Question about feats in Call of Cthulhu

[Green Knight]

Ok, I've been going over the book and liking what I see so far.

However, I'm confused when it comes to the subject of feats. Do you ONLY get 2 Feats starting off? What I mean is, in D&D you get your base feats plus whatever your class gets (So if you're a Fighter you get proficiency in all armor, shields, simple and martial weapons, etc).

But in Call of Cthulhu you only get 2 feats, PERIOD? Damn, that sucks. Please tell me that's not the case. I understand the game's supposed to be as close to classless as you can get, but that doesn't make this any less harsh.

 

[DarkCrisis]

As you level up you get feats as normal. Just like D&D

 

[Green Knight]

Yes, I know that, but what I'm asking is if all you get at 1st level are just the 2 feats. One for being 1st level and 1 for being human. Is that ALL you get? Now, I understand that a Cthulhu campaign wouldn't be like D&D. No armor proficiency feats, weapon proficiency feats, etc. But are those 2 Feats the ONLY feats you get at 1st level?

 

[Morpheus]

2...That's It

2 is all you get. The reason is that in CoC, you are not going to be well-prepared to fight the Mythos (at least not as well-prepared as in D&D and Spycraft). It takes some getting used to for the players-not having all those neat abilities to fall back on (especially the Spycraft players).

 

[Green Knight]

Damn, if that doesn't suck. Oh well. I can understand the reasons why, though. Thanks for the help. At least now I don't feel as if I missed a block of text somewhere.

 

[nsruf]

I don't see your problem. After all, there are no armor proficiencies and weapon proficiencies are very broad. Also, real world people often have no combat training. But if you want more heroic PCs, you can use the defense bonus optional rule, which also grants offensive characters an extra weapon proficiency feat.

 

[Green Knight]

I don't have a problem with it. Just not used to it. And for a while, there, I thought like maybe I had been missing a bit of text somewhere.

And yes, I realized that people wouldn't have armor/weapon proficiencies. What I was thinking was maybe they had some other feats in exchange for that.

 

[nsruf]

I have to say I even like that CoC PCs are simpler (in terms of description/choices for abilities) than standard D&D ones. The group I just started playing the game with is not very interested in rules heavy games and I doubt they would be very fond of D&D fantasy using much more than the core rules.

And PC power is an illusion anyway, even in classical fantasy games, but even more in CoC

 

[Green Knight]

Just takes some getting used to, that's all, as I'm not used to playing a D20 game that's as loose as Call of Cthulhu is when it comes to characters.

Which begs the question: I heard people complain incessantly about how weak Cthulhu was in this version. Um ... compared to what? Even in D&D a standard 20th level party wouldn't be able to defeat him. So how is a standard party in a Call of Cthulhu campaign supposed to even come CLOSE to hurting him seriously?

Whatever the case, I'm loving this game so far. Though it does take some adjustment.

 

[Kesh]

Actually, a CoC group should never actually meet one of the GOOs. Because if they did, that pretty much means the world is coming to an end.