What are the 5 most powerful feats in the PHB?

[Shade]

On the flip side, Natural Spell is still a feat that essentially no 6th level druid DOESN'T want more than any other feat. No other class, with the possible exception of barbarian and Power Attack, essentially ALWAYS wants a particular feat.

I'd argue that every Str-based fighter wants Power Attack, while every Dex-based fighter wants Weapon Finesse. I've never seen these two disproven in any game I've played or DMed.

 

[Cadfan]

Regarding my views on Skill Focus: Concentration.

I tend to be the DM. This probably affects my friends views on this skill. My campaigns start from low level, where bonuses to Concentration are important. I tend to enforce rules like concentration checks while casting from horseback, or on a shipdeck, or while swimming, or in a storm. As a matter of course intelligent enemies will maneuver so that spellcasters cannot just 5 foot step out of all threatened squares. Archers ready actions to interrupt spellcasters. Even other spellcasters do this. I feel that these restrictions on spellcasting were intended to balance spellcasters and fighters, so I use them a lot. And it makes fights more interesting if they're happening on horseback, shipdeck, swimming, or in a storm, instead of just on featureless planes with gridmarks on them. So its possibly my DM style.

My players don't mind it so much because enemy spellcasters have all the same restrictions, and usually less optimized builds.

But regarding Weapon Focus, this feat is indispensable. Just like power attack is not as good as people think because they don't get the math, weapon focus is better than people think because they don't get the math. Would you take a feat that read, "Increase your damage with your chosen weapon by 10%."? I probably would. If you hit on an 11+, weapon focus increases your damage by 10%. The better your attack bonus the less you get from weapon focus in that perspective, but since your iterative attacks happen at lower attack bonuses, you'll get the benefit back again. And the more attacks you make, the better the bonus becomes. At higher levels characters make an awful lot of attacks. And on top of that it synergizes with basically every other attack feat out there. Power Attack? If you've got power attack and a two handed weapon then Weapon Focus is better than Weapon Specialization- you can use it as +1 attack OR +2 damage. And on opposed checks every +1 is amazingly effective.

The reason most rogues don't use Two Weapon Fighting, in my opinion, is because they're feat starved and most players favor offense over defense. A human rogue gets 8 feats over his career, plus any rogue abilities he chooses to use for feats. The two weapon fighting chain costs 3 feats. That doesn't leave a lot of room to play.

 

[Nifft]

I'd argue that every Str-based fighter wants Power Attack, while every Dex-based fighter wants Weapon Finesse. I've never seen these two disproven in any game I've played or DMed.

Yep yep. They're absolutely style-defining. And there are even strong builds with both. (Doesn't necessarily mean they're overpowered...)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Any functionality?

My Druid lost +6 Wisdom (periapt of wisdom, which amounted to +3 on spell DCs and several bonus spells, cloak of resistance, ring of deflection, scarab of protection, lesser rod of empower, strand of prayer beads, boots of the winterlands... Pretty much the only magic item that was still usable wildshaped was the leather armour with the 'wild' enhancement!

Didnt they errata it where animals have slots? If you're in dire ape form, you have every slot a human would anyways. Just put the items on after you wild shape. I think theres a neck slot item (torque of speech) somewhere that lets you talk too.

 

[Voadam]

Power attack, over the life of a character allows:
* Swap of BAB for Damage (balanced, in my opinoin..maybe up to +5)
* Unlmited level advancement BAB exchange (more powerful than any other feat)
* DOUBLE bonus to two handed weapons, which already gain DOUBLE strength bonus and have high damage base

The last two, make it two (or three) feats in one when compared to other equivalent feats.

jh

Or as the paladin in my party calls it "The tempt me to miss feat."

 

[Warren Okuma]

I've had a pretty optimised summoning druid, up to 13th level - as I mentioned above I found natural spell to be useful, but not gamebreaking in any way. What techniques have you found that made it uber-powerful?

Cheers

OT: Greenbound Summoning + Augmented Summoning + Ashbound Summoning (from Ebberon) Youch.

At low levels summon wolf and trip, then hit them as they stand. Wild shape into a wolf and have a wolf as an animal companion. At higher levels Dire wolf, and Wild shape into a dire wolf and have a dire wolf as an animal companion.

And against flying creatures grapple and dive into the ground. Grappling is fun as well.

Edit: Plus animal growth and other buffs.

 

[AllisterH]

I got to agree with people about the bad math and Power Attack. I've seen and done the math myself and it isn't as uber as many people think.

1. Improved Init.

In D&D, she who goes first, wins. Especially for fragile classes like the sorceror, going first is essential. The only class I know of that can afford not to go first would be the crusader since a) their defenses are tough enough they can survive a first hit and b) their offense is rewarded for taking hits.

2. Weapon Finesse.
Unlike PA, the math on this one is definitely in WF's favour. Rogue without WF is doing SIGNIFICANTLY less damage than rogue with it. Any character with higher Dex (the best ability in the game) than Str (only useful for certain types of melee combatants) takes this.

3. Natural Spell.
Pre-PHB II druid variant. The no-duh feat for druids. While there were role-playing restrictions in the druid being shapechanged, the benefits were really, really, good. Sure, you're druid can't talk about the weather, but he could still scratch on the ground what he saw even in wildshaped form.

4. Scribe Scroll
This pretty much nullifies the "limited slots per day" ability of the caster especially at low levels. Sure, you're not going to be creating 100s of scrolls at 1st level, but even 2 scrolls at 1st level increases your power which is well within the possibility.

5. Craft Wondrous
See Scribe scroll.