Power-Swap Feats - taking multiple times

[eamon]

If DM is considering house ruling it so that one can take the utility swap feat more than once, one thing to keep in mind is that some utilities can be a lot more powerful if available to a different class.

For example, in my group we have a tactical warlord who has multiclassed into wizard. For his utility swap power he took Fire Shield, which basically means that for one encounter per day, any enemy that hits him with a melee attack takes a decent amount of fire damage.

That particular utility is quite a lot more powerful for a melee character than a wizard... and I imagine there are other utilities that are also more powerful if taken by a different class.

Sure, but each time you do so it's costing a feat slot and another power. There's almost always another decent feat around, so this isn't generally going to be a great option power-wise; and since you're in custom rules territory, the DM should be looking over the shoulder to spot any particularly wonky interactions. And each additional power-swap feat is going to be worth less, typically - after all, you did pick the most attractive choice to swap out the first time.

If people invest all that effort into their character, that's just another hook for the DM... I'm not too worried about this particular issue. It's outside of the core rules so you should be wary of odd interactions, but straightforward power issues seem very unlikely.

 

[DracoSuave]

Except that a peanut is actually a pea (i.e. a legume) and not a nut.

It's actually more of a tuber (potato) than a nut or a pea.

 

[tuxgeo]

It's actually more of a tuber (potato) than a nut or a pea.

Right. Peanut farmers dig the peanuts out of the soil, they do not pick peanuts off pea-vines.

This means that peanut shells are physically analogous to potato skins: to coin a phrase, they are what might be called outer "nut skins."
[Just don't 'squirrel' them away or they'll laugh at you on CircVS MaximVS (not that they wouldn't do that anyway, just sayin').]

To drag this thread back onto topic: wouldn't it be interesting if WotC eventually decided to update the MC power-swap feats to allow them to be taken multiple times?
Do we need a Poll for this? Which feat would get doubled most often -- "Novice Power" (Encounter Attack), "Acolyte Power" (Utility Power), or "Adept Power" (Daily Attack)? My guess would be Acolyte by a wide margin, if only because some of those Utilities are vastly different from the usual trends of attacks.

 

[Dice4Hire]

My guess would be Acolyte by a wide margin, if only because some of those Utilities are vastly different from the usual trends of attacks.

Yes, most utilities are not ability score dependent, which would make them far more attractive. It might not be unbalanced to allow them to be taken multiple times, but it would be different.

 

[Istar]

If DM is considering house ruling it so that one can take the utility swap feat more than once, one thing to keep in mind is that some utilities can be a lot more powerful if available to a different class.

For example, in my group we have a tactical warlord who has multiclassed into wizard. For his utility swap power he took Fire Shield, which basically means that for one encounter per day, any enemy that hits him with a melee attack takes a decent amount of fire damage.

That particular utility is quite a lot more powerful for a melee character than a wizard... and I imagine there are other utilities that are also more powerful if taken by a different class.

Yes I think you are right, our Cleric thinks this should be open to interpretation.

But the rules are very clear, I think too many powers from another class could over power your main with certain combo's.
Wont be looking for any sort of house ruling.