Hunger Seed Oni Form Feat

[The Dragon Reborn]

When I first read this feat, I thought it was awesome. You become a large, clumsy, no reach Oni for 10 mins when you want. No need to worry about 5' foot hallways or large mounts. Then I saw in the descriptive text,

"You can Sustain your Oni Form for up to 10 minutes, though you must then spend at least 10 minutes in your natural form before using Oni Form again."

There is no sustain tag, so at first I thought this was poorly worded flavor text. Till I saw this in the follow up feat.

"You can assume your oni form more easily, and with greater benefits. Your oni form lasts for 10 minutes without the need to Sustain it. While in your oni form, your
reach increases by 5 feet."

If Oni Form has a sustain action tax on top of clumsy and doesn't grant enlarge's reach and damage boost. It's really mechanically bad if flavorful.

There still isn't a sustain tag, so I don't know what RAI is? How are people running this?

[Baarogue]

I don't know what you mean by "sustain tag." There isn't a sustain/ed trait in the game. This isn't a spell so it doesn't have a duration entry, which is where "Sustained up to X minutes" would appear if it WAS a spell. Instead it clearly states that it's Sustained in its description, and as you say the upgraded feat doubly confirms that

Yeah, it's a trash feat unless you're in love with the character fantasy or you have a use for the pseudo-reach you gain via growing to L size (as in you occupy four squares instead of only one and thus threaten more adjacent squares; not real reach), but there doesn't appear to be even the slightest discrepancy between RAW and RAI

It might violate RAA though, Rules as Advertised. "Your horns flash briefly as you grow in size and ferocity." Where's the ferocity? Or are we supposed to roleplay that part by getting mad at all the extra crits we take from being clumsy lol

[Ravingdork]

Yeah, it's a feat that makes you strictly worse/weaker in nearly every way.

A feat that let you apply slow on yourself at will would be stronger. I have no idea what the writer might have been thinking.

It doesn't even give a boost to intimidation or anything.

[Squark]

Yeah, it really ought to have given Reach at level 1. Clumsy 1 and needing to sustain it is a pretty big drawback when something like lunging strike exists.

[Dubious Scholar]

Has some utility with Reactive Strike, but yeah, it's mostly just a feat tax for the level 9 upgrade.

I think it should absolutely give a +1 circumstance to intimidation. At the very least, I think using it to intimidate warrants such a bonus anyways from the GM.

I'm sure there's some other cases it can be useful without the upgrade, but they're not the kind of things you can plan for.

The level 9 version is pretty good, it's just unfortunate about that prereq.

[graystone]

Dubious Scholar wrote:

I think it should absolutely give a +1 circumstance to intimidation. At the very least

The size gain opens up more creatures that offensive Athletics checks can work on: as it's a versatile heritage, you can start as small as tiny meaning it can be up to a 3 size jump and with Titan Wrestler any creature can be affected.

It does allow for a weird interaction where a Large Pixie has to move into a foes space to attack as it has no reach.

[Ravingdork]

graystone wrote:

The size gain opens up more creatures that offensive Athletics checks can work on: as it's a versatile heritage, you can start as small as tiny meaning it can be up to a 3 size jump and with Titan Wrestler any creature can be affected.

Congratulations. You just got the undivided attention of a powerful, Gargantuan creature while Slowed and Clumsy! That's a special kind of stupid for most any adventurer. I sure hope your character has got their affairs in order!

graystone wrote:

It does allow for a weird interaction where a Large Pixie has to move into a foes space to attack as it has no reach.

The problems with this feat keep coming out of the woodwork.

Worse than someone's ill-thought-out homebrew.

[Squiggit]

Sort of feels like they decided large + reach was too strong for a feat so they made a useless buy in feat.

Though even that's not a great attempt to explain this, the feat would be just okay even if you didn't have to sustain it and the follow up would still be appealing even if it was just reach.