I’ve been designing gyers, a new ancestry of honorable and reclusive vulture-people. I’ve finished everything but their ancestry feats, but those are the most in-depth part of the whole process! I’ve talked before about how there are certain low-hanging fruit of ancestry feats, like AncestryName Lore and AncestryName Weapon Familiarity, and I plan to use those to focus on gyer concepts, such as their reliance on shields. I flagged earlier that they should be able to change into vultures at higher levels, too, so I want to be sure to include that, as well as some other mystical types of abilities. Here’s what I have!
Ancestry Feats
At 1st level, you gain one ancestry feat, and you gain an additional ancestry feat every 4 levels thereafter (at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels). As a gyer, you select from among the following ancestry feats.
1st Level
Admonish Death Feat 1
Gyer
Frequency once per day
Trigger You roll a critical failure on a saving throw against a necromancy effect
You call upon gyer affinity with death to ward away crippling necromantic magic. You fail the save against the necromancy effect instead of critically failing.
Gyer Lore Feat 1
Gyer
Your elders have boundless tales of your people, particularly their relations with outsiders and with the land, and you have listened with interest. You gain the trained proficiency rank in Diplomacy and Survival. If you would automatically become trained in one of those skills (from your background or class, for example), you instead become trained in a skill of your choice. You also become trained in Gyer Lore.
Gyer Weapon Familiarity Feat 1
Gyer
You are trained with javelins, scimitars, shield bashes, shield bosses, and shield spikes. In addition, you gain access to all uncommon hobgoblin weapons. For the purpose of determining your proficiency, martial hobgoblin weapons are simple weapons and advanced hobgoblin weapons are martial weapons.
Omen of Doom Feat 1
Gyer
Vultures are harbingers of death in many cultures, and you cause your targets to physically shiver in response to your commanding presence. You attempt Intimidation checks against the lower of your target’s Fortitude DC or Will DC.
Raking Talons Feat 1
Gyer
You have honed your foot-talons into deadly weapons. You gain a talon unarmed attack that deals 1d4 slashing damage and has the agile and finesse traits. You can’t make a talon Strike when standing on the ground; you must by flying, swimming, or otherwise have a foot free to make this attack.
Shielded Focus Feat 1
Gyer
Gyer train extensively with shields, and your training has included ancient martial exercises to get the most from your shields. The Hardness of any shield you have raised, including from the shield spell, is increased by 1.
Snapping Beak Feat 1
Gyer
Your beak is a formidable weapon. You gain a beak unarmed attack that deals 1d8 piercing damage.
5th Level
Allied Sky Feat 5
Gyer
The air itself is an ally you can call upon in times of need. Once per day, you can cast either feather fall or gust of wind as an innate primal spell.
Birdspeech Feat 5
Gyer
You can speak to creatures of the sky as your kin. You can speak to avians and gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Make an Impression on avians (which usually uses the Diplomacy skill).
Gyer Weapon Aptitude Feat 5
Gyer
Prerequisites Gyer Weapon Familiarity
You have honed useful techniques with traditional gyer weapons. Whenever you critically hit using a javelin, scimitar, shield bash, shield boss, or shield spike, you apply the weapon’s critical specialization to the effect.
Vakrah’s Lessons Feat 5
Gyer
Prerequisites Vakrah-Raised heritage
Your sight into life and death is keener than most raised by gyer vakrahs. You identify undead creatures by sight. If you the undead is disguised as something else, such as by using a spell to emulate a living creature, you can automatically make a Perception check against the DC of the effect to identify the creature as undead.
9th Level
Shield Push Feat 9
Gyer
Prerequisites Shielded Focus, access to the critical specialization effects of shields
You don’t need to have a hand free to Shove an opponent so long as you have a hand holding a shield; if you do, you gain the shield’s circumstance bonus to AC to your Athletics check to Shove. Additionally, when you critically hit using a shield, you can increase the forced movement of the critical hit effect by 5 feet.
Vakrah’s Touch Feat 9
Gyer
Prerequisites Vakrah-Raised heritage
You can sever the bonds that hold spirits in place. Your Strikes affect incorporeal creatures as though etched with a ghost touch property rune. If the incorporeal creature is living, your Strikes deal 1d6 additional negative damage to it; if the incorporeal creature is undead, your Strikes deal 1d6 additional positive damage to it. This additional damage increases to 2d6 at 17th level.
Vulture Form Feat 9
Gyer
You can unleash the gyer affinity with vultures to become a vulture yourself. You can cast aerial form as an innate primal spell once per day, but you must always choose the bird form and you become the same vulture each time. When you reach 13th level, this spell is heightened to 5th level, and when you reach 17th level, it is heightened to 6th level.
13th Level
Gyer Weapon Expertise Feat 13
Gyer
Prerequisites Gyer Weapon Familiarity
You increase your training in battlefield weapons. Whenever you gain a class feature that grants you expert or greater proficiency in certain weapons, you also gain that proficiency rank in all weapons you are trained in from Gyer Weapon Familiarity, as well as in any unarmed attacks you gained from gyer ancestry feats.
Flesh Tearer [one-action] Feat 13
Gyer
Prerequisites Raking Talons or Snapping Beak
Requirements Your last action was a melee Strike with your beak or talons
You rip open your foe’s flesh with your vicious attack, like picking meat from a carcass. You deal 3 persistent bleed damage.
17th Level
Spell Turning Shield [reaction] Feat 17
Gyer
Prerequisites Shielded Focus, you have a shield raised (including from the shield spell)
Frequency once per day
Trigger You are targeted by a spell
You have mastered techniques to allow your shield to turn aside harmful effects. Make a check to counteract the spell, using your class DC – 10 as the counteract check modifier and one-half your level as the counteract level. If the spell is successfully counteracted, its effect is turned back on the caster. If you turn back a spell effect onto a caster who is under the effect of spell turning, their spell turning can attempt to reflect their own spell back at you again; if they do so, their counteract attempt automatically succeeds.
