D&D General Path of Feats: a Superior Design than Subclasses

[Neonchameleon]

Ironically, the arcane restoration feat for the lich is useless for a Warlock, despite the fact you'd think the undead warlock would be the perfect candidate for this. But pact magic yet again fails to work with any other magic rules in the game and requires designers to develop complex workarounds to avoid breaking it.

I'd rather have homogenization than every time a new ability that affects spellcasting is released trying to figure out how pact magic breaks it.

Hardly complex to say "or a pact magic slot". They just decided not to put any warlock options there.

The thing is figuring things out isn't hard and the warlock is IMO easily the most interesting class to play both thematically and mechanically. Throwing out the best class in D&D 5e just to save a tiny bit of mental effort for designers is a false economy.

 

[Minigiant]

Ironically, the arcane restoration feat for the lich is useless for a Warlock, despite the fact you'd think the undead warlock would be the perfect candidate for this. But pact magic yet again fails to work with any other magic rules in the game and requires designers to develop complex workarounds to avoid breaking it.

I'd rather have homogenization than every time a new ability that affects spellcasting is released trying to figure out how pact magic breaks it.

Meh

Im okay with Standard Lich not working with Warlock.

To me, warlock is exploit or cheat of the rules that patrons give access to. So the standard way into lichdom shouldn't be very compatible.

A "warlock lich" should be its own thing.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I will prefer a feat tree solution over bbn1/ftr2/rog3/prestige class X builds.

I’d like to have prestige classes but i think it would be beneficial to ban multiclassing first cutting out that whole kind of barb1/fighter2/rogue3 nonsense.

Your class and subclass would form the spine of your character’s build and while branching out into a specific theme.
Feats provide a wide selection of specific points of customisation, including short 2-feat chains.
While prestige classes help fill in the niche multiclassing currently does but in a neater way, letting you explore concepts outside your original class.
Also you would have a species that is fleshed out enough mechanically so that it would actually mean something to your character’s build.

 

[Remathilis]

I’d like to have prestige classes but i think it would be beneficial to ban multiclassing first cutting out that whole kind of barb1/fighter2/rogue3 nonsense.

Your class and subclass would form the spine of your character’s build and while branching out into a specific theme.
Feats provide a wide selection of specific points of customisation, including short 2-feat chains.
While prestige classes help fill in the niche multiclassing currently does but in a neater way, letting you explore concepts outside your original class.
Also you would have a species that is fleshed out enough mechanically so that it would actually mean something to your character’s build.

You can't get rid of multiclassing and keep prestige classes. The whole point was they were classes you couldn't start as and could only multiclass into later. The bbn1/ftr2/rog3/prcX WAS the point of them. When I switched to Pathfinder 1e after 3.5 where prestige classes were de-emphasized, multiclassing dips like that dried up.

I have zero desire to go back to prc and everyone being Frankensteined out of a half-dozen classes and stacking PrCs.

 

[CreamCloud0]

You can't get rid of multiclassing and keep prestige classes. The whole point was they were classes you couldn't start as and could only multiclass into later. The bbn1/ftr2/rog3/prcX WAS the point of them. When I switched to Pathfinder 1e after 3.5 where prestige classes were de-emphasized, multiclassing dips like that dried up.

I have zero desire to go back to prc and everyone being Frankensteined out of a half-dozen classes and stacking PrCs.

I mean, you could get rid of MC and keep PC, you just tie prestige class qualifications to prerequisites that aren’t multiclassed based, give them all a minimum level threshold and something like ‘you need to be able to cast 3rd level divine spells’ ‘you need to be proficient in martial weapons and have extra attack’ ‘you need to have a class pet-companion’

Give them lockstep level progression to your main class like an extra subclass from the point you take them, and done, it’s easy, prestige classes without needing frankenstein class builds.

And feats help you branch out to meet requirements your baseclass isn’t directly inclined towards.

 

[Minigiant]

I’d like to have prestige classes but i think it would be beneficial to ban multiclassing first cutting out that whole kind of barb1/fighter2/rogue3 nonsense.

Your class and subclass would form the spine of your character’s build and while branching out into a specific theme.
Feats provide a wide selection of specific points of customisation, including short 2-feat chains.
While prestige classes help fill in the niche multiclassing currently does but in a neater way, letting you explore concepts outside your original class.
Also you would have a species that is fleshed out enough mechanically so that it would actually mean something to your character’s build.

You can't get rid of multiclassing and keep prestige classes. The whole point was they were classes you couldn't start as and could only multiclass into later. The bbn1/ftr2/rog3/prcX WAS the point of them. When I switched to Pathfinder 1e after 3.5 where prestige classes were de-emphasized, multiclassing dips like that dried up.

I have zero desire to go back to prc and everyone being Frankensteined out of a half-dozen classes and stacking PrCs.

Prestige Classes would only work if they were

1. Tied to a level. You get in at level 5 or 11 at the Tier opening level.
2. They are utraspecify to only work with certain classes OR ultra specific and dont synergy with any unique class features

Otherwise it would be impossible to be anywhere near benchmarks and result in disappointment

 

[Corinnguard]

What is a class without levels?

Something that requires another metric to show off how powerful the character becomes over a particular period of time.

 

[Azzy]

Turning feats into feat-chains or even feat-trees takes away what little breathing room there is for individual characters.

That's only if feat-trees were the only option—but we have mostly self-contained feats, and will likely have more the same. So feat-trees won't be the only choice, but will be an option for those that want a certain theme easily obtained.

 

[SkidAce]

In the April 2026 UA, Villainous Options, we got treated to the idea of Paths of Feats. Namely the Paths of the Lich and of the Death Knight. While I don’t care too much for these two specific paths, I think the general concept of Paths of Feats is absolutely excellent, and I hope WotC leans into it more in the future.

They are similar to 3e Prestige Classes rebuilt as just feats, which is actually brilliant.

In Eberron, we already have the Dragonmark feats which culminate into Greater and Potent Dragonmark feats. These are pretty similar to the Path of Feats concept, except they begin with an origin feat. This, too, is great design. It reminds of a 2e kit, since it kicks in from the very first level and even stems from the background.

Subclasses, on the other hand, feel like straightjackets. Hurray for Paths of Feats!

Totally agree, especially for organizational "prestige" classes. Buy into the org as much as you would like. Some orgs wont let you "buy" the feat unless you have enough renown.

We also use feat chains to simulate learning special magic styles. Works better than subclasses...you can only have one...but with feat chains if you want to learn rune magic and blood magic..spend as many feats as you like.

I kinda wonder why it took them so long to represent these concepts with feat chains...we came up with the idea from the begining of 5e. (our 1st version was feats for karate, kung fu, and martial chains/styles.)

Wanted to do the styles from Tome of Battle, but a fighter just barely gets enough feats. Not a bad thing, it shows dedication to the "way", but does forfeit other good feats.

 

[SkidAce]

The feats are not very well hidden in the feats chapter, but finding the feats chapter was itself quite a challenge! But third times the charm and with your Guidance I finally tracked it down!

I see the feat chains in the Synergy Feats section. That’s interesting. I guess I can see @Neonchameleon’s concern that a feat chain might reduce customizability, and it might be true (but also, maybe overblown?)… In any case though, I would think a feat tree should not cause such adverse effect, at least not much.

In any case, it’s good to see these ideas flowing around in the community! Maybe WotC took inspiration from A5E!

Feat TREE definitely better. Some of our magic style feats are only two feats, so thats not so bad.