Past Life Feats

[Guildmaster_Kadish]

EDIT:

Originally Posted by 404error

All effects that are not in the description of the feats are bugs and will be fixed at a future date.

DDO QA
404error

<information previously compiled>

So, here's what we have from the release notes, with in-game tested corrections in red:
Past Life: Berserker's Fury
You recall more about your past life as a barbarian.
You gain +5 hit points, have +2 to your Intimidate skill and can enter a barbarian rage once per rest. (Activate this barbarian ability to enter a bloodthirsty frenzy, granting you a +4 bonus to Strength and Constitution, a +2 Morale bonus to Will saves, and a -2 penalty to AC. When the rage ends, however, you will lose the hit points granted to you by increased Constitution and become fatigued. Your rage will last for 30 seconds and stacks with other rage effects. It runs on a 60-second cooldown timer.) In addition, this feat grants a static additional bonus of +4 Strength, +4 Constitution, and +2 Will Saves, as well as an additional penalty of -2 AC to any rages granted to you by Barbarian class levels. It also increases the duration of these rages by the base rage duration of your character (0:18 + 0:06*Con. Modifier after rage).

Past Life: Bardic Dilettante You recall more about your past life as a bard.
You have +1 to all Charisma based skills, +1 to the DC's of your Enchantment spells, and can Inspire Courage three times per rest. (Activate this bard ability to rally your companions, giving them a +1 morale bonus to saves against fear effects and a +1 morale bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls before enhancements.) The Inspire Courage ability is affected by feats and enhancements that would affect a Bard's Inspire Courage ability. It doesn't stack with a bard's inspire courage. It runs on a 30-second cooldown timer.

Past Life: Initiate of the Faith
You recall more about your past life as a cleric.
You have +2 to your Heal skill, and can produce a Healing Word effect five times per rest. Positive energy is channeled to heal light wounds of your target or damage undead for 1d4 hit points plus an additional 1d4 per two caster levels. Undead who make a successful Will save reduce the damage by half.

Past Life: Acolyte of Divine Secrets
You recall more about your past life as a favored soul.
You have +2 to your Diplomacy skill and can call down the wrath of your former deity, producing an Avenging Light effect ten times per rest. (Activate this favored soul ability to cause a searing orb of radiant light to smite your target, dealing 1d8 hit points of light damage plus an additional 1d8 per three caster levels.)

Past Life: Student of the Sword
You recall more about your past life as a fighter.
You have +2 to your Intimidate skill, +1 to the Maximum Dexterity Bonus of armor and shields, and can remember your martial prowess three times per rest, increasing your base attack bonus to your level and granting +4 to hit. This ability functions on a 6-second cooldown timer.

Past Life: Disciple of the Fist
You recall more about your past life as a monk.
You have +2 to your Concentration skill, deal increased unarmed damage (one step higher than normal on the unarmed combat chart), and can enter an evasive trance once per rest, granting the evasion feat for a short period of time. (When you make a successful Reflex save to avoid damage, you suffer no damage instead of half damage.)
Note: You must meet normal evasion requirements for this one. No medium or heavy armor, no heavy encumbrance.

Past Life: Soldier of the Faith
You recall more about your past life as a paladin.
You have +2 to your Heal skill, and can invoke Divine Favor upon yourself three times per rest. (Activate this paladin ability to call upon the strength and wisdom of a deity to grant a +1 luck bonus on weapon attack and damage. This bonus is increased by +1 for every 3 caster levels beyond level 3, to a maximum of +3 at caster level 9th.) This ability functions on a 6-second cooldown timer.

Past Life: Warrior of the Wild
You recall more about your past life as a ranger.
You have +2 to your Spot skill and can produce a Barkskin effect on yourself three times per rest. (Activate this ranger ability to toughen the skin of an ally, giving a +2 natural armor bonus to AC with an additional +1 bonus for every 3 caster levels above 3rd, to a maximum of +5 at caster level 12th.) This ability functions on a 6-second cooldown timer.

Past Life: Sneak of Shadows
You recall more about your past life as a rogue.
You have +1 to all skills, deal +1 damage when sneak attacking, and three times per rest you can skulk with the skill of your past life, gaining bonuses equal to your level to your hide and move silently skills, a +1 bonus to sneak attack damage at level one, with an additional +1 for every two character levels thereafter, and a +1 bonus to hit with sneak attacks for every four levels. These sneak attack damage boosts stack with each other and with the "Backstabbing" item property. This ability functions on a 6-second cooldown timer.

Past Life: Arcane Prodigy
You recall more about your past life as a sorcerer.
Your maximum spell points are increased by 10 at first level, and 5 spell points for each additional level and can produce random elemental damage spells ten times per rest. (Grants the "Ray of Elements" spell as a spell-like ability. This is an evocation spell with a charisma-based DC and a reflex save for half damage. It deals 1d8 damage at caster level one plus an additional 1d8 damage every two caster levels thereafter of one of the following elements, chosen at random: fire, cold, acid, electric. The spell runs on a 6-second cooldown timer.)

Past Life: Arcane Initiate
You recall more about your past life as a wizard.
You have +1 to the DC's of spells you cast and can cast the magic missile spell ten times per rest, creating a missile of magical energy that darts forth and unerringly strikes its target inflicting 1d4+1 force damage. For every 2 caster levels beyond first you gain an additional missile, maximum 10 missiles. (Grants the "Magic Missile" spell as a spell-like ability. Its missiles bypass "Shield" and "Nightshield" effects, unlike standard magic-missile-type effects. It runs on a 3-second cooldown timer.)


Additional Notes:

• All past life activated abilities function on the same timer (i.e. using the Berserker's Fury effect will lock out all other past life activated abilities for the full 1-minute cooldown of the Berserker's Fury effect).
• Spell-like abilities granted by these feats are not prevented by beholder antimagic fields, but the buffs produced by these spell-like abilities (e.g. Barkskin, Divine Favor) may still be stripped by antimagic.
• All spell-like abilities appear to be affected by applicable metamagic feats with the exception of Heighten.
• Damaging spell-like abilities are affected by their respective damage modifiers (i.e. combustion enhancements, potency weaponry, arcane lore, etcetera), with the exception of the sorceror "Ray of Elements," which uses the highest elemental modifier (i.e. superior inferno over greater magnetism) no matter which element it actually chooses.

We can also take this opportunity to answer other questions about how the past life feats work. For example: the effect (or lack thereof) of metamagic, potency, and enhancements on the wizard, sorceror, cleric, and favored soul feats; the duration of the paladin feat; etcetera. If you have any of these feats, please take a few minutes to do some testing. It may not be initially apparent what the feats affect (if they affect anything else). The barbarian feat, for example, affects rages granted by levels of the Barbarian class--the feat's clicky bonus rage functions as described. Similarly, perhaps the wizard or sorceror feats would give a hidden bonus to other spells.

Feel free to offer up not only proven information, but also ideas on possibilities to test. Hopefully we can figure out if there are any other hidden benefits quickly. Thanks!

[Guildmaster_Kadish]

For reference, here are the static past life feats.

Past Life: Barbarian
You were a barbarian in a past life. You occasionally find yourself filled with a nearly irresistable urge to smash boxes. With your head. Each time you acquire this feat you gain 10 additional hit points. This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Bard
You were a bard in a past life. You occasionally find yourself humming a merry tune. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +2 to saves vs. enchantments and illusions, and +1 Bardic Song usage. This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Cleric
You were a cleric in a past life. You occasionally feel the presence of the divine. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +1 to the DC's of your Conjuration spells, +1 Turn Undead attempt per rest, and you Turn Undead as if you were two levels higher. This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Favored Soul
You were a favored soul in a past life. You occasionally find yourself wishing to leap off of tall things. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +1 to spell penetration checks and gain 20 additional spell points. (These spell points are only available if you are able to cast spells.) This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Fighter
You were a fighter in a past life. You occasionally find yourself filled with the urge to bark orders to your fellows in combat. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +1 to attack rolls and +1 to the DC's of your tactical feats. This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Monk
You were a monk in a past life. You occasionally find yourself contemplating the mysteries of life. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +1 to damage rolls. This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Paladin
You were a paladin in a past life. You occasionally find yourself overcome with righteous fervor. Each time you acquire this feat you gain 5% more health when affecting by positive energy. This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Ranger
You were a ranger in a past life. You occasionally find small animals in your backpack. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +2 damage with ranged weapons (not including throwing weapons) and +2 to elemental resistances. This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Rogue
You were a rogue in a past life. You occasionally find yourself looking over your shoulder. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +2 to saves vs. traps. This feat can be stacked up to three times. Note: this feat is also supposed to give a +1 static stacking bonus to sneak attack damage, but that part of the effect has been transferred to the "Past Life: Sneak of Shadows" feat.

Past Life: Sorcerer
You were a sorcerer in a past life. You occasionally find yourself daydreaming of dragons. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +1 to the DC's of your Evocation spells and gain 20 additional spell points. (These spell points are only available if you are able to cast spells.) This feat can be stacked up to three times.

Past Life: Wizard
You were a wizard in a past life. You occasionally find yourself desiring a good book. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +2 to spell penetration checks and the DC's of wands you use. This feat can be stacked up to three times. The Spell Penetration bonus affects all spells that are actually cast by the wizard.

[Shade]

Good guide.

I have the arcane prodigy feat and it also better then describe. What I think happened was the devs upgraded all the feats at some point, but never bothered to update the descriptions (a common threme in DDO - prime example: spell boost clickies)

From MrCow about Arcane Prodigy:

Originally Posted by MrCow

Ray of Elements (Evocation)

1st level spell-like ability (CHA-based)
Reflex save for half damage
Subject to Maximize, Empower, Quicken, and Enlarge
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Deals 1d8 + 1d8 damage every 2 levels afterwards of a random element (fire, cold, acid, electric). Use the best spell power boost of any of the 4 elements to increase damage done in an randomly selected element.


If there is a question I do have about the spell-like ability is does the Red Dragonscale Armor make it exceed being a 20th caster level spell (11d8 damage) to a 23rd caster level spell (12d8 damage).

[Guildmaster_Kadish]

Thanks, will update with the arcane prodigy effects.

[Shade]

Originally Posted by Guildmaster_Kadish

Thanks, will update with the arcane prodigy effects.

Yep. You ask heighten? as a possible meta.. No I can confirm it does not apply, so the save DC is unfortunately a bit low at the higher levels.

Mrcow also lists the cooldown as 4 seconds. For my wizard it is 6 seconds.

It's possible multiple TR's reduce the cooldown, or that he had the feat on a sorcerer and they have a lower cooldown.

[Ollathir]

Originally Posted by Guildmaster_Kadish

Past Life: Sneak of Shadows
You recall more about your past life as a rogue.
You have +1 to all skills and three times per rest you can skulk with the skill of your past life, gaining bonuses equal to your level to your hide and move silently skills, a +1 bonus to sneak attack damage for every two character levels, and a +1 bonus to hit with sneak attacks for every four levels. This bonus does not stack with the "Backstabbing" item property.

Nice guide, thanks for putting it together. My heart skipped a beat when I read this, till I came to the conclusion you where refering to weapon and not item properties w/ Sneak attack bonuses such as Tharnes Goggles. That wb quite a disapointment rendering this past-life feat shamefully useless or not WAI if you were able to farm and equip items having the same properties, less 2 damage and the hide/sneak (which by itself would not be worth the feat).

[Shade]

Originally Posted by Ollathir

Nice guide, thanks for putting it together. My heart skipped a beat when I read this, till I came to the conclusion you where refering to weapon and not item properties w/ Sneak attack bonuses such as Tharnes Goggles.

You came to the wrong conclusion.

Every type of item and feat that boosts sneak attack shares the same bonus type. Which shares the same bonus type as this feat. (I dunno about the free pastlife rogue one)
Weapons with backstab
Tharnes Googles
Bracers of the Hunter
Backstabber Gloves
Assasin and Ninja Spy sets
Rogue "Sneak of shadows"
etc.

[MrCow]

Originally Posted by Guildmaster_Kadish

Ray of Elements (Evocation)

...

(not Heighten?)

Nope, no Heighten. It is one of the things I tested for when I zapped a bard in PvP repeatedly and heighten did not change the DC of the spell-like effect.

Originally Posted by Guildmaster_Kadish

Past Life: Rogue
You were a rogue in a past life. You occasionally find yourself looking over your shoulder. Each time you acquire this feat you gain +2 to saves vs. traps and deal +1 damage when sneak attacking. This feat can be stacked up to three times.

This currently does not grant +1 sneak attack damage because...

Originally Posted by Guildmaster_Kadish

Past Life: Sneak of Shadows
You recall more about your past life as a rogue.
You have +1 to all skills and three times per rest you can skulk with the skill of your past life, gaining bonuses equal to your level to your hide and move silently skills, a +1 bonus to sneak attack damage for every two character levels, and a +1 bonus to hit with sneak attacks for every four levels.

... Turbine made a mistake and put the +1 sneak attack damage on Past Life: Sneak of Shadows. After taking this feat on 3 different reincarnates (a rogue build at level 3, a fighter/rogue build at level 12, and a monk at level 18) I can confirm that the passive sneak attack damage comes on the Past Life: Feat right now.

Another thing to note on Past Life: Sneak of Shadow's activated effect is that the bonus to sneak attack damage is +1 on the first level and +1 for every 2 character levels afterwards (so the bonus is on level 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19), which is a bit off from the description. Honestly, I never paid attention to the to-hit part though, so I don't know if that has its increases not match the description.

Originally Posted by Shade

Every type of item and feat that boosts sneak attack shares the same bonus type. Which shares the same bonus type as this feat. (I dunno about the free pastlife rogue one)
Weapons with backstab
Tharnes Googles
Bracers of the Hunter
Backstabber Gloves
Assasin and Ninja Spy sets
Rogue "Sneak of shadows"
etc.

I just went out to test this. The +1 Passive sneak attack damage and +Character Level activated sneak attack damage stacks just fine with a weapon of Backstabbing. I used a weapon with Backstabbing [+1] and had the following results:

No weapon			1 sneak attack damage
No weapon with Sneak of Shadows	11 sneak attack damage
Just Backstabbing [+1] Weapon	3 sneak attack damage
Weapon with Sneak of Shadows	13 sneak attack damage

Also, from prior experience, it has no issues stacking with rogue sneak attack damage dice (feat granted or enhancement granted).

Originally Posted by Shade

Mrcow also lists the cooldown as 4 seconds. For my wizard it is 6 seconds.

That was a typo on my part. It is indeed a 6 second cooldown on Ray of Elements.

Originally Posted by Guildmaster_Kadish

Past Life: Warrior of the Wild
You recall more about your past life as a ranger.
You have +2 to your Spot skill and can produce a Barkskin effect three times per rest. (Activate this ranger ability to toughen the skin of an ally, giving a +2 natural armor bonus to AC with an additional +1 bonus for every 3 caster levels above 3rd, to a maximum of +5 at caster level 12th.)

As per Barkskin, Extend and Quicken work on it. However, unlike Barkskin, this is a self-only spell.

Originally Posted by Guildmaster_Kadish

Past Life: Arcane Initiate
You recall more about your past life as a wizard.
You have +1 to the DC's of spells you cast and can cast the magic missile spell ten times per rest, creating a missile of magical energy that darts forth and unerringly strikes its target inflicting 1d4+1 force damage. For every 2 caster levels beyond first you gain an additional missile, maximum 10 missiles.

As per Magic Missile, subject to Empower, Maximize, Quicken, and Enlarge. Force modifiers (enhancements, potency, impact, eardweller, etc.) also boost it as per Magic Missile. It has a 3 second cooldown timer.

[Trample]

paladin- Soldier of the Faith
doesnt stack with divine favor, extend works.

[MrCow]

One more thing I should probably toss out there, being I've had a couple characters now with multiple Past Life: Feats. All the Past Life: Feats share the same cooldown timer. This means if you use Past Life: Arcane Initiate it will lock down Past Life: Arcane Initiate, Past Life: Sneak of Shadows and Past Life: Soldier of the Faith for 3 seconds (as an example). The reason why this can be an issue in some situations is that Past Life: Berserker's Fury has a 1 minute cooldown timer and using it will shut down using all other Past Life: Feats for that full minute as well.

[Lozareth]

Originally Posted by Trample

paladin- Soldier of the Faith
doesnt stack with divine favor, extend works.

Caps at +3/+3 also.

The Inspire Courage ability of the bard past life doesn't appear to work either. It doesn't add +1 to hit and damage while active. (Unless it's been fixed since I last played that TR; he's gathering dust.)

EDIT: Come to think of it, that TR is a monk and it may just be with monks/wraps that the bonus isn't working since they're treated differently from other weapons.

[Shade]

Originally Posted by Mrcow

I just went out to test this. The +1 Passive sneak attack damage and +Character Level activated sneak attack damage stacks just fine with a weapon of Backstabbing. I used a weapon with Backstabbing [+1] and had the following results:

Good to know it was fixed.

Never personally tested but had a friend test it and verified by at least 3 others that it didn't work. This was quite some time ago tho (less then a week after the feat was added to the game).

Another note on Berserkers Fury:
It provides +5 hitpoints total at level3 and never increase. So not 1 hitpoint per character level. (I believe I read MrCow test this in another thread)

[MrCow]

Originally Posted by Guildmaster_Kadish

Past Life: Berserker's Fury

...

In addition, this feat grants a static bonus of +4 Strength and +4 Constitution to any rages granted to you by Barbarian class levels. It also increases the duration of these rages (by how much? 33 percent?).

Base Barbarian Rage Duration = 0:18 + (0:06 * CON modifier after rage)
Normal Duration = Base Barbarian Rage Duration * Rage Extention
Feat Modified Duration = (Base Barbarian Rage Duration * Rage Extentions) + Base Barbarian Rage Duration



I just played around with it on a new incarnate and had the following:

Rage Conditions					Rage Time
No Past Life, CON 16				0:48
No Past Life, CON 20				1:00
Past Life, CON 16				2:00
Past Life, CON 20				2:24
Past Life, CON 16, +25% rage duration		2:15
Past Life, CON 20, +25% rage duration		2:42

So as far as duration goes with Past Life: Berserker's Fury, add 12 seconds to the base duration, then double it.

[Seosamh]

Originally Posted by Shade

Another note on Berserkers Fury:
It provides +5 hitpoints and not 1 hitpoint per character level. (I believe I read MrCow test this in another thread)

Wait, what? +5 per level? or just +5? Cuz one way is awesome and the other really sucks...

[Lorien_the_First_One]

To all who have done the work in this thread, thank you.

To the devs, this is not a thread to be silent on. People put A LOT of effort and planning into characters based on these feats. We're talking levelling 1.6-2+ times for each TR and those feats are part of why people do it and why they plan it out.

We also spend $14ish of REAL money on these TRs so its reasonable to know what that will get us.

We REALLY need clarification on if this is WAI or not. If its WAI, please please please update your descriptions, it really matters! If it isn't, we need to know so we don't plan builds around things that you may change.

[Psyker]

Nice guide, very good idea.

When I TR'd from Bard to Rogue I took Bardic Dilettante every time I played the song I never saw my To-Hit or damage go up on the inventory screen, I even waited for all of my buffs to wear off and removed all equipment before playing it to see if there was a stacking issue, but while naked with no other buffs I would play the song, and still no +1/+1 bonus. Does anyone else have any experience with this?

[Osharan_Tregarth]

Originally Posted by MrCow

As per Magic Missile, subject to Empower, Maximize, Quicken, and Enlarge. Force modifiers (enhancements, potency, impact, eardweller, etc.) also boost it as per Magic Missile. It has a 3 second cooldown timer.

Also is not currently subject to beholder antimagic rays.(both the wizard and the sorc ones)

[MrCow]

Originally Posted by Osharan_Tregarth

Also is not currently subject to beholder antimagic rays.(both the wizard and the sorc ones)

Well, the past life feats that duplicate spells (or act like a spell) are spell-like abilities (like the Dragonmarks) and not SP cast spells. You can cast any of the spell-like abilities in the vicinity of anti-magic, just don't expect some of the buffs to last afterwards (Past Life: Soldier of the Faith and Past Life: Warrior of the Wild).

[Lithic]

Past life: Paladin is bugged in that both the description and effect is to give a 5% benefit, instead of the 10-15% that would make this past life feat mildly to very worthwhile.

[ColinQ]

Originally Posted by Shade

Another note on Berserkers Fury:
It provides +5 hitpoints and not 1 hitpoint per character level. (I believe I read MrCow test this in another thread)

seeking clearfication on this

If its +5HP/level, that would result in extra 100HP without any AP requirment (comparing to 93HP with toughness and 16AP) in addition to the passive +4Str/+4Con Rage

If it is a flat +5 HP, i suppose it balance out the hidden effect on Rage