u/EberronDM2026

I had an idea for a pair of builds using the new Ravenloft book and wanted to hear people's thoughts and how you'd build these characters. For the uninitiated, they introduced a number of "Dark Gift" feats, which are origin feats that come with a downside, such as the Echoing Soul feat which forces a Con Save with DC 13 plus your Proficiency Bonus whenever you roll a Nat 1 to avoid getting Incapacitated for a turn.

The idea was to have a player with this feat play a person with PTSD, while another played a "support person" that helped them with saving throws. The first person would slowly gain features that help with CON saves as they learn how to deal with their trauma and be independent.

My current idea is to have the traumatised character be an Elf Phantom rogue. They could take Resilient (Con) at level 4 or 8, and Reliable Talent at level 7 lets them avoid natural 1's on Ability checks. Phantom helps the flavor of being "haunted by the past", and gives Soul Trinkets at level 9 that give advantage on Con Saves, which can be reflavored as a kind of "touchstone". Finally, Elven Accuracy at level 10 improves this advantage. I like that the trauma never completely goes away but just becomes easier to manage, though there is a downside with Phantom now scaling off Dex instead of PB, which could suck if you have to focus more on Con. My current idea for the other player is either a Human Bard with Musician stacking Bardic and Heroic Inspiration, or a Charisma focused Paladin if starting at level 6.

Do you have any thoughts or ideas on how to build and/or play these characters?

I've thought about this for a while, but the Utilize action on Cobbler's tools appear to have a very powerful effect that I don't see anybody talking about. The description in the PHB is as follows:

> Utilize: Modify footwear to give Advantage on the wearer's next Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (DC 10)

I imagine many DMs would rule that this Advantage goes away after a short while and possibly limit the amount of times you can attempt this after failing. However, RAW, I don't see any reason why a player couldn't spam this on all party members at the start of the day until they get a success and have everybody get Advantage on their next Acrobatics check. This seems especially useful given the fact that you don't even need Proficiency in the tool to use it (you just don't get to add your PB to the check), that it only costs 5 GP and that it weighs a manageable 5 lb. Is there any reason why a Dexterity focused player wouldn't just buy this immediately to get infinite Acrobatics advantage?

Edit: The "extremely powerful" wording seems to be understandably bothering some people. To clarify: I'm not trying to argue that this is gamebreaking, I'm just curious why anyone wouldn't do this?