Point-based Feat System

[The Crimson Binome]

Well it is a new way to think about feats, I get that. I actually take the fact that it's difficult to nail down the values as a good thing. Debate is an indication that the system has flexibility instead of shooting down the system as a whole.

I think the fundamental weirdness is just a side-effect of odd stats being worthless in the game. A bonus of +3 to Con isn't actually worth more than +2 to Con, unless it's already at an odd number.

Your system would make it easier to even out the random odd stat, and while that's definitely a boon to the players, I'm not sure whether it's an un-necessary buff, or whether the original system was un-reasonable to begin with. Was it supposed to be a balance measure, that increasing your Strength from 17 to 18 meant you also had to accept something less-valuable as the other half of the ASI? Or was it just an artifact of how ability scores work, that should be excised now that it's no longer necessary?

One benefit of the old system is that you can increase Strength directly from 18 to 20, in one swell foop. You never have to worry about accidentally raising it to 19, where it does nothing. I suppose your system would just have the character wait until they'd saved up enough points to go from 18 to 20 all at once, though.

 

[GlassJaw]

This is a buff for the players.

1. With two exceptions, feats are either the same cost or cheaper (so they get them quicker)

2. If you are recreating half-feats (+1 ASI) you now have additional flexibility because you can pick whatever ability score you want to, instead of being locked in and maybe having a useless odd score.

3. With breaking out the +1 ASIs from the costs, some feat features are now a lot more accessible. For example any 6th level wizard could pick up light, medium and heavy armor for the same cost (6 feat points total). Same cost as a weapon wielder can pick up GWM or Sharpshooter.

4. Getting a +1 to an odd score two levels sooner is more advantageous than having to wait.

5. It removes a major balance point for multiclassing.

Good stuff! Thanks for the feedback, especially with regards to multi-classing.

You are definitely illustrating my issues with the current feat system: most feats aren't really worth taking and there are some that are vastly more powerful than the rest. After that, there are very few that remain that hit the "sweet spot"; those that offer a player a tough choice between an ASI and a feat.

My goal is absolutely to offer more choice and to make some of the less popular feats more viable. I believe the developers absolutely knew that many feats weren't on par with others but they didn't want to tack on more and more bullet points. Instead they added a +1 ASI to compensate. But it doesn't do the job because in many cases, the +1 ASI isn't one the player actually wants.

The other problem is that some feats have abilities that are so powerful (GWM and SS primarily) that it becomes very difficult to "cost" them against the rest without changing the feats themselves (which is what I wanted to avoid in my initial design goal). It's a tough nut to crack, and concessions have to be made.

To address these without changing the feats, I'd put every feat and ASI back - so you can't get +1 ASI, only +2 or +1/+1 ASIs - at double the cost. Half-feats still have the other +1 ASI and it's reflected in the cost. It's still a character buff since some feats are cheaper, multiclassing has a big boost. And it has the disadvantage that it makes dead levels at times even with single classing.

Can you explain this a bit more clearly? It sounds interesting but I'm not exactly sure what you mean.