Prestidigitalis
First Post
Some of the new Tribal Feats from Primal Power seem awfully good.
Quick summary: Get a flat feat bonus on some statistic. Gain another +1 for each additional member of the group who has the same Tribal Feat, up to a maximum of +5. To count for the bonus, the group member has to be within 10 squares of you -- a circumstance that will be true almost always unless your group splits up a lot. Note that these feats are ALL available at Heroic tier and with no requirements.
Here's what these feats can do for a party of 5 if all 5 characters take the feats, and all allies are within range. The list is ordered from most to least useful, as I see them.
Bloodied Spear: +5 feat bonus to attack AND damage rolls on OAs
This is amazing. For OAs at least, this is about about twice as good as Melee Training. It's far better than Blade Opportunist, and arguably just as good EVEN IF your character is fighting alone.
Enduring Mountain: +5 bonus HP per healing surge
At level 1, a Wizard with 14 Constitution gets a 83% bump (6 to 15) in surge value. Even a Dragonborn Warden with 18 Constitution gets a 42% bump (12 to 17). The benefit will drop off as level increases, but even at level 30 I could see sticking with it.
Midnight Stalker: +5 feat bonus to Stealth
This is a relatively small improvement over Skill Focus (Stealth) which gives +3 feat bonus, but even a single floorboard squeak can be a big deal, and becomes increasingly likely the bigger the group is. As a result, this feat becomes more powerful just when it is needed: with large groups.
Courageous Heart: +5 feat bonus to saves against charm and fear effects
+5 is a huge bonus for any kind of save. Unless your campaign has few charm and fear effects, this could have a big impact.
Four Winds: +5 feat bonus to Athletics
When one character has to climb, it's pretty likely that everyone has to climb. With this feat, everyone is good at it.
Watchful Owl: +5 feat bonus to Perception
Similar math to Midnight Stalker, but less useful because whereas Stealth results depend on universal success, Perception results usually only depend on a single success. Still, there are cases like "Who wakes up quickly when the camp is attacked at midnight?" Not shabby at all.
Swift Jaguar: +5 feat bonus to Initiative
Everyone benefits from high Initiative bonuses, but +5 most of the time vs. +4 all of the time (from Improved Initiative) probably doesn't make the cut.
Fearsome Host: +5 feat bonus to Intimidate
Audacious Crow: +5 feat bonus to Thievery
Intimidate and Thievery are similar in that usually it is enough to have a single group member specialize in them. The extra +2 relative to Skill Focus is nice, but at the cost of a feat slot for everyone?
***
So. Are these feats reasonable? Are the huge bonuses for Bloodied Spear and Enduring Mountain reasonable rewards for the rare group of players that coordinate their character creation? Are they excessive? Wrongheaded?
Quick summary: Get a flat feat bonus on some statistic. Gain another +1 for each additional member of the group who has the same Tribal Feat, up to a maximum of +5. To count for the bonus, the group member has to be within 10 squares of you -- a circumstance that will be true almost always unless your group splits up a lot. Note that these feats are ALL available at Heroic tier and with no requirements.
Here's what these feats can do for a party of 5 if all 5 characters take the feats, and all allies are within range. The list is ordered from most to least useful, as I see them.
Bloodied Spear: +5 feat bonus to attack AND damage rolls on OAs
This is amazing. For OAs at least, this is about about twice as good as Melee Training. It's far better than Blade Opportunist, and arguably just as good EVEN IF your character is fighting alone.
Enduring Mountain: +5 bonus HP per healing surge
At level 1, a Wizard with 14 Constitution gets a 83% bump (6 to 15) in surge value. Even a Dragonborn Warden with 18 Constitution gets a 42% bump (12 to 17). The benefit will drop off as level increases, but even at level 30 I could see sticking with it.
Midnight Stalker: +5 feat bonus to Stealth
This is a relatively small improvement over Skill Focus (Stealth) which gives +3 feat bonus, but even a single floorboard squeak can be a big deal, and becomes increasingly likely the bigger the group is. As a result, this feat becomes more powerful just when it is needed: with large groups.
Courageous Heart: +5 feat bonus to saves against charm and fear effects
+5 is a huge bonus for any kind of save. Unless your campaign has few charm and fear effects, this could have a big impact.
Four Winds: +5 feat bonus to Athletics
When one character has to climb, it's pretty likely that everyone has to climb. With this feat, everyone is good at it.
Watchful Owl: +5 feat bonus to Perception
Similar math to Midnight Stalker, but less useful because whereas Stealth results depend on universal success, Perception results usually only depend on a single success. Still, there are cases like "Who wakes up quickly when the camp is attacked at midnight?" Not shabby at all.
Swift Jaguar: +5 feat bonus to Initiative
Everyone benefits from high Initiative bonuses, but +5 most of the time vs. +4 all of the time (from Improved Initiative) probably doesn't make the cut.
Fearsome Host: +5 feat bonus to Intimidate
Audacious Crow: +5 feat bonus to Thievery
Intimidate and Thievery are similar in that usually it is enough to have a single group member specialize in them. The extra +2 relative to Skill Focus is nice, but at the cost of a feat slot for everyone?
***
So. Are these feats reasonable? Are the huge bonuses for Bloodied Spear and Enduring Mountain reasonable rewards for the rare group of players that coordinate their character creation? Are they excessive? Wrongheaded?
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