Feats for Citified Heroes
From the most sprawling metropolises to brisk market towns, each urban settlement is a living thing. Every city has its own rhythm, a heartbeat that drives the thousands of lives, and with each rhythm comes unique peculiarities that adventurers need to deal with. Far from the remote, sometimes solitary life of the wilds, in the cities there are countless lives that can get in the way, both socially and physically, including the local watch trying to keep the peace—whatever that means for the city in question. Cities are also sources of intrigue, with well-hidden intentions and even more well-hidden knives. It takes a special kind of adventurer to navigate these complications, threats, and opportunities, and the following feats are meant for just such characters.
As always, players should make sure to consult the Narrator before deciding on a feat, as being skilled at crowds and influencing local politics will not be of much use in a campaign that focuses on exploring the wilderness.
Alley Adventurer
You’ve had your fair share of rough and tumble experiences in back alleys, sewers, and other urban environs.
- You have advantage on Investigation and Perception checks made to find your way into, navigate through, and detect secrets in sewers.
- You have advantage on saving throws made against traps and diseases found in alleys, sewers, and other places of urban filth.
City Survivor
You’re used to eking out a living in urban environments, finding ways to scrounge and scavenge everything you need to survive.
- Raise your Dexterity or Wisdom attribute by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You can perform the Gather Components, Harvest, and Hunt and Gather journey activities while in urban environments.
- Once per long rest , you can stretch your Supply further than it would normally go by supplementing it with local bounty. You can make a Survival check when preparing a meal (with a difficulty determined by the region’s tier) to halve the Supply required to feed up to four creatures. On a failure, each Supply can only feed a single creature.
Face in the Crowd
You have a knack for blending into a crowd.
- If you enter or start your turn in a crowd of creatures with which you share a creature type, you are considered unseen to creatures that are not part of the crowd and gain advantage on Stealth checks to hide in the crowd. You must stay within the crowd to retain this benefit, and it may end early if you take any actions that would seem out of line with the crowd (such as bursting into song, casting a showy spell, or not participating in the crowd’s ritualistic chanting), as determined by the Narrator. If the crowd is targeted by an effect that requires a saving throw , you may choose to fail it to remain hidden.
- You gain an expertise die to Sleight of Hand checks.
Familiar to the Watch
Whether you’re a former member of the constabulary or you’ve just had your share of run-ins with the city guards, you’ve developed a familiarity with how law enforcement tends to work.
- Three times per long rest , you can use your reaction to gain advantage on skill checks opposed by members of local law enforcement.
- You can use the Grapple simple maneuver to attempt to restrain an unwilling creature with manacles, even if it is not restrained or both prone and grappled, as long as you are holding the manacles and have one free hand.
- You have advantage on rolls to escape from, break, or pick the locks of manacles.
Hidden Armorer
Prerequisite: Proficiency with Stealth
You become particularly adept at altering weapons to better hide them on your person and at sneaking them past most guards. This alteration may consist of flattening out a blade, adding elaborate decoration to a weapon to disguise its utility, concealing a weapon inside another object, or similar tactics.
You gain the ability to rework certain existing weapons to have the Stealthy quality, provided you have the appropriate tools. This alteration takes half as long as crafting a new weapon of its kind but requires the same DC (see Between Adventures in Chapter 7: Adventuring, Adventurer’s Guide). You gain advantage on such crafting checks and gain a 1d6 expertise die on checks to craft a new item with the Stealthy quality.
Altering existing weapons to give them the Stealthy quality costs 25 gp or half the item’s cost, whichever is higher. You can alter the following: brass knuckles, daggers, dueling daggers, punching daggers, throwing daggers, whips, short swords, slings, darts, hand crossbows and garottes. Work with the Narrator to decide what form this alteration takes.
As a rule, weapons can have no more than three properties unless one of those properties is a restriction.
Finally, you gain an expertise die on checks to hide a weapon on your person and on Sleight of Hand checks to discretely draw or use such a weapon.
Neighborhood Figure
You have the look of someone even strangers can bring their troubles and gossip to. You gain the Townie adventuring trick from the bard class. In addition, you gain the following feature:
Hold Sway
In place of a downtime activity, you can set up somewhere, often a tavern, temple or other public place, trading favors, providing advice, and helping out the locals. During this time you may expend gold equal to 10 × the Region’s tier to gain a bonus to Prestige checks in the neighborhood (and potentially beyond, at the Narrator’s discretion) equal to your choice of your Wisdom or Charisma modifier. This bonus applies for a number of days equal to your proficiency modifier.
Additionally, at the end of this period you can roll as though you were using the Gather Information downtime activity, but the Narrator decides what specific information you gain, with rarity determined by the result of your roll (see Between Adventures in Chapter 7: Adventuring, Adventurer’s Guide), though the Narrator may rule that you cannot learn hidden or secret level information, depending on who comes to talk to you. You do not gain a point of Key Knowledge when rolling for Gather Information in this way.
Pillar of the Community
Prerequisites: Neighborhood Figure feat, have used
the Hold Sway feature at least three times in the same
settlement.
You’ve gone above and beyond for the community and everyone knows that you’re the person to go to for favors, advice, or getting something handled. When you use your Hold Sway feature, you may also attract people of higher rank or those with truly dire problems, increasing your likelihood of learning hidden or secret information when rolling to Gather Information afterwards.
- Raise your Charisma or Wisdom Attribute by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- Once only, you may purchase or build a stronghold in your Prestige Center that is a workshop, temple, training hall, guildhouse, shop, tavern, or library at 50% of the original cost. Any sub-stronghold you build within it can be added at 75% the usual cost.
- If you use the Hold Sway feature in a settlement, you can consider that settlement part of your Prestige Center for 1 week (this does not qualify a settlement for the above stronghold discount).
- When spending gold as part of your Hold Sway feature, you can call in one additional favor per day (see Optional Rule: Calling In Favors in Chapter 7: Adventuring, Adventurer’s Guide) for the duration of the effect.
- You gain a point of Key Knowledge when you roll to Gather Information as part of using the Hold Sway feature
Politician
Prerequisite: Charisma 13
You seek a life in politics, or at least you’re pretending to be interested in it. You may be a bureaucrat, a trader of favors, or otherwise interested in the affairs of cities.
- Raise your Charisma attribute by 1, up to the attribute maximum of 20.
- You gain an adventuring trick of your choice from the bard class.
Office Holder
Prerequisite: Politician Feat
Whether elected or appointed, you’ve managed to secure a position of some political power within the city.
- You have advantage on Charisma rolls against anyone in the same political system as you if they are lower in the hierarchy. If they are higher, you instead gain an expertise die .
- You gain a badge of office of some kind, marking you as holding the political office in question. At the Narrator’s discretion, this could bring various benefits, such as assuring the city watch your actions are legitimate, allowing you to borrow money on credit, or the like. However, it is also likely to make you enemies.
- You gain an adventuring trick of your choice from the bard class.
Second Story Worker
Prerequisite: Dexterity 13
You’ve spent time as a specific kind of criminal: the sort that climbs drainpipes and grabs things from open windows.
- You gain an expertise die on Athletics and Acrobatics checks.
- You gain two skill tricks of your choice from the rogue class.
Snoop
Prerequisite: Proficiency in Investigation or Perception
You’re good at learning things in cities. Talking to the right people, swapping gossip, and listening in on the conversation at the next table are like second nature to you.
- You gain advantage on rolls to perform the Gather Information downtime activity.
- When making a roll to Gather Information, you automatically gain 1 piece of Key Knowledge, even if you fail the roll.
- You gain a 1d6 expertise die to all Perception checks to eavesdrop and all Persuasion rolls to convince someone to gossip or share secrets with you outside of the Gather Information downtime activity.
Tavern Fly
More than once has the joke been made about you that you hold up the bar as much as it holds up you, and it has become a badge you wear with pride.
- Raise your Constitution or Charisma Attribute by 1, up to the attribute cap of 20.
- You have advantage on Constitution saving throws against ingested poisons .
- Once per long rest , when you would fall unconscious , you may take a level of fatigue each round to temporarily delay the effect (for a maximum number of rounds equal to half your Constitution modifier, minimum 1 round). At the end of this duration, you are knocked unconscious as per the triggering effect. If the triggering effect was you being reduced to 0 hit points, you are instead reduced to 1 hit point. This hit point disappears when the duration ends, rendering you unconscious unless you have been otherwise healed.
Urbane
On your adventures you’ve met more people than you can count, and have become familiar with many other cultures.
- Raise your Charisma or Wisdom by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You learn two languages of your choice. In addition, you gain the following feature:
Cultured Eye
You can study people you can see to gain insight into their origins, what they’re like, and perhaps even some of their secrets. After you spend a minute observing a creature within 60 feet, you can use an action to make a Culture, Insight, or History check against a DC equal to the creature’s passive Deception check score. On a success, you learn the following information about the creature:
- The creature’s culture and national origin (if any).
- The creature’s wealth compared to yours (poorer, richer, or about the same).
- What general occupation the creature has (if any). For instance, this may tell you the target creature is an entertainer, but not their speciality or place of work.
On a high enough result, the Narrator may rule you also gain insight into something the creature wants or a weakness they may have.
Special. If you have the Cosmopolitan culture, you gain a 1d6 expertise die to all checks to use this feature or the Fashion Sense feature.