Feat use: Official only or from any source?

[reveal]

Here's a question for all you DM's out there:

Do you allow your players to use only official Feats, official being from WoTC products, or do you allow them use any Feat, such as those from the Netbook of Feats.

I am currently a player in 2 campaigns and, usually, they will allow any feat, but if you try to use a non-official feat, you have to have pretty solid reasoning behind it.

 

[Thaumaturge]

There are third party feats that are better balanced than WoTC feats, so I generally check them all for balance.


Thaumaturge.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

The problem is they're releasing "official" feats like crazy. Combine some of those "official" feats with "official" prestige classes and you have a big mess. The problem isn't the feats themselves it is how they work together.

That's why I keep it to the core rules plus those in my homebrew setting (and the homebrew ones can only be taken at 1st level). I mean, do you have any idea how easy it is getting to raise a character's spell penetration?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Feats from the PH I allow almost without question.

Feats from other WotC products I'll allow most of the time, but I reserve the right to veto them if I don't think they'll fit the campaign.

Anything else I consider on a case-by-case and feat-by-feat basis. If a player finds a feat somewhere he wants to use, he can show it to me. If I like it, I allow it. If not, I don't. And I always make it clear that I reserve the right to change my mind if it creates balance issues I didn't foresee.

 

[Orco42]

mouseferatu summed up my ideas perfectly.

 

[UniversalMonster]

I agree

I allow all PHB-feats. Eveyrthing else is approved case by case. I have to be given a physical copy of the feat for the campaign notebook.

I invent a lot of feats actually- many of them for NPCs. Theyre all available on my website!

 

[Crothian]

Luckily, our group doesn't stack up on feats and prestige classes to take advantage of the rules. I know that my players will only take a feat that they feel makes sense for their character and not really care about how truely useful the feat is. I've had a ninth level barbarian take toughness just because of the name. I tried to talk him into Great Cleave.

There are a lot of feats out there. I've created a master list from every book I own so that players have one easy place to look for feats.

 

[Carnifex]

I'm with mouseferatu on this one.

 

[Psion]

Well, I have a few different policies for PrCs, Feats, Spells, and Skills.

• PrC's: I have a list of appropriate PrCs. If it is not on the list, there is probably a reason. If the player really wants to play a class not on the list, I can see if the concept can be made to fit.
• Feats: Core books, PsiHB, (errata'd) WotC Classbooks, and Malhavoc products okay. Other WotC products (FRCS, OA) and other D20 system products: ask first.
• Spells/Powers: Core Books, PsiHB, MotP, Classbooks, Malhavoc products, Relics & Rituals (with a few exceptions) and Necromancy: Beyond the Grave okay. Other WotC (OA, Magic of Faerun, FRCS) and other D20 system publishers: ask.
• Skills: No new skills! Core Books and PsiHB okay. Only new knowledge, profession, and craft categories from other books, and then converted to the closest WotC category if there is one (frex, Knowledge (Necrology) from N:BTG becomes Knowledge (Undead).

 

[Chairman_Kaga]

Feats from the PH I allow almost without question.

Feats from other WotC products I'll allow most of the time, but I reserve the right to veto them if I don't think they'll fit the campaign.

Anything else I consider on a case-by-case and feat-by-feat basis. If a player finds a feat somewhere he wants to use, he can show it to me. If I like it, I allow it. If not, I don't. And I always make it clear that I reserve the right to change my mind if it creates balance issues I didn't foresee.

[points up]

yeah...what he said...