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<blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 6634475" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!&nbsp; Our first game ever...no Feats. Our second mini-campaign. No Feats again. Our third, and current, we decided to try Feats. Like blaming your flatulence on an old gypsy lady walking by...big...MISTAKE! (virtual cookie to those who get that reference).&nbsp; The *moment* I said &quot;OK, we'll give Feats a shot&quot;, there were unbalancing issues. The party was all 1st level. There was a Wyr (think lizard-man), a pair of Cu'Lain (think 10&quot; tall fairies) and a Human (think female basketball player). The human, a Thief, took Crossbow Expert. POOF! She was suddenly doing more damage than the Wyr was....and he was a 18 Str behemoth-sized Paladin. She wan't doing more damage only in some situations...it was, literally, almost every single round. If she got to use her Sneak Attack? She was doing double what anyone else in the group could put out.&nbsp; This fourth mini-campaign (yeah, we try a lot of different campaigns until one &quot;sticks&quot;), I initially said No feats. But, seeing as I wanted to get the &quot;full 5e experience&quot;, decided to use them anyway...with the caveat that I'd happily re-balance encounters if needed because of Feat choices. &nbsp;&nbsp; So far...it's not making a HUGE difference. But I think that's because the players have taken Feats that fit the character rather than 'buff up' the character. Probably has something to do with me outright saying Don't take a Feat to get tougher...it won't work; if you can do +10 damage, I'll just give monsters you fight more hp; so don't bother playing the numbers-game. It will be a waste of your time. And, lo and behold, nobody has taken any of the &quot;power feats&quot;. Every character has a feat that 'fits' with the character concept, as opposed to taking a feat because if you don't, you suddenly suck compared to everyone else in the party.&nbsp; My next campaign? No Feats as a default. Exceptions may be made, but they will be available only on a case by case, story based, RP'ing-centric, basis. Kind like how the &quot;epic level bonuses&quot; things in the DMG are given out. Someone with a Feat, PC or NPC, will be a rare individual, gifted with unnatural skill or secret training. For example, something like &quot;Only the Stone Knights of the Hidden Mountain are trained in the secret art of the Stone Root Stances. It is said that they can turn what would be a deadly hit into a mere scratch when they wear their sacred Grey Plate armor&quot; (Feat: Heavy Armor Mastery). This adds a lot of flavour, and also makes Feats actually feel &quot;special&quot;.^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pming, post: 6634475, member: 45197"] Hiya! Our first game ever...no Feats. Our second mini-campaign. No Feats again. Our third, and current, we decided to try Feats. Like blaming your flatulence on an old gypsy lady walking by...[B]big...MISTAKE![/B] (virtual cookie to those who get that reference). The *moment* I said "OK, we'll give Feats a shot", there were unbalancing issues. The party was all 1st level. There was a Wyr (think lizard-man), a pair of Cu'Lain (think 10" tall fairies) and a Human (think female basketball player). The human, a Thief, took Crossbow Expert. POOF! She was suddenly doing more damage than the Wyr was....and he was a 18 Str behemoth-sized Paladin. She wan't doing more damage only in some situations...it was, literally, almost every single round. If she got to use her Sneak Attack? She was doing double what anyone else in the group could put out. This fourth mini-campaign (yeah, we try a lot of different campaigns until one "sticks"), I initially said No feats. But, seeing as I wanted to get the "full 5e experience", decided to use them anyway...with the caveat that I'd happily re-balance encounters if needed because of Feat choices. So far...it's not making a HUGE difference. But I think that's because the players have taken Feats that fit the character rather than 'buff up' the character. Probably has something to do with me outright saying [I]Don't take a Feat to get tougher...it won't work; if you can do +10 damage, I'll just give monsters you fight more hp; so don't bother playing the numbers-game. It will be a waste of your time.[/I] And, lo and behold, nobody has taken any of the "power feats". Every character has a feat that 'fits' with the character concept, as opposed to taking a feat because if you don't, you suddenly suck compared to everyone else in the party. My next campaign? No Feats as a default. Exceptions may be made, but they will be available only on a case by case, story based, RP'ing-centric, basis. Kind like how the "epic level bonuses" things in the DMG are given out. Someone with a Feat, PC or NPC, will be a rare individual, gifted with unnatural skill or secret training. For example, something like [I]"Only the Stone Knights of the Hidden Mountain are trained in the secret art of the Stone Root Stances. It is said that they can turn what would be a deadly hit into a mere scratch when they wear their sacred Grey Plate armor" (Feat: Heavy Armor Mastery)[/I]. This adds a lot of flavour, and also makes Feats actually feel "special". ^_^ Paul L. Ming [/QUOTE]

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