Jack of all Trades & Survivor

[Thac0 the Barbarian]

It's also important because although we know that picking individual feats is definitely going to be option, we don't know if it will be the normative mode of play any given table or losted as an option. I for one would be happy to do away with individual feat selection. I think it leads to a lot of the complaints regarding optimization, trap feats, feat taxes and a lot of yelling at WOTC that they can't pick what flavorful feats they want on because they're stuck taking boring mechanical bonuses. You actually avoid a lot of that by designong feats to be selected in soewhat balanced ( and hopefuly flavorful) packages.

 

[Rune]

..."I want to be really hard to kill, so I'll take the Specialty that gives me lots of extra hit points."

Not disagreeing with your main point, but a minor quibble: Survivor gives more than extra hit points--it gives extra hit dice, which can be a tremendous boost to survivability, especially at level 1.

 

[nightwalker450]

I'm actually a big fan of the Survivor Specialty, but I think they have room to add more feats than toughness to it. Perhaps damage reduction, or improved saving throws, easier ability to regain conciousness in combat, etc... Toughness would just be the first one.

I also like the idea of having a set of "extra feats" that are good for outside of specialties. Toughness, Skill Training, Proficiencies. Things characters can grab to make slight customization to their characters without breaking from specialty altogether.

 

[RigaMortus2]

"I want my character to be able to take a lot of punishment without going down."

As opposed to any other player's character who would prefer to take just a little punishment before they go down?

 

[nightwalker450]

Some character are worried more about destroying the opposition quicker. Some are worried about outsmarting the opposition quicker. The survivor is in for the long game, and is set to win the battle by attrition.

The survivor yells for the party to go ahead, while he delays the enemy. Get's dogpiled by the kobolds, and gets up again swinging.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If you cannot conjure an image of someone who is a Survivor or a Jack Of All Trades... perhaps the problem is that you're just not imagining hard enough.

Considering Jack Of All Trades has always been synonymous with 'Bard' practically throughout the entirety of the D&D game... I know I have absolutely no problem envisioning what a JoaT might look like in the slightest.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Most funny thing: my players took exactly those two specialities, because they wanted to try something more simple after I killed their more complex characters.

Seems to work for them.

As to specialities in general: "I want them to overwrite attribute requirements"

So for TWF, i´d like a dexterity requirement. And if you take the speciality. Scrap that. (note, that some specialities need a seperate requirement)

 

[gideonpepys]

I'm not sure "beginner" is the right word. It's a bit patronizing in fact.

Patronizing to whom? The comment isn't directed at anyone - but if you're keen to take a bullet feel free to dive in its path.

My point is that once an individual gets used to the game, they won't need specialties any more. They don't bring anything new to the table.

As to your point about domains, they gave you an extra spell - they didn't simply suggest a choice from an existing list.

 

[Dragoslav]

As opposed to any other player's character who would prefer to take just a little punishment before they go down?

If a player doesn't take the Toughness feat, then yes, apparently they prefer to take less punishment in order to be knocked down.

 

[Mattachine]

"The Tough Guy" is one of my preferred character types, an archetype, I would say.

That Survivor specialty fits it to a T.