Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Characters in a Skilled Game

While there's a lot of additional options in the skills themselves, there are also updated feats, spells, gear, and classes to take advantage of them.

Feats for the Skilled

Skills serve as a base level of power for the skilled characters of the world, but only a base. By employing feats, a skilled character can improve their abilities or expand them in unexpected and dramatic ways.

Standard Feat Descriptions

Always Aware [Prowess] The villain was only visible for a moment before he disappeared. But a moment is all you need.Prerequisites: Perception 6+ ranksBenefit: After you have 6 or more ranks in Perception than the minimum needed to use a particular ability, you reduce the total penalty for rushing the action by 5 points. You also gain one additional rush option: Rush a swift action to an immediate action in exchange for a -5 check penalty. Example: If you rushed a standard action Notice check to a swift action, for example, you would suffer a 0 penalty instead of the normal -5 penalty. Similarly, if you had 10 ranks in Perception, you could use the Uncover Secrets ability as a move action with a 0 penalty, or as a swift action for only a -5 penalty.

Making a notice check as an immediate action allows you to attempt to gain more detail from the event at the instant you are given information from your passive perception, instead of waiting for your turn to arrive. This eliminates the possibility of the event ending before you can glean something from it, so long as you have an immediate action to spend on the check. It only works as often as you have immediate actions, however, which is once per round for most characters. These reactionary notice checks are made with a net -5 penalty, and are not as reliable as using a swift action on your turn.Normal: You suffer full penalties for rushing and may not make checks as an immediate action.
Angry Glare [Prowess] False friends wither under the weight of your glare.Prerequisites: Intimidation 4+ ranksBenefit: When you are affected by an Affability ability, you may make an Intimidation check as a free action. If your check exceeds your opponent's check, your opponent resolves the ability as if they had rolled the worst result.

You may also make an Intimidation check in place of a will save against any [Charm] or [Compulsion] effect. You suffer a penalty to your check equal to the effect level, or half the initiator's CR for effects without spell, power, maneuver, or similar level.

Artificer [Prowess] It's hard to know where you end and your wands begin. Items just like to do what you tell them to.Prerequisites: Arcana 4+ ranks, Caster Level 6Benefit: You may use any spell trigger item as if it were an item that responded to Arcana instead of its normal skill. Staves use your caster level instead of their own and your spellcasting ability score to calculate their DC. Furthermore, whenever you use an arcane staff, you may make an Arcana check for the There's a Trick to It ability. If you succeed, you may apply your Spellcasting feats to that use of the staff.

Clarity of Rage [Prowess, Fury] When blinding rage pushes you forward, you still tend to end up right where you wanted to be.Prerequisites: Rage class featureBenefit: While raging, you may use any skill ability without penalty or restriction so long as it could be completed as a full-round action or less. You are still restricted from using skills that need patience and would require more time. Additionally, while raging you gain a +2 competence bonus to any skill that has Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom as its key attribute. Normal: You may not use a number of skill abilities based on their key attributes.
Combat Casting [Prowess] When you work your somatic components into a dodge routine, you can get them off with a sword near your face instead of inside it.Benefit: As part of the action to cast a spell, you may attempt to cast it defensively. This requires a caster level check against a DC determined by your foes, though you may substitute an Arcana check if you are casting an arcane spell, a Geomancy check if you are casting a natural spell, or a Thaumaturgy check if you are casting a divine spell.

Your check is rolled once, and the result used against the DC for each opponent threatening you in melee. You suffer a penalty to this check equal to the number of foes threatening you minus one. The DC for each opponent is 15 + your opponent's base attack bonus or CR, whichever is lower. If your check exceeds a foe's DC, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity from them. If your check does not exceed a foe's DC, that foe may take an attack of opportunity as normal.

You are also somewhat better than normal at finishing casting a spell if you are struck with an attack while casting a spell or taking ongoing damage while casting a spell. You gain a +3 competence bonus to any use of the Ignore Distraction or Suck It Up abilities to avoid interrupting your spellcasting. Normal: Casting spells within a threatened area provokes an attack of opportunity.Special: Whenever a spellcasting class would be eligible to select a bonus [Metamagic], [Item Creation], or similar feat, they may select this feat instead.
Craft Item of Prowess [Item Creation, Prowess] You know your trade well enough to imbue it into gear.Prerequisites: Character level 4Benefit: You may craft any skill gear for which you meet the prerequisites. Enchanting a skill item takes one day for each 1,000 gp in its price. To create a skill item, you must spend 1/25 of the item’s market price in XP and use up raw materials costing half of its market price.

You can also mend a broken skill item if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the XP, half the raw materials, and half the time it would take to craft that item in the first place.

Fast Talker [Prowess] You find yourself in a hole, but you might just talk yourself out.Prerequisites: Bluff 6+ ranksBenefit: You may use the Push an Agreement ability with a Bluff check rather than an Affability check. The nature of this action allows you to make the check in only 5 rounds' time. Since you are largely misleading your target with this action, they realize they have been played after 2 rounds per rank you have in bluff. At that time, they cease to respect the agreement, and their attitude towards you also shifts negatively one step. Normal: "Push an Agreement" is performed with the Affability skill.
Human-like Skill Training [Prowess] I can see why humans have taken over the world with this "multi-tasking" thing they've got going on.Prerequisites: Race that does not grant bonus skill pointsBenefit: You immediately gain extra skill points equal to your level +3. You must spend these skill points on your class and cross class skills normally.

At each new level, you also gain 1 additional skill point.
Jack of All Trades [Prowess] Benefit: You can advance background abilities to Grade I and Grade II in half the normal time. Additionally, you gain a +2 bonus to the attribute checks necessary to advance these abilities.
Mounted Combat [Fighter] You are a skilled rider and combatant, and have brought the two together.Prerequisites: Base Attack Bonus +1Benefit: When making a ride check or a swift mount / dismount check, you may use your Base Attack Bonus + your Dexterity Modifier + 3 in place of your normal ride modifier. You may take 10 on this replacement riding check at any time, even under pressure or in combat. Normal: You must invest in the ride (or other equivalent) skill to be a competent rider.Special: A fighter may select Mounted Combat as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Orator [Prowess] You know the secrets behind keeping a crowd's attention.Prerequisites: Affability 6+ ranksBenefit: You may use an affability check to fascinate your targets by taking two full-round actions. Everyone within 20 feet must make a psychology check with a DC equal to your affability modifier plus 10. If they fail, they are fascinated until you stop talking. Every minute since the beginning of the effect, they can attempt to break free of the trance and reroll their check to resist. Each time they fail a check to resist, they fall deeper into the trance and take a cumulative −3 penalty to all attempts to break free. This penalty lasts only as long as the trance is maintained.
Powerful Leader [Prowess] People are often willing to follow you to the end of the world.Prerequisites: Intimidation 12+ ranksBenefit: When using the New Orders ability, you can choose to affect everyone within a 20 foot radius.
Rumormonger [Prowess] You know the secrets behind a well crafted rumor.Prerequisites: Bluff 6+ ranksBenefit: By spending a minute of conversation, you may start a rumor. Choose anything mentioned in the conversation to spread. Make a free Push an Agreement check (to push the target(s) to gossip) using Bluff rather than Affability. If you succeed, the target(s) are obliged to spread the rumor. Within the next 24 hours, they will bring the topic up in casual conversation if appropriate and the opportunity presents itself, to as many people as appropriate and possible. They make a bluff check as if they had access to this feat to impart the same obligation on to the recipient.
Shadow Focus [Prowess] Your mysteries wield more power than normal. If you don't use mysteries, you still get some benefits when using similar arts.Prerequisites: Arcana 4 ranksBenefit: You get a +2 competence bonus on DCs for any spells on this list. Special: This feat is not intended to stack with Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus, as well as anything similar.
Tracker [Prowess] You can follow less than obvious trails.Prerequisites: Survival 4+ ranksBenefit: You may use the Survival skill to find and follow trails with any DC. The DC of a trail is determined according to the Revised Tracking Rules.

Additionally, if you fail to find or continue to follow a trail, you may make an additional check after spending only 10 minutes searching outdoors or 2 minutes indoors. Special: In games using the Tome of Prowess, this feat replaces the Track feat for all intents and purposes.
Winning Smile [Prowess] You are so genuinely likeable that it's hard to yell at you.Prerequisites: Affibility 4+ ranksBenefit: When you are affected by an Intimidation ability, you may make an Affibility check as a free action. If your check exceeds your opponent's check, your opponent resolves the ability as if they had rolled the worst result.

You may also make an Affability check in place of a will save against any [Fear] effect. You suffer a penalty to your check equal to the effect level, or half the initiator's CR for effects without spell, power, maneuver, or similar level.

Tome Style Scaling Feats

Too Much of a Good Thing...

Scaling feats were introduced in the Races of War sourcebook from the Tome series to fix several issues with feats. At the time feats were largely minor perks that did very little to differentiate characters and didn't scale in power with the game in large part. They were also so few in number that you couldn't actually become something iconic with them, like a sniper, until you were mid level, and even then you were locked into that one shtick. Scaling feats, by contrast, are actually complete minor aspects of a character that help define who they are and what they do that scale well enough to be useful throughout a character's career. In this respect they solve the problems they set out to quite well.

Taken too often, however, these feats actually serve to dilute a character's personality. You can easily go from having a sniper medic human rogue at level 1 to a sniper, medic, expert counterfeiter, detective, many faced, con artist human rogue at level 12. And it just gets worse from there or with additional bonus feats, as each additional feat adds another relevant descriptor to your character. Their structure also leads to the acquisition of increasing numbers of powers as you level, so that you gain substantial blocks of powers at specific levels. On its own this isn't particularly bad, but in conjunction with the new skill abilities presented in this work you can quickly overwhelm a player with new powers and abilities. The power concerns of feats are also reduced with the addition of this work, as the characters who most depend on feats for abilities now have relevant and useful powers from their skills. There are still feats that should be avoided as the traps that they are, but the need for feats to pull more weight has been reduced.

This isn't to say that scaling feats are unnecessary, just they they have issues on their own that are exacerbated by the addition of useful skill abilities. To avoid these problems we suggest the following restriction on taking scaling feats. You may only select a scaling feat with the character granted feat slots at level 1, 3, 6 and 12. Additionally, you may not select a scaling feat to fill a bonus feat unless the bonus feat specifically lists a type of scaling feat. Other normal and bonus feat slots can only be filled with standard feats, granting an additional ability or perk to a character without substantially altering their description. Limiting these sorts of feats in this way reduces character dilution at lower levels and keeps the power acquisitions from overwhelming players without sacrificing the real benefits this style of feat brings to lower level games.

Gear for the Skilled

Example Skill Items

The following is a list of items that have been written to work with the updated skill system presented here.

An etheliometer is a rather crazy collection of knobs, levers, gears, and dials that requires two hands to operate. Those who understand a bit about how magic works can use the various fiddly bits on it to detect the presence of magic and to learn information about it. As a result, only characters with ranks in Arcana, Geomancy, or Thaumaturgy can use it effectively.

When used, however, an individual with ranks in one or more of the above skills can determine the presence of magic in a 60' cone (radiating outward from the etheliometer) as a 1-round action. With an additional 1-round action, the wielder can determine the direction and distance to each magical effect within the cone. Once located, they may spend a 1-minute action the wielder can determine additional information about a magical effect or item so long as they are within 5' of it. This last function is treated as a use of the Identify Magic ability in the Arcana, Geomancy, or Thaumaturgy skills. The wielder gains additional information about the effect based on the result of their check.

Price: 50 gp
Weight: 2 lb.

Cloak of the Quickly Forgotten
While wearing the Cloak of the Quickly Forgotten, a character gains 4 ranks in the stealth skill. These bonus ranks can not increase your total ranks in the skill above your level +3, nor can it raise your total ranks above 10. If the cloak would provide you ranks that you can not use because you reached one of those ceilings, two ranks may instead be converted into a +1 competence bonus.

Headband of Attention
While wearing a Headband of Attention, a character's sense are sharpened and they gain 10 ranks in the perception skill. These bonus ranks can not increase your total ranks in the skill above your level +3, nor can it raise your total ranks above 20. If the cloak would provide you ranks that you can not use because you reached one of those ceilings, three ranks may instead be converted into a +1 competence bonus.

Hands of the Deft
While wearing these gloves, it only takes you twice as long to take 15 on any disable devices check that you make. Further, you may take 10 on any disable devices check that you make under pressure, even if you do not have 4 more ranks than the minimum required to use the particular skill ability.

Amulet of Second Glances
While wearing this amulet, you may immediately reroll any Appraisal ability check as a free action. You do not have to use this new result if you do not want to, and may instead keep your original roll. You may use this reroll ability up to 3 times in a day.

Magic for the Unskilled

Since magic and the skill system are intended to achieve similar ends while interacting as little as possible, some spells have been removed while others have been rewritten.

Removed Spells

• Glibness
• Greater Heroism
• SRD:Moment of Prescience

Note: Some of these spells may be re-added as variant spells in the future. Greater Heroism in particular is only problematic because of its skill bonus size. If this is reduced to +3 it can be otherwise used as is, though it is not as valuable as it previously was.

Rewritten Spell Descriptions

The following is a list of spells that have been rewritten to work with the updated skill system presented here.

Frighten

Necromancy [Fear, Mind-Affecting]
Level:	Blackguard 1, Bard 1, Cleric 1, Death 1, Sorcerer/Wizard 1
Components:	V, S
Casting time:	1 standard action
Range:	15 ft
Area:	Cone-shaped burst
Duration:	5 rounds or 1 round, see text
Saving Throw:	Will negates
Spell Resistance:	Yes

A shadowy blast passes briefly over your enemies; in its wake, only fear. You wiggle your fingers creepily and say "Ooga booga" for effect.

Enemies within the area of effect become frightened for 5 rounds. If a creature with 6 or fewer hit dice succeeds on their saving throw, they are only shaken for 1 round instead. Creatures with more than 6 hit dice suffer no effect on a successful saving throw. Frighten counters and dispels remove fear.

Frightened and Cause Fear

Frighten is intentionally set at the same level as cause fear, and if you include it you should not expect spellcasters to prepare cause fear in their first level spell slots. You may want to allow casters to prepare a version of cause fear with a 1 round duration as a 0 level spell (cantrip or orison) instead.