New playtest and feats...did I miss something?

[Falling Icicle]

Why not? Sounds cool! Here is hoping for a fighter necromancer!

As nogray pointed out, you can be a Fighter Necromancer if you take Arcane Dabbler or Initiate of the Faith instead of Aura of Souls (which is useless to a Fighter, anyway, since he doesn't have any necromancy spells to benefit from it). You can then qualify for the Animate Servant at level 3.

High Elves can also be necromancers regardless of class since they get a free wizard cantrip.

 

[PinkRose]

In your game you could have Fighter necromancers.
In my game, I'll keep Pre-reqs.
I like how that works.

Question - Is the level a Pre-req for a feat? Meaning, with a Cleric, can you take Initiate of the Faith (Level 1) & Herbalism (Level 1), or on a Guardian character take Hold the Line (Level 3) at Level 1 and then take Defender (Level 1) at Level 3?

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

Why not? Sounds cool! Here is hoping for a fighter necromancer!

You can get that by selecting High Elf and getting a free minor spell. Awesome!

 

[Neonchameleon]

Dropping the pre-req doesn't work (at this time, without rejiggering, without house rules) because then you have a fighter that can be a necromancer.

And a fighter carrying a scythe who reaps and is empowered by the souls of his victims and occasionally reanimates their headless corpses isn't awesome how?

 

[erf_beto]

You can get that by selecting High Elf and getting a free minor spell. Awesome!

I caught on that too, but... is that by design?
I don't know, I'm suspiciously weary this was somehow overlooked...

 

[Connorsrpg]

As PinkRose pointed out I am more interested in whether there is anything on the 'choosing of feats'.

I take it in the full edition there will be a list, but I am also wondering, 'Are the feats grouped by level', as they are under Specialties.

I am more than happy to go with Specialties for now (and kind of dread the Feat glut that may come - I hope all new feats introduced are part of a Specialty). But, could you take the feats in reverse order if you wished? Are they all balanced with each other or is there truly a 'level' assigned to them?

(I hope not, as they seem Ok to me compared to one another).

 

[IronWolf]

I take it in the full edition there will be a list, but I am also wondering, 'Are the feats grouped by level', as they are under Specialties.

I am more than happy to go with Specialties for now (and kind of dread the Feat glut that may come - I hope all new feats introduced are part of a Specialty).

I don't really like specialties as it feels too constraining to me. But having a full feat list seems like we are moving back to the 3.x and PF way of doing things and is ripe for future sourcebooks to put us right back to way too many feats to choose from or feat taxes.

Now I really do like 3.x and PF, but I was hoping for something different from D&D Next. As in if D&D Next is just going to include feat lists, specialties and such, then I am not sure why I would move from Pathfinder to D&D Next.

It almost feels to me (still trying to pinpoint what "feels wrong" to me) that the first playtest was a throwback to old school in its base form while this one has swing the pendulum back to the 3.x/4e era which puts it in more direct competition with Pathfinder for my gaming time.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Hmmh,

I would say, that prerequisites should not count when you chose a theme. Of course, there may be unusable feats then. Maybe the speciality itself should have a requirement in those few cases.

 

[triqui]

Dropping the pre-req doesn't work (at this time, without rejiggering, without house rules) because then you have a fighter that can be a necromancer.
(YMMV, you could House rule or change it so anyone can use it, but that's not the case, nor does it make sense to me)

You can already have a fighter that is a necromancer. It has to be an elf, though.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I caught on that too, but... is that by design?
I don't know, I'm suspiciously weary this was somehow overlooked...

The high eleven roguish necromancic assassin, gliding around a ballroom, consuming the spirit of a just felled victim to gain advantage for his next sneak attack, perpetuating the cycle until the floor is littered with soulless corpses.

I am firmly in the camp that this is a feature not a bug.

(And now I'm already planning on having a magical sword in the game that grants the Aura of Souls feat. Where have I read about something like that before?)