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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 174997" data-attributes="member: 2011">Hmmm.I think feats is a crutch of the game put in to allow rules changes without really allowing them for everyone. Plus, now that the feats can of worms is opened, it can never be closed again. The game will always have them from now on in all future versions.Yes, it’s an ok, even cool idea. But, they put no rules in on how to create feats. So, anarchy reigns. For example, Item Creation feats.Just like Combatant types get Armor and Weapon feats for free, Spell Caster types should get Item Creation feats for free. It should be a bread and butter ability for spell casters and there should only be about 3 item creation feats, not 8 (plus others in other source books).Why is this separate and special? All spell casters should know how to create items just like all combatant types know how to use weapons. Worse case, it should be a skill.Improved Cleave can give an extremely high number of additional attacks per round. Why? Clearly not well thought out.Weapon Specialization. Why is this unique to Fighters? In fact, why is any non-magical / non-supernatural feat or ability unique to a given class?Why can ALL Barbarians Rage, but nobody else can? And why can they only get mad once per day at first? Well, for balance reasons, but not because it makes sense. Other classes can use their abilities over and over again during the day.Don’t even get me started on Knockdown which only normally happens in the game if someone purposely takes out an action to trip someone (but almost never happens with spells), but can happen almost every time with the feat because combatant types can almost always get their average damage up to 10 points. Sigh.Getting knocked on your butt should be an integral part of the game without just feats and special attacks.If a Dragon hits you for 35 points of damage, you should almost always get knocked on your butt.Feats (as well as some skills) can also give a character AoO immunity in some cases. I personally think this is a mistake. AoOs are an integral part of turn segregated combat and resolve some of the problems that used to occur in 1E and 2E. “After killing the Zombie that was attacking you, you walk down the hallway to help out your friend. Suddenly, 12 Skeletons come out of the doorways 30 feet away and surround you before you can do a thing about it.”AoO resistance is fine (you get +4 AC against a given type of AoO). AoO Immunity is a mistake (you do not even provoke an AoO). IMO.Another bogus element of the game is Evasion.If there is no room to get out of the way of something, there should not be an ability that allows it. It should be half damage and quarter damage. An ability should not be more powerful than magic. Again, IMO.And, Improved Counterspell should be the rules of the game, not a special feat. In fact, you should be able to abort your next action to counter any spell, but if you do this, the counter should be equivalent to a Dispel Magic (i.e. you have to roll). Readying an action to counter a spell is a stupid, rarely used rule. This could have been done much better.I think there are a lot of feats from Wizards that are not balanced (either too weak or too strong). A boatload of the feats in the Defenders of the Faith book are too weak. Compare Extra Smiting to Weapon Specialization. You can do hundreds of extra points of damage every day with Weapon Specialization (since you rarely lose your main weapon), but you can only do +level damage with Smiting once per day and then, only on certain targets. By the time you get to 20th level to do 20 more points of damage, your opponents have 700 hit points and it hardly matters. Major difference in balance here.Skill Focus and Toughness are too weak.Spellcasting Prodigy is too powerful.Greater Spell Focus is too powerful.Greater Spell Penetration is too powerful.Innate Spell is too powerful.I think are too few skill points. Adding 4 skill points to each class would make it about right.And, some skills are not needed as separate skills.Animal Empathy and Handle Animal could be combined.And, why isn’t Tracking a skill?Feat mania. That’s why.Spot and Search and Listen. Why do you need three? You could have just one Perception skill.And why is Scry a skill? If anything should be a feat, that should.Why is Jump a skill? Can anyone carrying a 100 pound backpack REALLY be able to jump 43 feet on a running jump just because they had 23 ranks, 5 for Strength 20, and rolled a 20?It’s basically ludicrous and not well thought out. Skills should not be able to emulate supernatural abilities.Why do Sorcerers get 2 skill points per level? They are not busy studying like Wizards. They are not busy being proficient with weapons like Fighters.It just seems arbitrary.The game would have been better served if they would have had rules for feats and special abilities such that you could at least ballpark how powerful you can make them. And, they should have made rules for feat and ability trees such that anyone can get any feat or ability, but they still have to climb that tree.Ditto for skills. Anyone should be able to get any skill.And, if you only have 1 to 5 skill points per level for most characters, then having cross classed skills cost 2 points is bogus. They could have restricted them by having them cost the same, but still limiting the maximum level to 1/2 (level + 3).So, your first level Wizard could be ALMOST as good at picking locks (rank 2 vs. rank 4 max) as a Rogue, but he will almost never catch up.There are a lot of improvements that they can make in these areas for 4E.I'm amazed at how many people think that the game is superb. I wonder how many people will make fun of 3E when 4E comes out, just like they made fun of 2E when 3E came out.</blockquote>

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