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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Justice and Rule" data-source="post: 8440809" data-attributes="member: 6778210">No no, it's cool.For starters, when you gate things way easier to keep things straight because, through gating, you don't need to worry about about a bunch of special abilities or anything. You have the basic stuff, and if someone has a feat that modifies an action, then you can apply it. Instead of memorizing a huge book of different options of through skills and unlocks of what you can do at any time, the players will tell you when they can do something special. Also has the added benefit of keeping modifiers down.Secondly, compared to "allow for broad skills and just make things bonuses", a lot of PF2 Feats are new actions, which allow each player to have a different take on a situation. My constant example Combat Climber, because I think climbing is a good example where gating makes for interesting situations. The feat doesn't require a skill check, it just changes what you can do, which is not only simpler but way more interesting: now you can advance up a cliff face in a way different than someone without it because you're not only less vulnerable, but you can fight back more easily. A guy with Reactive Shield can use their reaction to fend off attackers, while someone with Quickdraw can advance slowly while fighting back, instead of being forced to sit while under attack. Each of those feats are adding exceptions gated by feats, rather than everyone being able to hold a weapon in their hand but have to roll a -2/-5 to their climb check. It forces players to look at what they have, rather than finding an optimum route via skills and just using it despite a modifier or two.Thirdly,I don't really like Survey Wildlife because it's two checks, but if you take my advice of making it one check at a penalty, it creates solid niche protection. Why? Well, let's look at 5E, because this was always a bit problem with me and the open-ended skill system: the Survival and Nature skill really didn't have clear niches and it was easy to make arguments for big overlap. I mean, why wouldn't you use Survival to survey what's around you and figure out what animals are in the area? It makes sense, right? But then why have a Nature skill?In this case, limiting the skills to specific niches allows for solid distinctions: someone who has "Survival" is able to find and follow tracks well, but that doesn't necessarily make them good at knowing who those tracks come from. Survey Wildlife would give you a solid workaround, where you don't need to have the formal Knowledge Skill to do such a thing, but you take a simple Penalty to it. It makes it so that everyone doesn't suddenly just take Survival, but puts a small cost compared to someone who is just naturally good at Nature.Let's take another one: Group Impression. It was mentioned earlier, but I think it's a pretty interesting feat, especially if you gate it: if you are limited to making an Impression on one person, you're obviously going to do it on the leader of a group, right? They'll also likely have the best Will Save. However, if you try to sway the Henchmen individually, it'll not only take longer but be kind of obvious to the leader, who probably won't want you influencing them. With Group Impression, you can more subtly influence a group since you can hit a few of the lower Will save followers. Maybe they won't suddenly work for you, but if the Leader isn't open to talking to you they might drop a hint or something without the leader noticing; advice about a trap on the upcoming trail, etc. It's a neat roleplaying advantage, and one that isn't just a bonus; you can do something that others cannot.Let's look at a similar feat: Glad-Hand. This basically allows you to make an immediate check on Make an Impression rather than take a minute to do it. Worth noting it's only in casual or social settings, but it allows for different tactics: a Glad-hander would identify different people you might want to hit up quickly to influence and hit them quickly, while someone with Group Impression would take the time and hit a group up simultaneously. Different approaches crated by gating, rather than just applying a bonus or penalty.I could go on, because I think most of the feats are built like this: not about modifiers to dice, but more about modifiers to actions. It gets people planning differently rather than trying to find the ideal route and boost the roll however they can.</blockquote>

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