Changing of the Feats?

[HoboGod]

The problems many DMs have with letting a character pick to retrain their feats without some kind of process is that it can sometimes get ridiculous in terms of roleplaying. It's maybe not so bad with a rogue or paladin, but when a fighter turns from a gentleman who uses a mix of combat expertise with improved disarm to fence his opponents into submission into an underhanded bastard that trips his opponents with a scythe and takes advantage of as many opportunist strikes as possible, it's bizarre and should require a gradual process rather than a sudden one. Another example, an evocation type sorcerer who specializes in metamagical feats suddenly switches feats to take corpse crafter and the line of feats associated to it to become a necromancer, who gains this kind of mastery over night?

 

[Dandu]

Someone with access to Limited Wish, that's who.

 

[IronWolf]

The problems many DMs have with letting a character pick to retrain their feats without some kind of process is that it can sometimes get ridiculous in terms of roleplaying. It's maybe not so bad with a rogue or paladin, but when a fighter turns from a gentleman who uses a mix of combat expertise with improved disarm to fence his opponents into submission into an underhanded bastard that trips his opponents with a scythe and takes advantage of as many opportunist strikes as possible, it's bizarre and should require a gradual process rather than a sudden one. Another example, an evocation type sorcerer who specializes in metamagical feats suddenly switches feats to take corpse crafter and the line of feats associated to it to become a necromancer, who gains this kind of mastery over night?

Yeah, I am sure one's comfort level of process-less retraining can vary widely due to many circumstances and experience with the system.

Even several of the scenarios painted above I can think of roleplaying "fluff" that a character could do or could have impacted their decision to change things up a bit. I would recommend to one allowing this that they play that change up, what has changed with the character to want them to change focus or what they specialize at.

Mechanically, even without strict process in place the DM could say that the changes have to be spread across 2 or 3 levels of advancement and not necessarily done in one fell swoop. But as you said, some DMs may not have the confidence to tackle this without a process pre-defined.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

The problems many DMs have with letting a character pick to retrain their feats without some kind of process is that it can sometimes get ridiculous in terms of roleplaying. It's maybe not so bad with a rogue or paladin, but when a fighter turns from a gentleman who uses a mix of combat expertise with improved disarm to fence his opponents into submission into an underhanded bastard that trips his opponents with a scythe and takes advantage of as many opportunist strikes as possible, it's bizarre and should require a gradual process rather than a sudden one. Another example, an evocation type sorcerer who specializes in metamagical feats suddenly switches feats to take corpse crafter and the line of feats associated to it to become a necromancer, who gains this kind of mastery over night?

I'd handle it the same way the PH says to handle multiclassing in general: Lidda didn't just suddenly gain a wizard level, she's been peeking over Mialee's shoulder, getting pointers from her for weeks/months now, honest!

The Fighter's presumably been working on developing his new/different technique "off camera" for some time now when the change occurs.

What's more disconcerting to your ability to immerse yourself? That, or having a player bring in a new character because he's really hating how his current one turned out and really doesn't want to have to put up with him for another few sessions when he considers it a game and thus wants to have fun? Just saying...

 

[HoboGod]

Yeah, it's a delicate trade-off. Every time somebody brings a new character to the table it's often a boring and predictable encounter. They meet, they talk, everyone becomes friends with the new guy. If a player comes to me and says they hate their character so much that they need to change everything or they're going to build a new character, yeah, I often cave on the rules. However, what I tend to notice is that people don't surprise themselves with how horrible something is, it's a gradual process. When people are surprised like that, it's usually from the level they just took. I tend to be flexible when people take a new level in that my players can redo their current level at any time (strictly if they made a mistake, not if they want an advantage against the dragon they have to fight soon). So in that sense, the PHB2 rules are for those things you liked at one time, kept, but don't want any more.