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Are feats for customization?
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6218115" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>Explain the difference.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So far as I can tell. I can think of some sorts of customization that aren't just making your character better at something, but usually these fall into the class of 'making your character worse at something' or 'making your character better at something in exchange for being worse at something else'. Usually feats per se don't do the latter types because it requires an explanation of why you evolve worse skills at something.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, yes. Let's say a character qualifies for 400 different feats. By the time two similar characters have picked 4-5 feats, it's very unlikely that they'll be exactly alike. Contrast this with a situation without feats, and its very likely the two characters will have no mechanical differences and what differences they have will need to be entirely created by my role play without any mechanical support.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'm not seeing the difference.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That's the fault of design. It just means that some feats are too attractive and some other feats don't offer enough value. You could customize, but the design pushes you toward following well travelled routes. That's customization too, but its customization that involves everyone customizing in the same way because it's so much more optimal than your other options. </p><p></p><p>It sounds to me like you are conflating 'customization' with 'making non-optimal character building choices'. But again, this is a problem of design not achieving good balance. One of the problems with feats is that they look easy to design and anyone can easily spam out 50 or a 100 different feats. But just because they are easy to write, doesn't make them easy to design. In fact, feats can be agonizingly difficult to get right and far too many feats out there are just pointless bloat and spam, or worse end up making what is already good better in sufficient ways that it breaks while ignoring what is flavorful but lacking in mechanical heft.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6218115, member: 4937"] Explain the difference. So far as I can tell. I can think of some sorts of customization that aren't just making your character better at something, but usually these fall into the class of 'making your character worse at something' or 'making your character better at something in exchange for being worse at something else'. Usually feats per se don't do the latter types because it requires an explanation of why you evolve worse skills at something. Well, yes. Let's say a character qualifies for 400 different feats. By the time two similar characters have picked 4-5 feats, it's very unlikely that they'll be exactly alike. Contrast this with a situation without feats, and its very likely the two characters will have no mechanical differences and what differences they have will need to be entirely created by my role play without any mechanical support. I'm not seeing the difference. That's the fault of design. It just means that some feats are too attractive and some other feats don't offer enough value. You could customize, but the design pushes you toward following well travelled routes. That's customization too, but its customization that involves everyone customizing in the same way because it's so much more optimal than your other options. It sounds to me like you are conflating 'customization' with 'making non-optimal character building choices'. But again, this is a problem of design not achieving good balance. One of the problems with feats is that they look easy to design and anyone can easily spam out 50 or a 100 different feats. But just because they are easy to write, doesn't make them easy to design. In fact, feats can be agonizingly difficult to get right and far too many feats out there are just pointless bloat and spam, or worse end up making what is already good better in sufficient ways that it breaks while ignoring what is flavorful but lacking in mechanical heft. [/QUOTE]
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