Will you still need to take the Feats?

[ZombieRoboNinja]

As a sort of an aside, if I'm reading the Smite descriptions correctly, strength will still be more important than charisma for damage. Each of those smites is doing (normal weapon damage) x2 + (charisma modifier), which would be strength x 2 + charisma for a one-handed weapon, and either strength x3 or x4 + charisma with a two-hander (depending on whether you add strength and a half like in 3e, or strength x2 like in SWSE). So depending on your weapon choice, strength still gives you 2-4x more damage per point than charisma, even on your smites - and I'm guessing your non-smite attacks don't gain any benefit from charisma at all.

EDIT: You're right though in that you're using Charisma modifier to attack rather than Strength.

 

[Atlatl Jones]

Wizard: Int and Cha
Warlord: Cha and Str

One of the playtests said that Int is very important for Warlords. I also expect Int and Wis to be important for Wizards.

As a sort of an aside, if I'm reading the Smite descriptions correctly, strength will still be more important than charisma for damage. Each of those smites is doing (normal weapon damage) x2 + (charisma modifier), which would be strength x 2 + charisma for a one-handed weapon, and either strength x3 or x4 + charisma with a two-hander (depending on whether you add strength and a half like in 3e, or strength x2 like in SWSE).

You're assuming that [w] includes the strength bonus to damage. The article described it as "your base weapon's damage", so it might not include strength.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I'll be interested to see if this system makes a more distributed range of abilities viable versus increased specialization.

I think I saw a designer post to that effect.

This does seem like a basic and effective use of the 'nobody gets punished for doing what they do' policy.