No ASIs, only feats

[Dausuul]

This would definitely tilt balance against casters and toward martials. There are lots of good feats for warriors, quite few for casters.

 

[AmerginLiath]

Sounds fun.

What you’re looking at is a mixture of specializations instead of broader generalizations. Consider the various uses that a given attribute has versus the specific uses that a feat’s new ability (even with its better bonus) has. It’s definitely doable, but you might want to work in specific cases in adventure design where each character’s chosen specializations have an opportunity for their use. But getting a chance to use a particular feat ability is going to be cooler than adding a +1 to an attribute check (regardless of which is “better” in the long run) so it can make for a more memorable story if played appropriately.

 

[5ekyu]

This would definitely tilt balance against casters and toward martials. There are lots of good feats for warriors, quite few for casters.

Especially if your caster is more controller than blaster.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I would maybe allow +1 to two stats but not +2 to one stat.

That would have nearly all the merits of only feats without the problem of not havibg enough feats to chose from.

Taking +1/+1 will compete with the desire to become better immediately.
Also there are a few classes that depend more heavily on a secondary stat. A monk for example needs dex and wisdom and maybe con and even a bit str. They also won't find a half feat that really helps them. And not every monk wants to be observant.
+1 dex and wis or +1 dex and wis or con now become nice options. Maybe you will see more 16 wis or 16 con monks becauae they had an odd stat they could make even instead of 20 dex as soon as possible.

 

[dave2008]

This is a funny sentence to me, since the vast majority of "balance" problems I've seen are due to multiclassing. Ban multiclassing, allow feats only with no ASIs, bask in the sudden variety of character development you see.

We haven't had an balance problems in our group with multiclassing. But my group doesn't really optimize or power game so that may be a factor.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Since it is theoretically possible and legit by RAW, when using feats, to create a character who never takes an ASI but only feats - this by Definition cannot be unbalanced because RAW would be unbalanced then.

It's also possible to create a paladin and throw all of your stat boosts into Intelligence. The only balance in the game is a balance of opportunities, but once everyone has made their choices, it is no longer balanced.

At best, we could say that a character with all feats would be in the same ballpark as a character who only boosts their prime stats, but in order to do so, we would have to admit that the ballpark is also large enough to encompass characters who only boost their dump stats.

 

[CTurbo]

Not allowing ASIs seriously hinders characters that rely on Dex for AC like Light Armor, Mage Armor, Natural Armor classes. I know it's not a total game breaker, but I think you'd see a lot more feats used to squeeze into Medium armor and Shield.

There are still a lot of feats that are good on any character like Alert, Mobile, Lucky, Resilient, Magic Initiate, Tough, Skilled, Healer, and even Observant.

I've played in a party where we all got Mobile for free at level 1 and it was fun. It'd also be fun if everybody had Alert. Most combats would FEEL like a surprise round.

I do agree though that the half feats that give a +1 to something would be more popular that ever. Especially the Armor Feats. Suddenly, it'd be worth it for a caster to taker both Lightly Armored AND Moderately Armored for the +2 Dex and the much higher AC. Every single Heavy Armor guy would want Heavy Armor Master. Every single build would have Resilient.

 

[Quartz]

Has anyone considered banning ASIs and allowing only feats?

Yes I had a thread or two on the subject way back. A search doesn't turn them up so I'm guessing they were lost in the big crash. As I recall, people didn't like the idea.

 

[Coroc]

[MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION] well of corse there is truth to what you say, so let's just for simplicity agree we talk about characters optimized to some degree. Means not necessarily minmax, but also not a Pally with all ASI in Int.

 

[MarvelousMax]

I feel like this would be difficult for fighter, since they have so many ASIs that they generally would get a few feats they need and some ASIs, now they might have to take some weak/unnecessary feats