stat points for a feat.

[Salthorae]

[MENTION=12032]brehobit[/MENTION] I do two things to "curb" the really powerful feats:

• GWM/Sharpshooter are based on proficiency, not flat #'s.
  
  -Prof/+2xProf (i.e. -2/+4 to start the game) rather than -5/+10. Makes them a little more balanced at the beginning and then if you happen to get to the top end, you get a little bit of an additional boost from the feat
  ​
• Lucky - I make my players spend the point even if they decide not to use the roll
• Side note I also agree with ThinkDM on the Grappler feat with a little modification. I give it to all classes that have full martial weapon proficiency + Monks for free

ThinkDM has another article titled Should Everyone get a feat at 1st? and a whole article on the relative power of Feats that might be worth a read for you.

 

[brehobit]

I doubt I'd pick a human in that situation, with Half Elf getting +2 cha, +1 to 2 other stats, darkvision, 2 skills, and other goodies. +1 to your 5th and 6th most important stat really isn't a draw IMO.

Yeah, base human is pretty bad. IMO alt-human is too good. It would be nice to find a solid middle-ground.

 

[OB1]

I think the OP is a perfectly reasonable suggestion.

I think you could also limit Variant Human to taking the Prodigy feat at first level and probably end up with 50/50 variant to regular selection.

 

[CTurbo]

I've seen people rule that the Vhuman's free feat doesn't happen until level 4 and that seems to work.

I think Vhuman is only OP from levels 1-3 and after that, the Half-Elf is typically superior with the extra skills and darkvision.


I'd be more interested in making the standard human better than trying to nerf the Vhuman. I've NEVER seen anybody use a standard human and probably never will. Not very many people if any care about +1 to all stats. It'd be better if it was +2 to any 2 stats of your choice. It probably STILL needs an extra skill and/or tool to be on par with Half-Elf.


On a similar topic, I hate how unbalanced the races are to begin with. I think they ALL should have a +2 and a +1. Why does MDwarf get 2 +2s? Why did they make Half-Elf so powerful? Why did they make an Orc, and then make it worse than Half-Orc in every way? I think Orc should have got +2 Str, +2 Con, and -2 Int and also got to keep their Orcish Aggression for free.

 

[Bacon Bits]

If you're not happy with alt human due to feat power levels, I would just add level requirements for certain feats. Require level 4 for Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter, Polearm Master, and Crossbow Expert.

Heavy Armor Master is good, but it really falls off in usefulness as the game progresses. It's amazing if you're fighting Kobolds. It's not so great when you're fighting Giants.