D&D General Path of Feats: a Superior Design than Subclasses

[Neonchameleon]

Ironically, the arcane restoration feat for the lich is useless for a Warlock, despite the fact you'd think the undead warlock would be the perfect candidate for this. But pact magic yet again fails to work with any other magic rules in the game and requires designers to develop complex workarounds to avoid breaking it.

I'd rather have homogenization than every time a new ability that affects spellcasting is released trying to figure out how pact magic breaks it.

Hardly complex to say "or a pact magic slot". They just decided not to put any warlock options there.

The thing is figuring things out isn't hard and the warlock is IMO easily the most interesting class to play both thematically and mechanically. Throwing out the best class in D&D 5e just to save a tiny bit of mental effort for designers is a false economy.

 

[Minigiant]

Ironically, the arcane restoration feat for the lich is useless for a Warlock, despite the fact you'd think the undead warlock would be the perfect candidate for this. But pact magic yet again fails to work with any other magic rules in the game and requires designers to develop complex workarounds to avoid breaking it.

I'd rather have homogenization than every time a new ability that affects spellcasting is released trying to figure out how pact magic breaks it.

Meh

Im okay witg Standard Lich not working with Warlock.

To me, warlock is exploit or cheat of the rules that patrons give access to. So the standard way into lichdom shouldn't be very compatible.

A "warlock lich" should be its own thing.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I will prefer a feat tree solution over bbn1/ftr2/rog3/prestige class X builds.

I’d like to have prestige classes but i think it would be beneficial to ban multiclassing first cutting out that whole kind of barb1/fighter2/rogue3 nonsense.

Your class and subclass would form the spine of your character’s build and while branching out into a specific theme.
Feats provide a wide selection of specific points of customisation, including short 2-feat chains.
While prestige classes help fill in the niche multiclassing currently does but in a neater way, letting you explore concepts outside your original class.
Also you would have a species that is fleshed out enough mechanically so that it would actually mean something to your character’s build.

 

[Remathilis]

I’d like to have prestige classes but i think it would be beneficial to ban multiclassing first cutting out that whole kind of barb1/fighter2/rogue3 nonsense.

Your class and subclass would form the spine of your character’s build and while branching out into a specific theme.
Feats provide a wide selection of specific points of customisation, including short 2-feat chains.
While prestige classes help fill in the niche multiclassing currently does but in a neater way, letting you explore concepts outside your original class.
Also you would have a species that is fleshed out enough mechanically so that it would actually mean something to your character’s build.

You can't get rid of multiclassing and keep prestige classes. The whole point was they were classes you couldn't start as and could only multiclass into later. The bbn1/ftr2/rog3/prcX WAS the point of them. When I switched to Pathfinder 1e after 3.5 where prestige classes were de-emphasized, multiclassing dips like that dried up.

I have zero desire to go back to prc and everyone being Frankensteined out of a half-dozen classes and stacking PrCs.

 

[CreamCloud0]

You can't get rid of multiclassing and keep prestige classes. The whole point was they were classes you couldn't start as and could only multiclass into later. The bbn1/ftr2/rog3/prcX WAS the point of them. When I switched to Pathfinder 1e after 3.5 where prestige classes were de-emphasized, multiclassing dips like that dried up.

I have zero desire to go back to prc and everyone being Frankensteined out of a half-dozen classes and stacking PrCs.

I mean, you could get rid of MC and keep PC, you just tie prestige class qualifications to prerequisites that aren’t multiclassed based, give them all a minimum level threshold and something like ‘you need to be able to cast 3rd level divine spells’ ‘you need to be proficient in martial weapons and have extra attack’ ‘you need to have a class pet-companion’

Give them lockstep level progression to your main class like an extra subclass from the point you take them, and done, it’s easy, prestige classes without needing frankenstein class builds.

And feats help you branch out to meet requirements your baseclass isn’t directly inclined towards.

 

[Minigiant]

I’d like to have prestige classes but i think it would be beneficial to ban multiclassing first cutting out that whole kind of barb1/fighter2/rogue3 nonsense.

Your class and subclass would form the spine of your character’s build and while branching out into a specific theme.
Feats provide a wide selection of specific points of customisation, including short 2-feat chains.
While prestige classes help fill in the niche multiclassing currently does but in a neater way, letting you explore concepts outside your original class.
Also you would have a species that is fleshed out enough mechanically so that it would actually mean something to your character’s build.

You can't get rid of multiclassing and keep prestige classes. The whole point was they were classes you couldn't start as and could only multiclass into later. The bbn1/ftr2/rog3/prcX WAS the point of them. When I switched to Pathfinder 1e after 3.5 where prestige classes were de-emphasized, multiclassing dips like that dried up.

I have zero desire to go back to prc and everyone being Frankensteined out of a half-dozen classes and stacking PrCs.

Prestige Classes would only work if they were

1. Tied to a level. You get in at level 5 or 11 at the Tier opening level.
2. They are utraspecify to only work with certain classes OR ultra specific and dont synergy with any unique class features

Otherwise it would be impossible to be anywhere near benchmarks and result in disappointment