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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9240326" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Ok, let's take a look at some Feats that are considered "bad".  I'll start with Toughness.So if you're a 1st level Wizard, 3 hit points represents a lot of staying power.  Even if you're a 1st level Fighter, having 13+ hit points sure sounds better than 10.  And that's 100% true.But by the time your next Feat comes up, you realize that 3 hit points is a drop in the bucket, and it's unlikely that an attack that takes you to 0 will fail to do so by 1-3 points of damage.  So the case of Toughness being bad comes down to the fact that it's a bad investment if you survive to higher levels.There's an argument to be made that Toughness helps you survive, but other Feats may do a better job of this.Next on our list is Mobility.  I'm skipping over Dodge because, while +1 to AC* isn't exciting, if you already have a lot of AC, it's going to have an effect.  If you have a lower AC, however, it's less thrilling, because enemies get really big attack bonuses, to the point that the chances of this actually helping may not be very common.*because this is a Dodge bonus, it can be lost any time you would lose your Dexterity bonus, which is a not-infrequent thing to have happen.  But on the plus side, it does add to touch AC, so there's that.Mobility offers a large bonus to AC for doing something reckless- provoking an opportunity attack for moving.  In most combats, you're not going to do this anyways, and some classes have access to Tumble, offering a way to avoid taking these hits in the first place.  Most of the time, players don't provoke because it's just giving enemies a free attack.  So you're getting a boost to AC for doing something you likely would only do in desperation, and there's always the chance, however small, that it won't do anything.  Thus not only making it super situational, but the kind of Feat that, if you attempt an AoO thinking "hey, I got Mobility", and you get burned by being hit anyways, you're going to be less inclined to rely on it in the future.  But it's even when you realize that AoO's can also be combat maneuvers, which can already ignore large parts of your AC (say, for example, Trip, which is a melee touch attack to initiate).  Sure, you don't lose the +4 AC, but as the game goes on, that +4 is going to matter a lot less than the Armor and Natural Armor bonuses to AC characters accrue.Combat Expertise gives you an alternate system for doing something everyone can do, that is, attack defensively. Now, -1 to hit for +1 AC is a better rate than -4 for +2 AC, granted, but the times and places you would want to lower your offense to increase your defense aren't super common.  Worse is that you are limited to your BAB to a maximum of 5 (and, of course, characters with 5 ranks of Tumble get an additional +1 for fighting defensively only, which doesn't apply to the use of CE).Basically this really only good for full BAB classes...but by level 6, you have an extra attack that really doesn't need any penalties to hit.  You can stack fighting defensively with Combat Expertise, thus allowing you to replicate full defense and still have a chance to get an attack off (and still be able to make AoO's), but again, this is a very specialized Feat that isn't going to be used with regularity, especially in combats where you're not sure what the AC of opponents is.And even if you can afford to give up a few points of attack, you can get better returns out of Power Attack.Spring Attack does exactly what it says it does, it lets you split your move and make a single attack.  You have to move at least 5' first, and you can't wear heavy armor, but you are protected from AoO's from the creature you attack.  However, unless you have a lot of speed, most foes can easily charge back up to you and attack again.  If your enemy has a lot of attacks, however, as long as they don't have reach, this might seem like a great idea...but not for a Fighter.So in a game I had a Fighter with Spring Attack.  Rather than make multiple attacks to deal more damage to foes, they would run in, make a single hit, and run away.  This meant that monsters would live longer, for one, but also that the other melee characters would take more hits, and the Spring Attacker would be attacked less often.  Encounter design was therefore forcing these characters to be at more risk from combat than Mr. Spring Attack, taking heavier damage, being more prone to dropping to 0, and requiring more healing, simply because a character with a fairly chunky hit point pool was not taking their fair share of attacks, and not dealing as much damage as they could to enemies.  It quickly turned into a fairly miserable experience.Add to this the fact that Spring Attack only gives you AoO immunity from one foe, the one you attack, and you have to move before you make that attack- I didn't rule this way myself, but I played at a table where the DM rules that this meant that first 5' of movement did provoke, making this maneuver far riskier than it needed to be, especially when dealing with foes that had greater natural reach.Finally, I'll end with Point-Blank Shot.  A +1 to hit and damage is really nice for a Feat, especially if used with things that don't normally get damage bonuses.  But the requirement of being within 30' of the target can negate the primary advantage of being a ranged character- ie, attacking from range so enemies can't easily get to you.Worse still, the main reason anyone would take this Feat is that it's the keystone of far better ranged Feats...including the necessary one, Precise Shot.  Because the instances where Precise Shot come up are super common, and a -4 on attack rolls is a pretty hefty penalty to deal with.</blockquote>

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