Half Feat Poll

[Archer]

I should have made the original thread a poll so we could measure the response of people who read but didn't post.

I think the half feat needs to be introduced. They could be called lesser feats or something. There are many feats out there that are so weak that no one would take them as a feat choice but if they could pick 2 of them as a feat choice then they might consider them.

It might be worth making the netbook of half feats with a list of feats that are considered worthy of becoming twofers. A feat would have to worth 60% or less of a baseline feat to be a half feat. The strongest feats right now are perhaps worth 130% of a baseline feat so two lesser feats would not be better than the best feats.

 

[Crothian]

As I said in the past thread, I have no problem with the idea. I just don't agree with all these feats you call weak. From a Min Max point of view, about 80% of all feats are weak. Also, a good way to judge them would need to be established.

 

[Romotre]

where is the previous thread? what feat where deemed "weak"?

 

[mirzabah]

where is the previous thread? what feat where deemed "weak"?

Yes, Archer. Rather inconsiderate of you not to include a link to the original thread.

The original thread is here.

I'm also interested in people's opinions on a new concept of my own: the lame feat... oh wait... it's already been done to death

 

[GuardianLurker]

I'm kind of torn - as in so many cases, I feel the answer is in the synthesis.

Many of the weak feats are weaker than normal either as prereqs for powerful feat chains; these should probably be left alone (I have yet to hear any of my fellow players complain about Dodge, for instance).

Other weak feats are meant to be "sacrificial" feats as prereqs for high-powered PrCs; these probably need to be plussed up a bit, but should probably never count as a "half" feat. Skill Focus is a perfect example here; at +2, it's so weak that even the PrCs it's a prereq for (like Loremaster) can't make it attractive, at +3 (the common consesus) it's still weak enough to be a good balancer for a powerful PrC, but it's also powerful enough to be attractive by itself as well.

The final category are weak feats that aren't the prereqs for anything; these, I suppose, would be good matches for the "half" feat, but as new feats and PrCs (custom, published, or official) are added, there will be fewer of them, and judging what can be safely combined in a 2-for-1 deal will become more problematic. Ultimately, I suspect, it will prove to be not worth the effort.

For me, I'd guess that the best answer seems to be increasing the power of the weak feats (and only when necessary), instead of combining them. It gives me the largest margin of error and makes the fewest changes, always a good idea when mucking around with complex systems.

 

[twjensen]

higher levels

Maybe I'm just lazy, but @ higher levels having feats that just bump the numbers work well for me. Skill focus puts a +2 on my character sheet and I don't have to remember to "use" it. Same with improved init., iron will, etc..

 

[Archer]

Hmm, I like the feats that let you do something new and different rather than adding some number to something I already have.

I don't think sacrificial feats are a legitimate mechanic so I would rule all sacrificial feats as half feats. If there is one sacrificial half feat you still need to "sacrifice" a whole feat but you at least get two very minor (non?) benefits instead of 1. If a PrC has 2 or more sacrificial feats, its designed poorly.

I don't think there would be any problem letting all item creation feats be half feats except create wondrous item. Wondrous item covers 7 slots, the other feats cover 2 slots at most.

How do you increase the power of weak feats? Their very concept is based around something minor so even doubling or tripling the bonus isn't very helpful or increasing something like run to x6 speed instead of x5 is excessive but the feat still isn't very good.

There is already a combo system in place and hundreds of feats use it. This is just taking the combo system to its logical conclusion and making it more flexible instead of creating x! number of feats where x is the number of half feats.