D&D 4E Hopefully D&D 4E will give us feats every level . . .

[philreed]

I think most class features should be feats myself

I agree. It would be a very big project but maybe someone will break down the current system and give us a revised version in which characters gain feats more quickly and all class features are feats.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I used to have the Everquest Players Guide and feats are bought with skill points so they are available anytime skill points are earned by a character (each level).

 

[Ranger REG]

That's a 3e feature. We don't know what a hypothetical 4e Fighter would look like.

And what would that be? Two (2) fighter bonus feats EVERY level?

Every even-numbered editions will be nothing more than refining and tightening up any loose ends from the previous odd-numbered editions.

 

[Crothian]

Every even-numbered editions will be nothing more than refining and tightening up any loose ends from the previous odd-numbered editions.

Wow, a theory based off of one piece of information!! :\

 

[jezter6]

Oddly enough, I agree with Phil. It's extremely difficult to make a mid-level NPC do all the things you want him to do with the extremely limited number of feats you have. On the WotC modern board was a build for a pirate captain from d20 Past, all the feats needed to even be a remotely good swordfighter were there, yet someone pointed out (rightfully so) that the guy had absolutely nothing about him that would make him a good leader (no charismatic abilities or feats), which would be needed to keep control over your crew. The only way to get someone to have both of those abilities (being both a good captain and a good pirate) would be to keep cranking up levels and then making him not balanced with the game they were trying to play.

There are about a billion feats out there thanks to 3rd party publishers and every wotc option book, but since you can only take about 10-12 of them over a campaign that can take years, you face some really difficult choices on where to spend the limited amount of precious feats you have, and in some cases it takes quite a few of them to build up only one side of a character.

Making all the combat feats available every level (or other level) would likely make some serious combat monsters, but limiting it to some sort of bonus feat list would definately curb that.

 

[Ranger REG]

Wow, a theory based off of one piece of information!! :\

Yeah, I sound crass. Guess I'm not ready to talk about the 4th Edition anytime soon.

Ask me around 2008.

 

[jmucchiello]

Phil, everytime you make one of these "What If?" posts it hits on something I'm working on. Could you cut it out?

Pre-announce: Dungeon Crawl: An OGL-based game which I'm told is like Blue Rose's Tru20.

Tag: Kick in the door. Kill the monsters. Take their Loot. Find the next door.

All class, race, magic, major equipment, etc abilities are expressed as feats in the game. Want to create a 6th level character? Pick a race, assign abilities (str, dex, etc) and tack on 6 feats. Done. Want to scale a monster for the current party level? add or remove feats as needed. Skills are based on class and ability (and the occasional feat). The objective is to make it easy to create a character of any level and easy to level up. Dungeon Crawl characters are not exactly as powerful as d20 characters (haven't worked out a conversion just yet since DC feats are more powerful than standard d20 feats). Combat is also very different supporting both abstract and miniature based modes. Contains level-based and verb/noun based magic systems out of the pdf.

Even with the Munchkinesque tag line above, non-combat, non-dungeon based adventuring will be possible with Dungeon Crawl. (And I wish I had known about TOGC's Dungeon Bash game as I was working on this....)

When will it be done? When is my stuff ever done? Seriously, I have it half written and half on some notepads right now. Should be playtested over the summer. I expect it to be about 100 pages over three "books" when finished. The three books being titled Dungeon Crawl, City Stroll and Wilderness Run. The second two books obviously take the dungeon out of the game.

 

[Klaus]

I too want more feats. I'm inclined to change the "new feat at 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th" to "new feat at 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 20th" (10 feats vs. 6 feats). Of course, fighters would be getting 2 feats at those levels, one being a fighter feat.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

It's extremely difficult to make a mid-level NPC do all the things you want him to do with the extremely limited number of feats you have.

That's because you are overly hung up on insisting that the NPCs follow the same rules as the PCs. Let go of that, and it's easy. Character generation rules are only rules for the PC. They are there to ensure some degree of parity between different classes and players of differing ability. They are only guidelines for NPCs, and they should be followed only so far as the PCs can reasonably estimate what they are capable of. And, frankly, in a game with fiendish kobold 20th level barbarians, even the 'reasonable estimate' guideline is kinda out the window.

 

[mythusmage]

Hopefully D&D4e Will Dump Feats Entirely

"You want to learn how to choke up on a pole arm. Here's how you choke up on a pole arm. The standard way you gain power but lose control (full damage, -2 to hit). Choking up you gain control but lose power (damage one die smaller, no modifier to hit)."

Ever notice how many feats are really tricks or knacks anybody can pick up inside of five minutes?