Design and Development: Feats

Rechan · Jan 19, 2009

Design & Development: Good Feats!

I actually like the idea of Martial powers being referred to as "Feats". I can just imagine the upset over "X is named Y now! THE HORROR", but I think it fits more appropriately than Exploits.

Many of the feats that ended up in the Player's Handbook are translations of feats in the previous edition, including Alertness, Far Shot, Skill Focus, and Toughness. Because of the amount of time we spent bringing these familiar names forward, I don't think we spent enough time exploring the new territory that feats offer in 4th Edition. Since finishing the Player's Handbook, we've thankfully been exploring that territory more, as shown in the feats in upcoming books, like Player's Handbook 2.

Thank god.

Cadfan · Jan 19, 2009

I'm with you on the name.

I mean, its not a big thing to me. But it would make more sense.

Fallen Seraph · Jan 19, 2009

Hmm... Well through other books and Dragon we have seen some various different types of Feats I wonder if it will be more of those, or other new ones as well. What with Bloodline, Heritage, Multiclass Feats (in all its different forms), Feats requiring Multiclassing, etc.

Betote · Jan 19, 2009

Well, it doesn't matter what do they call them, but I hope they will change also the name of what until now were "Feats". Having two so different traits of a character being called the same way is confusing and easily avoidable.

Rechan · Jan 19, 2009

Betote said:
Well, it doesn't matter what do they call them, but I hope they will change also the name of what until now were "Feats". Having two so different traits of a character being called the same way is confusing and easily avoidable.

Huh?

There's only 1 thing called feats: the thing a character gets every 2 levels.

One of the designers WANTED to call Martial powers (known as Exploits) feats, but another designer convinced him otherwise.

RefinedBean · Jan 19, 2009

After having played Fallout 3, I really think 4E feats should be called "Perks." Then martial powers could be called Feats, and we could save Exploits for some other power source or, better yet, just not use it at all.

Whatever it's called, though, the Feat mechanics in 4E are great. With what they've been doing with the Multi-Classiing feats, there's plenty of room to maneuver, so to speak.

I'm hoping the PHB2 has a good number of feats for the PHB1 races. The classes probably won't see much love, since that's what the Power books are for.

GMforPowergamers · Jan 19, 2009

I really liked this Design and Development...it really showed behind the sceans...

I just hope we get 20+ general feats in PHB2...

OchreJelly · Jan 19, 2009

DND, throughout it's history, seems to be stuck with certain names. "Ability Scores" is another. I mean your strength isn't an ability. It's a description of your physical prowess, so a term like attribute would be more appropriate. I would have sided with the designer who fought for the name change. But then again I would have slaughtered sacred cows left and right with name changes.
I would have done the following, in name only of course:
"abilities" change to "attributes"
"powers" change to "abilities"
"exploits" change to "feats"
"feats" change to "enhancements"
"hit points" change to "endurance points"
"damage" changes to "attrition"

Those last two may be taking it too far, and I'm not sure it would still help with topics like "what hps represent".

Mustrum_Ridcully · Jan 19, 2009

OchreJelly said:
"hit points" change to "endurance points"
"damage" changes to "attrition"

Those last two may be taking it too far, and I'm not sure it would still help with topics like "what hps represent".

I think it might help a lot, though it still can'tavoid questions like "when do I get wounded?" or "Why do I get poisoned just because I lose some endurance".

Dedekind · Jan 19, 2009

I really like the article and the new direction. Given that:

On the one hand, I like that there are lots of class/race specific feats to choose from. On the other hand, if I'm not that class/race, that block of text isn't useful. Martial Powers is absolute must-have for any martial class, but very few of the feats apply to more than one class and several only apply to one class/race combination. I guess that is part of the "Class and/or Race Is Important" philosophy but it does make some of the material limited in application. This is my only complaint about Martial Powers.