A Feat for an Additional At-Will?

[Tony Vargas]

Remember, 4e gives out a lot of feats, the cost of spending a feat just isn't as high as it was in 3e. Some classes only give you 2 apealing at-wills for your build, and but some have 3 highly desireable ones - those tend to attract humans. It'd probably step on the human's toes quite a bit - rather how half-elves probably feel about thier Dilitante feature compared to multiclassing...

 

[keterys]

Eventually, everyone will have lots more at-wills to choose from. But, bear with me for a second here...

Quantify how much power an at-will adds to the _most powerful use of a third at will_ for, say, a 15th level character.

As a guesstimate, the best case is probably the equivalent of 'able to catch one extra opponent with an attack, each encounter', which is, say, 1d8+6+4+2 damage, or 16.5. Taking weapon focus adds 2 damage to every single attack, which is probably at least 18 damage.

In many, many cases, the extra at-will will not actually be helpful, at all. Even for classes that would like another at-will, like the Rogue, say, it doesn't mean that the advantage of the extra at-will will even come up... you're using all of your encounter abilities, maybe one daily, and then your four or so at-wills. Maybe your third at-will option will give you the equivalent of another +2 damage or +1 move. Maybe.

It's peace of mind. It's happy variety. Breaking things? No. It does let people who are insecure with only two at-wills have _an_ option other than human, though, yes.

 

[SSquirrel]

I'm having a hard time wanting to make a non-Human wizard personally. The 5 at wills in the book are all good for different things and the Illusion powers from the Class Act article are all pretty cool too.

 

[David Sid]

There are only two types of feats that allow you to gain more powers: multiclass feats, which sometimes give you an encounter use of an at-will power or class feature, and divinity feats, which give you alternate uses for a class feature, but not additional uses.

This is probably intentional. Added versatility doesn't look as powerful as a statistical bonus, like a +1 to Fortitude, but it's actually just as significant. Giving a character another at-will is giving them another way to attack any number of times per encounter--that's a lot of added versatility!

A warlord may find one round that he needs viper's strike to immobilize a foe; the next round he needs wolf pack tactics to help the rogue to flank; and the next round he needs commander's strike to take maximum advantage of a temporary damage-boosting effect on the fighter.

That said, I do think that getting another at-will could be done without trouncing game balance, though not to the extent that the OP requested:

Class Focus
Prerequisite: You don't possess any multiclass feats.
Benefit: You gain training in one skill from your class list.
Choose a 1st-level at-will power from your class. You can use that power once per encounter.

The utility of the feat is equal to that of a multiclass feat, and is limited in the same way by the fact that you can't have Class Focus and a multiclass feat. You could say that taking Class Focus is like multiclassing into your own class.

As usual, there's no way to be certain this is balanced until it's been playtested thoroughly.

 

[keterys]

Hah, nicely done, David Sid. If anything it's still slightly less powerful than multiclass (paragon path access, other power feats access, no concerns about odd power synergies), so I think that's completely safe.

 

[FireLance]

Class Focus
Prerequisite: You don't possess any multiclass feats.
Benefit: You gain training in one skill from your class list.
Choose a 1st-level at-will power from your class that you don't already know. You can use that power once per encounter.

Nice! I think this is the best suggestion yet.

Another possibility I was considering was to have a generic 2nd-level Utility power that allowed the character to use any 1st-level at-will power from his primary class once per encounter. I considered making it a 3rd-level Encounter power, but Encounter powers generally get traded up, while Utility powers stay with you throughout your career.

 

[keterys]

I'm having a hard time wanting to make a non-Human wizard personally.

That's actually part of the reason I'm thinking there should be some option to get another at-will, so shield fighters, rogues, and wizards can get over the 'insecurity' bump...

Of course, it will only get worse as the various Power books and D&DI articles come out.

 

[David Sid]

If anything it's still slightly less powerful than multiclass (paragon path access, other power feats access, no concerns about odd power synergies), so I think that's completely safe.

It's true that it loses in comparison to multiclass feats in terms of future options. Then again, it doesn't have any ability prerequisite (I'm assuming anyone who would take Class Focus has a 13+ in their primary abilities), so it wins in comparison to multiclass feats in that regard. With this feat available, I'd hope that characters would no longer take basic multiclass feats just to get a bonus gift with their Skill Training.

 

[keterys]

Yep, I think that feat should be available no matter what else folks do with anything. It just provides a good balance to the multiclass feats.

 

[Archon of Light]

If every class started with 3 at-wills, instead of 2, would you say the same thing? How about 1, instead of 2?

Uh, yeah. Humans will still have the additional at-will selection above every other race... Did you really think about this question before writing it, or am I missing something?

This is not too good not to take. It's comforting. There are exceedingly few builds that gain notable power from it. It makes players happy, however.

"Comforting"??...

This is pretty horrible compared to multiclass feats.

And still steps on the toes of the half-elf, if toe stepping matters to you

I guess a lot of perceptions are based on what somebody's looking for. I'm just giving suggestions on how to design a more balanced feat, not create a new and improved one built to calm the alarmed masses.

But, yes, I forgot about the half-elf racial ability that offers the exact same thing, so I wouldn't make this a feat as written either. Personally, I wouldn't include such an idea in my game anyway, but I was trying to help with the thinking behind it. So I'm done with this.