Guideline for creating Feats/Talents/Powers

[Connorsrpg]

3E DID have 'How to design...things' articles for each of its main components: feats, PrC's & monsters in the very first Dragon Mags that came out with 3e.

They were good articles too. The PrC one brought up some very valid points, such as making an 'Elite City Guard of GH' PrC, rather than a generic City Guard PrC for you campaign...something lost along the way with many players for PrC's methinks (ie dipping in for abilities, rather than treating them as elite orders, specialised groups, etc).

Anyway, last bit off thread, but those advice articles were VERY good and I hope they appear in the DMG too...though in Dragon again would be OK again.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I hope that in the 4e DM's guide we will get some guidelines for creating balanced Feats/Talents/Powers. I don't recall anything like this showing up in the 3rd edtion DM's guide.

Even if they don't I'm sure that there will be a lot of room from looking at the existing powers and feats as soon as they appear in the PHB. At the moment we've only got a very small to look at - even if they don't expressly give any guidelines, the best guidelines is looking at what is already there and reverse engineering that.

Cheers

 

[hong]

I've always found it quite funny how Tome & Blood chose to use Ghostform as an example of how to select a spell's level.

 

[Sitara]

I agree. Boost my AC with an unnamed +1? This is better than Dodge, stackes with Dodge, and anyone can qualify for it. It's adding to the AC inflation already present in 3e.

So yeah, not that simple. Or at least, not that simple to make a balanced feat.

I also get the idea that in 4E, numeric bonuses will not be a main feature of Feats anymore; those will be regulated to class powers, thus curbing the aforementioned inflation. Feats will be more like... you know... what the word "feat" implies: a cool action or manuever your character can perform.

Ok not to nitpick, but a couple of things: First, any feat is better than dodge. The most common houserule in 3e is to apply dodge's +1 bonus to every opponent. Second, Parry requires you to have a weapon out.

Anyhow, as I said I just made that feat up. I am sure some splat during the last 8 years came up with better versions of parry. But my point is, I don't think they should really waste time with trying to make a 'how to' system for making feats, powers, paths, classes, etc since IMO its not needed.

 

[Jinete]

Honestly speaking, its not hard at all to make a feat yourself. I mean really. Talents/powers should also not be hard, going by SAGA. All you need is imagination and a good grasp of the rules presented in the rulebook.

For example here is a feat Ijust made up on the spot for 3e:

Parry:
You are skilled at parrying with your melee weapon.
Prerequisite: Proficient with simple weapons
Effect: You gain a +1 to your AC whenever you have a melee weapon drawn and in your hand.
Special: You do not gain the bonus if you are unarmed, flatfooted or surprised.

Broken

 

[Naszir]

Ok not to nitpick, but a couple of things: First, any feat is better than dodge. The most common houserule in 3e is to apply dodge's +1 bonus to every opponent. Second, Parry requires you to have a weapon out.

Anyhow, as I said I just made that feat up. I am sure some splat during the last 8 years came up with better versions of parry. But my point is, I don't think they should really waste time with trying to make a 'how to' system for making feats, powers, paths, classes, etc since IMO its not needed.

I don't think they would be wasting time, they must have some in-house "how-to" creation structure all ready to go for Feats/Talents/Powers. In the effort to maintain balance within the system I would think this would be just good game design.

If this is the case (I hope it is) then it would be nice if they could put it in the DM's guide. I would certainly appreciate it.

 

[helium3]

The most important guideline is the following.

If the feat is one no-one would spend a feat to get, it isn't good enough.

If the feat is one that no-one would pass up, it's too good.

If it's somewhere in-between, you're on the right track.

The next step (which is a bit more complicated) is to look up what kind of synergy it has with other feats/options, and see if it creates some kind of rules-abusing broken situation. This might have to be adjusted as the feat is tested in actual play.

Other than that, imagination is the limit.

OMG!! That is so much more clear than the guidelines in the 3E DMG. I *heart* 4E!!