Heirloom Feat idea

I have this idea for a feat where the user started the game with a extraordinary item.

Thinking to have a prerequisite of 1st level and the feat cost is similar to boon access feat where the number of feat points equals the WL of the item. But only thinking that you could only put 5 feat points into it at most.

I’m also thinking that if you take this the player either looses all ability to get 3 items at WL 2 or just can have 1 item at WL 2.

What does everyone think and if they have feed back let me know.

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If you were to do something like this I would make it pretty simple.

Wealthy feat costs 3 points, it gives you WL 3 as a starting player.

So if you take this Heirloom feat, then it would be 3 feat points, and it allows you to have one of the following (designed with the help and approval of your GM):

  1. one WL 3 extraordinary item that can be from a WL 3 mundane item
  2. 2 WL 2 Extraordinary items that can be from a WL 3 mundane item
  3. 3 WL 2 Extraordinary items

or something along those lines. Maybe a WL 4 Extraordinary Item as an option that can have up to a WL 2 mundane item as its base

When I refer to the mundane Items I’m talking about for Weapons and Armor basically.

Note, you as a player would still be at WL 2 after taking this feat, but you would have the item(s).


No idea if this would be too powerful, haven’t spent more time thinking it over, but I would do something similar to that I think.

I would consider Tiers of this, much like Companion and such. This could either raise the WL the item is allowed to be or you could do properties and each tier gets to choose one from a list of properties.

As a presumably important item to the character, it could also increase in power (WL) with you, this would also make the feat worthwile at higher levels.

A quick example:


Heirloom

Cost: 2 points

Prerequisites:
Tier 1-3: None

Description: You possess an item of noticable significance. This could be a heirloom of your familiy, a gift from a benefactor or you found it lying under a single beam of sunlight, seemingly waiting for you.

Effect: You get an Extraordinary Item. It’s WL can be equal to half your level + the Tier of this feat. If it has other Items as a base (like a weapon or a piece of armour), you must treat these like normal expenditures.
The Item cannot have the Augmenting, Consumable or Expendable properties.
If the item has Banes, Boons or Attributes associated with it, they cannot be greater than the normal maximum attribute score for your level.

Special: If you ever lose your item, voluntarily or involuntarily, you regain the feat points that you have spent on this feat and may spend them as usual.
In addition to purchasing multiple tiers of this feat, you may take this feat multiple times and select a new item each time.


The Special Section is just copy-pasted from the Companion feat. Note that at 6 feat points and level 1 this feat allows access to a WL4 item, and continually allows for an item one or two WL above the norm for each level. I made it so that it keeps being important, but this version may be too strong, even with the Attribute/Bane/Boon level restriction.

EDIT:

After some consideration, I don’t think this would be too powerful. With the GM’s consent, Attributes/Banes/Boons one higher than the normal maximum could be allowed (note that this devalues Boon Access a little bit at level 1). The item obtained by this feat could almost always be obtained by doing a major expenditure by reducing your WL by one or by having the Wealthy feat (both work at the levels where one isn’t enough), the only difference would be the (potentionally) faster upgrade, accessibility and lower resource strain.
I’m using the recommended WL increases from the end of Chapter 1 for these assumptions.

I forgot to mention, but upgrading the item would probably need close to no time (like a level up) or a comparatively short ritual or crafting time, something like an hour per WL.

EDIT 2:

I disallowed the Augmenting, Consumable and Expendable properties in this because it may be a little weird to spend the feat points and upon use immediatly regain them, possibly to make a different Augmenting, Consumable or Expendable Item.
A workaround could be that an Item with any of these properties is instead usable once per day. This could be a self-refilling bottle with a healing potion inside it for example.

EDIT 3:

The second part of the Special section might need to go. More than one of these is likely to result in balancing issues.

EDIT 4 (i know):

Cost would need to be 3 in order to not flat out beat Boon Access for Boons of low PLs. In that case I’d seriously consider raising the maximum allowed Attributes/Banes/Boons level by one though.

Being able to get your feat points back is too much I would say.

This would be a feat that you should be able to start the game with or not. Many consider Wealthy to be like that, though wealthy doesn’t explicitly state that.

The reason this can cause problems is b/c of the way that WL scales exponentially instead of linear. For a GM to allow a player to grab the wealthy feat when they are at WL 4 and jump to WL 5, for example, or even more extreme, when they are WL 7 and jump to WL 8.


The reason I designed it the way I did was thinking about Wealthy + Craft Extraordinary Item that you could grab at Level 1. This would allow you to craft some WL 3 items for yourself to start with.

Indeed it doesn’t, which was also confusing to me when I first saw it.
As you said, WL scales exponentionally, and the Wealthy feat creates all kinds of problems like when to increase the WL of a player with it. At the same time would mean they’d get multiple times the amount of the others, witing until the others get to WL4 is too long.

I like to think of Companion and Extraordinary Focus as not being able to get the feat points back as well if you lose it. I like to think that you may perform a (both resources and time) costly ritual/meditation or something to get the feat points/another Companion/Focus and it doesn’t work at all if it is alive/intact and merely held captive/lost.
Maybe that would be a better way to deal with this kind of thing.

Of course you could just allow each player an Extraordinary Item of WL2/3 for free, when you regulate what they get it can add to the story. Balancing it shouldn’t be too hard.

Yes, a good GM won’t simply allow you to just get your Feat Points back right away and then immediately be able to spend them. There is a certain level of what makes sense and what works for the story that should always be considered.

It is by that same vein that not giving a player the Wealthy feat far into the campaign makes sense as well. There’s always exceptions, though, and it might be possible to get it down the road in a campaign with a good story (inheritance, death and items via will), but the GM is the one that would decide that in the end.

For Extraordinary Focus, the player might have to go on a quest or find certain items to be able to recreate their Extraordinary Focus, for example. For a companion, depending on the companion, they might have to friend an animal, or go into town and try and find a “loyal” person to go around with them, which could prove hard. Though then again, it should be a difficult thing to kill off your companion unless you just aren’t taking care of them.

@Salvonian honestly, though, I don’t know you really need a Heirloom Feat, as the GM and your story you can just make it happen.

Everyone starts with a Heriloom, etc.

You can let them, with WL 2, purchase a WL 3 item, and that item could be extraordinary after all. Sure they’ll be at WL 1 now, but they will have the Heirloom of their family.

I’m not sure a feat is the best approach for this when it can just be done with story.

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This is all good feed back, and your right as a GM i could give everyone a item. However the whole idea came from Star wars, for example you have 4 players but one wants to be a Jedi and have a lightsaber. Sure you could make a lightsaber not extraordinary but i think that would under power the lightsaber. Reason why i thought a feat that can be given at level one with some prerequisites and trade offs is to give it some balance with the other players. Sure they have a awesome weapon at level one, But they got it by spending feat points and having other trade offs to balance it out.

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