Djinn_in_Tonic
2010-01-07, 04:09 PM
What to Make, and How to Make it Special
3.5 Homebrew Theory by Djinn in Tonic
*****
Over the years I've seen numerous "how-to" articles on homebrewing balance and class formatting, but I have yet to encounter anything that actually discusses the theory and practice of homebrewing within the 3.5 system as it stands today. As a result, I tend to see a lot of homebrewed creations that, while they show a high level of technical and mechanical competence, nonetheless fail to mesh with the system. This treatise is my attempt to put my thoughts on homebrew creation down for others to see and, hopefully, to learn from.
First things first: I'm no expert. There are better and brighter homebrewers out there, and many who I wouldn't dare to list myself amongst for fear of being completely eclipsed. So don't think that I'm preaching something mandatory; feel free to take or leave what you read here.
With that out of the way, let's proceed with the most important step: Concept.
Conceptualizing: What am I making?
A common mistake I see is that people set out to make a Prestige Class, Base Class, Feat, Martial Discipline, and so forth without properly thinking about the place that their idea has in the game. Here's my rundown on the categories, and what sort of creation goes into them.
Alternate Class Feature
Alternate Class Features are something you should consider if your concept borders closely upon another class or set of classes, or if your concept is just a slight alteration or specialty to a playstyle or concept.
For example, I tend to consider the Ranger a "half-class," and, if given the chance, would merge it with the Scout. For the cost of the bonus Scout feats and Blindsense, I'd allow it to take the Ranger's style feats and Favored Enemy progression. The end result gets across the "Ranger" flavor without needing to make a whole new class. Alternatively, give the Druid the ability to sacrifice Wild Shape and a few of the more supernatural abilities to gain Favored Enemy and the fighting style feats. Two different flavors of classes, both with a Ranger theme, without the need for a strange hybrid class.
If you ask yourself "what is this class," and the end result is something close to an existing class (in this case, a martial woodsman who hunts a specific foe), why bother to make something new? The Scout fulfills the martial woodsman role, and the Druid fulfills the spellcasting side of the Ranger: the style feats and the favored enemy don't define a class in and of themselves, so tacking them on feels, to me, like a natural progression. Just pick the flavor you'd prefer, and adjust the class to adapt to the small mechanical change.
Some concepts, however, go past alternate class features. If you find yourself removing the majority of a class's abilities, or altering most of the abilities that define a class, you're likely looking for a new Base Class, a Prestige Class, or a Martial Discipline.
On the Similarities of Alternate Class Features and Prestige Classes
At first glance these two appear quite similar in concept, and, to some extent, they are. The difference, however, is important. An Alternate Class Feature is a different take on something about the class: our alternate Druid is a hunter, as is our alternate Scout. It's a crucial part of the character concept, not something that a character will later specialize in. A Prestige class either improves on some aspect of the character, or takes him or her down a new path (see the Prestige Class section below). While we could make a Hunter prestige class for the Ranger in question, it would have to represent an improvement of existing skills or a change in the character's way of life. If we want a Hunter without devoting up to half of the character's progression to accomplishing just that, an Alternate Class Feature is a better option: it accomplishes the same thing, while allowing us the freedom to explore other Prestige Class or Base Class options.
Base Class
A Base Class is a foundation for a character to grow and expand from. Like the foundation of a house, the possibilities for what is placed upon it should be virtually limitless. True, the foundation does to some extent determine what can and can't be done atop it, but there is still room to grow in almost any direction. The most effective base classes are those that offer numerous options and styles of play: you can build hundreds of Wizards, Clerics, Swordsages, or Warblades without repeating a character concept once.
Base Classes that tend to be unsuccessful are those that replicate other classes, or those that simply have to constrained a concept. The Samurai is really a subset of Fighter or Warblade. The Ranger comes off as a hybrid of other classes, with Favored Enemy thrown in as a little perk. The Marshal is just another fighter with leadership perks. Then come things like the Dragon Shaman, which, while functional, is a poor design due to its incredibly constrained concept, and the Soulknife, whose entire shtick is that it "has a magical mind-sword." Not a truly compelling base for a character to expand upon...
If you can paint your concept in broad strokes and encompass a wide variety of character concepts within a fairly general category, you are probably designing a Base Class. If what you're doing comes off as a hybridization of classes (Ranger, Marshal, Samurai), you may be better served by making an Alternate Class Feature, a Feat, or a Martial Discipline. Finally, if you have a very themed class that fits a small subsection of characters or dramatically expands upon a single aspect of a character, you may want to make a Prestige Class.
Prestige Class
Prestige Classes come in three styles: Specialty, Enhancement, and Essence. This is some strange terminology, so bear with me a minute.
Specialty Prestige Classes
Specialty Prestige Classes are those that make you better at something specific. They add little bits of flavor without overriding your character concept or taking you in a completely new direction. A Wayfarer Guide, for example, is still very definitely a Wizard. Specialty Prestige Classes should be between three and five levels in length, and empower a single ability or related set of abilities. They should contain abilities that improve and expand on abilities already possessed by the class, and not offer anything in the way of game-changing powers.
Abilities granted should be improvements upon existing abilities and designed around a central focus. Classes should not grant new spellcasting, initiating, or any other mechanics, although they can improve on existing mechanics and advance them normally. Many abilities granted will be static or applied directly to other powers, and those that don't fall under this category should be occasional powers that do not really change the way a build is played.
Spread out over 10 levels such a class might be boring and uninspired, but condensed into 3-5 levels it makes a nice diversion for a character interested in such a path. Entry requirements should be fairly simple for anyone who already focused somewhat on the aspect your class offers, and should not be to taxing in general, as the class is merely a brief diversion from the character's main progression.
Specialty Prestige Classes can often also function as homebrewed Feat Chains, depending on your inclination and the specialty and abilities in question.
Enhancement Prestige Classes
Enhancement Prestige Classes are those that give you a few abilities along a certain line of thought, yet lack the character-changing definition of Essence Prestige Classes. In short, Enhancement classes further improve existing abilities, and sometimes provide new, related abilities. If your concept is an improvement upon a general concept rather than a specific ability (making you a better Necromancer rather than simply able to raise slightly stronger undead), your class is probably an Enhancement Prestige Class rather than a Specialty Prestige Class. Likewise, most dual-progression classes are Enhancement Prestige Classes, as they don't change the way your character plays, but rather improve upon and blend his or her existing abilities.
If you can see someone following your intended build being interested in your class, you're probably looking at making an Enhancement Prestige Class. Entry requirements should be straightforward and not overly complex, although you should be certain to cover the bases of any abilities you intend to expand upon. Most Enhancement Prestige Classes are either five or ten levels, with a few falling in between.
Good examples of Enhancement Prestige Classes (in concept, at least) are things like the Arcane Trickster, the Assassin, the True Necromancer, the Dwarven Defender, the Exemplar, and similar classes.
Essence Prestige Classes
Essence Prestige Classes are, in my mind, what a prestige class really is. While a Specialty Prestige Class improves a single area of your character, and an Enhancement Prestige Class improves your character in his or her chosen field, an Essence Prestige Class answers the question of "Who or what am I?" These are almost exclusively ten level classes (although exceptions do both exist and abound), and offer entirely new character-defining abilities around a complex theme.
Essence Prestige Classes are those that are specific to a certain mindset of character: not every Paladin wishes to be a Warden of the Hedge, and not every Cleric dreams of being a Sybil of the Blinded Eye (to use two of my own examples). These classes offer new and exciting powers that help to shape a character's future, as well as his or her philosophy on life.
Requirements for such a class often contain role-playing hooks: organizations that must accept you, rituals that must be performed, or quests that must be undertaken are all good examples. The skill, feat, and class ability requirements are specific (in most cases) or general and paired with a highly specific role-playing hook. Either way, the class is tailored to a very small subsection of adventurers, and is designed to highlight the character rather than the character's abilities. A master staff-fighter does not get an Essence Prestige Class for his staff-fighting (he gets either a Specialty Prestige Class or an Enhancement Prestige Class, depending on how in depth his abilities are), but a Bard who has attuned herself with the music of the heavens and has devoted herself to reading the movements of the stars and harmonizing with the music of fate does merit an Essence Prestige Class.
There are fewer guidelines for making an Essence Prestige Class, as these often feature new mechanics, complete shifts in character mindsets or abilities, and other life-altering changes. The one rule is to make sure that the abilities are active and interesting: for this level of dedication, a player should get abilities that radically alter their gameplay and truly make their character distinct from another member of the same base class.
Example Prestige Class Analysis: the Dwarven Defender and the Blood Magus
Let's take a look at this more in depth. We'll take two classes: the Dwarven Defender, and the Blood Magus. The Dwarven Defender improves on defensive abilities, granting related mechanics for a character who wishes to excel at defense. It also come with some flavor that's been sort of forced on: there's no reason such a character has to be a Dwarf. In actuality, the Dwarven Defender is an Enhancement Prestige Class, and would probably benefit from being condensed into just five levels, so that the minor benefits it gives don't consume all of a character's resources.
The Blood Magus, on the other hand, has been undervalued as a gimmick class. Rather than being looked at as a major change in character philosophy, it was considered to be a tiny little detour. It has minor, rarely-used abilities, many of which are static: this places it in the Specialty Prestige Class category, while the concept of a Blood Magus is really a character-changing idea probably better suited to an Essence Prestige Class (or an Enhancement one at the very least). As an Essence class, the Blood Magus would retain some of these minor abilities, but see a marked increase in its use-activated abilities and possibly even develop new powers to improve and expand upon the concept of blood magic. It currently is dealing in Specialty or Enhancement power, meaning that's its a five level class expanded out to ten, something that is destined for failure. Many abilities end up feeling tacked on or insignificant, as they've been used to plug the gap.
Another option, depending on the importance of blood magic to your concept, would have been to make it a Specialty Prestige Class, giving options for increasing the power of your spell through self-sacrifice and cutting out most of the other abilities. It all depends on the importance you place upon your idea, but you must know that importance before you begin your class.
Martial Discipline
Martial Disciplines are fairly new to 3.5, yet their presence helps to keep prestige classes prestigious. As a general rule, if you plan on homebrewing a fighting style for a character, and are debating making a prestige class (or even if you're not), consider making a Martial Discipline instead. The advantage is that Martial Disciplines are available from first level, and can, with about twenty-five maneuvers per school (give or take as many as five), accommodate more techniques than a prestige class would be able to. Another advantage is that it's fairly easy to integrate disciplines into existing classes and prestige classes.
One thing to remember is that Martial Disciplines are largely weapon neutral. While maneuvers do differentiate between ranged weapon, thrown weapons, melee weapons, and sometimes unarmed strikes, they do not discriminate on the basis of individual weapons. If your planned techniques would discriminate based on individual weapons, or only function for specific weapons, consider making a Specialty Prestige Class or Feat Chain instead.
Alternative Weapon-Specific Disciplines
One option would be to make a Enhancement or Essence Prestige Class that grants the maneuvers in question as class features, but only when wielding the specified weapon. While this does lock you into a Martial Initiator base class, it can give you the versatility you desire, as those classes are almost infinitely mutable.
Another possibility is a small Weapon Discipline, either unlocked through a feat (which also perhaps grants one first level maneuver or stance of that discipline), or traded for an existing discipline. These smaller disciplines can tie in with specific weapons or groups of weapons, and contain fewer maneuvers (anywhere from 9 to 18). If you additionally desire to increase the desirability of Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Weapon Proficiency feats, you can also houserule that these feats tie in somehow to these Weapon Disciplines. This is a fairly extensive houserule, but it does allow for an incredible amount of customization of individual fighting styles without resorting to Prestige Classes or burning through feats.
Feat/Feat Chain
If what you want to make is something that anyone with a bit of training could accomplish, or to disjointed to make a tightly themed Prestige Class, you're most likely looking at a Feat or a Feat Chain. These represent (mostly) mundane abilities and improvements upon abilities that are generally small, specific, or static. Many Specialty Prestige Classes could, in fact, be replicated through Feat Chains: the reason that we can get away with making them and granting multiple abilities is that the three-five level diversion takes away from the normal class features that would have been gained, offsetting the benefit of what could be considered numerous feats.
Feats are almost never X/day, X/encounter, or once every X rounds abilities: they are, practically without fail, tricks and techniques that a player may freely choose to utilize (or, of course, static effects). This is, of course, out of the box, as you are perfectly within your right to put these limitations upon feats, often in exchange for a slightly stronger effect.
The most interesting feats are those that grant new options; the most boring are those that grant static modifiers to existing abilities. Feat Chains should also remain fairly concise, as the reason that feats like Whirlwind Attack aren't often taken is that reaching that point requires a huge expenditure of a limited resource.
What a Feat or Feat Chain should not do is dictate a large portion of a character's being. Feats improve and expand upon choices: Vow of Poverty and Vow of Peace, for example, carry certain connotations, but neither truly determines a character's path. Add to this the fact that the Vows are the most deterministic of existing feats, and you'll see that only options that don't dictate a character path should become feats. Feats add and expand in small ways, and that's where their influence should stop. This is the reason for the failure of the Fighter class: it grants a bunch of minor perks and abilities that were never meant to define a character.
3.5 Homebrew Theory by Djinn in Tonic
*****
Over the years I've seen numerous "how-to" articles on homebrewing balance and class formatting, but I have yet to encounter anything that actually discusses the theory and practice of homebrewing within the 3.5 system as it stands today. As a result, I tend to see a lot of homebrewed creations that, while they show a high level of technical and mechanical competence, nonetheless fail to mesh with the system. This treatise is my attempt to put my thoughts on homebrew creation down for others to see and, hopefully, to learn from.
First things first: I'm no expert. There are better and brighter homebrewers out there, and many who I wouldn't dare to list myself amongst for fear of being completely eclipsed. So don't think that I'm preaching something mandatory; feel free to take or leave what you read here.
With that out of the way, let's proceed with the most important step: Concept.
Conceptualizing: What am I making?
A common mistake I see is that people set out to make a Prestige Class, Base Class, Feat, Martial Discipline, and so forth without properly thinking about the place that their idea has in the game. Here's my rundown on the categories, and what sort of creation goes into them.
Alternate Class Feature
Alternate Class Features are something you should consider if your concept borders closely upon another class or set of classes, or if your concept is just a slight alteration or specialty to a playstyle or concept.
For example, I tend to consider the Ranger a "half-class," and, if given the chance, would merge it with the Scout. For the cost of the bonus Scout feats and Blindsense, I'd allow it to take the Ranger's style feats and Favored Enemy progression. The end result gets across the "Ranger" flavor without needing to make a whole new class. Alternatively, give the Druid the ability to sacrifice Wild Shape and a few of the more supernatural abilities to gain Favored Enemy and the fighting style feats. Two different flavors of classes, both with a Ranger theme, without the need for a strange hybrid class.
If you ask yourself "what is this class," and the end result is something close to an existing class (in this case, a martial woodsman who hunts a specific foe), why bother to make something new? The Scout fulfills the martial woodsman role, and the Druid fulfills the spellcasting side of the Ranger: the style feats and the favored enemy don't define a class in and of themselves, so tacking them on feels, to me, like a natural progression. Just pick the flavor you'd prefer, and adjust the class to adapt to the small mechanical change.
Some concepts, however, go past alternate class features. If you find yourself removing the majority of a class's abilities, or altering most of the abilities that define a class, you're likely looking for a new Base Class, a Prestige Class, or a Martial Discipline.
On the Similarities of Alternate Class Features and Prestige Classes
At first glance these two appear quite similar in concept, and, to some extent, they are. The difference, however, is important. An Alternate Class Feature is a different take on something about the class: our alternate Druid is a hunter, as is our alternate Scout. It's a crucial part of the character concept, not something that a character will later specialize in. A Prestige class either improves on some aspect of the character, or takes him or her down a new path (see the Prestige Class section below). While we could make a Hunter prestige class for the Ranger in question, it would have to represent an improvement of existing skills or a change in the character's way of life. If we want a Hunter without devoting up to half of the character's progression to accomplishing just that, an Alternate Class Feature is a better option: it accomplishes the same thing, while allowing us the freedom to explore other Prestige Class or Base Class options.
Base Class
A Base Class is a foundation for a character to grow and expand from. Like the foundation of a house, the possibilities for what is placed upon it should be virtually limitless. True, the foundation does to some extent determine what can and can't be done atop it, but there is still room to grow in almost any direction. The most effective base classes are those that offer numerous options and styles of play: you can build hundreds of Wizards, Clerics, Swordsages, or Warblades without repeating a character concept once.
Base Classes that tend to be unsuccessful are those that replicate other classes, or those that simply have to constrained a concept. The Samurai is really a subset of Fighter or Warblade. The Ranger comes off as a hybrid of other classes, with Favored Enemy thrown in as a little perk. The Marshal is just another fighter with leadership perks. Then come things like the Dragon Shaman, which, while functional, is a poor design due to its incredibly constrained concept, and the Soulknife, whose entire shtick is that it "has a magical mind-sword." Not a truly compelling base for a character to expand upon...
If you can paint your concept in broad strokes and encompass a wide variety of character concepts within a fairly general category, you are probably designing a Base Class. If what you're doing comes off as a hybridization of classes (Ranger, Marshal, Samurai), you may be better served by making an Alternate Class Feature, a Feat, or a Martial Discipline. Finally, if you have a very themed class that fits a small subsection of characters or dramatically expands upon a single aspect of a character, you may want to make a Prestige Class.
Prestige Class
Prestige Classes come in three styles: Specialty, Enhancement, and Essence. This is some strange terminology, so bear with me a minute.
Specialty Prestige Classes
Specialty Prestige Classes are those that make you better at something specific. They add little bits of flavor without overriding your character concept or taking you in a completely new direction. A Wayfarer Guide, for example, is still very definitely a Wizard. Specialty Prestige Classes should be between three and five levels in length, and empower a single ability or related set of abilities. They should contain abilities that improve and expand on abilities already possessed by the class, and not offer anything in the way of game-changing powers.
Abilities granted should be improvements upon existing abilities and designed around a central focus. Classes should not grant new spellcasting, initiating, or any other mechanics, although they can improve on existing mechanics and advance them normally. Many abilities granted will be static or applied directly to other powers, and those that don't fall under this category should be occasional powers that do not really change the way a build is played.
Spread out over 10 levels such a class might be boring and uninspired, but condensed into 3-5 levels it makes a nice diversion for a character interested in such a path. Entry requirements should be fairly simple for anyone who already focused somewhat on the aspect your class offers, and should not be to taxing in general, as the class is merely a brief diversion from the character's main progression.
Specialty Prestige Classes can often also function as homebrewed Feat Chains, depending on your inclination and the specialty and abilities in question.
Enhancement Prestige Classes
Enhancement Prestige Classes are those that give you a few abilities along a certain line of thought, yet lack the character-changing definition of Essence Prestige Classes. In short, Enhancement classes further improve existing abilities, and sometimes provide new, related abilities. If your concept is an improvement upon a general concept rather than a specific ability (making you a better Necromancer rather than simply able to raise slightly stronger undead), your class is probably an Enhancement Prestige Class rather than a Specialty Prestige Class. Likewise, most dual-progression classes are Enhancement Prestige Classes, as they don't change the way your character plays, but rather improve upon and blend his or her existing abilities.
If you can see someone following your intended build being interested in your class, you're probably looking at making an Enhancement Prestige Class. Entry requirements should be straightforward and not overly complex, although you should be certain to cover the bases of any abilities you intend to expand upon. Most Enhancement Prestige Classes are either five or ten levels, with a few falling in between.
Good examples of Enhancement Prestige Classes (in concept, at least) are things like the Arcane Trickster, the Assassin, the True Necromancer, the Dwarven Defender, the Exemplar, and similar classes.
Essence Prestige Classes
Essence Prestige Classes are, in my mind, what a prestige class really is. While a Specialty Prestige Class improves a single area of your character, and an Enhancement Prestige Class improves your character in his or her chosen field, an Essence Prestige Class answers the question of "Who or what am I?" These are almost exclusively ten level classes (although exceptions do both exist and abound), and offer entirely new character-defining abilities around a complex theme.
Essence Prestige Classes are those that are specific to a certain mindset of character: not every Paladin wishes to be a Warden of the Hedge, and not every Cleric dreams of being a Sybil of the Blinded Eye (to use two of my own examples). These classes offer new and exciting powers that help to shape a character's future, as well as his or her philosophy on life.
Requirements for such a class often contain role-playing hooks: organizations that must accept you, rituals that must be performed, or quests that must be undertaken are all good examples. The skill, feat, and class ability requirements are specific (in most cases) or general and paired with a highly specific role-playing hook. Either way, the class is tailored to a very small subsection of adventurers, and is designed to highlight the character rather than the character's abilities. A master staff-fighter does not get an Essence Prestige Class for his staff-fighting (he gets either a Specialty Prestige Class or an Enhancement Prestige Class, depending on how in depth his abilities are), but a Bard who has attuned herself with the music of the heavens and has devoted herself to reading the movements of the stars and harmonizing with the music of fate does merit an Essence Prestige Class.
There are fewer guidelines for making an Essence Prestige Class, as these often feature new mechanics, complete shifts in character mindsets or abilities, and other life-altering changes. The one rule is to make sure that the abilities are active and interesting: for this level of dedication, a player should get abilities that radically alter their gameplay and truly make their character distinct from another member of the same base class.
Example Prestige Class Analysis: the Dwarven Defender and the Blood Magus
Let's take a look at this more in depth. We'll take two classes: the Dwarven Defender, and the Blood Magus. The Dwarven Defender improves on defensive abilities, granting related mechanics for a character who wishes to excel at defense. It also come with some flavor that's been sort of forced on: there's no reason such a character has to be a Dwarf. In actuality, the Dwarven Defender is an Enhancement Prestige Class, and would probably benefit from being condensed into just five levels, so that the minor benefits it gives don't consume all of a character's resources.
The Blood Magus, on the other hand, has been undervalued as a gimmick class. Rather than being looked at as a major change in character philosophy, it was considered to be a tiny little detour. It has minor, rarely-used abilities, many of which are static: this places it in the Specialty Prestige Class category, while the concept of a Blood Magus is really a character-changing idea probably better suited to an Essence Prestige Class (or an Enhancement one at the very least). As an Essence class, the Blood Magus would retain some of these minor abilities, but see a marked increase in its use-activated abilities and possibly even develop new powers to improve and expand upon the concept of blood magic. It currently is dealing in Specialty or Enhancement power, meaning that's its a five level class expanded out to ten, something that is destined for failure. Many abilities end up feeling tacked on or insignificant, as they've been used to plug the gap.
Another option, depending on the importance of blood magic to your concept, would have been to make it a Specialty Prestige Class, giving options for increasing the power of your spell through self-sacrifice and cutting out most of the other abilities. It all depends on the importance you place upon your idea, but you must know that importance before you begin your class.
Martial Discipline
Martial Disciplines are fairly new to 3.5, yet their presence helps to keep prestige classes prestigious. As a general rule, if you plan on homebrewing a fighting style for a character, and are debating making a prestige class (or even if you're not), consider making a Martial Discipline instead. The advantage is that Martial Disciplines are available from first level, and can, with about twenty-five maneuvers per school (give or take as many as five), accommodate more techniques than a prestige class would be able to. Another advantage is that it's fairly easy to integrate disciplines into existing classes and prestige classes.
One thing to remember is that Martial Disciplines are largely weapon neutral. While maneuvers do differentiate between ranged weapon, thrown weapons, melee weapons, and sometimes unarmed strikes, they do not discriminate on the basis of individual weapons. If your planned techniques would discriminate based on individual weapons, or only function for specific weapons, consider making a Specialty Prestige Class or Feat Chain instead.
Alternative Weapon-Specific Disciplines
One option would be to make a Enhancement or Essence Prestige Class that grants the maneuvers in question as class features, but only when wielding the specified weapon. While this does lock you into a Martial Initiator base class, it can give you the versatility you desire, as those classes are almost infinitely mutable.
Another possibility is a small Weapon Discipline, either unlocked through a feat (which also perhaps grants one first level maneuver or stance of that discipline), or traded for an existing discipline. These smaller disciplines can tie in with specific weapons or groups of weapons, and contain fewer maneuvers (anywhere from 9 to 18). If you additionally desire to increase the desirability of Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and Weapon Proficiency feats, you can also houserule that these feats tie in somehow to these Weapon Disciplines. This is a fairly extensive houserule, but it does allow for an incredible amount of customization of individual fighting styles without resorting to Prestige Classes or burning through feats.
Feat/Feat Chain
If what you want to make is something that anyone with a bit of training could accomplish, or to disjointed to make a tightly themed Prestige Class, you're most likely looking at a Feat or a Feat Chain. These represent (mostly) mundane abilities and improvements upon abilities that are generally small, specific, or static. Many Specialty Prestige Classes could, in fact, be replicated through Feat Chains: the reason that we can get away with making them and granting multiple abilities is that the three-five level diversion takes away from the normal class features that would have been gained, offsetting the benefit of what could be considered numerous feats.
Feats are almost never X/day, X/encounter, or once every X rounds abilities: they are, practically without fail, tricks and techniques that a player may freely choose to utilize (or, of course, static effects). This is, of course, out of the box, as you are perfectly within your right to put these limitations upon feats, often in exchange for a slightly stronger effect.
The most interesting feats are those that grant new options; the most boring are those that grant static modifiers to existing abilities. Feat Chains should also remain fairly concise, as the reason that feats like Whirlwind Attack aren't often taken is that reaching that point requires a huge expenditure of a limited resource.
What a Feat or Feat Chain should not do is dictate a large portion of a character's being. Feats improve and expand upon choices: Vow of Poverty and Vow of Peace, for example, carry certain connotations, but neither truly determines a character's path. Add to this the fact that the Vows are the most deterministic of existing feats, and you'll see that only options that don't dictate a character path should become feats. Feats add and expand in small ways, and that's where their influence should stop. This is the reason for the failure of the Fighter class: it grants a bunch of minor perks and abilities that were never meant to define a character.