The Extraordinary Trance Feat, for all your buffbarian needs

Rules Discussion House Rules
1

Not only in other systems but also in media, the effects of a rage or the adrenaline of battle can have additional effects. The nearly indestructible Hulk, a shapeshifting bearbarian or an angry dragon that radiates heat can all be realized with this Feat.

Extraordinary Trance (I-II)

Cost: 2 Points

Prerequisites:

  • Tier 1-2: Battle Trance and Boon Focus I of the chosen Boon

Description: When you fight, your Trance has extraordinary effects. Maybe you’re a barbarian with rage so great the ruin of your enemies invigorates you or a martial arts expert balancing offensive and defensive stances.

Effect: Choose a Boon that has a duration of Sustain Persists and that you have the Boon Focus I Feat for.

  • Tier 1: The Boon is automatically Invoked on yourself only at the start of your Battle Trance as a Free Action.
  • Tier 2: You can Sustain the Boon as a Free Action while in your Trance.

Special: This Feat may require special attention and adjudication from the GM, as not all Boons may be an appropriate fit for an Extraordinary Trance. Barrier, for example, doesn’t target a person and thus does not work well with an Extraordinary Trance.

This Feat essentially provides a much more limited and focused version of the higher Tiers of the Boon Focus Feat, dropping the Multi-Targeting options and making it dependent on Battle Trance in exchange for a few Feat Points.

I intentionally left out the option to take this Feat multiple times for different Boons. While that wouldn’t be particularly game-breaking, it could be abused by gaining a lot of Boons in the first Turn of Battle Trance while keeping Feat cost relatively low, so GM discretion is advised.
Whether the character could Multi-Target an Invocation and Sustain it as a Free Action in the Battle Trance is similarly in the GM’s hands and should depend on the flavour.

2 Likes
2

The Feat Costs are incredibly high for a relatively small payoff.
If my character already has Boon Focus (Haste), they can cast Haste on themselves as a Major Action, then enter Battle Trance as a Free Action in the same turn. -> This Feat grants me an additional Major action in exchange for 2 Feat Points. This applies only to the turn in which the character activates Battle Trance.

From there on, my character would need to sustain Haste every turn, denying me the ability to use a Focus Action. => This Feat makes it so I can use Focus Actions while still sustaining my Haste Buff for 2 Feat Points. => My character get’s a potential +1 Advantage

This, however, requires my character to have already acquired Boon Focus (Haste), which is another 3 Feat Points. If you already have Boon Focus on that character, then that’s fine. As a Prerequisite, however, it’s a very steep price to pay for a Feat that doesn’t actually grant you too much once your in trance.

I would probably remove the Prerequisite for having Boon Focus, changing the prerequisite to “Battle Trance and the Character needs to be able to invoke the chosen Boon by themselves, not through the use of items or other means.” Having the Feat Limited to once per Character also makes sense, since “Alteration” can give you pretty strong Boons like Haste, Bolster and Resistance from a single Extraordinary Attribute.

The character still having to actually be able to cast the Boon also limits the character, as you can’t have a full on melee monster suddenly Haste/Bolster/etc. themselves for free, so that’s good.

3

Thank you for the feedback.

I heavily disagree, let me explain why:

I hear what you are saying, but compare that to similar effects of this Feat using existing rules. Boon Focus II and III respectively grant almost the same benefits at a higher cost, yet Boon Focus II does not allow you to take a Charge Action in your first Turn for example, which the first Tier of this Feat does.

I am also going to mention that in Open Legend, where fights usually last only a few Rounds and Bosses get multiple Actions per Round, even a single Major Action is something very valuable.

This 1 Advantage is simply not the whole story, as you have a Boon active during this time. If you want to be more defensive, you simply choose Resistance, Regeneration, Life Drain or something similar. If you want to use this Feat to be of more offensive use, consider Bolster or a Bane-radiating Aura. Haste, as your example, can even grant you additional Major Actions at higher PLs.
At Bolster PL3 you make up for the Advantage and at PL6 it’s already better, not to mention the increased flexibility.

Extraordinary Trance doesn’t “deny” you a Focus Action while having this Boon active, it enables you to use one each Turn 2 whole Feat Points earlier than Boon Focus III does, which you would normally need.

I very much intended for the Boon to automatically activate (requiring no Roll), but instead of making another first Tier that would just be a Boon Focus I that only works in a Battle Trance I decided to play it simple and use the existing Feat to expand on.

I once again disagree on the usefulness of this Feat, as it essentially simply lowers the cost of the existing path to this effect by adding a few restrictions.

Regarding the cost, Extraordinary Trance is very much something to work towards and intended as such, as you can’t take it at Level 1 anyways. It gets really useful with Boons of a relatively high PL, meaning waiting a Level longer to get access to, say, Life Drain might be a good idea if you’re a Physically focused character with Entropy as a secondary Attribute. That also means you’ll have another Feat Point or two for this.

In conclusion, I think we are looking at this Feat from two different standpoints. You as a player who sees the benefit and considers it as an option and me as a re-imagining and re-evaluation of existing rules, making a previously inattractive path a bit more graspable.

What would you suggest to make this more attractive option while keeping the cost reasonable? Heavier restrictions in exchange for a lower cost, like a three Tier version of Boon Focus completely restricted to Battle Trance?

1 Like