Publication:Unearthed Arcana/Spelltouched Feats

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Spelltouched Feats

In this variant, a character who has been the target of a spell sometimes finds that some of its magic rubs off on him or her permanently, leaving an echo of the original spell. A character who has alter self cast on her many times, for example, may develop the spell-like ability to alter her features into the specific form she's most familiar with. Beneficial spells can linger on a character like magic radiation, bestowing an advantage somehow related to the original spell. In contrast, some PCs have a homeopathic reaction to hostile spells; by suffering the effects of a spell, they develop a countermeasure to it.

Such spelltouched characters are a mystery to academic-minded spellcasters, who can't reliably duplicate the process by repeatedly casting the same spell on a subject. Magic interacts with each individual in a subtly different way.

Accordingly, the only way to become eligible to select a spelltouched feat is to have been exposed to (that is, targeted by or otherwise affected by) one of the spells associated with the feat. If the spell allows a save, you must have failed a saving throw against it at least once, whether intentionally or not. After meeting the prerequisite, you may select a spelltouched feat when your character would otherwise qualify for a feat. The exposure is the game-world explanation for your new power, and the feat choice is the trade-off that keeps the game balanced.

Metagame Analysis: Spelltouched Feats

Standard feats rarely give your character overtly magical powers. Instead, they represent outstanding natural ability or rigorous training. Some feats such as Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, and metamagic feats make your existing magic better in some respect, but they don't give you magical power you didn't already have.

Spelltouched feats break that rule wide open, giving characters abilities previously impossible without the aid of magic. But they're balanced against standard feats, so characters who choose them aren't necessarily more powerful than their nonspelltouched counterparts.

If you use this variant, you'll find that magic becomes incrementally more important in your game, and even characters who rely on their martial prowess, such as fighters, sometimes manifest a magical effect.

Because these feats are variants, they employ other game mechanics rarely seen in feats, such as a drawback that accompanies the feat or a limited number of uses per day or week.

Feats Table

Table: Spelltouched Feats

Feat	Prerequisites	Benefit
Accurate Jaunt	Exposure to greater teleport, plane shift, teleport, or shadow walk	Better chance of successfully traveling between planes
Bladeproof Skin	Exposure to stoneskin or iron body	Gain damage reduction 3/bludgeoning
Breadth of Knowledge	Exposure to legend lore or vision	All your Knowledge checks treated as trained
Conductivity	Exposure to call lightning, lightning bolt, or chain lightning	After taking electricity damage, send out a line of electricity that affects one target within 30 feet
Controlled Immolation	Exposure to fireball or delayed blast fireball	Take no damage from catching on fire; opponents that strike you in melee take 1d6 points of fire damage
Eyes to the Sky	Exposure to scrying or greater scrying	Automatically spot magical scrying sensor within 40 feet
False Pretenses	Exposure to charm or dominate spell	Mislead opponent into thinking you are charmed or dominated
Ineluctable Echo	Exposure to wail of the banshee or any power word spell	Caster who targets you with a power word spell or wail of the banshee is also affected by spell
Life Leech	Exposure to death touch granted power or death knell spell	Each creature within 30 feet that has -1 to -9 hp loses 1 hp, which you gain as temporary hit points
Live My Nightmare	Exposure to phantasmal killer	Send nightmarish vision against creature that targets you with divination effect
Momentary Alteration	Exposure to alter self	Use alter self as spell-like ability for 1 minute once per day
Naturalized Denizen	Exposure to dimensional anchor	You are never treated as extraplanar creature
Omniscient Whispers	Exposure to commune or contact other plane	Receive answer to one question per week as if you had cast a commune spell
Photosynthetic Skin	Exposure to barkskin	Gain +2 to natural armor when outside during the day
Polar Chill	Exposure to cone of cold or ice storm	Create patch of icy ground that hampers movement
Residual Rebound	Exposure to spell resistance or spell turning	If you roll natural 20 on save against targeted spell, effect of spell turns back on caster
Stench of the Dead	Exposure to ghoul touch or vampiric touch	Carrion stench causes those adjacent to you to become sickened

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