3.5 Rebuild Poll Part 40: What do feats do?

[bhu]

If you were rebuilding 3.5, what would Feats be able to do?

[RobbyPants]

My biggest thing would be giving new abilities.  I can see an argument for mimicing class features (if balanced) depending on how multiclassing is handled, but it's not as important to me.

I'm real iffy about feats giving bonuses for the most part.  I can see some sorts of bonuses, like proficiency granting a +4 bonus to hit (or removing a -4 penalty which is the same thing).  I want to be careful about handing out all sorts of static bonuses to things like attack rolls for two reasons:

1) It makes it harder to control the RNG, meaning that two people of the same level might not be playing the same game

2) Everyone will want to take those feats if bonuses are precious enough.  This leads to cookie-cutter classes.


So, rather than seeing a feat that grants +1 to hit with a weapon, I'd rather see it unlock cool tricks with the weapon.  Rather than +2 to Hide and Move Silently, I'd rather see things it grant both skills as class skills for all of your classes and let you Hide as a move or swift action and Move Silently at full speed.

[veekie]

Bonuses, I think, shouldn't be offered via feats, barring situational bonuses that generally overlap(if at that), while class features, I reckon, are the domain of multiclassing, new options are the key. Though a limited level of class feature grantery is probably acceptable(level appropriate in power(damage, attack bonus, etc) but entry level in complexity, like say a 1st level psionic power at your HD in manifester level).

[Bloody Initiate]

All of the above.

I like taking a feat to get evasion or uncanny dodge or a couple d6's of sneak attack. I like taking feats that give me permanent bonuses. I like taking feats that give me new special abilities or qualities.

[Bauglir]

Generally agreed, but bonuses are OK. I actually think that there are some situations where it's OK to bypass the RNG, and feat investment is one of the situations where the cost is high enough to justify contributing to it. I, personally, don't mind Improved Trip making it likelier that you will actually trip things, among whatever else it does.

[Midnight_v]

All of the above.

I like taking a feat to get evasion or uncanny dodge or a couple d6's of sneak attack. I like taking feats that give me permanent bonuses. I like taking feats that give me new special abilities or qualities.

All of the above +2
Yeah you need to add all of the above to that table because in this case you're fucking a lot of people by forcing them to pick "Other" .

[Bloody Initiate]

All of the above.

I like taking a feat to get evasion or uncanny dodge or a couple d6's of sneak attack. I like taking feats that give me permanent bonuses. I like taking feats that give me new special abilities or qualities.

All of the above +2
Yeah you need to add all of the above to that table because in this case you're fucking a lot of people by forcing them to pick "Other" .

You made me notice I didn't actually even vote. I'm not going to. I'm including "Other" in my "All of the Above".

I want feats to do all the shit listed, and other stuff too.

In case it's not clear, I like feats. They are in my opinion one of the best aspects of the game because they offer infinite customization.

I'm currently in a level 4 campaign, I'm a dark creature with the darkstalker and travel devotion feats. This combination has allowed me to charge opponents silently while hidden, stab them, and then hide from them all the same round. I don't even have sneak attack, but I'm unusually effective (I'd definitely pwn with more sneak attack, but that's not the build). The best part is that I had no clue I could do that until after I started play. I just picked feats that would be useful to me later in my levels and found a cool combo on accident.

That doesn't happen as often with class abilities (Which I also love)