Silly rules question - any feat that just drives you batty?

[Henry]

This question came to mind when I was reading the thread about the warmace. Monkey Grip has a special place in my heart as the one feat I refuse to allow in a game. It's not necessarily because it might or might not be unbalanced - it's because even in a world of flinging fireballs, exotic elves, and divebombing dragons, I SIMPLY CANNOT AND REFUSE to wrap my mind around something as ludicrous as monkey grip. No amount of training to me is going to let someone wield a weapon as big as YOU ARE effectively in one hand. What is it supposed to be? Some spreading of the fingers or something? Some muscle exercises? Fah, Fie, and Fee to that! You'll get repetitive strain injury the first time you try to swing that pole arm with one hand with even a modicum of control.

So I wonder - is there any other feat that bugs you as a DM? Something that you just have to balk at and say, "psssshhhYeah, Right!" Maybe whirlwind attack pulls your bounds of belief, even if you don't mind the actual rules mechanic. Maybe you just can't bring yourself to adjudicate an Elven Archer with a fistful of arrows and his Manyshot feat. Maybe the idea of Cleave taking out two people at once on opposite sides of a fighter is too silly for you.

In any event, what feat do you look at your players and say, "I'm sorry, that just stretches the bounds of plausibility too far for me." ?

 

[two]

EWP: Spiked Chain

 

[Plane Sailing]

For me the stupidist feat is monkey grip and I'll never allow that.

Pretty close is the way that Cleave breaks the "number of attacks" thing, especially cleaving AoO that let you strike someone who didn't let their guard down, or cleaves with a spear or other piercing weapon. I have both mechanical and perceptual problems with it (great cleave gets even worse. Longspear shish-kebab?)

Cheers

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I think Cleave becomes easier to envision if you don't force it to a "I cut through the guy in front of me and into the orc standing next to him" description.

You can do this because a d20 roll does not a swing equal.

 

[Fauxargent]

Touch of Golden Ice (from BoED - and the whole idea of ravages in general).

As a minimum it should have limited uses/day (probably as a stunning fist usage)

 

[Parlan]

Spell Casting Prodigy

Every wizard I've played with has wanted to take this feat (which generally shows that something is wrong with it)

The concept of a feat giving you a +2 to a stat (for the # of spells, Spell DC etc which are all that a wizard cares about anyway) irritates me.

It's not like fighters can get a feat that grants +2 to str for the purposes of calculating hit and damage bonuses...

 

[rkanodia]

Spellcasting Prodigy gets me too, but only because of its unbalance compared to things like Spell Focus. Didn't it get errataed in 3.5? Anyway, I think a better way of doing Spellcasting Prodigy would be to give +1 caster level... this really does make the caster a 'prodigy', with more effective spells than another caster of his level, without making them stronger after their maxed out. He learns faster than ordinary people, but he's going to hit the same limits.

Monkey Grip I honestly don't have a problem with, but then, I've never been a simulationist. I like kung-fu movies and video games and the tale of Musashi, so I think it works pretty well. If anything, Monkey Grip is (mechanically speaking) underpowered, since a monkey gripped large greatsword does 3d6 damage, while a medium greatsword (with Power Attack for 2) does 2d6+4 with the same attack bonus. For one-handed weapons it can be slightly better - a large bastard sword does 2d8, while Power Attacking for 2 a medium greatsword does only 1d10+2.

 

[Sejs]

Touch of Golden Ice is on my annoyance list, definitly. Along with Karmic Strike, Freezing the Lifeblood and Weakening Blow (..think that's the name, anyway).


Monkey Grip I don't have so much a problem with, particularly after watching Berserk.

 

[Coredump]

Despite any balance issue, I really can't handle Monkey Grip

Going to go slightly off topic.

As for items, etc.

Mecurial swords
Animated shields

I don't even mind animated swords, or vorpal swords. But animated shields (especially tower shields) really bother me.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Feat that drives you batty...

... Extra Wildshape?

-Hyp.