What it really boils down to, once we've finally cut to the chase, is that Meta Magic Feats and Spell Focus / Greater Spell Focus are gone for casters and that leave some folks with a selection of feats that don't boost their primary concern of casting Spells / Prayers without using melee weapons.
Of course, the 3.5 benefit of Spell Focus / Greater Spell Focus was to allow you to leverage your static, level-based saving throw DCs against the escalating saving throw bonuses of class progression and mult-classing. In D&D 4.0 you Attack Bonus for Spells scale at the same rate as level-based bumps to AC, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will defense. Essentially what you used to have to purchase for a feat and apply to a specific type of spell has been rolled into your basic character progression there - so it isn't a loss, but rather it simply doesn't qualify as something to do with a feat anymore.
Frankly, a lot of things you had to pay through the nose for with your feat slots have been rolled into your basic character class in 4E.
Meanwhile, the ability to Silence, Still, Empower, or Extend spells has been removed from the Heroic tier as far as I can see - though I typically saw little use of those Meta Magic feats outside of Rod powers in 4E in levels 1-7 (approximate parallel to Heroic Tier), just because Vancian Casting made your precious few higher-level spell slots hard to part with just to get a boosted 1st or 2nd level spell cast. Extended Lesser Vigor was pretty awesome once you added some splat-book love, though, and you had to respect an Empowered Ray of Enfeeblement from day 1, though.
It seems more like the Cleric's feat selections are, by and large, irrelevant to his or her non-melee casting ability in the Heroic Tier in 4E.
I suppose you could use that Charisma to opt into Warlock powers and have some more blasting power, but going Cha & Con into Infernal Warlock pact stuff seems off-theme for the kind of Cleric you are designing unless you re-work the fluff into something along the "Smiting you with Hellfire and Brimstone" Inquistor. A "Sun-shine and puppies" cleric really doesn't have a whole lot of options off of pure Wis, Con, Cha builds - even taking Str 13 only gives you access to melee-centric multi-class options outside of the Warlord's extra healing and utility swap Level 4 feat. His Encounter and Daily powers are all melee hits.
One up-shot from original 3.5, though - you can retrain your old feat slots when you gain access to higher powers with stat bumps, level-ups, and tier progression.
Even as splat-books come out, if they want to keep things like Skill Training and Weapon Focus relevant they can't just start tossing out things like 3E Weapon Focus or Spell Focus for Heroic feats.
- Marty Lund
Of course, the 3.5 benefit of Spell Focus / Greater Spell Focus was to allow you to leverage your static, level-based saving throw DCs against the escalating saving throw bonuses of class progression and mult-classing. In D&D 4.0 you Attack Bonus for Spells scale at the same rate as level-based bumps to AC, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will defense. Essentially what you used to have to purchase for a feat and apply to a specific type of spell has been rolled into your basic character progression there - so it isn't a loss, but rather it simply doesn't qualify as something to do with a feat anymore.
Frankly, a lot of things you had to pay through the nose for with your feat slots have been rolled into your basic character class in 4E.
Meanwhile, the ability to Silence, Still, Empower, or Extend spells has been removed from the Heroic tier as far as I can see - though I typically saw little use of those Meta Magic feats outside of Rod powers in 4E in levels 1-7 (approximate parallel to Heroic Tier), just because Vancian Casting made your precious few higher-level spell slots hard to part with just to get a boosted 1st or 2nd level spell cast. Extended Lesser Vigor was pretty awesome once you added some splat-book love, though, and you had to respect an Empowered Ray of Enfeeblement from day 1, though.
It seems more like the Cleric's feat selections are, by and large, irrelevant to his or her non-melee casting ability in the Heroic Tier in 4E.
I suppose you could use that Charisma to opt into Warlock powers and have some more blasting power, but going Cha & Con into Infernal Warlock pact stuff seems off-theme for the kind of Cleric you are designing unless you re-work the fluff into something along the "Smiting you with Hellfire and Brimstone" Inquistor. A "Sun-shine and puppies" cleric really doesn't have a whole lot of options off of pure Wis, Con, Cha builds - even taking Str 13 only gives you access to melee-centric multi-class options outside of the Warlord's extra healing and utility swap Level 4 feat. His Encounter and Daily powers are all melee hits.
One up-shot from original 3.5, though - you can retrain your old feat slots when you gain access to higher powers with stat bumps, level-ups, and tier progression.
Even as splat-books come out, if they want to keep things like Skill Training and Weapon Focus relevant they can't just start tossing out things like 3E Weapon Focus or Spell Focus for Heroic feats.
- Marty Lund
