I'm trying to think of a list of minor powers that players could get through various means. Ones that, while neat, either can't short-circuit a story arc or would have to be selected with foreknowledge to affect gameplay negatively.
I admit, I'm having a really hard time with this since my mind seems oriented towards mechanics, and this is almost exactly the opposite direction I want it to go!
The best example I have is something I rolled once for an NPC on a random table of mutations long ago- the ability to predict the local weather one day in advance with perfect accuracy. Magical manipulation of the weather would foil it, but otherwise it worked well as a practical power to have.
What are some others people can think of?
I'm trying to think of a list of minor powers that players could get through various means. Ones that, while neat, either can't short-circuit a story arc or would have to be selected with foreknowledge to affect gameplay negatively.
I admit, I'm having a really hard time with this since my mind seems oriented towards mechanics, and this is almost exactly the opposite direction I want it to go!
The best example I have is something I rolled once for an NPC on a random table of mutations long ago- the ability to predict the local weather one day in advance with perfect accuracy. Magical manipulation of the weather would foil it, but otherwise it worked well as a practical power to have.
What are some others people can think of?
Prestidigitation at will. Say goodbye to potty breaks.
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Various sub-features of the prestidigitation spell could even be options. One person might always be clean, even after being dunked into a mud-puddle, he'll get up and his clothing will be clean and dry within moments. Another might have the ability to alter the color of their hair and eyes, or be able to animate tattoos on their skin (or, if they have some scripted text on their skin, say a religious aphorism or poem, rearrange the letters to form different messages).
Arduin Grimoire had charts of random powers or special traits that a character could have. The M&M adaptation of Wild Cards introduces 'deuce' powers, which are little 1 pt. powers that don't have much of a game effect, like the ability to play a snippet of music, or to point at a single (non-magical, non-monstrous) insect within 10 ft. mutter 'Zot' and strike it dead.
The 1000 Tiefling / Aasimar appearance quirks threads and the 1000 Resurrection effects thread might also have some useful notions.
You can flip through the Bestiary and find a bunch of monster abilities that might serve as inspiration. One grey-skinned character might have the ability to freeze in place and be easily mistaken for a statue, while another might have damp-looking skin and 'soft' bones, allowing them a bonus to escape artist checks and the ability to squeeze as if they were one size class smaller, as long as they have a minute to 'limber up.' The 'hold breath' ability of a crocodile is a pretty minor ability, as would be the ability to ignore spider webs (but not web spells!) and climb up spider webs as if they had a climb speed equal to half their ground move, or a green-skinned / flowering plant-haired lass with photosynthetic abilities allowing her to eat only one meal a day on sunny days, as long as she spends four hours / meal skipped out in the sunlight.
Perhaps someone is 'addicted' to positive energy, and regains only half (minimum 1) the normal hit points overnight through natural rest, but gain an additional hit point / die from positive energy curing spells or effects. Useful if they travel with a healer (as adventurers typically do...), but when they are on their own, it takes them twice as long to recover from an injury.
Some elemental accident has resulted in your body being a strange receptacle / conduit for magical energy of a certain type (electricity or fire, perhaps). You take normal damage from that energy type, but when you take at least 10 points of that energy type in a round, your next melee attack within the next round inflicts +1d6 of that energy type, as the energy conducts from you to your next target. Perhaps this can even conduct through a spell, to a single target, so that if you naturally conduct electrical damage, and a blue dragon breaths on you, the next round, you can throw a spell that inflicts +1d6 electrical damage to a single target that it affects.
Those are nice, but I guess what I was hoping for was something that was useful, but couldn't readily be reflected through game mechanics (i. e. didn't involve dice rolls or numerical bonuses). My girlfriend suggested being able to identify each separate ingredient in something the character tastes (not necessarily knowing its name, but would know it again if they were exposed to it). This obviously applies to dishes, but would be a powerful asset to an alchemist. It would be amusing to apply to a crafter of magic items... picture a witch licking a magic sword. "Yup. That's Kusanagi's work all right, iron sands from the mystic river, scales from Cinderwind Salamanders... everything's in there."
The only problem with that is that it could potentially shortcut some mystery adventure types if used cleverly, though it would be difficult.
Maybe "Minor" powers was a misleading title. I'm less concerned about the apparent power of the ability and more concerned about the ability to shortcut an entire adventure through its usage (like divination spells do for mysteries and Paladin's Fear Immunity does for horror).
Medium and Ghost Wisperer are like that.
Nobody else can see the ghosts and they can't control them at all.
They seldom get the ghost they want and the spirit can demand things before they will offer any help.
Here's all the suggestions so far.
01: the ability to predict the local weather one day in advance with perfect accuracy. Magical manipulation of the weather would foil it, but otherwise it worked well as a practical power to have.
02: Prestidigitation at will. Say goodbye to potty breaks.
03: Wild empathy, but only for a specific species. A horse whisperer, for example.
04: Ability to automatically cure a specific disease (ex filth fever) or poison (ex greenblood oil).
05: +1 bonus on Diplomacy checks against a specific race. A dwarf whisperer, for example.
06: An NPC with a low Intelligence who can, once per day, take 20 on a single Knowledge check. An idiot savant, in other words.
07: Darkvision 5 ft.
08: Dimension door 1/day, but only when no one's at the origin point or destination point. You know those people in movies who show up unexpectedly at impossible places? Like Jason from the Friday the 13th movies? That.
09: One person might always be clean, even after being dunked into a mud-puddle, he'll get up and his clothing will be clean and dry within moments
10: have the ability to alter the color of their hair and eyes
11: be able to animate tattoos on their skin (or, if they have some scripted text on their skin, say a religious aphorism or poem, rearrange the letters to form different messages).
12: like the ability to play a snippet of music.
13: to point at a single (non-magical, non-monstrous) insect within 10 ft. mutter 'Zot' and strike it dead.
14: One grey-skinned character might have the ability to freeze in place and be easily mistaken for a statue
15: damp-looking skin and 'soft' bones, allowing them a bonus to escape artist checks and the ability to squeeze as if they were one size class smaller, as long as they have a minute to 'limber up
16: The 'hold breath' ability of a crocodile
17: the ability to ignore spider webs (but not web spells!) and climb up spider webs as if they had a climb speed equal to half their ground move
18: a green-skinned / flowering plant-haired lass with photosynthetic abilities allowing her to eat only one meal a day on sunny days, as long as she spends four hours / meal skipped out in the sunlight.
19: Perhaps someone is 'addicted' to positive energy, and regains only half (minimum 1) the normal hit points overnight through natural rest, but gain an additional hit point / die from positive energy curing spells or effects. Useful if they travel with a healer (as adventurers typically do...), but when they are on their own, it takes them twice as long to recover from an injury.
20: Some elemental accident has resulted in your body being a strange receptacle / conduit for magical energy of a certain type (electricity or fire, perhaps). You take normal damage from that energy type, but when you take at least 10 points of that energy type in a round, your next melee attack within the next round inflicts +1d6 of that energy type, as the energy conducts from you to your next target. Perhaps this can even conduct through a spell, to a single target, so that if you naturally conduct electrical damage, and a blue dragon breaths on you, the next round, you can throw a spell that inflicts +1d6 electrical damage to a single target that it affects.
21: able to identify each separate ingredient in something the character tastes (not necessarily knowing its name, but would know it again if they were exposed to it). This obviously applies to dishes, but would be a powerful asset to an alchemist. It would be amusing to apply to a crafter of magic items... picture a witch licking a magic sword. "Yup. That's Kusanagi's work all right, iron sands from the mystic river, scales from Cinderwind Salamanders... everything's in there."
22: Memorize a huge sequence of objects/numbers and have perfect recall.
23: Perfect pitch.
24: Subsonic hearing (ie, those who claim to hear weird stuff prior to earthquakes).
25: Lucid dreaming.
26: Photographic memory.
27: Medium and Ghost Whisperer are like that.
Nobody else can see the ghosts and they can't control them at all.
They seldom get the ghost they want and the spirit can demand things before they will offer any help.
28: Skin glows like a candle, noticeable only in the dark.
29: Melter who can turn into a puddle.
30: Can turn into a guinea pig, or something else cute like a squirrel.
31: Can turn invisible only when no living thing is looking at them.
32: Can eat garbage and anything else without harm. No special ability to bite through things.
33. Chameleon like a Skulk. They can change their skin color but not their clothes, hair, or eyes. +8 stealth as long as they shave and dress in the colors of their environment.
I'm thinking of having mutants get one roll on this as well as real mutations and cosmetic mutations.
34. Spew mucus from their nose in a 60 foot long cone.
35. Spray blood from any stigmata point. 20 foot stream.
(These are once every 1D6 rounds.)
36. Can paint/draw a monochrome picture as a one-round action. Level of detail is appropriate for their Perception and Craft skill levels and tools they are using, but may contain details they were not consciously aware of. May be suitable for sale, but only to particular collectors (essentially a quest).
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37. Is always aware of the passage of time to the minute, while conscious. Can estimate the passage of time while unconscious uncannily (is always accurate within 5 minutes).
38. Can generally sense where his friends are and if any of them are in trouble.
39. Is able to communicate to party members without speaking.
40. Can identify individual people by smell, though not from a distance.
41. Will never be struck by normal lightning.
42. Eats like a bird (only uses half rations).
43. When sleeping, they have out of body experiences.
*Edited, due to being ninjaed!
A couple more:
44. Can always detect magnetic north.
45. Can palm a coin or small object at will (everyone has that friend that can do 1 magic trick really well, but that is all).
46. Can fall asleep instantly and time exactly when they will wake up.
47. Really bendy thumbs. Good for winning bar bets.
52. The ability to belch the alphabet of all languages which the character can speak.
52. If they think about an object or non-magical creature, they can spit out a cheap copy of it. Daggers and darts may do damage coming out.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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53. The ability to increase their rate of hair growth a thousandfold merely by concentrating on it. Useful for coming up with a quick disguise, or when one gets tired of one's current fashion.
54. Whenever the character touches someone, they somehow know the name of someone else very important to that person.
55. Character can slow down time -- but only for themselves. Their body still moves at the same rate, though, so there's no practical effect. But it might give them time to think in a tense situation. . .
56. Character somehow knows ahead of time exactly when someone will come to their door.
57. Character somehow never gets ink-stains on his hands while writing.
58. Whenever the character drinks alcoholic beverages, a random humanoid within 5 feet suffers the inebriating effects of the drink. The character remains unaffected (unless no other humanoid is in range).
59. If the character pops his thumb knuckles and shakes his hands, his thumbs glow like candles.
59. If the character pops his thumb knuckles and shakes his hands, his thumbs glow like candles.
Takes me to this:
60. The character can "crack" any of their joints very loudly, at a rate of about once every two hours or so. Any time an enemy attempts to bend their limbs too far, they can act theatrically when their joint "cracks" to fool the enemy into thinking the damage has been done (such as going limp when a foe twists their head to break their neck).
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61. Is capable of perfectly holding a pose for rounds equal to his or her Constitution without even breathing. After that, he or she needs to breathe for at least one round before repeating the performance.
62. Will always roll at least one six on a pair of six-sided dice, no matter what.
63. Can hold his or her breath for twice the normal limit.
64. Is extremely magnetic - NPC's will generally assume this character is the party leader.
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64. Is extremely magnetic - NPC's will generally assume this character is the party leader.
65. Is extremely magnetic - small ferrous items of negligible weight stick to the character's skin.
Prestidigitation at will. Say goodbye to potty breaks.
I'm almost afraid to ask, but how does Prestidigitation remove one's need to "empty the tank?" It would be perfect for cleaning... I think I see where this is going and Might I say eww.
66. Speak with animals, but only one specific species
1)Snakes (you're a Parselmouth, Harry?)
2)Rats
3)Mice
4)Squirrels
5)Chipmunks
6)Horses
7)Donkeys
8)Mules
9)Dolphins
10)Porpuses
12)Aligators
13)Crockadiles
There are a lot of them.Quintessential Sorcerer from Mongoose had a lot of special abilities that a character could give up spell slots (0-2nd level) for to gain powers. I'll try to find that and get a list of them.
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Thread Resurrection!
67. Small animals flock towards the character (think of a Disney Princess...squirrels, rabbits, and small birds).
68. Never gets cold or shivers (normal environment only).
69. The character can make any contiguous 6 inches of his body invisible (as per invisibility, caster level equals character level).
70. Character is immune to the alcoholic affects of one brand of alcohol.
71. Detect Alcohol at will.
72. Can replay a major event of any wild animal when they use Wild Empathy that occurred to it in the last 24 hours.
73. Can always start a fire even when the wood is damp.
74. Once per year the character will know which way to go when there is a fork in the road (think of it as the Travel god gives them a freebie).
75. You know the temperature within 5 degrees.
76. Dwarf only: When you touch a piece of stone you can guess the age the stone was last formed within ten percent of its actual age (e.g. a 212 year old building, you feel is about 200 years old).
77. Elf only: You can speak with Trees.
78. When you observe someone for three full rounds up close you can determine their true hair color.
79. Camels never spit on you.
79. Camels never spit on you.
80. Camels never spit at the character, but they always spit at a randomly determined adjacent character.
81. You are immune to the smell of Skunks (too bad everyone else isn't).
82. Food on your person takes twice as long to spoil as normal (isn't that banana a week old?)
83. You have an innate sense to know when a family member is in danger.
84. You know when someone close to you (been close to your for at least a year), has died.
85. There is a one-in-ten chance, whenever a monster randomly chose you to attack, that it will attack someone else instead.
86. Arrows you fire are recovered intact 75% of the time.
87. You have a gentle touch. +2 Diplomacy checks when you are touching
88. You know your approximate altitude above sea level to within ten percent.
89. You know how far you are away from home.
90. Bugs are naturally replelant to you.
91. You get +4 to initiative when you are naked.
92. You have good night vision, you can see 5-feet further than someone for your race.
93. When you repair something that had the broken condition using a craft skill you are trained in the item gains +1d6 temporary hitpoints.
94. You have the uncanny knack to be able to appraise jewelry; +2 circumstance bonus to Appraise checks
95. +2 reflex saves when on Ice
96. You always know what day of the year it is.
97. Once a week you may cast a spell without requiring a Divine Focus.
98. You know the approximate number of things that are in piles.
99. Add +5 to your base speed when naked.
My 67 got lost, so here it is as a replacement entry.
101. Detection allergy.
If someone has a mild allergy(sneezing) when around something, they can also find it. Iron is not possible because there is iron in the blood, and Gold is a noble element.
Here are some that are ok.
1: Metals (Silver, Copper, Tin, Platinum, Mithral, Admantium, ect.)
2: Dead(Corpses and corporal undead)
3: Vermin(Rodents, insects, spiders, scorpions, ect.)
4: Abberations
5: Animals
6: Dragons
7: Fey(Can detect elves if not an elf)
8: Magical Beasts
9: Monsterous Humanoids
10: Oozes(including mundane mold and mildew)
11: Outsiders
12: Plants
13: Goblinoids(Including Orcs)
14: Gasses(Not normal air, but will detect coal gas, natural gas, and so called odorless poison gas)
15: Fermented(Cheese, alcohol, and rising bread)
16; Humidity(Not their own, but the approaching storm or the nearness of water)
17: Halflings(If Halfling, humans)
18: Dwarves(If a Dwarf, Humans)
19: Gnomes(If a Gnome, Human)
20: Magic(Arcane magic, and any illusions. Won’t respond to adjuration. Won’t be irritated by magic items worn)
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Leave no pun behind.
Just curious: Is one driven mad if touching an immortal?48. Ability to know the exact age of anyone you touch.
Immortal means they don't have an end point, but they do have a start point. You'd just get a REALLY large number.
Wow...we made it.
Okay, glad I resurrected that thread.
Hope it helped the OP.
Wow...we made it.
Okay, glad I resurrected that thread.
Hope it helped the OP.
+640 XP
102: Sticky hands and feet. Ponyfinder characters have this on their hooves. They naturally exude a mild glue that they can use to pick up objects. Normally they can dissolve the glue at will to put things down. Being obsessed with something they literally cannot put it down. Normally, they cannot climb walls.
103: Nearsighted. Within your 5 foot area you see everything like using eyes of minute seeing. In the next or further square everything is an assortment of blurs. Good luck finding an optometrist to make you glasses.
104:Farsighted. Can't see a thing within 10 feet, but beyond that seems to be wearing eyes of the eagle. Needs reading glasses.
105:Were squirrel. Every full moon obsessively goes out and collects nuts.
10X: can necro a thread from close to 10 years ago?
just kidding,
but hey while were at it, how about...
106 (for real this time): has delayed reflection\shadow (shadow and mirror reflection act 1 round after him as if he only then move. rise his hand now, one round later his mirror reflection rises it's hand .etc)
107: is actually aware of some game mechanics like levels or cr or numeric bonuses (or when he identify stuff with knowledge an actual transparent display with said gained information hover in front of him. only he can see it)
108: has an inanimate object (pet rock?) stalking him showing up again and again when he look around in different places (even if he destroy it or dump it down the drain)
109: has a theme music sounding whenever he is in battle.
110: never miss when he spits. (EPIC! also only non harmful saliva. no venom spitting builds etc)
111: once per day can double jump (jump up or forward at the pick of a former jump, the 2nd jump is without running bonus etc. even if abilities count him always as running)
112: can hear the whispers of the restful dead (can use gather information in cemeteries or the morgue etc)
113: share some1 else's dreams, each time rolled randomly.
114: can read magic (as per the cantrip, but naturally)
115: attracts butterflies\small birds\fluffy rodents
116: can make a laud roar (+1 intimidate also roar can be heard X4 farther)
117: keep finding lost change money (1d4 cp +1d4 sp in run of 1 day. note - staying in his own room\house the whole day mean the money he finds is his own lost money)
118:Always running(when they move). When they try to take a 5 foot step they run till they hit a wall or have made a full move action.
124: One part of the anatomy is immortal. Like Dick Clark's face. Weather there are individuals seeking the part for transplant to obtain immortality or what is up to the GM.
125: Drug sensitivity. Coffee will haste them, but they become incoherent, twitchy, and distracted by their desire for more coffee. A sip of ale normally makes them drunk. The two things can be used to balance each other.
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126: puke\sneeze\bleed in rainbow color
127: unaware kleptomaniac, and a good one at it. he keeps finding other people's stuff in his pockets. doesn't work if he try to steal intentionally
128: can read letters from any distance. only text and only if he understand the language and only if there is enough light near the text
129: has a permanent unseen servant aiding him, but he can't give it orders. it help what it thinks need helping with (open doors, fetch stuff, flush the toilet etc. respawn in an hour if destroyed.
130: can sleep comfortably anywhere and in any position.
131: never forget a face. (it's names he's bad with...)
132: has a climb speed of 5 (can't be made faster with spells etc. but anything that give some1 climb speed can overwrite this)
127: That is a mental defect and if cured they may gain another different mental problem. Consider me a gatekeeper against Kender.