As long as that character is in a square adjacent to yours, he gains a +2 bonus to all defenses. He lose this bonus if you are blinded, dazed, dominated, helpless, petrified, stunned, surprised, unconscious, or otherwise subject to a condition which prevents you from being able to flank an enemy.
At 11th and 21st levels, you may choose an additional ward. If you do not, you may instead increase the bonus to a previously chosen ward by an additional +1 (so a 21st-level character could grant a +4 bonus to one ward, a +3 bonus to one ward and a +2 bonus to another, or a +2 bonus to three different wards). The chosen characters may be PCs or NPCs.
Inspiring Bond
Benefit: When you take the Inspiring Bond feat, choose a single character to be your muse. As long as you can see and hear that character, you gain a +2 bonus to a single skill you are trained in, chosen at the time you take Inspiring Bond.
Invigorating Bond
Benefit: When you take the Invigorating Bond feat, choose a single character. As long as you are within 10 squares of the chosen character, you may take a second wind as a free action, instead of a standard action.