So, what are the "400 actually useful" feats?

[Moon-Lancer]

oopse.... hahaha.

 

[RigaMortus2]

What was the point of his statement though? I could find a use for 99% of the feats out there. It all depends on what type of character you are making. The more feats you have, the more options you have. Is more options for players/characters a bad thing!?

 

[Corsair]

What was the point of his statement though? I could find a use for 99% of the feats out there. It all depends on what type of character you are making. The more feats you have, the more options you have. Is more options for players/characters a bad thing!?

The problem is that most feats, even some relatively good ones, are very very very situation specific. Improved disarm for example is nearly useless in a campaign that focuses on non-humanoid(ish) monsters.

With feats being relatively rare, players are pressured to pick feats they will actually USE.

 

[RigaMortus2]

I guess that is a good point... There are also a few class features like that too. What good is a level 1 Ranger who picks Favored Enemy: Orcs when the DM never throws any Orcs at the party?

But it is still about options... The DM has to allow for these options (or not). I think the player's should have some idea of the typical encounters (both combat and non-combat) they would incur on a day to day basis. Based on this, some feats will be more useful than others. In a different campaign, perhaps Skill Focus: Perform will have more use than Power Attack...

 

[Khuxan]

Mearls polarises me - half the time I think he's a genius, the other half of the time that he's misguided. Unfortunately, this is one of the latter times. I think choice is one of the best parts of D&D.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Hey, I once took Skill Focus (Craft: Gemcutting) as a starting feat for a gnome rogue/illusionist, and it turned out to be really handy a bunch of times. Spare glass pieces + Nystul's Magic Aura = Rare Magic Gemstones! Add Prestidigitation, get Super-Cool Ioun Stones! Decent Bluff, and you're set for life in short order!

Ah, the artifacts I'd forge...

It's all a question of creating opportunities for your choices and strengths.

 

[green slime]

imo, this short list would probably contain most feats from the PHB, and not that much more. As most games contain combat, so most "useful" feats are then going to be combat related. Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus, Spell Penetration....

I'd have thought asking for people's ten most "useful" feats would be a better way to get a list ranking the top 400 popular and "useful" feats.

 

[hong]

Mearls polarises me - half the time I think he's a genius, the other half of the time that he's misguided. Unfortunately, this is one of the latter times. I think choice is one of the best parts of D&D.

I don't see how you get that Mearls is saying choice is bad. If anything, he's saying that choice is GOOD. The problem is that the oodles and oodles of feats is misleading -- the real amount of choice you have is much less than it appears, because many of these feats are crappy.

 

[Thanee]

Yep, and many feats are completely pointless, something that never should have been a feat in the first place and is absolutely not worth spending a feat on.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

Often bad designers have attempted to make something into a feat which should actually be a straight option, forgetting that most PCs have a very limited number of potential feats over their lifetime.