D&D (2024) Fighting Styles Are Not Worth a Whole Feat

[Undrave]

Fighting Style is not worth a whole feat, agreed, but it is also not a good 1st (or 2nd) level feature. Why not allowing 2 fighting styles for both Feat and Feature?

Fighting styles combination are not all equal. Some of them compliment each other better than others (You can pretty much slap Defense on any build and it'll be good, but GWM and Archery don't have any synergy, for exemple).

Plus, it's not like Fighting Style is the ONLY class feature you get? They work fine as minor class features.

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

I said it in the survey, they need to call it something other than feat; however, put it by the feat section. That way they cut down on word count and if they add new ones everyone knows where to look.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Good point. One can also consider that a perceived weakness chosen for character concept reasons need not invalidate the overall mechanical effectiveness of a character. Especially in the context of the whole party.

I guess it all comes down to one's (or the table's) definition of "optimization". When that, IMO, lurches into the territory of a player telling another player that they shouldn't pick a particular option for their character because "it's a trap!" (which essentially boils down to: "no weaknesses allowed in the party"), well... some/many tables are going to find that just doesn't jive with their play goals. Every table may have a different take on this, of course, but I don't think this perspective is particularly novel.

I think there's a notable difference between lecturing another player on trap options, and asking game designers to put in some effort and not design trap options, particularly on such low hanging balance fruit as giving level 1 feats a stat bump if selected after first level.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I can understand that - would something like this work for you?

If this level 1 feat is taken at level 4 or higher, add a +1 to Dex or Str

Yes, it would be much better. Though honestly I'd prefer to decouple feats from stats entirely. "At level 4/8/12/16/20 Add 1 to two different stats. If one is under 18, add another +1 to that stat." It helps MAD concepts and also flattens the curve between those who rolled well and those that didnt by implementing a "catch up mechanic" if you will.