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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GX.Sigma" data-source="post: 6778308" data-attributes="member: 6690511">We can agree that the designers intended the feat system to be optional, but being optional does not exempt it from criticism.As I said in the passage you quoted directly above this paragraph: It doesn't matter whether you or I as individuals feel GWM and SS are imbalanced. The very fact that so many people do think they are imbalanced, and that the game is less fun as a result, is a real problem that can be fixed mechanically. Why would you not want to fix that? If a player plays the game and finds it un-fun because they believe it is imbalanced, that is not the player's fault. It is the game's fault.First of all, my diction there was not great. "Always powerful" vs "situational" is not the right terms for what I was trying to say.See, I was thinking from the perspective of a Fighter player. I don't have the empirical data in front of me, but it stands to reason that if you're playing a Fighter with a greatsword, you probably want to be good at fighting with a greatsword. Don't you agree? The Fighter class is composed of roughly 100% combat features. There is mechanically no reason to play a Fighter unless your primary goal is to be good in combat.So when you see a feat that makes you even better in combat, it is very appealing. By taking that feat, you gain "vertical" power in your specialist area. And that can mess up the game's balance, because now your Fighter with that feat is a better fighter than other Fighters without that feat. And that's bad. Are you with me so far?Now, imagine your Fighter takes the Actor feat. You're not any better at your primary function (fighting), but you gain a "horizontal" ability that lets you do things you couldn't do before. Your Fighter is just as good a fighter as my Fighter who took Ritual Caster, but we can each do things the other can't. Which is also imbalanced, but in a good way, because now our characters are distinct and interesting without overshadowing each other.My idea to fix the optimization problem is to have feats be more "horizontal" and less "vertical." Martial Adept, for example, is a mostly-horizontal feat that could appeal to combat-focused characters without causing imbalance.I believe that's the tension the system needs to offset the optimization problem. +2 to your main stat should be "vertically" better than a random feat. It makes feats 'more optional' if the base option is so generally appealing. If the ability bump is the best way to improve your baseline capabilities, then there are no "must-have" feats. There would still be some feats that would appeal to certain characters, but they wouldn't break the math.[edited a bunch of times]</blockquote>

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