2 feats, 200gp, to good?

[Darkwolf71]

Sound's decent, for your average party.

Word of Warning: If you have any experienced 'optimizers' in your group, you may end up gouging your eyes out after the third encounter.
I could do some nasty things with that many feats on a 2nd level human fighter.

 

[Eloi]

Sounds pretty reasonable, not too potent to use.

It would also help to remember that old rivals from school make pretty good recurrent villains.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

If everyone takes you up on the offer your PCs will be balanced.
But those who decide to take the 200GP instead of 2 feats will be at a huge disadvantage because 200GP by no stretch of the imagination is worth 2 feats.

 

[kromelizard]

Is "Graduated from an adventurer academy" the new "So you meet in a tavern?"

Anyway, 200 GP for two bonus feats is crazy cheap. Really, if you're going to give them bonuses you're better off with fewer bonuses but greater options, just to save yourself from the headache of PCs of greater than expected levels of competency. You don't want to find out that the adventure you made doesn't challenge them because you gave them bennies of greater than expected value. So, just give them one bonus feat. They'll be plenty excited by that extra.

 

[Squire James]

Charge them more. I'd say about 1/3 gold per feat (650 if you're offering the DMG level 2 NPC standard of 2000, or 300 if you're offering the DMG level 2 PC standard of 900). Then it's an actual choice and not an automatic deal. It's STILL a good deal, and rewards long-term thinking, but I know some players who would take the money.

If you intend to give them extra feats in exchange for basically nothing, just go ahead and give them the feats and deduct the basically nothing youself. That's okay, just be aware of what you are doing, that's all!

 

[Felix]

Charge them more. I'd say about 1/3 gold per feat (650 if you're offering the DMG level 2 NPC standard of 2000, or 300 if you're offering the DMG level 2 PC standard of 900). Then it's an actual choice and not an automatic deal. It's STILL a good deal, and rewards long-term thinking, but I know some players who would take the money.

I'd say those +2/+2 feats would be worth 1/3 of my gold, and certainly for 200gp.

If you're giving free feats out, I'd almost restrict them to skill feats, since they won't add to any overpowered feat chains, they'll allow otherwise feat-starved classes to shore up skill weaknesses, and maybe work as prereqs for PrCs. I wouldn't mind having Alertness and Investigator for free (or 200gp) as a fighter; Deft Hands and Deceitful as a rogue; Negotiator and Magical Aptitude as a bard, et cetera.

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

I agree that 200 gp for two feats is not a meaningful choice. Might as well just give them the feats.

That said, I don't particularly like this idea, because it shifts the balance among classes. Fighters depend on their higher number of feats for their effectiveness. They will still be ahead, but they'll be spending their bonus feats on much more marginal feats, whereas the paladin who can pursue both the mounted combat chain and have other basic combat feats will get a huge bump in power, or the cleric (especially if you allow splat books).

I would personally just let them start at 2nd level, and have that be the bump to represent more training than your average 1st level character. Or possibly give them access to feats that you wouldn't normally allow, or whatever.

That said, it won't break your game, assuming you take it into account in designing encounters, etc. It will just adjust the PC-PC balance in odd ways.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I think as long as it is available to all of the PC's, it should probably be fine (remember, this was the element of "Balance" that most needed to be addressed by 3rd edition).

I have a hard time picturing what anyone could get for 400gp that would be as useful as 2 feats. I suspect everyone in your group will take the option and if--by some miracle--one guy doesn't, he'll be underpowered.

 

[JustKim]

I think it's a bad idea.

What will probably happen is every single sensible player will take the 2 extra feats, they will not really care about the adventurer schooling you're trying to convey with these bonuses, you will end up with problematic PCs who can qualify for things before they should, and it will complicate your job as a DM for no good reason.

I recommend finding a way to convey the plot points of your setting without such strong game mechanic incentives.

 

[Phaeryx]

I'm not a fan of handing out arbitrary extras. I am a fan of starting out at higher levels though. I would just say you graduate at level 4 or 5 or so. But really, I'm not a fan of the adventure academy idea, but only on the basis of personal game-world asthetics, so I have no reasonable objection to it. I suppose in a fantasy world rich in adventuring possibilities it's not so far-fetched, but it does hint at a society with a complex infrastructure, so it would stand out less in a world like Eberron, which has a more modern feel.

If you're going to include something like this I think it would be more interesting to start play while the characters are still in school. School politics can be fun, as the Harry Potter series has proven recently.

And in a world where so many people become adventurers that it is considered a viable career, so that profitable institutions rise up in support of the lifestyle, you would expect some heavy competition out there. This in itself might make an interesting campaign element, as you would expect adventuring parties to run into other adventurers bent on beating them to plunder, etc. Another logical extension of a world where a school exists to train adventurers would be the existence of companies, almost like merc temp agencies, seeking to hire graduates.

I think this kind of world also needs a solid background explanation for why adventuring is a lucrative career path. In other words, why is there so much treasure out there to plunder? Fallen empires most frequently fulfill this function. I'm off-topic here but the idea of an adventuring school itself probably deserves some attention besides just how to power up the PCs.