Giving more feats ?

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gpetruc

First Post

• Sep 28, 2002

• #1

I'm a GM and I don't allow PrC in my campagin (for many reasons that I don't want to discuss now).
I have of course many organizations (such as arcane fellowships and paladin orders) whose members might gain some unique ability through rituals, but no PrC.
I was considering to have instead the characters to customize a bit their characters through feats (actually making some feats that give abilities that are usually gained in PrC such as Archmage arcanas, or smite outsider).

The main question is: would it create big problems if after lvl 9 I give a feat every two levels instead of every three (and one at lvl 20) ?
That is feats at lvl 1/3/6/9/11/13/15/19/20
instead of 1/3/6/9/12/15/18 ?

I don't think it would, but I'm not sure

 

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Crothian

First Post

• Sep 28, 2002

• #2

As long as this is for all the PCs even those not involved in organizations, I think it will be just fine.

 

D

demiurgeastaroth

Explorer

• Sep 29, 2002

• #3

The main problem i can think of with giving extra feats is that it weakens the Fighters main class ability; if normal feat acquisition accelerates after 9th level, I think it would be a good idea for fighter acquisition to increase also.

An alternative method I've been using is to allow people to buy feats (through training). The GP cost is exhorbitant (and not dissimilar to the cost of buying Inherent Ability bonuses), and there is a small XP cost.

1st feat: 5,000gp, 200xp.
2nd Feat: extra 15,000gp, 600xp
3rd Feat 60,000 gp, 2400xp
4th (and final) Feat 125,000gp, 5000xp.

The costs are set up so that (under standard adventuring), there will be several levels between buying each feat, but people have the choice of when they get them.

 

L

LightPhoenix

First Post

• Sep 29, 2002

• #4

demiurgeastaroth said:

The main problem i can think of with giving extra feats is that it weakens the Fighters main class ability; if normal feat acquisition accelerates after 9th level, I think it would be a good idea for fighter acquisition to increase also.

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Even though Fighters would still get twice as many feats as every other class? In essense, Fighters would gain a feat every level (and two at 20th), every one else would get one every two.

 

Crothian

First Post

• Sep 29, 2002

• #5

One thing you might want to do is create a list of feats for each orginization. That way some of these extra feats have to be from a smaller, more defined list.

 

J

Jeph

Explorer

• Sep 29, 2002

• #6

I see no problem with it, as long as you increase the feats for creatures accordingly. If you don't, you'll end up with major CR problems. Perhaps, if you don't increase the feats for creatures, try throwing out creatures with 1 or 2 or 3 extra HD of advancement.

 

Crothian

First Post

• Sep 29, 2002

• #7

Jeph said:

I see no problem with it, as long as you increase the feats for creatures accordingly. If you don't, you'll end up with major CR problems. Perhaps, if you don't increase the feats for creatures, try throwing out creatures with 1 or 2 or 3 extra HD of advancement.

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That will depend on what feats are chosen. It's only two extra feats by level 20. In my experience a couple extra feats doesn't make that big of a difference.

 

thundershot

Adventurer

• Sep 29, 2002

• #8

I'd say forget increasing the number of feats that they GET. They'll be advancing as their regular classes, so won't be at a loss for power. Why not just create "Organizational Feats", special feats you can take INSTEAD of the regular ones. Just like you take a level of a PrC INSTEAD of your regular one.

Just an idea.


Chris

 

E

Elder-Basilisk

First Post

• Sep 29, 2002

• #9

I agree with the people who say that giving out extra feats is unlikely to break the game.

However, don't fool yourself by saying: "It's only two feats, that won't make a difference".

Combat Reflexes and Expert Tactician are two feats.

Quicker than the Eye and Expert Tactician are two feats.

Spell focus and Greater Spell focus are two feats.

Spell penetration and greater spell penetration are two feats.

Improved Critical and Power Critical are two feats.

All of those will make a big difference rather than a small difference in terms of the power, role, and effectiveness of any character--even at level 20.

So, realize that by giving extra feats, you will be contributing to incremental power creep in the game. You will need more powerful monsters to challenge the PCs. And that will mean that if the PCs' luck goes bad, they go down that much faster.

 

Crothian

First Post

• Sep 29, 2002

• #10

Exactly, that's why it depends on what the feats actually are. If the Pcs take a bunch of powerful feats then increase the ability of the enemies as you need. You might have to play around with it a little before you get it just right.