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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 2281616" data-attributes="member: 1003">Feat MasteryThis is my analysis of the latest Design Diary, Feat Mastery.The Feat advancement didn't work quite as I expected.  I thought that the Feats would naturally upgrade as the PC achieved new levels of Mastery, kind of like how spells got better as Casters got higher in level.  It seems though that a certain level of Master only allows you to choose a new Feat, and doesn't upgrade the Feats you already had.That's Ok though.  It just means that the Feats you can purchase are going to be cooler and more powerful than ones you would have gotten for free (remember, there is no Free Lunch in Game Balance; everything's a tradeoff).I like Mearl's discussion of prerequisites for Feats.  It's bothered me a little too that a 1st level fighter with a 13 in Int could take Expertise, but a 20th level Fighter with a 12 Int could not.  I didn't think it was a major concern, but this is like scratching an annoying itch. (I also always wondered what happened in you were wearing Int boosting items when you leveled up, but that's another thread.)  As you can see, the Mastery progression neatly solves this little problem.Mearl's is right that the D&D system didn't provide a bunch of options for high-level Fighters, but that must be for the Core books only.  Considering how many supplements there are out there, I imagine there must be a bazillion cools Feats for high-level melee types.   Oh well, at least with IH we won't have to buy supplements to get them.  (Which is only expected - a primarily melee-based system that didn't provide a lot of cool melee Feats would be a bit of a waste of money).We've heard the claim that IH will speed of NPC design, and now Mearls claims that this Feat Mastery progression is part of the solution.  He's probably right, as selecting a few Feats have got to be a lot faster and easier than choosing how to spend the NPC's gold-allotment based on level.  Select the Feats, give the man a sword and shield, and you're done.  I like that.  For me, my favorite part of NPC design is the history, motivations, politics, etc.  By the time I'm done with all that, selecting magical items to make them "Level Appropriate" always seemed more like a chore than a joy.  Selecting Feats may end up being the same, but at least I can get it over with more quickly.My only remaining question, at the end, is based on this sentence:Does this mean you have to take them in order (1, 2, 3, ...), or can you take them in any order as long as you have the first one and meet the Mastery requirement?  It sounds like the second (and the second improves the chances of Mastery 10 feats actually getting chosen), but I'm not 100% sure.  Mearls?Overall, nothing earth-shattering, but a nice progression towards how the whole system works.</blockquote>

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