Boons

You know your business, and you always know where to find like-minded individuals.

Effect: Choose a specific category of merchandise, such as melee weapons, bows, guns, armor, scrolls, wondrous items (must be a specific slot, such as head, belt, gloves, etc.), or any other applicable category, at GM discretion. You gain an NPC Contact (or contacts) who serves as the source for such items. You gain a 10% boost in your favor when purchasing or fencing such items. For example, if you make a Diplomacy check to procure an item for 10 Common Crafting Goods Parts, this Boon would discount that negotiated price to 9 parts instead.

The player and the GM should discuss what type of item you trade, and the finer details of your connections, such as how you became involved with them.

You are remarkably unremarkable.

Effect: Anyone attempting to describe your character cannot come up with anything more precise than “average height, average build, average hair, etc.” In addition, any memory checks relating to this character are made at a -5 penalty. Lastly, anyone attempting to spot you in a crowd takes a -10 penalty to their Perception check.

Why use fancy tactics when “Hit them harder” works just as good?

Effect: Your Martial Tactics pool now restores based off of your Constitution modifier instead of your Intelligence modifier.

You are gifted with an uncanny elegance, a stealthy gait, and an almost preternatural ability to move without making a sound.

Effect: Treat your falling distance as half of its true value. You are never prone after taking a fall, unless you fall unconscious (or die). Apply this Boon's effect before other fall-reduction effects, such as Slow Fall. You gain Stealth as a Key Skill, and a +2 trait bonus to it.

Due to either earning it, or being born into it, you are famous - your name is known throughout the game setting.

Effect: You may choose a single appropriate Skill which results from your fame. Common choices are Perform or Knowledge (Nobility). You gain this specific skill as a Key Skill, and you also gain a +2 trait bonus towards the chosen skill. In addition, as you are well known; other characters in the world may look upon you with a particular favor, bestow gifts upon you, or otherwise provide special treatment due to your status. The GM and the player should work together during character creation to determine the source and effects of this status. This Boon usually costs about 10 Experience.

Nobody downs drinks as fast as you - nobody.

Effect: You may drink a potion or a similar consumable liquid as a Move action. This cannot be used with your Extracts or Mutagens, but can be used with another's infusion.

Through rigorous meditation, you can exercise a semblance of control over your body’s needs by sheer force of will.

Effect: As a full-round action, the character may enter a meditative state, which slows effects on their body. During this time, the character may hold their breath for a number of minutes equal to their Constitution modifier. Any poisons or diseases or similar afflictions affecting the character have their duration paused for the duration of the meditation, and they resume from where they left off afterwards. Lastly, a character may forgo water for a number of days equal to their Constitution modifier, and may forgo food for a number of weeks equal to their Constitution modifier. Whilst in this state, the character may not take any other actions. However, they remain aware of their surroundings and may end the meditative state at any time.

Not as common as its name purports.

Effect: A number of times per session equal to your total Hero Points, you may consult with the GM about a specific course of action in a given session. The GM is then required to explain if the action would be a good or a bad idea, and why. Note that the GM is not required to answer with information that the character does not know.

Better to be lucky than good, when you’re living on the edge.

Effect: Whenever you perform a particularly daring action (at GM discretion), you get a Hero Point refreshed. You may ask the GM beforehand to confirm whether or not an action is suitable.

You are capable of contorting your body in strange ways to get where you shouldn’t be.

Effect: You gain the compression universal monster ability. Escape Artist is always a Key Skill for you, and you receive a +2 trait bonus to it.

You are capable of a particular intertwining of magical effects.

Effect: You may concentrate on a spell as a Move action, instead of a Standard action. This in turn allows you to concentrate on two spells at once, at the cost of both actions. However, doing so demands incredible focus - if you are maintaining concentration on two spells, any concentration check DCs are doubled. In addition, failing a concentration check ends both spells.

You have the uncanny ability to remember all sorts of things.

Effect: Also known as photographic memory, you never have to roll to remember mundane information that your character has heard. In addition, you gain a +4 trait bonus to saves against spells and effects that are memory related, and a +4 trait bonus to remember distant or very specific information.

Special: You can’t take this Boon if you have the Airhead drawback.

Sorry, can't help with this job - I've got lunch with the king.

Effect: You receive Contact points equal to twice your Charisma score, instead of an equal amount. In addition, you may surpass the normal Connection Rating limit for Contacts of 4. As always, consult with your GM on who these contacts are, and how you know them.

You're very brave or very foolish, or some mix of the two.

Effect: You are immune to fear and intimidation effects.

You have exceptional natural vision - 20:20 is an understatement.

Effect: You take no penalty from distance when making visual Perception checks, but you must be able to see the target of your check in question. Additionally, you increase the range increment of all ranged weapons you use by 50%, rounding down to nearest 5 ft. increment.

You’re a consistent patron of breweries, taverns, and inns across the land, and your “experience” has made you get the most out of your booze.

Effect: You gain a +4 bonus to Fortitude saves against all ingested poisons, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. In addition, whenever you imbibe alcohol, you gain the Barroom Brawler Talent for a duration dependent on the quality of the drink. Note that you must wait for the effects of an active drink to expire before you may “refresh” with another to gain a different benefit from the feat.

• Cheap Drink - 1d4 rounds
• Solid Ale - 1d4 minutes
• Battle Brew - 1d20 minutes
• King’s Drink - 1d6 hours

You wield the blade of your father’s, father’s, father’s, father’s…

Effect: You may ignore the standard 25% limit on one item you begin play with. You are also considered proficient with this weapon or armor.

Some people are born great.

Effect: You gain an extra Hero Point.

So fast.

Effect: You may spend a Hero Point to move up to double your base speed, or to charge, as an Immediate action.

You're used to seeing pieces of yourself all over the battlefield.

Effect: Whenever your Wounds in any area are reduced to 0 or less, you may roll a Fortitude save (DC 10 + number of negative Wounds) - if you are successful, the part of you in question remains fully functional (that is, you take none of the normal penalties) for a number of rounds equal to your Hit Dice, including the Head. Additionally, you gain a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves against effects which would knock you unconscious, and coup de grace attempts made against you.

Note: If the Wound pool in question equals of a number of negative Wound Points equal to or exceeding the character's Constitution score, it is severed or destroyed as normal.

One of your senses is particularly effective.

Effect: Choose a single sense (Sight, Scent, Hearing, Taste, or Touch). When rolling Perception checks that use this sense, you gain a +10 trait bonus on the check. You may use this sense to pinpoint a target’s location within 30 feet, with a sufficient Perception check (DC subject to DM discretion).

If you select Taste or Touch, this Boon instead costs 5 EXP.

You can eat almost anything, under almost any conditions. Someone has to down the expired milk.

Effect: Double your Fortitude bonus against any ingested poisons, diseases, or similar effects. You may safely digest any non-poisoned or diseased material with a Hardness equal to or less than your total Hit Dice (chewing not included).

You possess an innate aversion to scrying magic.

Effect: Whenever a caster attempts to cast a Divination [Scrying] spell on you, they must make a Caster Level check with a DC of (10 + Your Hit Dice). If they fail, the spell is expended and nothing happens. If they succeed, you roll a Will save against the spell as normal, but your character knows they have been scryed on, and by specifically what spell, but not the identity of the caster.

Some people are born lucky.

Effect: Whenever you spend a Hero Point, roll 1d6. On a 6, the Hero Point is not spent. This does not work when burning a Hero Point.

You leave few signs of your presence for others gifted in magic.

Effect: Your spells never leave a lingering aura of magic. In addition, other casters must make a Perception check (DC 10 + your Caster Level) to see magical effects on your person. This effect does not transfer to spells you cast on other characters, such as turning your party's Rogue invisible.

You've developed a trick to slowly restoring your Mana by exploiting the outer planes, rather than straining your body to generate it naturally.

Effect: You now use your Intelligence modifier instead of your Constitution modifier to determine your hourly Mana regeneration rate and bonus MP.

Some people collect stamps, others collect voices. Nothing strange about that.

Effect: You can mimic almost any sort of voice, or even animal calls and sound effects, and you can throw your voice at a distance. This functions similarly to a combination of the Ghost Sound and Ventriloquism spells, though it is an Extraordinary ability, and therefore non-magical.

You wield the unwieldy with surprising effectiveness.

Effect: Select a single, specific weapon which you are proficient with. You may use an oversized version of that weapon without penalty, or wield a normally sized two-handed weapon with a single hand. However, the weapon may not be more than one size category above you. For example, this would not allow a Halfling to wield a Large-sized Greatsword. If the weapon is oversized, it must still be wielded with the appropriate number of hands as if you were sized appropriately.

Special: You must be a Size of small or less to benefit from this Boon.

You chose the road less traveled. It's less traveled for a good reason though.

Effect: You may only select one Path, and may never purchase additional Paths (however, you still receive Hero Points from increasing your Potential). In exchange, all Experience costs for Talents on your chosen Path are halved from their normal value (though their requirements remain unchanged).

Special: You may only select this Boon at Character Creation.

Through a genetic mutation, a magical effect, or similar effects, you are completely immune to a particular threat.

Effect: Pick a single disease, poison, or other such toxin - you are considered immune to that effect. Specific applicable spells are suitable selections for this Boon, such as Stinking Cloud. This example selection would not render you immune to other cloud based spells.

You are capable of drawing on a power to bolster your magical abilities, at the cost of using your own body as the conduit.

Effect: Whenever you cast a spell, you may give yourself a +2 trait bonus to your Caster Level for that ability, or increase the Saving Throw DC by 2, but you become fatigued afterwards. If you are already fatigued, you become exhausted. If you are exhausted, you collapse to the ground, both unconscious and prone, for 1d4 hours.

Creatures immune to fatigue cannot benefit from this boon. The fatigue and exhaustion from this ability cannot be cured by any means other than a full 8 hours of rest, even if the character needs less than 8 hours to recover their spells or other abilities. Similarly, if you are rendered unconscious from using this ability, you may not be revived through any means aside from resting for the number of hours rolled.

You have the uncanny ability to keep track of the time.

Effect: You always know the time, down to the minute, and also have a perfect sense of rhythm and timing. This sense can only be disrupted through prolonged isolation, unconsciousness, or disruption through being drugged or similar effects. On any Performance check involving such skill with rhythm, you gain a +5 trait bonus.

Lastly, you act as a temporal anchor - you know when an event has caused a temporal distortion, such as a timeline branching, time traveling, or similar 4th dimensional effects, provided that your ability has not been disrupted by one of the above caveats. This perception may be subject to an appropriate skill check, at DM discretion.

Under duress, you gain the abilities of a master hunter.

Effect: As a Swift Action, you may activate this ability by spending a Hero Point. Doing so grants you thermal vision against applicable living targets for a number of minutes equal to your total Hit Dice. This thermal vision negates all concealment for such targets that would normally be granted by smoke, darkness, invisibility, or similar effects.

Special: You cannot take this Boon if you have the Blind drawback or curse.

You were raised by or around a specific type of animal, and have grown close to their kind after learning their ways.

Effect: Choose a single animal type. You are capable of freely speaking to animals of this type, as if under the effects of Speak with Animals. In addition, all animals of your selected type possess a starting attitude of Friendly towards you.

You have a place to hide, in a pinch.

Effect: You begin the game with a Safehouse, which functions as a barebones, standalone Storage room (4-8 squares). You must specify the exact location of the safehouse within the world, and certain locations may be deemed unsuitable by the GM at their discretion. The location of the Safehouse may only be revealed through the character who owns it deliberately leading someone there - another character or NPC trailing the owner will always lose them when trying to locate the safehouse independently. If the owner is mind controlled, or otherwise not in charge of their actions, they may lead others to the safehouse unwillingly.

Additionally, the safehouse provides protection from all means of divination and scrying. Creatures and objects within the safehouse are completely immune to such effects, for as long as they remain in the safehouse. The safehouse may never be increased in size, but items and accommodations may be added within the space. If the safehouse is ever destroyed, or the character wishes to move it, they must spend one week of downtime and appropriate funds or materials to create a new one in a suitable location (this amount is determined by the GM).

You have a way with the opposite sex.

Effect: You gain a +4 trait bonus to Diplomacy and Bluff checks against NPCs who are the opposite gender of your character.

You practice an unconventional approach to moving around on the battlefield.

Effect: As part of a Move or charge action, you may toss your shield onto the ground and ride atop it. Doing so sets your move speed to 50 ft. for the duration (however, if your base move speed is faster, you instead add +20 ft. of movement to it when using this ability). Surfing down a slope can up to double this speed, at GM discretion. Whilst surfing, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity from moving through enemy squares. Additionally, you ignore 10 ft. of height per character level when falling, as long as you’re riding the shield. At the end of your movement, you may re-equip the shield as a Free action. You do not gain the benefits of the shield when using it in this manner.

You sleep in an unusual manner, but it definitely keeps you from being as vulnerable whilst asleep. Great for those night-shifts on guard duty.

Effect: You may now sleep standing up, meaning that you are not Prone whilst sleeping. Additionally, you may sleep in two hour intervals without penalties, provided that you still get enough sleep each day. Lastly, you are only treated as Surprised when asleep, rather than Unaware. This Boon allows you to sleep in Armor without issues.

You are capable of processing information at immense speed.

Effect: When researching in a library, the time unit is reduced to minutes, in place of hours. This effectively translates to mean that this character can read a full page of written text (~800 words) in 5 seconds, or an 800 page book in approximately one hour. The information is not memorized unless the character also possesses Eidetic Memory, but they gain a basic understanding of the contents, meaning that this works well for quickly finding a specific piece of information.

Special: You can’t take this Boon if you possess the Illiterate Drawback.

It’s more about force of personality than actually being pretty—sometimes a character just has a presence about them that keeps people from shooting straight.

Effect: You may substitute your Dexterity modifier for your Charisma modifier to your Armor Class, but only when taking the Total Defense action.

You always manage to find your way back to camp.

Effect: You always know which way is North. In addition, if you have one or more ranks in Survival, you may always retrace your path, even in locations where this would be impossible, such as within a Maze or in the Feywild. You gain a +2 trait bonus on Survival checks, and lastly you gain a +4 trait bonus on saves versus the Maze spell.

Through training or pure necessity, you’ve learned to accomplish certain tasks in an unorthodox way.

Effect: Select a single Skill and a single Ability Score. The skill in question now scales off of the selected ability score, in place of its default. This does not allow the skill to scale off of two ability scores, and this Boon does categorize the skill as a Key Skill. You may only select this Boon once, and only for a specific skill (for example, you could only select “Craft: Underwater Basket Weaving”, rather than just “Craft”). This Boon must be approved by the DM in order to be selected.

You likely grew up in a port town or other water-dense area, making you very comfortable with swimming.

Effect: You gain a swim speed equal to half your base land speed, and a +4 bonus to Athletics checks to swim.

The influence of beastfolk is particularly prominent in you. Through your ancestry, a curse, or strange arcane magic, this manifests through physical changes to your form.

When you select the Wildling Boon, choose one of the categories below, paying the associated Experience cost. You may select this Boon multiple times, selecting a different aspect each time.

• Bestial Ears (10) You have ears of a particular animal of your choice (Bear, Wolf, Cat, etc). By listening closely, you are more perceptive than others - you gain Blindsense 60 ft. against creatures that you can hear.
• Bestial Eyes (10): You gain animistic eyes, reminiscent of a cat, lizard, or other creature of your choosing. You gain Low-Light vision out to a range of 30 feet. If you already possess Low Light vision, you instead gain Darkvision out to a range of 30 ft. If you possess Darkvision, the range of your Darkvision increases by 30 feet.
• Bestial Scent (10): You have the nose, or even the entire face of a beast, such as a Wolf. You gain the Scent universal monster ability, within a range of 30 feet.
• Child of Heavens (15): You have a pair of wings - they may hearken to ancestry containing devils, angels, harpies, dragons, or anything of such sort. Initially, they are small and weak, and only allow you to avoid damaging falls (as if subject to a constant Feather Fall spell). However, upon gaining 7 Hit Die, you gain a fly speed of 30 feet with poor maneuverability. At HD 12, your flight improves to 60 ft. with average maneuverability. At HD 17, your flight improves again to 90 ft. with good maneuverability.
• Claws of the Beast (10): Your hands are more like a wolf or bear's than your base race. You gain two claw attacks. These are primary natural attacks, which deal 1d6 each for a Medium creature.
• Depthwalker (10): You have amphibious ancestors, granting you the ability to breathe air and water. You are still subject to particularly toxic water, as well as the pressure of deep water.
• Maw of the Beast (5): Your mouth easily opens wide to reveal teeth as sharp as razors, long tusks, or a similarly threatening maw. You gain a natural bite attack. This attack is a primary natural attack, or secondary if you are wielding manufactured weapons. The bite deals 1d6 damage for a Medium creature.
• Prehensile Tail (5): Many beastmen ancestors can impart this trait - common choices are cats and monkeys. You gain a long, flexible tail which can be used to carry objects. You cannot wield weapons with your tail, but you may use it to retrieve small, stowed objects carried on your person as a Swift Action.

Special: Barring unique circumstances approved by the GM, this Boon may only be selected at Character Creation.