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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 9890389" data-attributes="member: 6988941">My basic issue with the "thematic feat path" concept is that feats come so rarely in 5e that it feels almost just as constrained as taking a subclass (and is battling with taking an often much needed ASI). I do think it has some value in the absence of subclasses that are available to multiple or all classes for thematic ideas that really belong to multiple classes (or at the very least that someone should be able to dip into without needing to commit to an underlying class), and in cases where it is something that lends itself to being an additional theme on top of subclass theming. It also allows a form of subclass that can theoretically advance on a deeply multiclassed character (but 5e makes feats come so slow when multiclassing that that is more relevant to theorycrafting than many people's actual play)I also think if the first step in these feat chains were an origin feat in 5.5 then that could fill some of the void left by subclasses all being moved to level 3.The major downside of the thematic feat chain approach is that it is both less newbie friendly and less evocative than a subclass. I mean, I think there's an argument to be made that a single feat chain could have covered both Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster and done it in a more satisfying way mechanically (by giving some options in the intermediary feats of the chain, and perhaps by starting with an origin feat to have the characters be dabbling in magic from level 1). But a lot of the value in classes as a whole, as well as subclasses, is that they give players a clearly presented thematic path to encourage their roleplay (and, indeed, force them to choose one). A bunch of things buried alphabetically in the feats section which someone has to sort out by crossrefrencing prerequisites, etc. does not have the same impact. Which is all to say that feat chains are for players who want to put some work in, and that the most evocative or widely appealing ideas should probably not be buried in feat chains. Partly this is just an issue of presentation, of course.</blockquote>

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