So what will talents be for?

[Stalker0]

Now that we've some feats in action along with class abilities, the question becomes: "What will be the purpose of talents?"

My initial guess will be they will unlock class abilities, for example, those paladin smites might require talents to get.

Thoughts?

 

[Frostmarrow]

They might provide +2 (or reroll) to certain skills. As such they are less powerful than feats but can still be found on a character sheet - otherwise they can hardly stand up to the competition.

It's just a guess.

 

[Njall]

Well, since they're meant to replace class abilities, and class abilities generally > feats, I think they're in fact better than feats.
IIRC, it's being mentioned that Spring Attack might become a talent in 4e, because it introduces a new mechanic, as opposed to what feats do ("making you better at something").
So if Spring Attack is, say, a rogue talent, something like Bounding Assault ( PHBII ) might be a feat, making a spring attacker better at something he can already do.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Voss]

Class abilities, almost certainly. I'm not even sure they'll be called talents, really. Just class abilities or powers. Maybe some ways to boost bab/saves so that you can differentiate the classes away from the unified progression

Frostmarrow- I don't really think that the 'talents' can be less powerful than the feats we've been shown without not being worth keeping track of. From the way the feat article talked, it actually looks like the real power will be in the 'talents', and the feats will be neat little add-ons.