John R Davis
Hero
Some feats are pretty strong to the point of really reducing threat at low level. So more flavoursome feats 'maybe'.
D&D 5E Does Your DM Let Everyone Start With A Feat?
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
My point is that "less good" is not the same thing as useless or unwanted. I can think of situations where the barbarian might reach for that flaming longsword instead of her greataxe.
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CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
Yeah, I agree. This is why I'm leaning toward allowing short list of about 6-12 specific feats, instead of allowing 1st level characters to choose any feat they wish. The feats I'm talking about are the ones that nobody ever takes because they aren't worth the +2 ASI cost. (That's why I'm giving them away for free!)
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Li Shenron
Legend
I really don't think the PCs need any "freebies", unless the players are willing to admit they suck at playing the game.
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
No worries there; we're all honest enough with ourselves to freely admit that.
CreamCloud0
One day, I hope to actually play DnD.
True, not every bit of loot is going to perfectly align with what the player wants for their character and that’s fine, but feats to my understanding are viewed as much more of a character customisation feature, they’re inherent, so when the GM starts interfering with that it provokes a more emotional response as it’s generally agreed that a GM doesn’t interfere with CC except in a few situations like having a few ground rules ‘I don’t allow dwarves and halflings in my world’ or ‘X subclass/ability/ect is banned at my table’ or perhaps later in the game approaching the player to discuss ‘hey i was thinking that it would be interesting and thematic if X happened to your character given what happened last session’ or ‘your character is really powerful and throwing off all my encounters/puzzles, could we discuss making some adjustments to them?’
The earlier mentioned genie gifting feats as rewards is a much more agreeable situation because it’s explicitly happening in universe as a reward for completing a quest rather than the situation you’re intending to give them to them where the feat is an out of universe thing where you’re withholding information until other choices have been finalised in a situation where that doesn’t really need to happen.
I say this not to accuse you of malicious intent but merely to explain how it could be interpreted, and you’re right in saying some players might just go ‘nice, a free feat’ but as it has already been proven in this thread the response of ‘why wasn’t i told about this earlier? You’re manipulating my decisions’ is also possible to occur.
EDIT: It might be taken much better if you’re upfront about that there’s going to be feats after CC, something like ‘I’ve got a curated list of flavour feats that you get to pick one of after you’ve made your character, I’ve chosen this because I don’t want you to optimise with them, how do you feel about that?’ Just to test the waters of their reactions, if they’re fine with it, great! But if not then maybe let them know what they’re getting featwise sooner for CC and trust in them not to powergame (not always possible with some players unfortunately but people are people)
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DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
On the point of powerful feats:
FWIW, we revised all the feats (we had at the time) into half-feats. I should have it somewhere, so if people want to see what we did, I'll try to dig it up sometime today.
FWIW, we revised all the feats (we had at the time) into half-feats. I should have it somewhere, so if people want to see what we did, I'll try to dig it up sometime today.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
5e is a robust, sturdy, system. It can handle a free feat at 1, 11, and 15. Or, even 1, 5, and 11.
So, in my games you get a free feat at level 1, no restrictions (though i do ask that it relate to the character's story somehow, rather than just being blandly powerful, unless the character is built in a way that only really works at low level with a specific feat), and when you would normally get an ASI, choosing a feat gets you a free +1 to any stat.
I've considered changing the second part to giving a free +1 at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18.
So, in my games you get a free feat at level 1, no restrictions (though i do ask that it relate to the character's story somehow, rather than just being blandly powerful, unless the character is built in a way that only really works at low level with a specific feat), and when you would normally get an ASI, choosing a feat gets you a free +1 to any stat.
I've considered changing the second part to giving a free +1 at 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18.
CreamCloud0
One day, I hope to actually play DnD.
I think it’s more that the character gen feat, at least in this situation, is intended to be more of a thing to enhance character flavour rather than mechanical effectiveness, but because feats are so thin on the ground and compete with ASI’s players will 90% of the time go for optimisation over the more narratively apt choices for their characters
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