Re: Stand Alone Feats

From: tim_at_...
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 10:24:26 -0000

wrote:
>
>>There's an entry on the Character Development Chart that confuses
>>me, then. It says "Learn new feat or spell", 1 point if it's
>>related to the scenario or 2 points if not. This seems to imply
>>that you can learn feats independently of an affinity. Am I
>>misunderstanding this?
>
> Three usual uses for this:
>
> 1. You've joined a cult during play and need to "buy" your feats
>(HW 184)
>

For absolute clarity "You have become devoted to cult during play..."  

> 2. You've "invented"/improvised a new feat and want to cement the
> change so you don't have an Improv penalty anymore

Again, for clarity add "You are a Devotee and " to the start of this sentance

I think both of those cases are fairly straightforward,once you've got the basic Initiate and Devotee rules sorted out. The trickier one is the third case

>
> 3. You're learning a "stand-alone" Feat from a Cult, Subcult or
>Hero Cult.
>

As has been mentioned elsewhere, we really only have Barntaros as an example of this to date, so it is still a bit murky. My impression was that such "Stand Alone" feats were only obtainable from "Hero Cults" - your statement above seems to suggest they may be provided by more powerful cults to - was this intended? If so is it only some cults, and they provide specific stand alone feats, or is it any cult *could* provide any feat as a stand alone feat, (but many choose not to in the normal state of affairs).

I also plead guilty to not being completely clear as to what status you need to be in order to get these Stand Alone Feats. I thought that devotion to a Hero Cult was very unusual, and most worshippers were just initiates of the Hero Cult.

I'll try some examples to try and make it clearer. In some (if not all) cases there may be other ways to achieve the same or similar results, but what I'm looking at is the underlying principle

1. Heord is an initiate of the Hedkoranth subcult of Orlanth. He envies the Yinkini cultists their ability to get a good nights sleep when they are patroling the outer limits of the Tula and have to stay out under the stars. He wishes to learn their "Sleep Anywhere" feat - Can he learn it as a Stand Alone Feat? Would it make any difference if he was a Devotee of Hedkoranth?
2. Verlan was a Hero of Lankhor Mhy who had studied tales of Combat and War, although he had never held a weapon until the forces of Predark attacked his temple. He snatched a sword from the hands of their leader and cut him down with a single blow. He teaches Lankhor Mhy the stand alone feat of "Turn Weapon Against Owner"

Baran is an initiate of Lankhor Mhy. Can he join Verlan's Hero Cult and learn the "Turn Weapon Against Owner" feat? Or can only devotees gain access to this feat?

How about Heord from the example above. Can he join the Verlan Hero Cult without becoming at least an initiate of Lankhor Mhy? If he is a devotee of Hedkoranth, could he become an initiate of Lankhor Mhy and the Verlan Hero-Cult to learn the feat?