Auto Upgrading Feat

[satori01]

The Static nature of the benefits of Feats is somewhat annoying to me.
I am considering a rule to have Feats that have Improved, Greater, or Secondary stage components auto upgrade when the pre-requisites are met.

It seems silly to me that a Fighter that has selected the Cleave feat at first level, should not have the Feat upgrade to Great Cleave when he reaches Fourth level. The same I think can be said for Greater Weapon Focus, Improved Precise Shot, Improved Rapid Shot, Spell Penetration etc.

In almost all of those cases, the small benefit derived from the "improved feat" pales in power to other feat choices. Also I would argue Feats are truly the most effective, and probably pleasurable way for characters to personalize and customize their characters. The Improved/Greater version of these feats, do not really add further definition to a character.

 

[hong]

Well, when it comes to fighters at least, that's what the bundles of extra feat slots are for....

 

[green slime]

Well, when it comes to fighters at least, that's what the bundles of extra feat slots are for....

There you go again, trying to be logical. I tell you, it is a fool's course. Emotion will always rule over logic. Feel the force, hong

 

[Koewn]

I could see his point for many feats (espc. those of the X/Improved X/Greater X variety). Caster level goes up and effects many variables, I could just as easily see "Fighter Level" (BAB) going up and eventually allowing a guy with Cleave to Cleave multiple times, then maybe move during his Cleave.

Koewn

 

[sjmiller]

You know, this is an aweful clever idea. Something I need to think about. Hmm, now I need to make a list of the cascading feats to see how many there are.

 

[Piratecat]

Iron Heroes does something similar, and it works nicely.

Moved to House Rules.

 

[theredrobedwizard]

To be fair, Piratecat, in IH you do have to spend another feat to get the next Improvement; the Mastery Level of the feat/class is just a prerequisite.

-TRRW

 

[Kmart Kommando]

But you have more feats to throw around, so it all balances out.

 

[FireLance]

One idea I've been toying with for a while is having fighter feats scaling with the number of fighter feats you possess. This has been done for the draconic feats in Complete Arcane, Races of the Dragon and Dragon Magic, for example, where the benefit you get from a feat depends on the number of related feats you have.

For example, what if Weapon Focus granted a +1 bonus to hit plus an additional +1 for every six fighter feats? A fighter who devoted all of his feat slots to fighter feats could get a +4 bonus with his attack rolls once he has 18 fighter feats (18th level for a human, 20th level for a non-human). There would also no longer be a need for Greater Weapon Focus.

Similarly, what if Weapon Specialization granted a +2 bonus to damage, +1 for every three fighter feats?

Improved Initiative could grant a +4 bonus, +1 for every four fighter feats. Improved Bull Rush, Improved Sunder, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip and Improved Grapple could provide a similar bonus to their checks.

Toughness could grant a 3 extra hit points, +1 for every fighter feat.

Dodge could grant a +1 bonus to AC, +1 for every six fighter feats.

Mobility could increase AC against AOOs by +4, +1 for every four fighter feats.

Spring Attack could incorporate its advanced versions from PHB2 by granting an additional target to ignore AOOs from and an additional iterative attack for every nine fighter feats.

 

[FireLance]

Also, check out this thread on the WotC board. I've only just seen it, but it looks pretty good. It breaks the feats up into different sub-categories, e.g. agility, archery, power, weaponry, etc. and scales the effects of the feats according to feats within the same sub-category instead of fighting feats in general.