Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Feats or Ability Increases
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ohmyn" data-source="post: 7626552" data-attributes="member: 6999115"><p>Like what GlassJaw posted, I'd advise heavily considering the power of individual feats and considering their value individually, and not just adding a blanket cost to feats if you're looking to increase the amount people can grab. I see you plan to "split the feats in two", but I'm not sure what you mean by that, so I'll just toss a random point to consider on that note.</p><p></p><p>I haven't personally thought about this a lot, but what immediately comes to mind is I'd split the feats into 3 categories: those that affect damage output directly, those that grant an ability score increase, and then everything else. You can grant an ASI at every 4 character levels as opposed to class levels; however, if you gain an ASI from an actual class, you swap that entirely for any feat that has a single ASI built in. This way classes that get ASIs, and people that opt to stick to one class anyway, still gain something at their ASI levels, but it's not an entirely free selection to stack on top of other free selections. The feats that give an ASI tend to be things like gaining a proficiency in a save (Resilience), some form of armor proficiency (Lightly Armored), a significant boost to a skill (Observant), etc. They don't tend to be things that can give a significant combat damage boost, like Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Fighter, etc.</p><p></p><p>I find that the extra attack and damage increase feats tend to be the most powerful when players are able to stack them, so I'd be less reserved in handing those out. If the feat somehow gives you extra attacks, or increases your damage directly, it falls into this category. You don't want everyone to be the same because they can all start out with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter right out the gate, or all start with Polearm Master and either Great Weapon Fighter or Sentinel. Everyone will likely want to start with those, and the people that don't are going to very rapidly fall behind in damage output, making balancing encounters quite difficult with such a heavy disparity. For this reason, those feats perhaps should require the player to spend their actual ASIs at every 4 levels to obtain, as opposed to being able to grab for free in some way.</p><p></p><p>The "other" category of feats, AKA the ones that give neither an ASI or direct attack increase, can probably be given out a bit more openly, something like every 5 character levels, or whatever you want to come up with. These tend to be feats like Dungeon Delver, Grappler, Healer, Inspiring Leader, etc. I feel that these ones are the ones that add the most extra flavor to the individual characters, and getting one free every 5 levels or so should not be overwhelming. If you want you could maybe give one of these out at level 1 as well, just so they can start with that little bit of extra personalization, but I'd weight whether or not you feel you're giving people too much first (maybe make some test builds and see what you can do).</p><p></p><p>With all of this, ignoring a free level 1 feat, a character will be the same as normal until level 4. At level 4, they get the normal ASI, even if multiclassing. If they didn't multiclass, on top of the normal ASI they get a free feat that offers an additional ASI, such as Observant or Resilience. At level 5, everyone gets a free feat that does not give an ASI nor give extra attacks or damage output, such as Healer or Tough. If they're multiclassing all willy-nilly, they may not see any extra benefit until level 10 after this, but they'll still get their full ASI at 8 regardless, and another free "other" feat at level 10. People that stick to a single class that gives extra ASIs like Fighter or Rogue, should maybe still be allowed to spend the extra ASI levels (meaning not 4, 8, 12, etc), and grab any feat they want, since it is a class feature that would normally not be limited; however, if you do feel it OP to do so on top of all of the free feats they could get, and the free ASI feat at level 4, maybe limit these to one or two of the feat categories as you see fit.</p><p></p><p>I just said all of this as it came to me, so maybe it's full of holes, but it's hopefully at least food for thought.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ohmyn, post: 7626552, member: 6999115"] Like what GlassJaw posted, I'd advise heavily considering the power of individual feats and considering their value individually, and not just adding a blanket cost to feats if you're looking to increase the amount people can grab. I see you plan to "split the feats in two", but I'm not sure what you mean by that, so I'll just toss a random point to consider on that note. I haven't personally thought about this a lot, but what immediately comes to mind is I'd split the feats into 3 categories: those that affect damage output directly, those that grant an ability score increase, and then everything else. You can grant an ASI at every 4 character levels as opposed to class levels; however, if you gain an ASI from an actual class, you swap that entirely for any feat that has a single ASI built in. This way classes that get ASIs, and people that opt to stick to one class anyway, still gain something at their ASI levels, but it's not an entirely free selection to stack on top of other free selections. The feats that give an ASI tend to be things like gaining a proficiency in a save (Resilience), some form of armor proficiency (Lightly Armored), a significant boost to a skill (Observant), etc. They don't tend to be things that can give a significant combat damage boost, like Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Fighter, etc. I find that the extra attack and damage increase feats tend to be the most powerful when players are able to stack them, so I'd be less reserved in handing those out. If the feat somehow gives you extra attacks, or increases your damage directly, it falls into this category. You don't want everyone to be the same because they can all start out with Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter right out the gate, or all start with Polearm Master and either Great Weapon Fighter or Sentinel. Everyone will likely want to start with those, and the people that don't are going to very rapidly fall behind in damage output, making balancing encounters quite difficult with such a heavy disparity. For this reason, those feats perhaps should require the player to spend their actual ASIs at every 4 levels to obtain, as opposed to being able to grab for free in some way. The "other" category of feats, AKA the ones that give neither an ASI or direct attack increase, can probably be given out a bit more openly, something like every 5 character levels, or whatever you want to come up with. These tend to be feats like Dungeon Delver, Grappler, Healer, Inspiring Leader, etc. I feel that these ones are the ones that add the most extra flavor to the individual characters, and getting one free every 5 levels or so should not be overwhelming. If you want you could maybe give one of these out at level 1 as well, just so they can start with that little bit of extra personalization, but I'd weight whether or not you feel you're giving people too much first (maybe make some test builds and see what you can do). With all of this, ignoring a free level 1 feat, a character will be the same as normal until level 4. At level 4, they get the normal ASI, even if multiclassing. If they didn't multiclass, on top of the normal ASI they get a free feat that offers an additional ASI, such as Observant or Resilience. At level 5, everyone gets a free feat that does not give an ASI nor give extra attacks or damage output, such as Healer or Tough. If they're multiclassing all willy-nilly, they may not see any extra benefit until level 10 after this, but they'll still get their full ASI at 8 regardless, and another free "other" feat at level 10. People that stick to a single class that gives extra ASIs like Fighter or Rogue, should maybe still be allowed to spend the extra ASI levels (meaning not 4, 8, 12, etc), and grab any feat they want, since it is a class feature that would normally not be limited; however, if you do feel it OP to do so on top of all of the free feats they could get, and the free ASI feat at level 4, maybe limit these to one or two of the feat categories as you see fit. I just said all of this as it came to me, so maybe it's full of holes, but it's hopefully at least food for thought. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Feats or Ability Increases
Top