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Is Expanding Feats the Answer?
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<blockquote data-quote="Herremann the Wise" data-source="post: 5725457" data-attributes="member: 11300"><p>This is making me think so thank you for the input. To me a point buy system is focused on finer details with the points or cost being the primary method of keeping what is purchased "balanced". What I think I'm thinking of though is that the suite of abilities or the package that you access for your character is balanced within itself. The XP cost of a feat is not meant to take on that burden, but is meant to be used as a lever that helps determine <em>when </em>a feat may be purchased.</p><p></p><p>My main motive for using the term "feat" is that it is a D&D term in both 3e and 4e that has already been flexed in its use. You have class abilities, feats, powers, racial abilities and themes all kind of treading similar ground and so I though for simplicity, it would be useful to try and unite these under one umbrella. A kind of evolving of the organisation of D&D character capacities. I still want it to very much feel like Dungeons & Dragons so the fact that it was more "GURPS" to you is a concern and a factor to keep an eye on.</p><p></p><p>What I'm trying to do though is reduce the option overload, I'll see if I can convince you (and others). The difficulty is that without actually having a finished product to show you, it is quite difficult to convey what I have rolling around in my head but let's see what I can come up with.</p><p></p><p>A feat is meant to represent a particular aspect of a character; the title is meant to be informative (and evocative) so as if you were "building" your character, you would look to these titles as to which ones best represented the character you have in mind. The feat is a simple building block or a package of adjustments, abilities, powers etc. that all back up and mechanically represent what the feat title is trying to say. As such, you are trying to mop up several "things" and put them all under the one umbrella. This in essence is looking to contract the wide field of options into a field large enough to present variety but not so much as to requiring a compendium to manage them all. The aim is to contain the number of feats rather than allow them to explode. By tying them explicitly to a theme, I'm hoping that it discourages creating large numbers of feats that all basically represent the same thing.</p><p></p><p>The other factor is that there is a small amount of variation within a feat. These may be minor tweaks or choosing a particular exploit over another; or more interestingly features that must be earned from in game action rather than being simply selected by the player. The aim is that you could have two characters with identical feats but who were not necessarily mechanically identical.</p><p></p><p>Broadly speaking, you are making two sets of choices when you are selecting feats. The first is selecting the broad categories that best represent your character concept. The second is having selected these feats, tweaking the available options within the feat to nail down and more highly define that original concept. I think that is a more organic way of creating characters.</p><p></p><p>And so thank you for the short but thought-provoking response; much appreciated. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Best Regards</p><p>Herremann the Wise</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Herremann the Wise, post: 5725457, member: 11300"] This is making me think so thank you for the input. To me a point buy system is focused on finer details with the points or cost being the primary method of keeping what is purchased "balanced". What I think I'm thinking of though is that the suite of abilities or the package that you access for your character is balanced within itself. The XP cost of a feat is not meant to take on that burden, but is meant to be used as a lever that helps determine [I]when [/I]a feat may be purchased. My main motive for using the term "feat" is that it is a D&D term in both 3e and 4e that has already been flexed in its use. You have class abilities, feats, powers, racial abilities and themes all kind of treading similar ground and so I though for simplicity, it would be useful to try and unite these under one umbrella. A kind of evolving of the organisation of D&D character capacities. I still want it to very much feel like Dungeons & Dragons so the fact that it was more "GURPS" to you is a concern and a factor to keep an eye on. What I'm trying to do though is reduce the option overload, I'll see if I can convince you (and others). The difficulty is that without actually having a finished product to show you, it is quite difficult to convey what I have rolling around in my head but let's see what I can come up with. A feat is meant to represent a particular aspect of a character; the title is meant to be informative (and evocative) so as if you were "building" your character, you would look to these titles as to which ones best represented the character you have in mind. The feat is a simple building block or a package of adjustments, abilities, powers etc. that all back up and mechanically represent what the feat title is trying to say. As such, you are trying to mop up several "things" and put them all under the one umbrella. This in essence is looking to contract the wide field of options into a field large enough to present variety but not so much as to requiring a compendium to manage them all. The aim is to contain the number of feats rather than allow them to explode. By tying them explicitly to a theme, I'm hoping that it discourages creating large numbers of feats that all basically represent the same thing. The other factor is that there is a small amount of variation within a feat. These may be minor tweaks or choosing a particular exploit over another; or more interestingly features that must be earned from in game action rather than being simply selected by the player. The aim is that you could have two characters with identical feats but who were not necessarily mechanically identical. Broadly speaking, you are making two sets of choices when you are selecting feats. The first is selecting the broad categories that best represent your character concept. The second is having selected these feats, tweaking the available options within the feat to nail down and more highly define that original concept. I think that is a more organic way of creating characters. And so thank you for the short but thought-provoking response; much appreciated. :) Best Regards Herremann the Wise [/QUOTE]
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