Essentials feat too powerful???

[Herschel]

I still find that I had to make some tough choices, which is usually an indicator that there is some good design. Previous feats were a little too specific and only added minor bonuses in certain situations.

In some cases, yes. For example, even for basic damage boosting feats my level 16 Genasi Swordmage (Assault) could just take the standard Weapon Focus (Heavy Blades) for the standard +2, or Elemental Echo for the +1 attack/+4 damage after using a Genasi Racial Power. My Paragon Path is Elemental Tempest (Earthsoul/Causticsoul base) so choosing between the two is interesting because I have (base) two Racial Encounter Powers. Add in Earthshock Master and Elemental Echo becomes even more viable.

 

[mneme]

Do you think that if Essentials would have never came out, that they would have made the changes to the core feats?

Obviously.

There is no way in which the "newer, more powerful feats" in Essentials deviated from Wizards' philosophy of updating the rules and mechanics of the game until they worked the way they wanted to.

You can make a non-insane argument that they wouldn't have made Magic Missile DOE without the Mage, or that they wouldn't have made Sneak Attack "once per round" without the Thief.

But bumping up classic defense feats? Please--that's part of an overall movement to having feat bonuses to basic stats (attacks, defenses) scale (thus letting you get one and only one scaling bonus to any root)--which began well prior to Essentials.

 

[Dayte]

disregard

 

[Shemeska]

We need a chart... prestidigitalis, female, Shemeska, male, Charwoman Gene, we leave as an exercise for the student.

FWIW, I've added my actual name in my sig since I've started getting stuff published, and to avoid the gender confusion thing. Sometimes I really wish I'd picked a male character from PS years ago to use as a username across the D&D underbelly of the 'net, and perhaps also one less arguably furry.

 

[Dice4Hire]

FWIW, I've added my actual name in my sig since I've started getting stuff published, and to avoid the gender confusion thing. Sometimes I really wish I'd picked a male character from PS years ago to use as a username across the D&D underbelly of the 'net, and perhaps also one less arguably furry.

Not sure why male female really matters here on the boards.

 

[Herschel]

Superior Will requires a signficant investment in Wis for most PC's, FWIW.

Prerequisite: Wisdom 15 or Charisma 15

For most melee classes that's a huge opportunity cost (Pit Fighters and Artful rogues may be exception)

Very much so. I've re-trained in to Superior Will with my 16th-level Swordmage and it's been an almost necessary feat with teh amount of daze floating around. Any defender or leader (and sustain-heavy controllers maybe) could want to invest in it. Strikers probably don't care. And while Fighters, etc. have riders tied to Wisdom, outside of Will defense and this feat, Wisdom and Charisma do absolutely nothing mechanically for my character. In fact, I had to dump Dexterity, which cost me Improved Swordmage Warding so I took Proficiency in Hide Armor, giving me armor check penalties to keep my AC where I wanted it.

It's all about choices. An extra feat and armor check penalties were what I had to accept in order to gain the extra save that still doesn't help me impose my mark or interrupts from the time I'm hit until the time I save.

 

[DracoSuave]

Do you think that if Essentials would have never came out, that they would have made the changes to the core feats?

Yes, because those changes represent changes they wanted to make to the game. Essentials is only the method they chose. Change the method, you still have the same result.