D&D (2024) Will Feat Levels Limit Customization?

[Ruin Explorer]

Yes, its a concern. If your PC is themed on being an archer, and the first archer feat is 8th level, you cannot use feats for the likely overwhelming majority of your adventuring career to reinforce your theme. Meanwhile, PCs who focus on aiding others (Musician) or going first (Alert), etc. will be able to pick feats which reinforce their theme from character creation.

Yeah this makes me wonder if they shouldn't consider making the Feat levels sort of deal with different areas of the game. Like L1 Feats shouldn't including anything combat-centric, but maybe all the new Feats available at L4 should deal with combat styles (including magic), maybe L8 should all be survivability, and so on. That would limit customization further I admit but it would also enable more parity there if that turns out to be a major concern.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This is what we saw in the 5e playtest. Lots of cool feat trees and levelled feats which people complained about due to it limiting their customisation. So when 5e finally released, these cool options aren't available at level 1. They're simply removed from the game at all.

That's kind of on WotC, not the people who complained, to be clear.

Just like a lot of odd decisions in with cool material in the playtest, like the playtest Sorcerer, where WotC basically said "We'll make this it's own class!" and then just... didn't.

I think what ultimately got those Feats wasn't people talking about it limiting customization, it was the "apology edition" stuff that made them suddenly decide Feats were optional, and they shouldn't expend too much effort/page space on them.

 

[Aldarc]

It limits customization/optimization in some ways,* but it also opens customization options in other ways** while also providing some net improvements (IMO) on gameplay.***

* You can't take certain feats when you want to.
** Greater access to feats commonly used for character customization, roleplaying, or utility (e.g., Magic Initiate) at starting level for more than Vumans.
*** Characters can't start at 1st level with the best or more OP feats of the game.

 

[Corinnguard]

The idea of acquiring feats at specific levels of a character's level advancement is something that Pathfinder 2nd edition did when it came out. Each character class had it's own set of class feats (in addition to general feats, skill feats, and ancestry feats. PF2 wasn't nicknamed Featfinder for nothing, you know. ) Hopefully 1D&D's idea won't be too restrictive.

 

[Vael]

My main concern is I'm not interested in chains of feats. Basically, no feat should require more than one other feat.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

My main concern is I'm not interested in chains of feats. Basically, no feat should require more than one other feat.

I used to like the idea of feat chains but got talked out of it.

I'm still super supportive of level requirements for feats. As it allows you to put in way more impactful stuff which isn't balanced for lvl 1.

 

[aco175]

I would favor the 'must have' feats be eliminated, modified, or restricted to higher levels. Like what everyone says, if it is too good to not have, then it is overpowered.

I can also see being able to take feats of lower level that you are, but the 'better' ones are for your level. I can see opening up more 1st level feats and classes having access to more feats overall. I hope we do not go back to 3e with the power and number of feats that PCs had.

I could also see 1st level feats being only available at 1st level. They could be cool in that regards if they are to be tied to background.

 

[Haplo781]

It will actually allow for broader customization. You'll be able to choose feats that weren't previously available as you level; feats which would be too strong at level 1 or 4 to even be printed.

 

[Amrûnril]

Yes, but it's by design. Some feats have proven themselves to be quite powerful, so limiting their use until higher levels would prevent them from unbalancing the early game. I suspect that most feats we know will simply be 4th level feats, as the only way the game allows a PC to get them before that is from 2 variant rules. Since people like feats, it's become a common houserule to grant a feat at level 1, but this creates balance issues. Granting feats that are limited in power at 1st level is a way to grant this desire without unbalancing the game.

I suspect you're right about most current feats becoming 4th level feats. I think this would be a mistake, though. While there are definitely a handful of problem cases, the overwhelming majority of current feats strike me as perfectly reasonable for a level one character. And while pushjing feats back to level 4 doesn't reduce options relative to the current game for most characters,, it does reduce them for the players who value those options most highly.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

If the effect is that people are able to select feats at first level and/or that there will be even more feats available at higher levels that WotC would have been otherwise too hesitant to include because they were thought to unbalance low level play, then the effect is to increase customization.

If it doesn't lead to a lot of extra feats and just limits access to existing ones then it would be limiting customization. But I feel like the more likely scenario is that we now get a system that gradually becomes bloated with feat options. Campaign books often include background options. If all those backgrounds start coming with new feats (as I suspect will happen) then the number of feats in the system overall eventually becomes quite large.