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So our Gamemaster has decided to allow the Ultimate Campaign book into the campaign we are currently playing, as well as offering us to switch out a feat we currently have for a Storytelling feat. I wasn't too keen on the prospect at first, but after doing a little reading one of them seemed to match where my character was going in life, as well as a little with the character's past:
What once belonged to your family shall be yours again.
Prerequisite: Your family must have claim to an inherited title or position that no longer belongs to them, or have the Dishonored Family background. You can take this feat even if you have no knowledge of this lost family title.
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus on Charisma-based ability checks and skill checks.
Goal: Regain your family's lost claim, either for yourself or another in your family. In the process of completing this claim, you must decisively defeat a challenging foe that seeks to deny your birthright.
Completion Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus on Wisdom ability checks, Wisdom-based skill checks, and Will saving throws.
Special: If you manage to regain your position without defeating a challenging foe, you may still complete this story feat at a later date if a suitable challenging foe attempts to steal your birthright again.
I'm really excited about the feat, but I only have one problem: It doesn't click perfectly in my mind with my character, which is why I'm here on the forums. Basically it boils down to me looking for suggestions to help me move and shift things around to make the feat work with the background I do have supplied for the character, as well as what I've considered as a possible claim.
Character Class: Starsoul Tattooed Sorcerer
Character Race: Aasimar (Peri-Blooded)
Character Description: The aasimar in question is a male whom everyone assumes is a woman based on appearance, voice, and mannerisms. He's graceful in movement, has soft, angelic features, fair skin, and curved in the right places. The aasimar's hair trails down in snow white, curling locks, descending to about mid-back or so. His tone and voice are melodic and smooth, song-like in the way they run. He also smells sweet, almost as if the fragrance of roses covers him and follows him everywhere. Silvery tattoos cover his body, forming intricate lines and arcs in constellation-like patterns which have a light glow to them. He doesn't sweat, his clothes dance lightly even without wind, and his shadow always seems to have avian wings attached to it- even though he has none.
To sum it all up, he looks and acts like he's a beautiful, angelic lady.
Moving forward to what he's currently up to: The aasimar wants to build a noble household, has gone out of his way to get a nice signet ring set up, bought the proper forms to allow the purchase of land, gotten a landless title from a noble (which the Gamemaster has set up just as "Lady," which works for him,) is getting a torchbearer as a handmaiden off the bat (the feat later evolves into leadership,) and working about setting money aside to buy the land I'm looking for.
Before the Aasimar's Existence: The Aasimar's mother is a delightful young Varisian woman who was wed to a wealthy, charming young man, whom desired to have an heir to carry on their family line. Sadly, the young Varisian woman was found to be barren. Try as they could, they were unable to have children, causing the man to grow slowly bitter, while the wife drew into the shadows of sadness. It was later discovered he was having an affair with another woman, hoping to gain the heir he so desired. This caused a greater sadness in the woman, whom after discovering her husband's unfaithfulness left and went on her way back to her family.
Charater's Existence: The aasimar was born to a barren woman due to the handiwork of a star gazing Peri, whom after discovering her watching and wishing on the stars above for many moons, took compassion on her and granted her wish to bare a child. She had an easy and near painless child-baring, the aasimar coming out a healthy and beautiful child.
Things get a little fuzzy here, but the Aasimar learned in his youth of his origin and grew close to the stars, admiring their beauty and desiring to learn more about them. This soon led to the tapping into of his bloodline, finding the power of the stars and cosmos seemed to whisper and draw to him, allowing him to command power he wasn't aware he had.
He grew up embracing his grace and appearance, his mother raising the young boy as her daughter, wanting to protect the already odd child from being further different from those around him.
Where to go from Here: As for where to go from here, he's already on his way to build a household, my mind keeps drawing to how perhaps the signet ring he designed, as well as the desire to create a household line, all draws itself back to his father's household. My problem with that idea is how I'd link the aasimar back to the father's household line and having a stake in claiming legitimacy towards the noble house.
I've thought of the idea maybe the house was founding originally by a lord who was born under similar circumstances, an aasimar who should have been the child of what was an unfaithful man- but the idea sounds farfetched and odd in my head.
I guess the end result I'm looking for is that link, the link which would either entwine the new house the Aasimar is creating with the old house, letting it rise to the top, or to link him into a grab for the old house he should have somehow been a part of.
That's all I have at the moment, if anyone wants to take a stab I'd greatly appreciate it.
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The father, unable to sire a child, and hearing that his once-love had borne a child after she left him, assumes that the child is his.
He has the woman brought to him, as he is perhaps dying or just sorrowful and lonely, and begs her to tell him the truth of the child.
He learns that the child was male, declares it to be his, and bestows the right of his title so that his family name, at least, may carry on after his end.
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To be honest, I think that would work just swell. Being an Aasimar, he'd outlive both parents, so death by sorrow, old age, etc, could all happen within his lifetime. I'm thinking the affair also gave him another welp, which would lead to the competition the Aasimar would be unaware of the claim what is rightfully his. With the Aasimar unheard of but all to the noble himself and a select few, silencing them or hiding the evidence of the transfer would be easy, allowing the usurper to step in and try to hold power.
Any other suggestions out there?
So, should I be the one to say it: why would you want that feat? It's cool that it kind of fits your actual story, but +1 to Charisma and Wisdom checks is not even close to worth a feat.
So, should I be the one to say it: why would you want that feat? It's cool that it kind of fits your actual story, but +1 to Charisma and Wisdom checks is not even close to worth a feat.
It's equivalent to a +2 to Charisma and Wisdom, and it's flavorful. He's not required to go full-out munchkin.
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Mechanically, I know it's hardly a strong feat, but I'm not looking for the number crunch with this particular choice. The reasons I want it are simple: This character was built mostly around being the face of the party, as well as overall playing upon the social aspects of the game world (prancing around with nobles, working things out with merchants, fighting off bards in a verbal duel to keep our reputation up, etc.) It gives me something to look forward to in the future as I work towards my character's goals. It's a good carrot for character development in my mind, I find it fits my character choice and it was a feat which appealed to and tickled my fancy.
According to my Gamemaster, once I complete this goal and the feat evolves to it's full potential, I can then swap it out for a new story feat while keeping the benefits of the old one- to be honest, a never ending plot hook which grows sounds kind of neat to me.
Sure, there are other more crunchy feats out there, but this one has a certain charm to it I couldn't resist.
It's equivalent to a +2 to Charisma and Wisdom, and it's flavorful. He's not required to go full-out munchkin.
Arguing that a purely mechanical benefit is flavorful is silly. There's no flavor to this one--it's a bonus to stats with no explanation. The fact that you get this disassociated bonus because of a story accomplishment does not make the bonus itself flavorful.
It's not "full munchkin" to judge my purely mechanical mechanics (feats) based on which one is more mechanically beneficial. The story feats are, to the last, terrible values. None of them are worth a feat, not even when the story is accomplished.
It would be my suggestion that if a GM wanted to use them, that there be a "story feat" slot for each character, because expecting someone to take one of these over real feats is asking for your characters to be weaker.
The way Pennor explained it, that he can keep taking additional story feats in the feat slot, might mean it is eventually worth a slot, so that's better.
And it's nowhere near as useful as Charisma or Wisdom because it doesn't add to spells per day, spell DCs, or Will Saves, which are the real draw of those attributes.