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Marks

Marks are similar to ancestor, heritage or bloodline feats, in that they can only be chosen at character creation. Because of this, it seems almost that they should be under Characters, but they closely resemble feats, so I figured they better fit here.

The way marks work is they refine your character by pairing a benefit with a drawback. You may choose up to two marks at character creation. Some marks cannot be chosen with others, and no mark may be chosen more than once.

Thanks and kudos to the makers of Fallout for the inspiration of many of these, as well as inspiration for the entire concept. It bears mentioning that Fallout certainly had an impact on the design of Third Edition, as 3e's feats are identical to Fallout's perks and 3e's XP/level progression is likewise the same as Fallout's.

Now, the reason I have called them 'marks' is because 'traits' was already taken, and these benefit/drawback combinations do mark a character as someone different. If anyone has an idea for a better name, I'm open to suggestions.

Backstabber (Mark)
You are shifty, suspicious and insecure, but you are better at slipping a knife in someone's back than the next guy. This suits you just fine, but it makes you generally distrusted and creepy.
Prerequisite: Dexterity 11+, any nongood alignment.
Benefit: You may make sneak attacks like a rogue for +1d6 damage. If you already have the sneak attack class ability, your sneak attacks cause an additional +1d6 damage.
Drawback: You suffer a -4 penalty to Charisma on character creation.

Bruiser (Mark)
You may be slower, but when you hit, they feel it.
Benefit: You gain a +4 to your initial Strength.
Drawback: You determine your initiative solely by the roll of the d20, and may never apply modifiers to your initiative due to ability scores, feats or another mark (like Improved Initiative or the Kamikaze mark). In addition, your natural movement speed is reduced by 5 feet.

Early Bird (Mark)
You sleep well at night, and this invigorates you for the day.
Benefit: You gain a +2 competence bonus to all skill and ability checks related to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution during the day (between sunrise and sunset). This does not include attack or damage rolls.
Drawback: You suffer a -2 competence penalty to the above-named checks at night (between sunset and sunrise).*

Finesse (Mark)
You forgo trying to hurt a foe overall in favor of trying to hurt them where it hurts the worst.
Benefit: You increase the critical threat range of any weapon you can use by 1. If a weapon has a critical threat range of 20, it becomes 19-20; if a weapon has a critical threat range of 19-20, it becomes 18-20, and so on. This stacks with the effects of the Improved Critical and similar feats.
Drawback: You suffer a natural -2 penalty to all ranged or melee damage rolls (to a minimum of 1 hp damage). This penalty is not applied to critical hits (and only critical hits).**

Gifted (Mark)
Your natural potential developed early, and you naturally leaned toward your abilities rather than focusing on honing your skills.
Benefit: You gain 5 discretionary points to add to your ability scores at character creation (pending DM approval).
Drawback: You never gain ability score points due to gaining levels, and the max ranks you may have in a class skill are equal to your character level (max ranks in cross-class skills are limited to half your character level).

Heavy-Handed (Mark)
You don't care for precision in combat. You just want to hit them. Hard.
Benefit: All melee (not ranged) attacks you make have a +2 bonus to damage.
Drawback: When attacking with any weapon, melee or ranged (including unarmed attacks), to determine if a critical threat becomes a critical hit, you must roll within your weapon's critical threat range a second time in order to actually cause a critical hit.**

Jinxed (Mark)
The good news is your enemies suffer more critical failures in combat. The bad news is so do you.
Benefit: Opponents within 30 feet of you suffer critical failures on a roll of 1 or 2.
Drawback: You and any allies within 30 feet also suffer critical failures on a roll of 1 or 2.

Kamikaze (Mark)
You charge into combat without a thought to defense.
Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus to your initiative rolls. This bonus stacks with Improved Initiative.
Drawback: You may never gain Dexterity or dodge bonuses to your Armor Class. This includes dodge bonuses supplied by race, class, feats, magic, psionics or items.
Note: If you have the Bruiser mark you gain no benefit from this mark.

Marksman (Mark)
You have much better aim with ranged weapons, though your melee skills suffer.
Benefit: The range increments for all ranged weapons you use increase by 50%, to a minimum increase of 5 feet.
Drawback: You have a permanent -1 penalty to your attack bonus when using melee weapons.

Night Owl (Mark)
You function better at night, but not so well during daylight.
Benefit: You gain a +2 competence bonus to all skill and ability checks related to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma at night (between sunset and sunrise). This does not affect the save DCs of spells you cast or psionic powers you manifest.
Drawback: You suffer a -2 competence penalty to the above-named checks during the day (between sunrise and sunset).*

Sex Appeal (Mark)
Members of the opposite sex find you very attractive and charismatic. Members of your sex tend to react with jealousy and bitterness.
Prerequisite: Charisma 11+.
Benefit: When you make an ability or skill check involving Charisma on a member of the opposite sex, your Charisma bonus to the check is doubled.
Drawback: When using any ability or skill check involving Charisma on a member of your sex, your Charisma bonus is reversed, becoming a penalty equal to the bonus you would normally get.***

Skilled (Mark)
You have spent a good deal of time honing your skills, at the expense of learning some of the more spectacular tricks of your trade.
Benefit: Your allowed max ranks in a class skill increases by 1. Allowable max ranks in a cross-class skill increases by 1/2, without rounding up or down. In addition, you gain +8 skill points at character creation and +2 skill points per character level thereafter.
Normally, your max ranks in a class skill are limited to your character level +3, though the Gifted feat (above) and other factors may alter this.
Drawback: You gain feats more slowly. You gain feats due to character level every four levels, instead of every three levels. Bonus feats due to class instead of character level are unaffected.

Small Frame (Mark)
You're a little smaller, but you are a lot quicker.
Benefit: You gain a +2 to your initial Dexterity and +2 to initiative.
Drawback: You are considered one size smaller for the purposes of determining your carrying capacity.

* --This mark cannot be taken if the character is from an environment with no discernible day/night cycle. Most Inner and Outer Planes are this way (with the notable exception of Sigil), as are places where the sun never sets or rises or does so irregularly or infrequently.

**--You may take both the Finesse and Heavy-Handed marks, but in the end, all you wind up with is a slightly expanded critical threat range, a severely reduced critical hit range and a -2 penalty to all ranged weapon damage. Your call.

***--It is ultimately up to the DM if the bonus or penalty applies for any particular NPC. Sexual preference may invert the benefit and drawback, and extreme differences in physiology or even philosophy may negate it altogether. As a rule, this mark only applies to humanoids, monstrous humanoids and fey, though other creatures may also employ it at the DM's discretion. PCs are free to respond as they wish to a PC or NPC with this trait.

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