Re: Feats and Affinities

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 15:12:55 -0700

> As I understand it, a Theist initiate gets the affinities of their god,
> and can improvise those feats particular to that god. As they can also
> improvise any other feats based on those affinities, I assume they get
> less of a penalty for the appropriate feats (so it is easier for an
> Initiate of Orlanth Adventurous to perform the Leaping Shield feat than
> a Humakti, but the Humakt initiate will find the Shield Destroyer Feat).

Correct. Basically, if a god has a feat specified, it is something he did in his past. Trying to emulate another god's feat in a similar affinity (combat, say) should be possible, but even more of an "improvisation" than doing your own god's feat. If the player can convince the narratorthat his god did 8this* particular feat, then let him do it at the "normal" inprov penalty.

> A devotee of a God gets those gods feats at the score of the affinity,
> and can (presumably) still improvise other feats as before. All the
> feats related to one affinity are performed at the same level of
> ability.

Correct

> What about any feats the character may have gained through other means
> (see my other post with Snerri's character for an example of this).
> Presumably any character granted the feat does not need to improvise it,
> even if they are not a devotee. This is not a problem if the feat is
> unrelated to the characters god (since he won't be gaining the feats
> from anywhere else) - What if a character gains one of his gods feats
> "early" so to speak?

If you learn a feat "outside" of your god's affinities (from a subcult, or whatever, then you know a specific ability. You don't get to improv other feats off of it like you would if it was an affinity. Even if the feat is similar to your god's affinity (you lern the "Disarm Enemy" feat frex, which reasonably would be part of a "Combat" affinity), you still increase it seperately from the affinity.

This isn't covered by the rules, so this is Roderick-the-gamer writing... If you learn a feat early, then learn the affinity it comes from (say, the Sunset Leap from Orlanth's Movement affinity) it could, depending on the narrator, be a single-feat ability like above, or it can be subsumed into the Movement affinity. If you got it early on, presuimably is has a higher ability rating than the parent affinity, though there are certainly times that this might not be so.

> Also, could a character "specialise" in one the feats within an
> affinity, and get a bonus to perform that particular feat?

Not under the rules. However, there's no rule *against* it - so if you want to put you 5w in Shield Leap, it will act like a 1-feat ability. If you raise your affinity, the 1-feat ability does *not* get raised.

Roderick