Feats (full text)
This section details new feats available to player characters in Escarnum. To open a feat on its own page, click the link. If you would rather see an index of feats, please see the Feats (index) page.
Adrenaline Rush
Prerequisite: Wu-kan, Bard
Benefit: As long as you have at least 1 temporary hit point, whenever you hit with a bard attack, you may deal damage equal to your Charisma modifier to one enemy adjacent to one of the attack’s primary targets.
Agile Magic
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, any arcane class
Benefit: When you use a close or melee arcane attack power while your beast of battle power is active, you can shift 1 square as a free action before or after the attack.
Artificial Instinct
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: At the end of your turn, if a creature you summoned with an arcane power has not been commanded this turn, it can make a basic attack as a free action.
Arytiss’ Ward
Prerequisite: Kobold, Paragon Tier, Defender
Benefit: When you roll initiative, you can designate one ally as your ward. Until the end of the encounter, you receive a +1 bonus per tier to attack rolls against the enemy closest to your ward. If two enemies are equally close when you make the attack, you choose one.
Attention Grab
Prerequisite: Kobold, Defender
Benefit: When you provoke an opportunity attack from an enemy you’ve marked, that enemy cannot move away from you until the end of its next turn.
Audacious Bluff
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: Once during a skill challenge, you can substitute a Bluff check for an Insight or Intimidate check.
Bait the Beast
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, mask of nature power
Benefit: When you roll initiative, you can use your mask of nature power as a free action.
Battle Hide
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, paragon tier
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you gain resist 3 to all damage. This increases to resist all 6 at 21st level.
Beast Claws
Prerequisite: Gnoll
Benefit: You gain proficiency with the beast claw natural weapon.
Your beast claw is a natural one-handed melee weapon in the light blade and unarmed groups. It has a +3 proficiency bonus and deals 1d8 damage, and has the off-hand property. Whenever you do not wield another weapon or hold a shield in one of your hands, you are considered to be wielding a beast claw in that hand.
You can enchant and disenchant a beast claw like a normal weapon, except that when you disenchant it, it does not turn to dust. (Each hand is its own weapon and has its own enchantment, just as if you were wielding two manufactured weapons.)
[This feat is intended to replace the existing claw fighter feat.]
Beckon the Beast
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, avenger, beast of battle power, oath of enmity power
Benefit: When your oath of enmity target hits you with an attack, you can use your beast of battle power as a free action.
Bestial Covenant
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power, invoker
Benefit: When you hit with an encounter or daily attack power while your beast of battle power is active, you can shift a number of squares equal to your Wisdom modifier instead benefiting from your covenant manifestation.
Bestial Leap
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, add two squares to the distance of any long jump you make and one square to the distance of any high jump you make.
Blade Catcher
Prerequisite: Equitarn
Benefit: While you do not wield any crafted weapons and are not using a shield, you gain a +2 bonus to your AC and Reflex defences.
Blessed Shapeshifter
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, paladin, beast of battle power
Benefit: When you use your beast of battle power, you gain a bonus equal to your Wisdom modifier to damage rolls with divine powers and basic attacks until the end of your next turn.
Blightborn
Prerequisite: Jotun, landfall heritage power
Benefit: Your landfall power has the poison keyword. When you use your landfall power, any enemy which attacks you before the end of your next turn suffers a -2 penalty to the attack roll.
Blood Beckons Blood
Prerequisite: Defender, Defender Aura
Benefit: When an enemy in your defender aura bloodies an ally of yours, or reduces an ally of yours to 0 hp, you gain combat advantage against that enemy until the end of your next turn.
Blood Fury
Prerequisite: Gnoll
Benefit: The first time you bloody an enemy during an encounter, you gain a +1 bonus per tier to damage rolls until the end of the encounter.
Blood Hunt
Prerequisite: Gnoll, Warlord
Benefit: Whenever an ally taking advantage of your commanding presence feature misses all targets, that ally regains an Action Point at the end of their turn and may spend it during this combat.
Blood Magus
Prerequisite: Gnoll
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus per tier to attack rolls with arcane powers. When you are bloodied, you gain an additional +1 to attack rolls and +2 to damage rolls per tier with arcane attack powers.
Bounce Back
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: When you successfully save against a slow, immobilise or daze effect, you may use your racial power as a free action.
Break Even
Benefit: During a skill challenge, you can spend a round to negate the effect of a previous failed check (reducing the group’s total number of failures by one). Other consequences of the failed check still apply.
Break Free
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: When you successfully save against a slow, immobilise or daze effect, you may shift up to 3 squares.
Breath of Heaven
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: When you are pushed, pulled or slid by a melee attack, and the forced movement moves you out of melee range with the attacker, you can make a ranged basic attack against that enemy as a free action.
Brother Beast
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, ranger, beast of battle power, Beast Mastery class feature
Benefit: Whenever you use your beast of battle power, your beast companion also gains the benefit of the power’s effect.
Brutal Display
Prerequisite: Gnoll
Benefit: When you reduce an opponent to 0 or fewer hit points, each enemy who can see you suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls and damage rolls until the beginning of your next turn. This is a fear effect.
Bullheaded
Prerequisite: Equitarn
Benefit: You can move through squares occupied by enemies marked by you.
Caveat Imperator
Prerequisite: Equitarn, Leader
Benefit: Whenever an ally charges, you gain a +2 feat bonus to speed until the end of your next turn.
Centre of Gravity
Prerequisite: Equitarn
Benefit: As long as three or more enemies are adjacent to you, any enemy that begins its turn flanking you cannot move away from you during that turn.
Circle of Fate
Prerequisite: Abilen, Awakened or Gremblin
Benefit: When you or one of your allies misses all targets with an attack power, the next creature to attack one of those targets gains a +1 bonus to hit with that attack.
Cleave Ranks
Prerequisite: Equitarn
Benefit: When you push, pull or slide an enemy, you can increase the distance of the forced movement by 1, if this puts the enemy in a square that is adjacent to no other enemies.
Communal Instinct
Prerequisite: Abilen, Equitarn or Gremblin
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and a +2 bonus to damage rolls on attacks granted to you by allies. The damage bonus increases to +4 at Paragon tier and +6 at Epic tier.
Community Spirit
Prerequisite: Abilen, Shaman
Benefit: Whenever you summon or dismiss your spirit companion, one ally adjacent to it gains temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Conflagration
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Whenever you use a blast or burst power with the fire keyword, the area of that power is increased by 1.
Cracked Earth
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: When you attack a prone foe who is on difficult terrain, you can score a critical hit on a roll of 19-20.
Crash Landing
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: At the end of a charge, you can use your landfall power as a free action before you attack.
Daring Gambit
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: While you are bloodied, enemies suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls against you, but gain a +2 bonus to damage against you.
Dashing Flourish
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: The first time you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points during an encounter, you gain a +2 feat bonus to speed until the end of your next turn.
Definitive Might
Prerequisite: Gnoll or Equitarn; trained in Intimidate
Benefit: You use your Strength modifier in place of your Charisma modifier on Intimidate checks.
Deft Manoeuvre
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: You ignore difficult terrain when you shift.
Double Dealing
Prerequisite: Abilen, Con 13+
Benefit: Whenever an ally’s healing power causes you to gain hit points, you also gain temporary hit points equal to half the amount healed. Whenever an ally’s healing power causes you to gain temporary hp, you heal hit points equal to half the number of temporary hit points.
Draconic Petulance
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: When you miss a target with a burst or blast power, you may choose to deal damage to that target equal to your Intelligence modifier. If you do, you take damage equal to the amount of extra damage dealt this way, which cannot be reduced or prevented in any way.
Drunken Monkey
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: When you make a basic attack with a staff or unarmed strike, you can choose to target Reflex instead of AC.
Duck and Cover
Prerequisite: Kobold or Wu-kan
Benefit: When you have cover against an enemy, they suffer a -3 penalty to hit you instead of -2. If you have superior cover, they suffer a -7 penalty instead of -5.
Earth’s Renewal
Prerequisite: Equitarn or Jotun
Benefit: Your total number of healing surges increases by two. You add your Constitution modifier to your healing surge value.
Edar’s Swiftness
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Whenever you shift three or more squares as one action, you can move through enemy squares during that movement.
Eternal Cycle
Prerequisite: Jotun, Paragon Tier
Benefit: Your landfall power gains “Sustain minor: the zone persists”. The zone moves with you as you move.
Eye of the Storm
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus to all defences against burst and blast powers used by your allies, and any damage dealt to you by such powers is reduced by half. At the end of your turn, you may end any effect on you, caused by an ally, that a save can end.
Fates Intertwined
Prerequisites: Awakened or Rahbe
Benefit: As long as you have at least 1 power point remaining, you ignore partial concealment, and treat full concealment as partial concealment.
Feral Charge
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you gain a +3 heritage bonus to damage rolls with charge attacks. This increases to +6 at 11th level, and +9 at 21st level.
Feral Divinity
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, any divine class, Channel Divinity class feature
Benefit: When you use a Channel Divinity power while you are bloodied, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls until the end of your next turn.
Feral Skin
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, training with hide armour
Benefit: You gain a +1 heritage bonus to AC when wearing hide armour, and reduce the check penalty incurred by hide armour by 1.
Feral Vanguard
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, defender, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you gain a +2 heritage bonus to damage rolls against creatures marked by you. This increases to +4 at 11th level and to +6 at 21st level.
Feral Vigour
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you have regeneration 2 as long as you are bloodied. This increases to regeneration 4 at 11th level, and regeneration 6 at 21st level.
Feral Wrath
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, warden
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you can shift 1 square before or after using Nature’s Wrath.
Forked Tongue
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, any arcane class, beast of battle power
Benefit: Each time you hit with an arcane attack power while your beast of battle power is active, one enemy adjacent to the target takes 2 damage. This damage increases to 4 at 11th level and to 6 at 21st level.
Fortified Defences
Prerequisite: Equitarn
Benefit: When you are wearing heavy armour, you gain a +1 bonus to Fortitude and Will.
Friendly Face
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: During a skill challenge, failed Diplomacy or Bluff checks you make do not count against the total number of failures.
Gecko Toes
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: You gain a climb speed equal to half your speed.
At level 11, this increases to be equal to your speed.
Giant’s Frame
Prerequisite: Giant subtype
Benefit: You can use weapons up to one size category larger than you as if they were your size.
Grinding Halt
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: While you are in the zone created by your landfall power, you can increase or decrease the distance of any slide effect that takes place within the zone by 1.
Gripping Claws
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you gain a climb speed equal to your speed.
Hammer Hooves
Prerequisite: Equitarn
Benefit: You gain proficiency with the hoof slam natural weapon.
Your hoof slam is a natural two-handed melee weapon in the hammer and unarmed groups. It has a +2 proficiency bonus and deals 1d12 damage, and has the brutal 1 property. Whenever you are not wielding another weapon and do not have a shield equipped, you are considered to be wielding this weapon in both hands.
You can enchant and disenchant your hoof slam like a normal weapon, except that when you disenchant it, it does not turn to dust.
- 4 years ago Add First published as “hammer fists”
- 2 months ago Update Revised name to avoid plural confusion
- 2 months ago Update Broad revision to wording to clarify intended usage
- 2 months ago Add Weapon now has the ‘unarmed” group
Hardy Beast
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: When you use your beast of battle power, you gain 5 temporary hit points. This increases to 10 temporary hit points at 11th level, and 20 temporary hit points at 21st level.
Heir of Earth
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: When you spend a healing surge to regain hit points, if you are not healed to maximum hit points, you regain the use of your landfall power.
Heroic Underdog
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: When you are threatened by three or more enemies, you gain a +1 bonus per tier to attack rolls.
High Spirits
Prerequisite: Abilen, Shaman
Benefit: Allies adjacent to your spirit companion gain a +5 bonus to saving throws versus fear effects.
Hounding Harrier
Prerequisite: Gnoll, Leader
Benefit: Whenever an ally misses all targets with a basic attack granted by you, you can make a basic attack against one missed target as a free action.
Howl of Command
Prerequisite: Gnoll, Warlord, brash assault power
Benefit: At the end of a charge, you can use brash assault in place of a melee basic attack.
Imminent Domain
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: When an enemy provokes an opportunity attack from you by moving, you can use your landfall power as an opportunity action instead.
Independent Thought
Prerequisite: Awakened or Rahbe
Benefit: You can still take minor actions while stunned.
Inevitable Might
Prerequisite: Equitarn, Str 15+
Benefit: When you miss all targets with a daily attack power that has no miss effect, each target takes damage equal to your Strength modifier.
Insider Information
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: As long as more than one enemy is adjacent to you, any ally who makes a ranged attack against an enemy adjacent to you gets a bonus to the attack roll equal to your dexterity modifier.
Inspiring Clash
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: The first time you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points during an encounter, your allies gain a +2 bonus to damage until the end of your next turn.
Instinctive Dodge
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, whenever an enemy misses you with an attack, you can shift 1 square as an immediate reaction.
Instinctive Swipe
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, whenever you miss with a melee attack that does not have a miss effect, the missed target takes your damage equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Invisible Hand
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: As long as you have combat advantage against an enemy, your weapon attacks gain a +2 bonus to damage against that enemy. This bonus increases to +4 at Paragon tier and +6 at Epic tier.
Irrational Valour
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: Your insatiable curiosity power also ends charm and domination effects.
Killing Fields
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: When you hit a prone enemy, that enemy considers squares within burst 1 to be difficult terrain until the end of your next turn.
Land’s Bounty
Prerequisite: Jotun, Paragon Tier
Benefit: When you use a close burst attack power, you can choose to use your landfall power as part of the same action. If you do, the zone created by your landfall power occupies all squares in the burst caused by the chosen power.
Landstrider
Prerequisite: Equitarn or Jotun
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to exploration speed. When you travel in a group, the group can move at your exploration speed, instead of using the speed of its slowest member.
Laze-born
Pre-requisite: Jotun, landfall heritage power
Benefit: Your landfall power has the acid keyword. When you use your landfall power, you ignore enemy resistances until the end of your next turn.
Leirith’s Command
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Whenever you and an ally are attacking an enemy from the same side, you are both considered to be flanking that enemy.
Lifebloom
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: When you use your second wind, instead of recovering hit points, you can choose to gain regeneration 5 until the end of the encounter.
Lightning Rod
Prerequisite: Jotun, Defender
Benefit: When a lightning power targets one of your allies, and you are in difficult terrain, you become the only target of the power. The affected power gains a +1 bonus to hit you.
Lion of War
Prerequisite: Awakened
Benefit: You may use your Wisdom modifier instead of your Strength modifier to determine attack and damage rolls for warlord powers.
Loyal Companions
Prerequisite: Wu-kan, Ranger, Beast Mastery
Benefit: If you and your pet each attack a different enemy during your turn, you each gain a +1 feat bonus to attack and +2 feat bonus to damage rolls until the end of your next turn.
Lurking Light
Prerequisite: Rahbe, Kobold or Gremblin; Leader role
Benefit: When you grant an attack to an ally, enemies from whom you are hidden grant combat advantage to that ally until the end of your next turn.
Magma-born
Prerequisite: Jotun, landfall heritage power
Benefit: Your landfall power has the fire keyword. When you use your landfall power, your attacks gain the fire keyword until the end of your next turn. While this effect lasts, you have combat advantage against each creature you attack.
Marked Merger
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: If an enemy marked by you is adjacent to another enemy marked by you, it suffers a -3 penalty to attack rolls for attacks that don’t target you, instead of the normal -2 penalty.
Maw of Earth
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: If an enemy is suffering ongoing damage caused by you, it cannot move from difficult terrain into normal terrain.
Mejir’s Insight
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Whenever you shift three or more squares in one action and end your movement adjacent to an enemy, you can make a melee basic attack against that enemy as an free action.
Memory of Flame
Prerequisite: Awakened or Felbraug
Benefit: When you deal fire damage to an enemy not marked by you, that enemy cannot move closer to you until the end of its next turn.
Memory of Pain
Prerequisite: Awakened or Rahbe
Benefit: When you cause an enemy to take ongoing damage with a psionic or psychic power, the ongoing damage is increased by 1 per tier.
Memory of the Void
Prerequisite: Awakened or Rahbe
Benefit: Enemies take a -2 penalty to saving throws against fear effects caused by you.
Mighty Hammer
Prerequisite: Equitarn, Hammer Fists
Benefit: Your hammer fists have a +3 proficiency bonus instead of +2, and grant a +1 bonus per tier to damage rolls.
Mighty Hurl
Prerequisite: Equitarn, Str 15+
Benefit: When you push, pull or slide an enemy with a melee or close attack, you may knock that target prone at the end of the movement.
Mindful Beast
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power, at least one power point
Benefit: You can spend a power point to activate your beast of battle power without spending a healing surge.
Mindshield
Prerequisite: Awakened or Rahbe
Benefit: As long as you have at least one power point remaining, when an enemy makes an opportunity attack against you, they must make the attack roll twice and use the lower result.
- 4 years ago Add Initial publication
- 6 days ago Update Effect updated from static bonus to “disadvantage” style effect
Mindslip
Prerequisite: Rahbe, Battlemind
Benefit: Whenever you augment your battlemind’s demand power, you may slide yourself or all targets of your battlemind’s demand power 1 square.
Natural Armour
Prerequisite: Equitarn
Benefit: When you are wearing light or no armour, you gain a +2 racial bonus to AC.
Neitl’s Gift
Prerequisite: Kobold, Shaman
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with spirit powers. When you use your shifty racial power, you spirit companion also shifts one square.
Obnoxious Taunt
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: Enemies marked by you gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls against you, but grant combat advantage to your enemies.
Opportunity Cost
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: The first time an opportunity attack is made against you during an encounter, you can make a melee basic attack against the attacking creature as a free action.
Overthrow
Prerequisite: Gremblin, gremblin scramble heritage power
Benefit: When you use your Gremblin Scramble heritage power, and the triggering attack either misses or can no longer target you, the triggering enemy also falls prone.
Path of Iron
Prerequisite: Rahbe, Battlemind
Benefit: Whenever you use your blurred step power, enemies cannot willingly enter the squares you move through until the end of your next turn.
Predator’s Certainty
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power, any primal class
Benefit: Each time you use your beast of battle power, you may reroll one attack roll with which you miss before the power’s effect ends.
Predator’s Guard
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, defender, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, any creature marked by you takes a further -1 penalty to attack rolls for making an attack that does not include you as a target, in addition to the mark penalty you normally impose.
Predator’s Senses
Prerequisite: Wilderskin
Benefit: You also gain a +3 feat bonus to initiative checks. Also, when you make a skill check to hunt or follow tracks, you may roll twice and use either result.
Predatory Insight
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you gain a +2 heritage bonus to damage rolls against any target granting combat advantage to you. This increases to +4 at 11th level and +6 at 21st level.
Pride of Dragons
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: You can take dragonborn racial feats. You do not gain the dragonborn racial breath weapon power.
Primal Glory
Prerequisite: Jotun, divine power source, Channel Divinity class feature
Benefit: When you use a Channel Divinity power, bloodied enemies within 5 squares of you take a -2 penalty to all defences until the end of your next turn.
Psychic Predator
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power, any psionic class
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is in effect, whenever you hit with an attack on your turn, you regain hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Rage and Grace
Prerequisite: Str 15+, Defender
Benefit: You gain a +2 shield bonus to AC and Reflex while you wield a two-handed weapon using both hands.
Read the Weave
Prerequisite: Rahbe
Benefit: During a round in which you are surprised, you can still take a move action.
Rebellious Instinct
Prerequisite: Equitarn
Benefit: When you fail a saving throw against an effect that dazes, stuns, or dominates you, you can make a melee basic attack as a free action. If this attack hits the source of the effect, you get a +5 bonus to your next saving throw against that effect.
Rimeborn
Prerequisite: Jotun, landfall heritage power
Benefit: Your landfall power has the cold keyword. When you use your landfall power, you also gain resist 5 all until the end of your next turn. This increases to resist 10 all at Paragon Tier, and to resist 15 all at Heroic tier.
Savage Finale
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power, paragon tier
Benefit: When you hit a creature with an attack while your beast of battle power is active, you can choose to end the effect early to deal 2d6 extra damage. If you do, you also gain 10 temporary hit points.
Savage Hunt
Prerequisite: Gnoll or Wilderskin
Benefit: If a bloodied enemy is threatened by you and at least one ally, you gain combat advantage against that enemy.
Savage Scion
Prerequisite: Jotun or Gnoll; Paladin
Benefit: You gain a +3 feat bonus to your healing surge value. The bonus increases to +4 at 11th level and +5 at 21st level.
Your paladin powers and paladin paragon path powers are primal as well as divine.
Scent of Roses
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: At the beginning of your turn, if you are threatened by two or more enemies, your first square of movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.
Scion of Stone
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: If an enemy ends its turn in difficult terrain created by your landfall power, it becomes slowed (save ends).
Scorched Earth
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: An enemy who moves into difficult terrain created by you must takes ongoing 2 fire damage (save ends). The ongoing damage increases to 5 fire at paragon tier and to 10 fire at epic tier.
Scorn Earth
Prerequisite: Rahbe
Benefit: As long as you have at least one power point remaining, you ignore difficult terrain.
Second Sunrise
Prerequisite: Jotun, Paragon Tier
Benefit: Whenever a power you use causes an ally to spend a healing surge, you can spend a healing surge.
Settle the Score
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: Once per round, when you hit an enemy by whom you are marked, you may choose to end that enemy’s mark on you.
Shamanic Shiv
Prerequisite: Kobold, Sorceror
Benefit: When you wield an implement which is also a weapon, you can apply the weapon’s proficiency bonus to your shaman attack powers.
Shapeshifter’s Escape
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: When you use your beast of battle power, you can also end one daze or weaken effect currently on you.
If you have reached at least one milestone today, you can choose instead to end any single save-ends effect currently on you.
- 1 year ago Add Initial publication
- 11 months ago Add Added milestone bonus
Shared Scramble
Prerequisite: Gremblin, gremblin scramble heritage power
Benefit: When you use your gremblin scramble power, each ally of yours adjacent to the triggering enemy can also shift 1 as an opportunity action. Instead of sliding the triggering enemy into the square you leave, you can instead choose to slide it into any square vacated by one of your allies in this way.
Shared Soul
Prerequisite: Rahbe, Ardent
Benefit: You can choose any ally in the area of your mantle as the origin square for your Ardent attack powers.
Shield of Blood
Prerequisite: Gnoll, Paragon Tier
Benefit: At the beginning of your turn, you can choose to take 10 damage which cannot be reduced in any way. If you do, you gain resist all 5 until the start of your next turn.
Shudderstrike
Prerequisite: Equitarn, Str 15
Benefit: When you make a close or melee attack that targets AC, you may make the attack target Fortitude instead.
Sidestep
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: When an enemy misses you with an opportunity attack that was provoked by movement, you can shift 1 square as a free action.
Skitter
Prerequisite: Kobold or Gremblin
Benefit: When you move through a creature’s square, the movement does not provoke opportunity attacks from that creature.
Snatch the Kill
Benefit: When one of your allies would reduce a creature to 0 or fewer hit points with an attack, you can deal damage to that creature equal to your Dexterity modifier. You can choose whether this damage is dealt before or after the ally’s damage.
Soul’s Claw
Prerequisite: Rahbe
Benefit: You can swap one 1st-level at-will attack power you know for the soul’s claw power.
| Soul’s Claw | Feat Power | |
|---|---|---|
| Even your simplest attacks are a manifestation of your mind’s power. | ||
| At-Will ✦ Psionic, Implement, Augmentable | ||
| Standard Action Melee 1 | ||
| Target: One creature | ||
| Attack: Wis vs AC | ||
| Hit: 1d8 + Wisdom modifier damage. | ||
| Level 21: 2d8 + Wisdom modifier | ||
| Special: You can use this power in place of a melee basic attack. | ||
| Augment 1: | ||
| Range: Melee 3 | ||
Steel, Rust, Guilt
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: As long as an enemy is subject to ongoing damage caused by you, all of its resistances are reduced by 5 (if this effect would reduce the resistance to 0, the resistance is lost entirely until the ongoing damage ends).
Still Water
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: When you roll initiative, you gain a bonus to attack rolls equal to your Charisma modifier. This bonus ends when you miss with an attack, move, or are hit by an attack.
Stonewall
Prerequisite: Equitarn, Paragon Tier
Benefit: At the end of your turn, if you did not move during your turn and are immobilised, you gain resist all equal to your Constitution modifier until the beginning of your next turn.
Stormborn
Prerequisite: Jotun, Landfall heritage power
Benefit: Your landfall power has the lightning keyword. When you use your landfall power, you gain a +2 bonus to speed until the end of your next turn. While this effect lasts, you do not grant combat advantage to creatures flanking you, and do not provoke opportunity attacks for moving.
Strategic Withdrawal
Prerequisite: Abilen, through the crowd heritage power, at least one encounter attack power
Benefit: At the beginning of your turn, if you have no encounter powers remaining, you regain the use of your through the crowd power.
Sun-born
Prerequisite: Jotun, landfall heritage power
Benefit: Your landfall power has the radiant keyword. When you use your landfall power, you can also make a saving throw.
Swift Beast
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you ignore the effects of difficult terrain.
Swift Shepherd
Prerequisite: Rahbe, Ardent
Benefit: Whenever an ally uses a healing surge granted by your ardent surge ability, you can shift a number of squares equal to your dexterity modifier.
Swift Spirit
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, shaman, beast of battle power, call spirit companion power
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, any ally who starts their turn in a square adjacent to your spirit companion gains a +1 power bonus to speed until the start of their next turn.
Terror Firma
Prerequisite: Jotun
Benefit: Once per round, when you hit an enemy with a fear attack power, you can create a zone which covers all squares adjacent to or occupied by that enemy. Your enemies treat each square in the zone as difficult terrain until the end of your next turn. The zone does not move with the enemy.
Thief of Fate
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: As long as an enemy suffers from an effect caused by you that a save can end, you gain a +2 bonus to saving throws, and that enemy suffers a -2 penalty to saving throws.
Think Fast
Prerequisite: Rahbe
Benefit: As long as you have at least one power point remaining, you gain a +1 feat bonus to speed. This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level.
Third Hand
Prerequisite: Wu-kan
Benefit: Your gain a third ‘hand’ which represents your tail. You cannot use your tail to wield a weapon, but you can use it to hold other items, including an implement, or for climbing.
Thirst of the Beast
Prerequisite: Gnoll
Benefit: The first time you become bloodied during an encounter, you regain the use of your ferocious charge power.
Thunder-born
Prerequisite: Jotun, landfall heritage power
Benefit: Your landfall power has the thunder keyword. When you use your landfall, your attacks gain the thunder keyword until the end of your next turn. While this effect lasts, whenever you hit with an attack, you can also push the target one square. If the attack already pushes the target, the push distance is instead increased by 1 square.
Tihuirl’s Sacrifice
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: When an enemy marked by you would damage an ally adjacent to you, you can choose to reduce the damage dealt by half. If you do, you take an equal amount of damage which cannot be reduced or prevented in any way.
Tower of Fear
Prerequisite: Equitarn or Jotun, trained in Intimidate
Benefit: Foes marked by you suffer a -2 per tier penalty to damage.
Trade Futures
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: The first time you become bloodied during an encounter, you regain the use of your Second Wind. The first time each day you drop to 0 hp, you regain one Healing Surge.
Trade Up
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: The first time during an encounter you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points, you may shift half your speed as a free action, as long as you end your movement closer to another enemy than when you started.
Unexpected Advance
Prerequisite: Abilen, through the crowd heritage power, paragon tier
Benefit: When you use your through the crowd heritage power, you can spend a standard action to use an at-will melee attack power on an enemy whose square you move through. That attack gains combat advantage against the target.
Uphill Struggle
Prerequisite: Equitarn, Con 13
Benefit: As long as you are bloodied, you gain a +1 bonus per tier to all defences. When you are on 0 hit points, this bonus is doubled.
Urban Beast
Prerequisite: Wilderskin
Benefit: When you roll a Streetwise check, you can roll twice and choose which result to use. When you roll an Athletics check while your beast of battle power is active, you can roll twice and choose which result to use.
Vaess’ Ingenuity
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Creatures you summon with arcane powers gain a +1 bonus per tier to attack.
Vested Interest
Prerequisite: Abilen
Benefit: When and enemy suffering ongoing damage caused by you becomes bloodied for the first time during an encounter, you gain a bonus to damage rolls against that enemy equal to your Intelligence modifier. The bonus lasts until the end of the encounter.
Voidborn
Prerequisite: Jotun, landfall heritage power
Benefit: Your landfall power has the necrotic keyword. When you use your landfall power, you also gain 5 temporary hit points. This increases to 10 temporary hit points at Paragon tier, and to 15 at Epic tier.
Weavewrack
Prerequisite: Rahbe, Battlemind
Benefit: When you use your mindspike power, the target suffers a penalty to damage equal to your dexterity modifier, until the end of your next turn.
Will of the Wild
Prerequisite: Wilderskin, beast of battle power, any psionic class
Benefit: While your beast of battle power is active, you also gain a +1 heritage bonus to Will and a +5 heritage bonus to Insight checks.
Lands of Escarnum
Skies of Escarnum sets its adventures primarily on the continent of Alm. A massive body of land inhabiting much of its world’s southern hemisphere, Alm is as vast and diverse as any supercontinent of our world. It houses ancient empires and new settlements, deep wildernesses and crowded city-states, forgotten relics and bold new ideas.
For most people, life in Alm is good. The arrival of humans came at the end of a long and gruelling war, and the world on average is safer and kinder than it has even been. However, there will always be those who resent cooperation, who exploit peace, who refuse to relinquish power. These individuals will be the source of most conflict in a Skies of Escarnum story.
Continents, nations, and important regions you can find in the Escarnum setting.
Almish Mainland
The Three Kingdoms
Almish Islands and Outliers
Other Continents
…And Further Afield
While Alm contains many defined nations and cultures, its nearby neighbours—barren Parosea and mysterious Aethys—are far less thoroughly defined. If you wish to take the story of Escarnum beyond its established borders, these lands await your guiding hand.
Peoples of Alm
This chapter lists the common heritage choices available for player characters in Escarnum.
Gentle, civilised catfolk descended from savage beasts
Aberrant humans sensitive to psionics and emotions
Big-hearted giantkin, hardy and belligerent
Insular aristocrats who value honour and tradition
Children of the feywild, descendants of a race long forgotten
Stoic equine giants violently displaced from their traditional home
Mightiest of the beast-kin, the former rulers of Alm
Pint-sized scroungers, full of community spirit
Created beings unsure of their identity or purpose
Proud fey infused with the spirit of the wilds
Small but tenacious, proud warriors and pioneers of invention
Monstrous soldiers, made for a war that never came
Diminutive rat-folk with an inherent psionic gift
Versatile and popular, children of all people and of none
Descendants of darkness, forgotten but never gone
Shapeshifting hunters, echoes of primal beast and primal fey
Fearless treeborne acrobatics, perpetually optimistic
The people you are likely to encounter in Escarnum are a little different to those presented in the Dungeons & Dragons 4e Player’s Handbook. Here, bestial folk have dominated the land of Alm since ancient times, meaning many of the major populations are various humanoid beasts. We will not meet dwarves or halflings, gnomes or half-orcs; instead, we see feline abilen, horse-like equitarn, simian wu-kan, hyaena-like gnolls, and more.
Many creatures are also distinctly different from the versions you may know—in their biology, in the cultures they have developed, and the niches in which they find themselves. Kobolds are proud warriors and revolutionary engineers, not cowardly cannon fodder. Gnolls are the remnants of a continent-spanning empire coming to terms with its own sharp decline, not a race of generic evil made in the image of a demon-god. Eladrin are an offshoot of the isolationist soratami people, not of nature-loving elves, and acquired their fey connection by rather sinister means. Goblins are resourceful and pro-social survivors, accustomed to living in the shadow of industrialised societies.
This change may be jarring at first, but remember there are vast areas of Escarnum which are yet to be explored. Traditional kobolds or goblins may be just around the corner, if you so desire. In other words, just because a particular concept doesn’t have a pre-defined place in the setting, doesn’t mean there is no room for it.
Sticking to the choices here will help to present Escarnum’s unique flavour, but adding your group’s favourite races from other 4th Edition D&D products is a great way to customise that flavour to your own tastes. For more about this, see the Creatures from the Outside article series.
Why not Races?
If you’ve played D&D, you probably know that the game rule content here is conventionally called “races”. We’ve changed up the terminology here in order to draw a clearer line between fantasy game rules, and unacceptable real-world ideas.
It’s also a better way to represent how we want these rules to be used; as a tool for building characters, not as a hard definition of which rules must be attached to all people of a given species. The “elf” traits are a great default for your elf character—but, if those traits don’t suit your vision of the character, you’re under no obligation to use them!
Although heritage traits are mechanically identical to D&D “races”, we hope that the change of terminology will encourage players to think of them differently, in more ways than one.
Backgrounds
Each set of traits here comes with several additional choices of background. These are designed to give you an idea of common archetypes for Escarnum characters, but they’re provided as an option only—there’s no requirement to choose these instead of those found in other sources. Indeed, there’s no reason to prevent a player from taking a heritage background for a character of another species, either. Use them to inspire characters, not restrict them.
Escarnum backgrounds differ from other backgrounds you may have seen, by offering an associated ritual in addition to other benefits. This is intended as a way to prompt groups who might otherwise overlook ritual casting. A character who chooses the associated ritual as their benefit can perform the ritual as if they had mastered it, without requiring a ritual book or ritual caster feat, though they must still pay any associated costs when the ritual is used.
Non-Standard Folk
Creatures which are not mentioned here can still have a place in Escarnum. Whilst Alm itself may seem well-defined, its borders are intentionally vague, and most places have low enough population density that there’s plenty of wilderness between occupied areas. The neighbouring continents of Aethys and Parosea are only vaguely defined, so there’s plenty of space for new creatures and cultures.
Other creatures might be unique occurrences—magical experimentation with life was a common practice in the history of the Overseers, so they might well have created many magically-altered hybrids and offshoots of existing creatures.
Hybrid Characters
Moreso than in many worlds, the creatures of Escarnum are intended to share much of their biology. Some combinations of ancestry are more common than others, to be certain—but this is a world where different humanoid species are genetically compatible more often than not. (The bannyr, especially, seem to have had “close encounters” with most every sentient creature under the sun.) This commonality perhaps hints at some deeper secret about the origins of life in this godless world.
In other words, if you like the idea that your character may be a hybrid of two (or more!) species, you are encouraged to do exactly that. Although you will ultimately need to pick a heritage to best represent them, this is an observation of your character’s natural aptitudes and physical traits—not a box to place limitations on their identity.
If you want a distinct set of mechanics to represent a hybrid character who explicitly can’t be identified as any distinct species, the realm are exactly that.
The World of Escarnum
Skies of Adventure
Floating far above the surface of the world, mysterious crystals known as escarnum await those bold enough to claim them. Infused with tremendous arcane energy, escarnum is the key to powering precursor relics—and developing new devices in their image. The crystals are amongst the most sought-after resources in the world, and various trade cartels wage daily economic wars for the right to harvest and sell them.
Gathering escarnum, though, is a challenging and costly practice. Funded by enterprising kingdoms or wealthy private interests, crews of daring sailors traverse the skies in whatever vessels they can acquire, hoping to strike upon the mother lode that will bring them fame and fortune. Competing with vicious sky pirates and airborne beasts—as well as each other—are your characters willing to brave the Skies of Escarnum?
The Ancient Future
Wherever they go, adventurers in Escarnum can discover strange relics that serve as the legacy of an ancient civilisation, the precursors. Far advanced in their knowledge of both magic and science, the precursors combined both to create incredible items whose secrets are now lost to the world. Most such relics are buried deep beneath the surface of the world, or concentrated on the continent of Aethys, and it was the kobolds who first began to discover and experiment with them.
Many relics are still a mystery to modern races, and more still are long-since broken. However, as engineering and magic advance once more amongst the peoples of Alm, their understanding of these powerful devices also deepens. As adventurers in the age of humanity, your characters have the chance to seek out and recover devices most people only dream about—and maybe even to be amongst the first to discover their true purpose.
A Godless Sky
For all its mystery and magic, perhaps the most surprising trait of Escarnum is this: it is a world wholly without gods.
Powerful astral beings abound, both celestial and infernal. Ideological orders and zealous cults are hardly unknown, and some even have convinced entire nations to worship them. But the fact remains: in this world, nothing exists that is rightly called a god. One might similarly expect divine magic to be absent from the world, but this could not be further from the truth. In fact, divine magic thrives, found even in those who have scarcely heard of gods, much less petitioned them directly.
Thus the truth of divinity in this world becomes clear; it is not granted to mortals, but born of them. Divine magic—the will to alter reality itself—is not granted in exchange for worship, but manifested though personal conviction.
In this world, every soul who commands divine power is nothing short of an avatar of their own beliefs—whether for good ends, or for evil.
Career Adventuring
“Adventurer” isn’t just a game term, but a well-known—if perhaps reckless—career choice. Since the Age of Empires came to an end, the massive booms in relic hunting and escarnum gathering have fuelled demand for unique and diverse explorers with equally unique and diverse combat skills.
Of course, where there is money there is exploitation. Many merchant companies seek to take advantage of would-be adventurers—saving on expenses by providing shoddy equipment, downplaying the danger of risky jobs, and generally treating them as expendable.
Many adventurers began to form parties—small groups who learned to work together more effectively, and could only be hired as a team. This was surely safer than acting as a solitary adventurer, but a party still had no real leverage against a larger company. Thus, parties quickly led to guilds—a union of adventurers who agreed to cooperate and support one another’s welfare under a common charter.
Guilds proved to be the winning strategy for Almish adventurers. Companies who tried to exploit their hirelings would find themselves blacklisted, unable to recruit any but the most shady agents. And while individual guilds were still in competition—just as their members were in competition with one other—they could form agreements to ensure that competition stayed healthy. The largest even formed cross-border alliances, so one guild could trust another to provide aid and support to their members abroad, with the understanding they would receive the same in turn.
Today, the system supports countless guilds across Alm, in almost every nation. Whether a guild has thousands of members, or barely enough novices for one party, they can count on basic resources and emergency aid nearly anywhere on the continent.
Industrial Magic
The land of Alm is a strange and beautiful place, shaped equally by magic and science. Indeed, there is little difference between the two; with the extraordinary power source of escarnum in plentiful supply, magical devices have become a part of every big city’s infrastructure. To most people, the magic in their street lamps and cooling chests is certainly more valuable than the magic of a fireball.
Magic also plays a big role in production, with low-level creation rituals employed to ensure an abundant supply of almost any mundane item. Such goods are typically of mediocre quality—spellcasters are rarely dedicated artisans or chefs themselves—but they serve well enough for everyday purposes. Thus, stable populations rarely find themselves desperate for any staple goods—except where a selfish actor tries to exert control over such supply.
This is not to say that magic is dull in Escarnum—merely that it is everywhere, an inextricable part of science and engineering. While your wizard battles a zombie horde, your less adventurous peers are designing airships and maintaining power lines—at least, the lucky ones who didn’t wind up in Independence as sanitation technicians.
As for the truly unscrupulous, have they told you about the incredible opportunity to invest all their gold into “aether coins” ™?