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<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8588717" data-attributes="member: 19857">As someone who has been irritated by this choice of terminology since 1999 I know the answer to this, understand how it happened, and I still hate it.The reason for is is that &quot;feats&quot; were originally conceived as active things that fighters could do much like spellcasters had spells.&nbsp; They were originally things like power attack and whirlwind attack - active maneuvers that fighters had they they could use in battle.&nbsp; As the development process went on the idea of who would be using feats expanded outside of the martial classes and to everyone - and they started including more general things that would be considered &quot;perks&quot; or &quot;advantages&quot; in another game.&nbsp; But when it did, they never changed the name to be something that would make sense and it slipped into publication with that same term despite it not fitting the actual game mechanic they'd created.Every time I see the word in a d20 game I think of the path not taken where they realized the name didn't make sense anymore and changed it to &quot;perk&quot; or &quot;talent&quot; or something that makes a bit more sense.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jer, post: 8588717, member: 19857"] As someone who has been irritated by this choice of terminology since 1999 I know the answer to this, understand how it happened, and I still hate it. The reason for is is that "feats" were originally conceived as active things that fighters could do much like spellcasters had spells. They were originally things like power attack and whirlwind attack - active maneuvers that fighters had they they could use in battle. As the development process went on the idea of who would be using feats expanded outside of the martial classes and to everyone - and they started including more general things that would be considered "perks" or "advantages" in another game. But when it did, they never changed the name to be something that would make sense and it slipped into publication with that same term despite it not fitting the actual game mechanic they'd created. Every time I see the word in a d20 game I think of the path not taken where they realized the name didn't make sense anymore and changed it to "perk" or "talent" or something that makes a bit more sense. [/QUOTE]

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