Operative Feats
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Spheres of Guile
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Diamond Spheres: Harmony & Discord
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Operative Feats

The following feats are mainly designed for characters made using the rules from Spheres of Guile, but any character may take them as long as they meet the prerequisites.

Advanced Tactics

Prerequisites: 4 ranks in any skill, skill leverage.

Benefit: Whenever you would use the change tactics skill leverage use to add 1d4 to the result of a roll, you may instead roll 1d6 and add the result to the roll. If such a check fails, the use of skill leverage is not expended, whereas if the check succeeds, there is a 50% chance that the use of skill leverage is not expended.

Catchy Tune

Prerequisites: Associated skill 5 ranks, Performance sphere ((lyric) package).

Benefit: Whenever you would use a lyric on a creature, you may spend 1 use of skill leverage to delay its effects for up to a number of hours equal to your ranks in Perform (comedy, oratory, or sing).

At any point during this time, the target may trigger its effects as a swift action, beginning the effects of the lyric. A target can only be under the effects of one delayed lyric at a time, but may benefit from another lyric during this time, as long as they are only benefiting from one lyric as normal (unless you possess an ability that allows otherwise). The delayed lyric cannot be triggered if the creature is already affected by a lyric.

Deific Icon [DRS]

Source: Diamond Spheres: Invention & Ingenuity

Prerequisites: Artifice sphere ((artwork) package), Knowledge (religion) 3 ranks, must worship a deity (or similar creature).

Benefit: As an artwork, you create something in honor to your deity, granting creatures that engage with the artwork a +1 morale bonus to saving throws and skill checks for 1 hour; if the creature worships this deity, this instead becomes a sacred or profane bonus (chosen when the artwork is created, but is usually dependant on the alignment of the deity). This bonus increases by 1 for every 10 ranks in the associated skill you possess.

If you possess the Deific Obedience feat (or a similar 'Obedience' feat, such as Celestial or Demonic Obedience), a creature who engages with this artwork gains 1/2 the associated obedience benefit of your deity (minimum 1) for 1 hour, provided that you are also benefiting from your Obedience feat’s benefits. If your Obedience feat’s benefit would be non-numeric (i.e. not a numeric bonus), the effects are not shared.

Detailed Charting

Prerequisites: Investigation sphere, Navigation sphere.

Benefit: As a standard action, you may analyze an area or target in that area while also applying your pathing to a location in that area. The targeted area, creature, or object must be within range of both your analyze and pathing abilities.

Dual Hack [DRS]

Source: Diamond Spheres: Thaumic Potential

Prerequisite: Spellhacking sphere.

Benefit: Whenever you use hack magic as a standard action or longer, you can hack two targets instead of one–both targets must still be in range. If you apply the same (hack) talent to both targets and the talent allows you to redistribute a bonus (or other statistic) that the target grants or possesses, you can distribute the bonuses between both hacked targets. Any bonuses redistributed this way must still be valid to the new target, and they must be the same type of item (such as a weapon or shield).
For example, you can use Shift Enchantment to remove a +1 enhancement bonus from a +2 longsword and grant it to a +3 greatsword.

If you possess the Repurpose Activated Item talent and apply it to both targets when hacking this way, you can use either object’s associated school of magic or magic sphere when choosing the new function granted to the hacked items.

Dual Pathing

Prerequisites: Associated skill 10 ranks, Navigation sphere.

Benefit: When you use pathing, you may apply two (pathing) talents to the area rather than just one.

Earthly Aptitude

You possess a deep understanding of the natural world, and how it can be shaped, refined, and corrupted.

Prerequisites: Knowledge (dungeoneering) 3 ranks, Knowledge (engineering) 3 ranks, Knowledge (geography) 3 ranks, or Knowledge (nature) 3 ranks; Study sphere.

Benefit: You are always aware of any changes of weather around you, and you can spend 1 minute to automatically predict the natural weather within the area for the next 24 hours.

Additionally, whenever you come within 10 feet of a weakened or dangerous structure, a secret door or similar hidden opening, you receive an immediate Knowledge skill check associated with the surface or structure to notice the detail (as if using Perception). This check should be made in secret by the GM.

You add the following methods of gaining a notion to your theories:

  • The subject of your theory suffers damage from or fails a saving throw against a hazard that is naturally occuring (brambles, mundane weather), including any natural feature that is used as a hazard (such as cutting down a tree to collapse onto a creature, creating a makeshift trap out of nature, etc.).
  • Whenever an attack originating from the subject of your theory misses you while you are benefiting from cover or improved cover. This cover cannot be something that is suddenly created, used or placed, such as using a tower shield, the cover function from the Artifice sphere, or some spells.
  • You may only apply this notion to an active research topic. You identify a natural phenomenon or structure of incredible significance or power.

You add the following breakthroughs to your theories:

  • Breakthrough: You can spend 1 notion as a swift action to make a square within your reach difficult terrain against the subject of your theory for 1 minute.
  • Breakthrough: While in a natural environment, you can spend 2 notions as a swift action to grant yourself concealment against the subject of your theory until the end of your next turn; you can spend 3 additional notions when using this breakthrough to improve this to total concealment.

Exceptional Discipline

You have mastered your body so completely that you can control its processes without even a thought.

Prerequisites: Associated skill 11 ranks, Body Control sphere.

Benefit: Choose one (control) talent you have. You have its effects permanently, as if constantly meditating on it. The effect of the chosen talent does not benefit from any other talents you have unless you are maintaining the meditate approach and choose the (control) talent as the applied talent (and you cannot use any (clarity) effect it has unless you adopt that approach and then end it).

Extra Advisor Lesson [DRS]

Source: Diamond Spheres: Harmony & Discord

Prerequisite: Advisor 5.

Benefit: You gain an additional advisor lesson for which you qualify.

Special: This feat may be taken a second time starting at 11th and a third time starting 17th level.

Extra Conspiracy Feature

Prerequisites: Base skill sphere granted by the chosen conspiracy, agent 1 or mastermind 1.

Benefit: Gain the features of a conspiracy for your class that you do not have but already possess the base sphere for. You must have access to the web of secrets, coordinated combat, put off-guard, or stratagem abilities to use features that depend on those abilities.

Extra Conduit Wonder [DRS]

Source: Diamond Spheres: Thaumic Potential

Prerequisite: Conduit 5.

Benefit: You gain an additional conduit wonder for which you qualify.

Special: This feat may be taken a second time starting at 11th and a third time starting 17th level.

Extra Courser Venture

Prerequisite: Courser 5.

Benefit: Gain an additional courser venture for which you qualify.

Special: This feat may be taken a second time starting at 11th level and a third time starting at 17th level.

Extra Envoy Flair

Prerequisite: Envoy 5.

Benefit: Gain an additional envoy flair for which you qualify.

Special: This feat may be taken a second time starting at 11th level and a third time starting at 17th level.

Extra Mastermind Trick

Prerequisite: Mastermind 7.

Benefit: Gain an additional mastermind trick for which you qualify.

Special: This feat may be taken a second time starting at 15th level.

Extra Model [LotS]

Prerequisite: Model class feature or Theoretical Initiate.

Benefit: You gain an additional theorist model which you can use with your hypothesis dice. If you have the model class feature, you gain the model’s magical underpinning as well.

Special: You may select this feat an additional time for every 5 character levels you possess, each time selecting a new model.

Extra Nuance [LotS]

Prerequisite: 5th-level dissident.

Benefit: Gain an additional dissident nuance for which you qualify.

Special: This feat may be taken a second time starting at 11th level and a third time starting at 17th level.

Extra Skill Leverage

Prerequisite: Skill leverage.

Benefit: Your skill leverage maximum increases by 2.

Extra Skill Talent

Your acumen and expertise are easily expanded.

Benefit: Gain either an additional skill sphere or a talent from a skill sphere you possess.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. The effects stack.

Harmonizing Lyrics

Prerequisite: Performance sphere ((lyric) package).

Benefit: Your lyrics do not automatically end the effects of other lyrics (unless you choose to), allowing you to have multiple lyrics active on a single creature as long as they originate from different sources.

Additionally, an ally that is affected by one of your lyrics can spend a swift action to harmonize with the lyric, imparting its benefits to another creature within your lyric range to the ally (Will negates if unwilling). A lyric imparted this way cannot be expended, only lasts for 1 round, but can still be harmonized as normal.

Improved Planning

You layer strategies and preparations on top of each other

Prerequisites: 5 ranks in any skill, at least 2 [plan] talents.

Benefit: You may have 2 additional plans available at once.

Industrious Engineer

Prerequisites: Associated skill 3 ranks, Artifice sphere (Field Repair).

Benefit: You can use the Field Repair talent as a swift action, without the required tools and without provoking attacks of opportunity, but the object only retains its temporary hit points for 1 round per rank in the Artifice sphere’s associated skill you possess.

Additionally, you can use Field Repair to grant temporary hit points to (and repair) constructs. A specific construct can only have a number of hit points regained this way equal to 4 x the number of ranks in the Artifice sphere’s associated skill you possess.

Instant Defensive Hack

Prerequisites: Associated skill 7 ranks, Spellhacking sphere, Prepared Hacking.

Benefit: When another creature you are aware of casts a spell or other magical effect that targets you or includes you in its area, you can outwit that creature as a cost to use hack magic as an immediate action to alter that spell or effect.

Lingering Opening (Combat)

Prerequisite: Discerning strike or expose vulnerability class feature.

Benefit: When you deal discerning strike damage or expose vulnerability damage to a creature, you leave an opening you can exploit in the next 1 round. Whenever you meet the condition for the discerning strike or expose vulnerability damage again for that round but fail to deal the damage because it has already been dealt, you still deal an extra 1 precision damage per die of the ability.

Mystical Aptitude

You are well-informed on many phenomena, the essence and functions of the planes, and the foundations of arcana.

Prerequisites: Knowledge (arcana) 3 ranks, Knowledge (planes) 3 ranks, or Knowledge (religion) 3 ranks; Study sphere.

Benefit: You can begin a theory as a free action whenever you successfully identify the magical technique of a creature or identify an extraplanar creature’s planar origin. If you do so, the theory begins with one notion.

You add the following methods of gaining a notion to your theories:

  • You or an ally successfully find a loophole (new skill use) in an effect originating from the subject of your theory, as long as a creature successfully ends the effect on themselves.
  • The subject of your theory uses or is successfully affected by a spell, supernatural, or spell-like ability that has an alignment descriptor or relies on alignment in some way (such as a paladin’s smite evil ability).

You add the following breakthroughs to your theories:

  • Breakthrough: You can spend any amount of notions as a free action that can be taken outside of your turn to gain an equivalent insight bonus to a single concentration, Spellcraft, or Use Magic Device check, or on a caster level check to overcome a creature’s spell resistance.
  • Breakthrough: You can spend 4 notions as an immediate action whenever a creature within medium range is killed or banished to its home plane to make it difficult for them to return. In order to return the creature to life or to the plane it was banished from, the caster attempting to return them must succeed on a caster level check against a DC equal to 11 + your ranks in the Study sphere’s associated skill. You can reveal a plan as part of using this ability to reduce the notion cost of this breakthrough by 2.

Nebulous Preparation [Plan]

You know how to prepare spells or extracts most of the way, and then finish the process at the last moment.

Prerequisites: Ability to prepare extracts or spells, ability to prepare [plan] talents or a similar ability.

Benefit: As part of preparing this plan, you can leave a spell slot or extract unprepared. You can reveal this plan as a full-round action to finish preparing a spell or extract of that level that you could have prepared in an unprepared slot.

This is considered to be a plan talent for the purposes of determining the number of plans you can prepare in a day.

Practiced Refinement

Prerequisites: Associated skill 5 ranks, Survivalism sphere ((harvest) package), favored enemy class feature.

Benefit: You may have an additional refined component active at one time, as long as it originated from one of your favored enemies. Additionally, whenever you refine a component, you may expend a component from a favored enemy as part of its refinement. The refined component confers its benefits as if it was from both creature types used as part of this refinement.

Prepared Hacking

Prerequisite: Spellhacking sphere.

Benefit: You can take a special move action to prepare yourself to hack magic using your spellhacking instrument to alter a magical effect as it activates. Unlike using the ready action, this feat allows you to react to your own action and doesn’t alter your initiative count. This can also be prepared to hack a magic item or trap as it activates, as long as you are aware of it and the item's caster level or trap's challenge rating is less than the number of ranks in the Spellhacking sphere’s associated skill you possess.

You can hack the effect as part of its casting or activation if you cast the effect or produce the effect from an item you wear or wield. If you target another creature's effect or an item or trap, you may hack the effect as an immediate action (after spending the move action to ready yourself).

Public Renown [LotS]

Prerequisite: Diplomacy 7 ranks.

Benefit: You gain the influence and rapid persuasion abilities of the envoy class, but cannot use the deep discouragement ability. The DC of trusted words is equal to 10 + 1/2 your ranks in Diplomacy + your Charisma modifier. If you already possess either of these class features, you gain the uses of influence and rapid persuasion provided by an envoy with no archetype in addition to any abilities granted by your archetype.

Single Strike Mastery (Combat)

Prerequisite: Sneak attack +2d6.

Benefit: Once per round, when you use sneak attack on a standard attack action, you may increase the damage dice from sneak attack by one size (usually from d6s to d8s).

Skill Sphere Focus (Combat) [LotS]

Benefit: Choose a skill sphere. You gain a +1 bonus to saving throw and target’s skill check DCs for all abilities from that sphere.

Special: You may take this feat multiple times. The effects do not stack. Each time it is gained, apply this benefit to a different sphere.

Societal Aptitude

You have an intimate understanding of the many ways society can take shape, the ways that communities function, and the - sometimes unreliable - importance of history.

Prerequisites: Knowledge (local) 3 ranks, Knowledge (nobility) 3 ranks, Knowledge (geography) 3 ranks, or Knowledge (history) 3 ranks; Study sphere.

Benefit: Whenever you fail a Knowledge, Lore, or similar skill check to recall information, you instead recall a place, faction, or person that does know the information, as long as such a source could be discovered with a successful check to recall or gather information of 15 + the skill modifier of the associated skill or less.

The source learned is typically the one that is the easiest or closest (chosen when you use this talent) for you to reach. Additionally, you reduce the notion cost to outwit the subject of your theory using notions by 1–and doing so is treated as a breakthrough.

You add the following methods of gaining a notion to your theories:

  • You successfully identify a class feature or feat as it is being used by the theorized creature.
  • You successfully outwit the subject of your theory.
  • You may only apply this notion to an active research topic, and only once per day. You succeed a Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nobility), Knowledge (geography), or Knowledge (history) check that has a DC higher than 15 + your character level.

You add the following breakthrough to your theories:

  • Breakthrough: You can spend 1 notion to learn a minor motivation from the chosen creature, or a minor motivation that may be typically shared by those who attend the chosen event. You can spend an additional 2 notions (3 notions in total) to instead learn a major motivation.

Speculative Analysis

Prerequisite: Investigation sphere, Study sphere.

Benefit: Whenever you successfully use the analyze Investigation sphere ability, you can begin a theory on the analyzed target as a free action. If the analyze attempt gains a detailed analysis, the theory starts with one notion.

Additionally, you gain a +1 insight bonus to analyze skill checks made against the subject of your theory for every notion the theory possesses.

Terrain Adaptation

Prerequisites: Investigation Sphere, favored terrain class feature.

Benefit: You may treat an area which you analyze as being your favored terrain for the purpose of providing bonuses from the favored terrain class feature. You may only have one analyzed area treated as your favored terrain at any given time. You receive the maximum bonuses in this area that your favored terrain feature can grant.

Thaumic Retention [DRS]

Source: Diamond Spheres: Invention & Ingenuity

Prerequisites: Associated skill 5 ranks, Artifice sphere ((artwork) package), Spellcraft 5 ranks.

You gain the following artwork:

Spell Storing: When you create this artwork, you must spend 1 use of skill leverage and choose a single magical sphere ability or spell. A creature that possesses the chosen sphere ability or spell can spend the associated action and costs of the ability to store 1 charge within the artwork, making any choices regarding the effect now. This artwork can only store a number of charges equal to your operative modifier (minimum 1), and the artwork loses all charges after 24 hours.

Whenever a creature engages with the artwork (and takes at least a standard action to do so), the creature is subjected to the stored magical effect, and the artwork loses 1 charge. The creature becomes the target of the effect–in the case of an area-based effect, the creature is the center of the area.

This artwork requires special maintenance to function.

Theoretical Initiate [LotS]

Benefit: You gain the hypothesis dice and theory bonus class features of a 1st-level theorist, gaining 2 additional hypothesis dice for every 4 levels you possess in classes other than theorist and increasing your theory bonus by 1 for every 6 levels you possess in classes other than theorist. If you already possess the hypothesis dice class feature, this feat grants 2 additional hypothesis dice. If you do not already possess the model class feature, you may select a single theorist model, allowing you to assign hypothesis dice to that model and use them to apply that model’s theory bonus. This feat does not grant you the magical underpinning of a selected model.

You may spend a plan or martial focus in place of spending a spell point to reroll your hypothesis dice, although such methods only allow you to reroll hypothesis dice granted by this feat.

Totemic Effigy (Su) [DRS]

Source: Diamond Spheres: Invention & Ingenuity

Prerequisites: Survivalism sphere ((dredge) and (harvest) package).

Benefit: Whenever you dredge an area as a standard action or longer, you can utilize a talisman as part of it, expending it in the process. Creatures within the dredged area gain the benefits of the talisman as if they were wearing it–this does not count towards the amount of talisman benefits a creature can benefit from. Effects that are dependent on perceiving a creature wearing the talisman instead function as long as such a creature is within the dredged area.

Tug The Heartstrings

Your expressions of creativity possess a deeper meaning, making them harder to ignore to those who understand your experience.

Prerequisites: Artifice sphere ((artwork) package) or Performance sphere.

Benefit: Whenever you create an Artifice sphere artwork or use a Performance sphere ability, choose a motivation, even if you do not possess the motivation. Creatures who perceive the sphere ability or engage with the artwork that possess a similar (or the same) motivation must succeed at a Will saving throw or suffer a -2 penalty to any saving throws or checks associated with the sphere ability or artwork.

If the motivation is a major motivation of the creature, they gain a +4 bonus to the saving throw against this effect, although the penalty increases to -4 if they fail.

You can spend 1 use of skill leverage to also have creatures who fail their saving throw against this ability be forced to reveal the associated motivation to any creatures who are observing them. Creatures who are affected by this feat become immune to its effects for 8 hours, regardless of the result. If you do not possess the chosen motivation, affected creatures can attempt a Sense Motive check against an opposed Bluff check. If they succeed, they discover your deception and gain a +4 bonus to their saving throw against this feat.

Utilitarian Dilettante

Prerequisite: Extra Skill Talent.

Benefit: You gain two bonus skill talents with the [utility] tag.

Special: You can take this feat multiple times if you have taken Extra Skill Talent multiple times, up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of times you have taken Extra Skill Talent.

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