Essential Feats?

[JoeGKushner]

Improved Toughness has a prereq of a Base Fort +2, so the starting mage can't actually take it for a while.

Kidna what I meant. If they wait, they can take it, but in the meanwhile, when they essentially need those hit points, they have to take toughness. I don't know too many mages going to take toughness and improved toughness.

 

[Tuzenbach]

I cannot think of a single reasonable concept, where I would ever want to pick Combat Casting over Skill Focus (Concentration)

I take it the two don't stack? Yes, forgive my ignorance, but I've not read up on the subject. What if they *did* stack? Would Combat Casting be worth it then?

 

[Darkness]

I've always had this knee-jerk reaction to the idea that a feat is simply indispensible for a balanced character concept (example: Power Attack). I've always wondered why those abilites aren't simply class abilites.

For what class? Barbarian?

Fighters aren't all Power Attackers, after all.

Hm. Some barbarians aren't, either, though. That's the beauty of feats: You can take them - or take other feats instead. If PA was a Bbn class ability, the class would lose some customizability. Feats leave the choice to the character, even though large numbers of Barbarians cheerfully still choose PA in the end.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I take it the two don't stack? Yes, forgive my ignorance, but I've not read up on the subject. What if they *did* stack? Would Combat Casting be worth it then?

They stack(or at least, I'm fairly sure they do), but Combat Casting only applies when you're casting defensively. With Skill Focus(Concentration), you get the bonus all the time.

 

[Darkness]

They stack(or at least, I'm fairly sure they do)

Yep. both are unnamed bonuses.

 

[Enkhidu]

For what class? Barbarian?

Fighters aren't all Power Attackers, after all.

Hm. Some barbarians aren't, either, though. That's the beauty of feats: You can take them - or take other feats instead. If PA was a Bbn class ability, the class would lose some customizability. Feats leave the choice to the character, even though large numbers of Barbarians cheerfully still choose PA in the end.

Have you ever seen a straight barbarian that didn't take power attack and was still viable in damage output past level 8 or so? For that matter, have you ever seen a single class fighter go past level 8 without it?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Have to go the d20 Modern route and have some of them become talents and others feats. Well, we already have d20 Moder and of course Grim Tales, but they both follow along the D&D path.

And yes, I have seen fighters and barbarians who haven't taken power attack. Perhaps they weren't optimized to deal damage, but they were still viable.

 

[Mark Chance]

Improved Initiative is a must have for rogues, who benefit from the flat-footed opponents.

Not a must have. I'm currently running a gnomish rogue 3/cleric 2 whose feats are Investigator and Nimble Fingers. I plan on selecting Stealthy when he hits sixth level. So far, the character's working out just fine.

 

[Tessarael]

Well, I have a high level Rogue. DEX 24 or so currently, so +7 to initiative. Buying a feat to give another +4 on that seems wasteful. I ended up getting an intelligent weapon that has the feat, but still I'm really not convinced that it's necessary. Then again, my character only has 3d6 of Sneak Attack (Rogue 4/Fighter 4/other random parts Rogue build), so maybe that is part of it.

 

[Darkness]

Have you ever seen a straight barbarian that didn't take power attack and was still viable in damage output past level 8 or so? For that matter, have you ever seen a single class fighter go past level 8 without it?

Fighters, some. Barbarians, rarely but yes.