D&D 4E 4E feats: impressions

[phil500]

Overall, a lot of the feats seem to have prerequisites (racial, stat,class and a new one: tier) which is a bummer. For the most part they make sense, (like str15 + con15 for full plate) but I feel the choices are narrowed down a lot.

That said, the feats seem very much driven by the 4 roles philosophy, and they let you choose exactly where you want to be: does your cleric want to DPS or tank on the side? There are more viable options in those directions than before, like taking armor specialization (chainmail). (+1 to ac when wearing chainmail)

Overall there will be fewer broken things happening *looks at persistent spell*


Here are some noticeable ones:

Jack of all trades: +2 to all untrained skills.

You can also take a "skill training" feat to get a +5 to any skill. thats a huge one. then take the focus feat for +3.

Theres a cool channel divinity one too: when you roll 20 on a saving throw, you affect an enemy with the effect you were trying to save against.

The channel divinity ones are underwhelming, for the most part.

There is a wizard one which has a requirement I dont like: spell focus, gives a -2 to all saves against your spells. Requires Cha 13? At first consideration it looks like a must have for wizards, so now they have to spend some points on cha.

 

[mrtomsmith]

So you can spend a feat to get +2 to all skills, or spend a feat to get +3 to one skill? Is it me, or is that messed up? The skill focus feat seems very weak relative to other skill-affecting feats. Am I missing something?

 

[phil500]

So you can spend a feat to get +2 to all skills, or spend a feat to get +3 to one skill? Is it me, or is that messed up? The skill focus feat seems very weak relative to other skill-affecting feats. Am I missing something?

the +2 is only to skills which arent trained, the +3 is to a trained skill.

or you can spend +5 on a single untrained skill to train it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

So you can spend a feat to get +2 to all skills, or spend a feat to get +3 to one skill?

Not all skills. All untrained skills. In other words, the ones you're less likely to use.

 

[Scribble]

I assume feat chains are out right? Or am I wrong about that?

 

[Cadfan]

I'm not surprised that the Channel Divinity feats seem weak. Since regular Channel Divinity is very weak, a feat which turns it into a fully functional power can't be TOO strong.

 

[CrimsonNeko]

So you can spend a feat to get +2 to all skills, or spend a feat to get +3 to one skill? Is it me, or is that messed up? The skill focus feat seems very weak relative to other skill-affecting feats. Am I missing something?

To all UNTRAINED skills. Being trained is +5, and gives special benefits. Nearly all the things I want a bunch of pluses for are the trained only applications...

Edit: Ah, ninja'ed!

 

[phil500]

Theres an awesome channel divinity which is an AOE damage vs. undead.

Close burst 1 at heroic, 3 at paragon, 5 at epic.
1d12 damage at 1
2d12 at 5
all the way to 6d12 at 25.

I dont know how they thought that balanced vs. +2 to attack vs. large or larger creatures for 2 turns.

I assume feat chains are out right? Or am I wrong about that?

Do you mean feats which have feats as prerequisites? those are mostly gone.

Improved Critical is an epic feat, and all of them are the same in that 19 or 20s are crits. The Axe one, for example, requires str 21 and con 17.

 

[Terramotus]

Jack of all trades: +2 to all untrained skills.

You can also take a "skill training" feat to get a +5 to any skill. thats a huge one. then take the focus feat for +3.

That sounds like a really cool balance on all of the skills. So you can take jack of all trades to be good at everything, get trained in an extra skill, or be uber at a skill you're already trained in by taking skill focus. Sounds like it preserves the versatility of the old system without the complexity.

My only quibble is that a lot of the DCs from KoTS seemed awfully high compared to our skills. But that could have just been the DM rolling well, or a quirk of the adventure.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Though, I wonder could you take that feat, for untrained gain the +2, then another level take a feat to make it trained and get the +5 then take skill focus to get the +2 for a whopping: +9.