Where do feats fall into this again?

[Remathilis]

I'm a little confused.

It seems like the really good feats (spring attack, two-weapon fighting, cleave) are all now powers.

So what are feats there for now?

It appears the only use for feats are to grant numerical bonuses to X (where X is some score, number or attribute) such as toughness (+ hp), weapon focus (+ to hit) or dodge (+ AC).

Effectively, all the good feats that opened up new tactics are now powers, and the meh feats that gave statistical improvements remain feats.

Am I reading this right?

 

[Gargazon]

Nope, there are definently some interesting feats that have been reveal so far, such as:

Golden Wyvern Adept
Tier: Paragon
Benefit: You can omit a number of squares from the effects of any of your area or close wizard powers. This number can’t exceed your Wisdom modifier.

Taken from this article here. It would also appear feats are another way to get powers (see Cleric pregen).

However, as we've only seen about a half-dozen feats already, it's really too early to say all feats are bogus +X things.

 

[Ahglock]

I'm a little confused.

It seems like the really good feats (spring attack, two-weapon fighting, cleave) are all now powers.

So what are feats there for now?

It appears the only use for feats are to grant numerical bonuses to X (where X is some score, number or attribute) such as toughness (+ hp), weapon focus (+ to hit) or dodge (+ AC).

Effectively, all the good feats that opened up new tactics are now powers, and the meh feats that gave statistical improvements remain feats.

Am I reading this right?

I honestly don't know, the feats we've seen so far have ranged form the sucktastic to the fairly cool, there doesn't seem to be any theme to me that ties it as why its a feat vs a power. If they were all numerical bonuses I can see feats as ways to make what you can already do better, but they seem to also include metamagic and gaining different types of actions like acting in the surprise round when surprised.

 

[Shroomy]

I honestly don't know, the feats we've seen so far have ranged form the sucktastic to the fairly cool, there doesn't seem to be any theme to me that ties it as why its a feat vs a power. If they were all numerical bonuses I can see feats as ways to make what you can already do better, but they seem to also include metamagic and gaining different types of actions like acting in the surprise round when surprised.

From what I've read, powers are abilities central to your class role, while feats are used to either additionally refine your class and racial powers or open up new abilities not necessarily related to your class's core abilities.

 

[small pumpkin man]

I honestly don't know, the feats we've seen so far have ranged form the sucktastic to the fairly cool, there doesn't seem to be any theme to me that ties it as why its a feat vs a power. If they were all numerical bonuses I can see feats as ways to make what you can already do better, but they seem to also include metamagic and gaining different types of actions like acting in the surprise round when surprised.

Altering how magic which you can already cast works and spending an action point to gain an action in a surprise round (remembering that action points are normally used to gain actions anyway) aren't new "types of actions" at all.

So it is... new type of action = power. bonus to existing action = feat. So far, anyway.

 

[BendBars/LiftGates]

Right. Powers let you do cool new attacks or moves. Feats make you better at things you already do. That might mean that a feat gives you a somewhat blah +2 on attacks versus aquatic reptilian elementals, but it might mean that you're a Golden Wyvern Dragon Widget Adept and your pre-existing spell powers are better than before. Or it could mean that you're an elven sniper and get to re-roll your attacks once per encounter. But it doesn't give you a new power. That's the paradigm as I understand it.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I doubt many feats will be +X things, unless the bonus is fairly specific, too much risk of 'throwing off the numbers' otherwise I think.

 

[Glyfair]

As I recall the following things have been stated or hinted about feats:

1) They tend to be less powerful than 3.X.
2) They tend to be closer together in power level than 3.X.
3) They tend to grow in power level (paragon feats are better than heroic, and epic are better than paragon).

#1 in particular is very vague. I have a hard time seeing some feats being less powerful than the least powerful 3.X feats. On the other hand, I can see them wanting to use feats to flesh out characters, while powers help determine their class role.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

As I recall the following things have been stated or hinted about feats:

1) They tend to be less powerful than 3.X.
2) They tend to be closer together in power level than 3.X.
3) They tend to grow in power level (paragon feats are better than heroic, and epic are better than paragon).

#1 in particular is very vague. I have a hard time seeing some feats being less powerful than the least powerful 3.X feats. On the other hand, I can see them wanting to use feats to flesh out characters, while powers help determine their class role.

Based on the limited number of feats we saw in the preview, I can't say that any of these appear to be true. Toughness is more powerful than the 3.x Improved Toughness, Toughness and GWA seem to be quite a bit better than Alertness and First reaction IMO, and the paragon feats don't seem inherently better than the heroic.

Also, the Toughness feat seems so good that it's not a question of if my characters will take it, but when.

That said, the feats preview came out at the end of November, so things may have changed since then.

 

[small pumpkin man]

Toughness doesn't really give any more hp than 3.x improved toughness, it's just scaled to include the higher low level hp. I guess you could say it's better because of the way healing scales and because it's otherwise fairly hard to get extra hp though.