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Feats, don't fail me now! - feat design in 5e
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6021959" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>I'm going to tease this out a bit because I think it's key to how you avoid a D&D that is too narrowly focused on combat. </p><p></p><p>Specialties are "how you play your class." If so, why do I need to play my class in a way that emphasizes combat? Shouldn't that be a dial I can turn?</p><p></p><p>Now, don't get me wrong -- every character class should have some minimum competency to hit things. Combat is a pillar of D&D, and it's something that characters will be doing some of, and each character should be able to pull their own weight in a fight. </p><p></p><p>But that doesn't mean that we need an entire subsystem of feats exclusive to combat and nothing else, and that doesn't mean that we can't make trade-offs between combat and the other pillars, emphasizing one or the other. No character should be able to easily "opt out" of combat, but also no character should be easily able to "opt out" or roleplaying or exploration, either. Every character needs to pull their own weight in all three areas.</p><p></p><p>A specialty, then, can represent your <em>focus in one area</em>. After all, who are the designers to tell me that I cannot play my Rogue as first an explorer and second (only if she's got no options left!) as some sort of combat ninja?</p><p></p><p>Perhaps you take Defender stuff. Perhaps I take something like a "Keen Aesthetic Sense" specialty that gives me a bonus to spot traps and hidden doors (a la a 1e elf!). Perhaps someone else takes the "Fancypants" specialty that lets them excel at courtly intrigue and to detect an insult from 30 words away...or whatever.</p><p></p><p>The trick here is on the DM's side of the screen, actually.</p><p></p><p>Because when the DM is designing adventures, <em>they need to design for all three approaches</em>. Got some cultists in the Caves of Chaos? Each of the three pillars needs to be key to resolving it. Got an orc hoarde at your gates? Same deal. Gonna go rescue a princess? Not gonna be able to do it just by hacking things to bits. </p><p></p><p>So you're not exactly trading off the ability to use a shield for the ability to be a shopkeeper. You're actually trading off dealing with the cultists by hitting them in the face until they stop moving, and dealing with the cultists by convincing the leader that his faith in Chaos is a lie, and dealing with the cultists by murdering them in their sleep when no one is looking. Being a shopkeeper is a good background, but being a wheeling-dealing huckster whose never met a flim he couldn't flam or a snake he couldn't oil, and who goes into the Caves of Chaos for the business opportunities and the loyal, underpaid workforce there...well, THAT's a Specialty. That's something feats can support. </p><p></p><p>And all three options need to be on the table, and, more than that I think, in some way necessary to achieve the goals the adventure lays out (or that you bring to it). You shouldn't be able to approach a normal D&D adventure as something you can roll attack rolls to complete. </p><p></p><p>I mean, DMs are free to do whatever -- they can ban all Exploration and Social specialties, sure. Roll those "Feats" into pure abstract RP sessions with DM adjudication, fine. But D&D has never been all about attack rolls to me, and if I get another edition that pretends "Make Stuff Up" is some sort of astounding rules insight instead of kind of a cop-out, I'm gonna be a sad panda.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6021959, member: 2067"] I'm going to tease this out a bit because I think it's key to how you avoid a D&D that is too narrowly focused on combat. Specialties are "how you play your class." If so, why do I need to play my class in a way that emphasizes combat? Shouldn't that be a dial I can turn? Now, don't get me wrong -- every character class should have some minimum competency to hit things. Combat is a pillar of D&D, and it's something that characters will be doing some of, and each character should be able to pull their own weight in a fight. But that doesn't mean that we need an entire subsystem of feats exclusive to combat and nothing else, and that doesn't mean that we can't make trade-offs between combat and the other pillars, emphasizing one or the other. No character should be able to easily "opt out" of combat, but also no character should be easily able to "opt out" or roleplaying or exploration, either. Every character needs to pull their own weight in all three areas. A specialty, then, can represent your [I]focus in one area[/I]. After all, who are the designers to tell me that I cannot play my Rogue as first an explorer and second (only if she's got no options left!) as some sort of combat ninja? Perhaps you take Defender stuff. Perhaps I take something like a "Keen Aesthetic Sense" specialty that gives me a bonus to spot traps and hidden doors (a la a 1e elf!). Perhaps someone else takes the "Fancypants" specialty that lets them excel at courtly intrigue and to detect an insult from 30 words away...or whatever. The trick here is on the DM's side of the screen, actually. Because when the DM is designing adventures, [I]they need to design for all three approaches[/I]. Got some cultists in the Caves of Chaos? Each of the three pillars needs to be key to resolving it. Got an orc hoarde at your gates? Same deal. Gonna go rescue a princess? Not gonna be able to do it just by hacking things to bits. So you're not exactly trading off the ability to use a shield for the ability to be a shopkeeper. You're actually trading off dealing with the cultists by hitting them in the face until they stop moving, and dealing with the cultists by convincing the leader that his faith in Chaos is a lie, and dealing with the cultists by murdering them in their sleep when no one is looking. Being a shopkeeper is a good background, but being a wheeling-dealing huckster whose never met a flim he couldn't flam or a snake he couldn't oil, and who goes into the Caves of Chaos for the business opportunities and the loyal, underpaid workforce there...well, THAT's a Specialty. That's something feats can support. And all three options need to be on the table, and, more than that I think, in some way necessary to achieve the goals the adventure lays out (or that you bring to it). You shouldn't be able to approach a normal D&D adventure as something you can roll attack rolls to complete. I mean, DMs are free to do whatever -- they can ban all Exploration and Social specialties, sure. Roll those "Feats" into pure abstract RP sessions with DM adjudication, fine. But D&D has never been all about attack rolls to me, and if I get another edition that pretends "Make Stuff Up" is some sort of astounding rules insight instead of kind of a cop-out, I'm gonna be a sad panda. [/QUOTE]
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