Siberys
Adventurer
I'm getting ready to start on a pretty big project - namely, go through every 4e book, most DDI articles, and a few 3PP books and create a database/index of everything, with a UI. Basically, future-proof 4e for myself by making a Compendium of my own.
One of the things I plan to do is to take into account houserules. I have a pretty extensive list of them - mostly minor tweaks and homebrew - but one thing I dislike about 4e is its option bloat, so I'd like to take that into account while creating this database. Namely, I'm looking at deprecating or collapsing as much as I can.
In particular, I'm looking to deprecate feats. Powers are structured in such a way that there's usually about a dozen options at any particular juncture; monsters don't need to be deprecated because they aren't player options; Magic items I'm waffling on, but I don't think they need it anywhere near as much as feats do.
So, I'd like your help; What feats do you think can be collapsed together? What feats do you think can be deprecated? What feats do you think don't contribute enough to the game, and thereby warrant removal or collapse? And, while we're here, are there any glaring holes in the feat list?
As an aside, here are some threads I intend to use as resources; what from them do you agree or disagree with?
Obsolete Feats
Obsolete feats and deprecated content
Initial Thoughts - Without looking too closely at the feat list, here's some of what I'm thinking;
• Most conditional feats (get this bonus if...), especially if there's a constant-bonus version.
• Most racial feats; in particular, racial feats that don't expand the race's "feel" or that are "race plus class" or "race plus weapon" feats.
• Damage-type focus feats, such as Astral Fire. These feats have always made little sense to me (Burning Blizzard? Really?), and are better covered by a generic "damage-type focus" feat, or the existing Implement Focus feat.
• Expertise feats - I'm not sure what to do with these. I'll definitely deprecate bog-standard expertise and its basic variants, but what of the essentials+ stuff? Is it necessary to have different expertise feats for every weapon and implement, and then for combinations thereof? Why not "Expertise bonus to anything + choose one of these options"? Well, besides the fact that that precludes getting multiples of the secondary option. Though there could be a feat specifically for that... Either way, I might set expertise to give its bonus to everything, regardless of which feat you take. Might even set it as an automatic bonus feat, I dunno.
Thoughts?
One of the things I plan to do is to take into account houserules. I have a pretty extensive list of them - mostly minor tweaks and homebrew - but one thing I dislike about 4e is its option bloat, so I'd like to take that into account while creating this database. Namely, I'm looking at deprecating or collapsing as much as I can.
In particular, I'm looking to deprecate feats. Powers are structured in such a way that there's usually about a dozen options at any particular juncture; monsters don't need to be deprecated because they aren't player options; Magic items I'm waffling on, but I don't think they need it anywhere near as much as feats do.
So, I'd like your help; What feats do you think can be collapsed together? What feats do you think can be deprecated? What feats do you think don't contribute enough to the game, and thereby warrant removal or collapse? And, while we're here, are there any glaring holes in the feat list?
As an aside, here are some threads I intend to use as resources; what from them do you agree or disagree with?
Obsolete Feats
Obsolete feats and deprecated content
Initial Thoughts - Without looking too closely at the feat list, here's some of what I'm thinking;
• Most conditional feats (get this bonus if...), especially if there's a constant-bonus version.
• Most racial feats; in particular, racial feats that don't expand the race's "feel" or that are "race plus class" or "race plus weapon" feats.
• Damage-type focus feats, such as Astral Fire. These feats have always made little sense to me (Burning Blizzard? Really?), and are better covered by a generic "damage-type focus" feat, or the existing Implement Focus feat.
• Expertise feats - I'm not sure what to do with these. I'll definitely deprecate bog-standard expertise and its basic variants, but what of the essentials+ stuff? Is it necessary to have different expertise feats for every weapon and implement, and then for combinations thereof? Why not "Expertise bonus to anything + choose one of these options"? Well, besides the fact that that precludes getting multiples of the secondary option. Though there could be a feat specifically for that... Either way, I might set expertise to give its bonus to everything, regardless of which feat you take. Might even set it as an automatic bonus feat, I dunno.
Thoughts?