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Darksoul [General]
You have a dark power buried within you, desperate to manifest at a great cost.
Prerequisites: Tiefling
Benefit:
You bear a darksoul,
a corrupt and malign spiritual presence, a legacy of your fiendish
ancestor. The darksoul whispers in your mind, promising great power if
you would only let it come to the surface and reveal the full power of
your heritage.
As a free action once per day, you may give in to the darksoul's
whispers. This causes an immediate physical and mental change. You grow
taller (normally 1d10 inches), your skin becomes jet black, midnight
blue, brick red, or a putrid green. Your eyes glow yellow, orange, or
red. Any tiefling characteristics you have become amplified and
exaggerated, and you may gain minor traits you didn't have before. Your
alignment becomes evil for the duration if it wasn't already. Your Strength and Charisma increase by +2, but you
suffer a -8 penalty to Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, and
Handle Animal checks when dealing with creatures that would find your
appearance disturbing (which includes most normal animals). Your
natural armor increases by +2, and your ability to create darkness is
treated as if it were a 4th-level spell for the purpose of being
overcome by light effects and dispelling attempts.
This transformation normally lasts 5 rounds + your
newly improved Charisma modifier. Each time you would revert back to
your normal form, you must attempt a Will saving throw (DC 5 + your
HD). If you succeed, you change back without difficulty. If you fail,
some of the taint of the darksoul transformation remains evident in
your physical appearance; this gives you a -2 penalty to Diplomacy,
Disguise, Gather Information, and Handle Animal checks when dealing
with creatures that would find your appearance disturbing. Multiple
failures give cumulative penalties, and if you fail four times then you
permanently remain in your monstrous form (with a -8 penalty to those
skill checks) and evil alignment (though your ability scores, natural
armor, and darkness effective spell level still revert to their normal states).
Once this change becomes permanent, activating the
power of the darksoul still gives you the other benefits of the feat,
and you no longer need to make a Will save when the effect ends.
How about this version (compared
to the old one, which was too good)? It's more like the Extra Rage
feat; you get a rage-like effect (+2 to two stats instead of +4 to two
stats) and still have the roleplaying skill penalties (note that this isn't the faux pas of balancing a mechanical advantage with a roleplaying penalty, this gives a mechanical penalty to skills used in roleplaying ... there is a difference). It shouldn't be as
good as an actual rage because taking a feat should not allow you to
steal a class ability ... multiclassing to barbarian should be a better
option in terms of mechanical rewards, though it runs the risk of an XP
penalty for multiclassing. Maybe if it gave a +2 to Con as well, just
to make it a little more desirable compared to an actual rage but still
overall with a weaker effect (compare the cost of three +2 magic items
to two +4 magic items). I cut the part about it counting as Iron Will,
though I did like that muchly.
This is kinda inspired by the Marvel Comics character "Son of Satan"
and also by the Marvel character "Magik," younger sister of the X-Men's
"Colossus" (the turns-into-metal buff dude you meet in the school in X-Men 2).