D&D 5E D&D 5e Feats

Mattachine · Feb 2, 2012

Sammael said:
I don't want to see class specific feats. Feats should be general abilities that are not specific to a class; if something is specific to a class, it belongs on the class progression chart.

Exactly--have a level when a character of a given class can choose between some feature, or simply give the class that feature. Again, that was a problem with many of the 3e and 4e feats. They were too specific to a class, or they were must-have and essentially were a feat tax.

harlokin · Feb 2, 2012

Mattachine said:
Exactly--have a level when a character of a given class can choose between some feature, or simply give the class that feature. Again, that was a problem with many of the 3e and 4e feats. They were too specific to a class, or they were must-have and essentially were a feat tax.

Really agree with this. Having fewer Feats restricted by Class would (I hope) allow characters to be more closely tailored.

I would also like Feats to grant abilities, even basic ones, rather than dull bonuses.

BobTheNob · Feb 2, 2012

Viking Bastard said:
I hate Feats. I remember when 3e came out and I read about Feats and thought "That sounds awesome! How modern!" but it wasn't. It was horrible. Then when I read up on 4e, I thought "It sure sounds like they fixed Feats! Awesome!" But no. They made them even worse. It was where they moved all the fiddly to.

I knew what I was going to respond when I opened this thread, then I found you beat me to it!

This is absolutely my experience as well. On Paper = Totally Awesome! In practice...yuck.

I think I would vary from most on this thread though in that my thinking has come full circle...I dont even see the need for feats in the game, at all. Hindsight has taught me that, whilst they allowed customization, they didnt really add to the experience, they just added to the mechanics. (disclaimer : This was my experience, yours may very well have varied, and more power to you if this is the case)

To me, I would like to see an end to "mechanical" customization, and see the growth of "thematic" customization, a focus on making characters interesting rather than making them complicated. I want simpler rules with a richer characters.

Rbuse · Feb 2, 2012

harlokin said:
Really agree with this. Having fewer Feats restricted by Class would (I hope) allow characters to be more closely tailored.

I would also like Feats to grant abilities, even basic ones, rather than dull bonuses.

You just kinda have to forget what you know about feats and look at them as character customizations. I agree static + feats are boring. When you get a feat and can chose to enhance your class in some way like giving up some standard boring fighter attack for a new awesome one that sets you apart from an average fighter, or use it to gain some feature exclusive to certain elves like maybe an enhanced racial feature, or some form of race specific training. Even trade in an ability you feel youll never like for some social prowess of some theme based skill or ability. I'm trying to look at it without clinging to what feats are now and I think that what they are tying to accomplish with feats is creation of a modular edition of the game.

harlokin · Feb 2, 2012

Rbuse said:
You just kinda have to forget what you know about feats and look at them as character customizations. I agree static + feats are boring. When you get a feat and can chose to enhance your class in some way like giving up some standard boring fighter attack for a new awesome one that sets you apart from an average fighter, or use it to gain some feature exclusive to certain elves like maybe an enhanced racial feature, or some form of race specific training. Even trade in an ability you feel youll never like for some social prowess of some theme based skill or ability. I'm trying to look at it without clinging to what feats are now and I think that what they are tying to accomplish with feats is creation of a modular edition of the game.

Sounds good to me.