I am forseeing problems with feats

[Dragonblade]

Also, it has been said that feats are generally weaker than they were in 3.X, and definitely weaker than powers/abilities will be in 4e.

Source? I certainly hope they are not weaker. Given the example feats we saw in the Dragon article, I would say this is not true. That new Toughness feat combines both the 3.5 Toughness and Improved Toughness feats into one.

That is an improvement in my opinion. Selecting a feat should always give your character something awesome. See Spycraft 2.0 for a good example of how feats should be designed.

 

[Morrus]

Its been confirmed that feats will be divided into Heroic/Paragon/Epic tiers. And apparently, that is ALL ther requirement for a feat will be i.e. a specific tier.

Where are you getting tis from? I seemed to have skipped that by completely!

 

[JVisgaitis]

Seems to go with the whole balancing is a nightmare theme for 4e. I could be wrong, but who knows? Is this actually confirmed?

 

[Set]

I'm actually hoping that feat chains are no longer go as deep as they did in 3e. I hated how feats like Whirlwind Attack basically forced you to plan your feat allotment several levels in advance and discouraged organic development of abilities.

This I agree with. Improving TWF obviously derives from learning TWF in the first place. But Dodge, Mobility and Spring Attack have jack all to do with swinging your weapon around to hit multiple people.

*Cleave* has more to do with Whirlwind Attack than any of Whirlwind Attacks current 'prerequisites.'

 

[Campbell]

Where are you getting tis from? I seemed to have skipped that by completely!

I haven't seen anything to confirm that all prerequisites will be gone, but the example feats shown in a Design and Development column a ways back had a listed tier and no other requirements. I'm not sure that the lack of prerequisites in the examples is all that meaningful. Currently the prerequisite line only shows up on a feat when there are actually prerequisites.

Toughness
Tier: Heroic
Benefit: When you take this feat, you gain additional hit points equal to your level + 3. You also gain 1 additional hit point every time you gain a level.

Alertness
Tier: Heroic
Benefit: You don’t grant enemies combat advantage in surprise rounds.
You also gain a +2 feat bonus to Perception checks.

First Reaction
Tier: Paragon
Benefit: If you are surprised, you may spend an action point to act during the surprise round.

Golden Wyvern Adept
Tier: Paragon
Benefit: You can omit a number of squares from the effects of any of your area or close wizard powers. This number can’t exceed your Wisdom modifier.

 

[jtrowell]

From what I understand, it's not that feats will really be less powerful, it is more than some things that were feats will now become class powers.

Anything that give you an active action/choice (power attack, improve trip, improve disarm, whirlwind attack, spring attack) will become one (or serveral similar) power(s).

Feats will be used to give passive/permanent bonuses :

- gain a new trained skill/skill focus
- some bonus to some skills (not only +X, but bonuses like rerolls, decreased time to use the skill, and so on ...)
- situationnal bonuses (alertness where you gain uncanny dodge, adept of the golden wyvern that allow some spell shaping, ...)
Those don't make you really stronger, but with them you can still fight at full efficiency in situations where others would not (do not give combat advangage when surprised, can launch an area spell even when allies are near, ...)

That's how it is possible to have a fighter taking only feats improving his social skills, and another taking only combat skills, without having the former be useless when compared to the second.
They both have the same base fighting power, but the fighter with all combat feats will be able to fight at peak efficiency more often, while the other will be better at handling social encounters.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Source? I certainly hope they are not weaker. Given the example feats we saw in the Dragon article, I would say this is not true. That new Toughness feat combines both the 3.5 Toughness and Improved Toughness feats into one.

That is an improvement in my opinion. Selecting a feat should always give your character something awesome. See Spycraft 2.0 for a good example of how feats should be designed.

Actually its just regular old improved toughness (1 per hd). Dont you get 4x HD at 1st level?

 

[Dragonblade]

Actually its just regular old improved toughness (1 per hd). Dont you get 4x HD at 1st level?

Nope. Not in 3.5. Just max HP at level 1. Toughness gives you +3 HP. And Improved Toughness from Complete Warrior gives you 1 bonus HP per level or HD.

The new 4e Toughness feat does both at once. Of course, if 4e is anything like SW Saga you will now get 3x starting HP which may explain where the base of +3 is coming from.

 

[Scribble]

I wonder if they plan on doing something akin to the feat mastery rules in Iron Heroes?

 

[Dausuul]

I wonder if they plan on doing something akin to the feat mastery rules in Iron Heroes?

If they do, I think we will see it in class powers, not feats.