Pro:
Simplification, which is always a good thing if you got players who are into RP as much as into fighting.
No shenanigans
I mean if the player thinks feats are too complicated they don't need to take them?
And what shenanigans exactly are we talking about here? The most 'shenanigans' I can think of is adding a owl Familiar to the Rogue so they can get easier Sneak Attacks with Fly By Help. Which honestly sounds like the kind of dirty tactic a Rogue would adore so I'm not sure how that counts? Or maybe like my Life Cleric who took Magic Initiate Druid so he could get some OTHER Attack Cantrip besides friggin' Sacred Flame and a bonus healing spell (I don't really think it's a good idea to go for the whole Life Cleric bonus to Goodberry healing but Goodberry on its own is valuable).
I don't think PAM or Sentinel is really 'shenanigans'.
I trust 5e is robust enough that a DM doesn't needs to micromanage every damn level up the players do. Most of the time when my group play, our new class features/spells/feats only get mentionned when they get used the first time.
"The Hobgoblin runs past you to go attack the Wizard."
"Not if I stop him dead in his track with my Opportunity Attack!"
"Oh, so you got Sentinel?"
"Yup!"
"Alright then, see if you can hit him."
People act like surprising the DM is a bad thing or something? I mean, what's the point of having a 'Cool Trick' if you never get to use it?
Hiya!
Well then ...I guess you just don't get it. That's ok. Use Feats/MC if it enhances your enjoyment, but for me and my friends, it just doesn't.
Do a test yourself. Your next Fighter, don't take ANY Feats and don't MC. Now see how you feel about your Fighters capabilities. Now look at what Feats/MC you
want to take because it will make you "feel like your Fighter is equal to others in the party". See that? The instant you read those sentences your mind probably already flashed one or two Feats and maybe a second Class....and you didn't have any clue as to what personality your Fighter had. It was purely an instinctual "I gotta take this Feat" or "I gotta take this Class"....not because of interest in crafting a unique, individual Fighter PC, but because you
know that without one of those Feats or Class level dips, you would feel like you 'suck'.
That's a problem. That's why we don't like or use Feats/MC. They don't "expand the capabilities", they do the exact opposite....at least for us. YMMV.
Hope that makes more sense.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
That STILL makes no sense... Your argument, putting aside how realistic it is or not, doesn't tell me Feats are bad, it tells me the Fghter is sub par!
And a Fighter really isn't that bad until the very high levels. But it IS Bland if you can't add some extra spice with a Feat. Like, I can build a Battlemaster with high CHA and Rally, for exemple, but then my CHA is pretty uselss outside of Rally itself and maybe 1 or 2 skill rolls here or there. So, I look over to feats and see what I can pick that works with that character. Maybe I can pick up Skill Expertise, or maybe Actor, or maybe Linguist to use my skills on more people, or maybe I'll double down on the Temp HP and go for Inspiring Leader! Or maybe I'll pick up Magic Initiate Bard and pick the Entertainer Background and just have my character introduce himself as a Bard despite not being that class on my sheet. Then I can stay back and in one turn Insult an enemy to death while Praising an ally so they have some Temp HP (Okay now I kinda want to play that, drats!). Or maybe I'll ignore CHA and just grab Healer because nobody's playing a class with healing?
I'm not even thinking about what everybody else is doing, but rather trying to come up with more options I can pick from so I can approach more situations from different angles others than just 'I hit it with my sword'. I like Feats because it gives me things to chose when level up, but it's not as annoying as picking spells.
You want to talk about illusion of choice that end up all looking the same? Look at the Cleric spell list one of these days... Augh. 5e Clerics are SO BORING!
And can we stop this BS elitist judgy thing where people who enjoy rolling big numbers are looked down upon? YES I like to roll high and kick butt in combat. What of it?! My fun is just as valid as you, Mr. "Roleplay More To Make your Character Different"!