Last summer, I read a book about the black death. Since then, I've been fascinated by the flagellants. I'm building a new campaign world called Oubliette. Here's two feats for followers of Cruciar, Lord of Pain and Guardian of the Flesh.

Flagellant
You are a flagellant of Cruciar. By flaying your skin, you force the Captive's corrupting taint out of your flesh. Your blood runs from your wounds, carrying away the sin that formed the world and eats at its heart.
Benefit: As a swift action, you may use a flail, whip, or scourge to injure yourself. Roll damage as normal for an attack. In return, you gain DR 5/-, a +4 bonus on Will saves, and +1d6 damage on melee attacks (+2d6 damage v. aberrations). You cannot use this feat if you are under the effects of fast healing, have regeneration, gain DR versus the attack against yourself, or have received healing in the past round. You may choose to cancel your DR against your attack in order to activate this feat.
The benefits of this feat last until the start of your next turn.

Cruciar's Wrath
You invoke the name of Cruciar, calling his dread eye towards you. Wounds spontaneously burst on your body as his holy energies purge your body of sin as they aid you in battle.
Benefit: As a swift action, spend a turning attempt and suffer 1d6 points of damage to activate this ability. You gain a bonus equal to 1 + your Charisma bonus on melee damage and Will saves for 5 + your Charisma modifier rounds.

Cruciar
Lawful Neutral
Lord of Pain, Guardian of the Flesh, The Cleansing Wound
Enemies: The Captive, aberrations
Affiliation: Young God
Holy Symbol: Triple flail
Domains: Death, Destruction, War
Favored Weapons: Flails, whip, scourge

Self inflicted pain has always seemed bizaare to me - really cool thing to add.

Flagellant seems only a little better than Cruciar's wrath - the damage and save bonus are roughly equal or a bit higher for Cruciar's wrath, assuming a reasonably high Charisma, but Flagellant has the DR.  So why does flagellant have the healing restrictions and last for only one round and Cruciar's wrath lasts for the length of most battles?

I'd throw in a constant immunity to pain effects but that never really comes up in a normal game.

Another possible feat would be freaking people out by hurting yourself.  The user can chose the effects of cause fear or a decently large intimidation bonus.

Flagellant looks a little bit overpowered, but only a little.  Those are three very nice bonuses.  Perhaps drop the DR to 3/- and the Will save bonus to +2?  I like the idea of adding the Immunity to Pain and a +2 bonus to Intimidate checks for anyone witnessing you do this.  That way the Feat has a lot of utility without becoming a must-have

I like Cruciar's Wrath a lot

As a mostly chaotic member of a hedonistic religion, I find this topic utterly, totally alien in mindset.  But those both are pretty fascinating feats.

I disagree with Fannon, though, on the Flagellant feat.  Your'e taking damage *and* it only lasts for one full round.  That's a pretty hefty penalty and I think it balances out the bonuses just fine.

These feats are *not* feats that just anybody is going to take to twink out their character.  You have to be pretty fuckin' hardcore to take either one.  I think that the roleplaying aspects actually balance out the power here.

Quote from: GunhildaYour'e taking damage *and* it only lasts for one full round.

But it's a free (sorry "swift") action to activate, so it's easy to keep up all the time

On average you'd be taking 7ish points of damage per round to get DR 5/-, plus all the other bonuses.  You'd only need to get hit a couple of times a round to have a net reduction in the amount of damage you're taking

Hmm.  I'm not convinced by your logic, but I will admit to being too lazy to check the numbers.  Personally, I'd let the feats go as-is and tweak 'em in game if necessary.

I think the role playing aspects are cool (hell one of my favorite career paths from Warhammer are the flagellant's) but in this case they seem kinda twinky.

You could use a whip that does what 1d4 damage IIR on yourself every round and gain DR 5/- which means if you get hit, worse case you are still benefiting from -1 point less damage.  In return you are gaining a +4 bonus on Will saves, and +1d6 damage on melee attacks (+2d6 damage v. aberrations).

I think I'd probably offset it like this.

In any round you use this feat you gain Dr5/- and either +4 to will/fort saves for the round or 1d6 damage (2d6+cha bonus v. abberations).  In addition you are immune to any effects that would cause pain.

Quote from: kryystIYou could use a whip that does what 1d4 damage IIR on yourself every round and gain DR 5/- which means if you get hit, worse case you are still benefiting from -1 point less damage.

Imagine a ranger or another dual-wielder using this feat with a whip in his off-hand!  The DR has to be reduced

Conceptually, I agree that it's a great feat.  The numbers just need tweaking

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonImagine a ranger or another dual-wielder using this feat with a whip in his off-hand!  The DR has to be reduced

Conceptually, I agree that it's a great feat.  The numbers just need tweaking

Well I would imagine this is part of an advanced career first of all.  But more importantly I think the pre-req would be that whatever weapon you do the self flagelation with is the one that receives the damage bonus, so you couldn't whip yourself for 1d4 damage and then unload with your vorapal +5 long sword of speed.

Actually I'm thinking instead of a swift action it should be a move equiv action.  That would reduce a large ammount of cheese.

Its all about reduction of resources.

If you take around 7 points to get DR 5/- vs attacks which may or may not hit or even be made each round its balanced very nicely. The player with this feat activates it in hopes that the damage dealt is more than the average damage of his weapon and they will still take damage over 5 points (which is pretty common in 3.x).

From a DM standpoint its less work for his critters to do in order to reduce the resources enough to justify the CRs and EL.

I think the feats are well done and would allow them in my game as is.

Quote from: BolverkIts all about reduction of resources.

If you take around 7 points to get DR 5/- vs attacks which may or may not hit or even be made each round its balanced very nicely.

But seldom are you going to take 7 points of damage from the types of weapons you are using to do the self flagellation with.  Most of the time you will be doing less then 5 points of damage to yourself.