Wish spell to learn a feat?

[Iron_Chef]

Thanks for reminding me about the Arms & Equipment Guide sidebar about feat granting magic items. Very helpful!

Of course he must meet all prereq's of the feat to use it. No problem there. It could give him Whirlwind Attack since he just picked up Spring Attack.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Thanks for reminding me about the Arms & Equipment Guide sidebar about feat granting magic items. Very helpful!

Of course he must meet all prereq's of the feat to use it. No problem there. It could give him Whirlwind Attack since he just picked up Spring Attack.

Keep in mind that a hard correlation between gp and 1 feat, such as 1 feat = 10,000gp, goes directly against what at least one of the game's original three designers thinks about the issue.

Monte Cook has said several times that he doesn't think you can give feats a straight price, since no two feats are worth the same thing. Toughness, for instance, probably isn't worth 10,000gp. Whereas Weapon Focus is worth more.

Just be aware that the DM should pay careful attention to what value he's assigning various feat-granting items, rather than simply saying 1 feat = 10,000gp, no matter what the Arms and Equipment Guide says.

 

[FireLance]

The guidelines state magic items worth 15.000 gp or less, so it will be one of those troublesome wishes.

Gah! My bad . For some reason, I keep thinking that Wish allows the creation of items of 25,000 gp or less. Must be that whole 1 xp = 5 gp equation.

 

[fba827]

Well, since a Wish can grant bonus to an ability score and since an ability score is more valuable than a feat (the former every four levels vs. every three levels for the latter).. then, I would say, yes, a wish spall could grant a feat.

The biggest concern here though would be repeated uses. for ability scores it covers this by the stacking issue... (this has been said earlier in this thread )

so as long as you find a way to stave off the potential abuse from repeated use ...

some suggestions might be only allow it to be done, once, ever. or, one wish spell for the first time, two spells the second time, and so on. (course, would need to easily note which feats are gained via wish spalls for future calcultations - maybe little stars next to them on the char shet or something).

(oh, and, yeah, completely agree that prereqs should be met for the chosen feat.).

 

[Urbannen]

Keep in mind that feats don't necessarily have a name in-game. "My character is very alert." Does that mean the character has the Alertness feat, a high Wisdom, or lots of skill ranks in Spot and Listen? "My character has specialized in the longsword." Does that mean the character has Weapon Focus (longsword) or Weapon Specialization (longsword)? Obviously some feats can be described explicitly with in-game language, but not all. So how exactly would you word a wish to gain a feat? "I wish I had Weapon Focus longsword?" "I wish I had the Whirlwind Attack feat?" A reading of the wish spell seems to indicate that wishing for a feat would have uncertain effects.

I don't think that you can compare the gaining of stats to the gaining of feats. Stats are specifically addressed in the wish spell. There are a variety of spells and items that temporarily or permanently increase stats. There are very few that even temporarily grant a feat.

I think that if a player wishes for a feat, the wording will be turned against him. Either the literally wording will get him in trouble in some way, or he will be turned into a creature that has that feat.

 

[Darkness]

Iron Chef, a long time ago, there was a rather long thread about this very topic.
I hope it helps!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Well, since a Wish can grant bonus to an ability score and since an ability score is more valuable than a feat (the former every four levels vs. every three levels for the latter).. then, I would say, yes, a wish spall could grant a feat.

I wouldn't say that. After all, you can get an enhancement bonus to ability scores - with magic items with a maximum of +6 w/o epic rules, with spells even more - and they cost much less than that. Also, there are epic feats that give you +1 to one ability score. I think feats are more valuable.

 

[green slime]

IMC, Yes.

Once per character, ever.

Feat must be one they otherwise qualify for.

Feat may only have at most a single prerequisite (so Mobility, if you have Dodge, but not Spring Attack)

Obviously, no Epic feats. Wish is a non-epic spell...

 

[Celtavian]

Re

Initially, I felt that a wish should be able to give a PC a feat for pure mechanical reasons. My reasoning was that if a wish can grant an ability score, then why not a feat? You figure that you gain an ability increase every 4 levels and feat every 3 levels, it seemed logical.

Then I thought about it from a story point of view, and I decided that a wish cannot grant feats.

What is a feat really? Is a feat as tangible as an ability score?

Wishing yourself stronger or smarter seems like a tangible wish. Wishing to be able to dodge blows could well raise your dexterity or give you the Dodge feat, it could go either way.

A feat is a high level of training in a particular combat maneuver learning a variety of techniques that form a body of knowledge and experience possessed by the PC. I feel this differs from an ability score in the abstract world of D&D. My current stand is that a wish should not allow a PC to acquire a feat for this reason, or if I granted a feat, I would cause someone somewhere else to lose their feat and the experience and training they put in to gain it. At some point in time, someone would notice that certain folks memories were missing and find out the reason why. Could be an interesting adventure.

From a mechanical perspective, granting feats for wishes could be counterproductive to the uniqueness of characters at that level of play. If everyone lvl 17 and above willing to spend 5,000 xp can suddenly wish for Improved Initiative or Two-weapon fighting, that wouldn't make either feat very unique and would probably piss off the players who actually spent feat slots to acquire them.

 

[bret]

Re: Re

Then I thought about it from a story point of view, and I decided that a wish cannot grant feats.

What is a feat really? Is a feat as tangible as an ability score?

Thnking of it from the story telling point of view, some of the feats make a lot of sense as wishes.

Wishing that you knew the technics that [fill in character name] used to make deadly blows with his bare hands. [Unarmed Strike, assuming you knew someone who already had it. ]

Wishing you could block missles with your bare hands. [Deflect Arrows]

Wishing you knew how to properly use a shield in combat. [Shield Proficiency]

Many of the feats can be treated as special techniques that a person masters. They are trained in them. If this isn't the case, then how do you explain the normal acquisition of feats in the story?

I'm not saying this is how any of the wishes would be worded. Some of them may choose to use Draconic or Elven (languages I don't happen to know) because that language allows the concept to be expressed better. Someone trying to use a wish for a non-standard purpose should probably make a Knowledge: Arcana roll to try and come up with the wording. Since the player doesn't necessarily know the language that the character is using, fussing about the exact phrasing that the player gives isn't exactly appropriate.