Advanced Feats: The Cavalier’s Creed

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86618[1]By Thilo Graf

This pdf by Open Design is 16 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial + ToC, 1 page advertisement and 1 page SRD.

That leaves 12 pages of content and starts with 1.5 pages of analysis of the cavalier class, detailing potential strengths and giving a nice overview.

After that, we get 30 new feats, including Teamworkfeats.

  • Back to back: Fight with ally, deny flanks
  • Barrelling Overrun: Overrun more enemies
  • Bloody Banner: Inspires allies
  • Bravery: Fear and panic are treated as shaken
  • Buckler Master: better at using Bucklers
  • Campaigner: Sleep anywhere
  • Clever Critter: Smarter than other animals
  • Defensive Sunder: Sunder incoming attacks
  • Extra Cohort: self-explanatory
  • Fortune: 1 reroll per day
  • Great leader: Leadership bonus
  • Intimidating Gaze: Demoralize foes
  • Moral Chameleon: Change orders, retain some abilities
  • Move as one: Move when rider does
  • Near and far: Reach weapons to attack adjacent foes
  • Nimble Mount: Keep rider out of harm’s way
  • Pack Attack: Flank when allies flank
  • Pierce Armour: Bonus to hit armoured enemies
  • Provoke: self-explanatory
  • Pull Blow: Reduce damage after rolling
  • Rampage: Continue charge after dropping foe
  • Rank Fighting: Cuts penalties for attacking through allies
  • Reflexive Brace: Brace faster
  • Shaft and Shield: Wield two-handed spears in one hand
  • Shielded Move: No AoO from chosen opponent
  • Shield Evasion: limited evasion when using a shield
  • Size doesn’t matter: Ignore size penalties to intimidate
  • Strength in Numbers: Better resist are effects when with allies
  • Tag Team Flanking: Allies gain bonuses against enemies you hurt
  • Team Initiative: you and your allies share the best initiative roll

All of the feats were either interesting, good ideas and more importantly, none seemed too weak or too strong. They also come with commentaries on the design decision as well as some nice bits of historical trivia. In the rare cases (e.g. provoke), where I would have disliked a given feat, it’s mechanics are specifically worded so the DM can prevent abuse.

After that, we get 3 sample builds for cavaliers: The green knight, the tawny knight and the black knight. I liked the builds and their explanations.

Conclusion:

Formatting and editing are top-notch, I didn’t notice any mistakes. The feats were often imaginative, cool, fit their niche and felt neither under- nor overpowered. This is quite simply a great feat book and worth the few bucks it costs. Due to the high quality and the low price, I’ll settle for a 5 star-rating.

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