[3.5] Giving player a feat every level.

[Scorpions__]

In a solo-campaign I was thinking of giving a player a feat every level to help even the playing field for when she's adventuring all by herself. There aren't any other players in the campaign but her so there won't be issues of balance within the party obviously.

She doesn't want to gestalt so I thought this would be a cool way of upping her power-level while not being outright insane.

She is a Tibbit Dragonfire Adept for the record.

Implications?






DM[F]R

[TroubleBrewing]

4th edition gives every player, regardless of class, a feat every other level. It does a lot to reduce the effects of "feat taxes" (to use 3.5 examples, Power Attack for melee, Natural Spell for Druids) and makes it so that you have more "superpowers". (Because that's what feats are, really.) DFA's don't really need too many feats, as I recall. But if you want to do so, it shouldn't throw off the balance too badly. It would certainly make her feel more powerful.

[Sucrose]

She'll have somewhat more varied capabilities, but it won't let her do any one thing more powerful than what she was doing at any given level anyway. Feats, even the ones on the ends of chains, generally have prerequisites that prevent their acquisition at any point before they'd be acceptable. It'll let her branch out a little more, and grant her some pretty good customizability.

Without gestalt, she'll probably still be pretty fragile, as a noncaster (though not non-mage) with limited direct combat prowess.

In short: should be fine, might want to consider a bit more.

[Scorpions__]

...
In short: should be fine, might want to consider a bit more.

Such as?





DM[F]R

[Re'ozul]

It certainly helps later on, when she can get a new invocation (though one less rank than maximum she can cast) every level. Helps greatly with the versatility of invocation classes.

[Strife Warzeal]

Another thing that can be nice, if your player needs to fill a space is the feats out of Complete Mage or Complete Arcane (something like that) that give you a few spells. Some give good spells and in general can be quite fun.

Just my 1d4 copper pieces.

[Sucrose]

Such as?





DM[F]R

Hard to say, given that she has already refused the simplest power-up option. I'd be tempted to grant her another good save (if memory serves, DFAs only have good Will normally), maybe a spell fitting her character's themes that she can cast a number of times per day equal to her Cha mod, and then another each time that she reaches a level where wizards gain access to another spell level (so she gets a level one spell at character creation, a level 2 spell at level 3, etc.) This assumes that she's aiming for straight DFA.

In the end, though, she's probably always going to be a bit fragile, so just be careful with your campaign design, and leave escape routes, assuming she puts some effort into having escape techniques.

Edit: Also, I'd suggest maybe an NPC follower or two to shore up her weaknesses. Maybe suggest that she hire a merc or two to assist her, and have her provide them with a small share of her treasure. They should be lower level (NPC classes if she agrees to this idea at level one) and should never steal the spotlight, only doing what their job demands of them.

[Volos]

If she gets a feat at every level, and takes Draconic Feats every level (starting with Draconic Heritage), she can become very powerful very quickly. Many of the feats give bonuses calculated from the number of Draconic Feats one posseses. Draconic Toughness, for example, gives 2 HP per Draconic Feat and applies retroactivly as well as for any feats taken afterwards. Take a look at Dragon Magic and Races of The Dragon, it seems like her character would be primed for this sort of feat abuse.

[Amnestic]

If you don't think Feats are enough, I'd give her another extra Invocation per rank (so an extra Least, extra Lesser etc.) Even then she'll still probably want to blow a feat or two on Extra Invocation - some of them are just that good.

Sucrose: DFAs get good Will and Fort. Their Reflex is lacking though.

[Tyndmyr]

In a solo-campaign I was thinking of giving a player a feat every level to help even the playing field for when she's adventuring all by herself. There aren't any other players in the campaign but her so there won't be issues of balance within the party obviously.

She doesn't want to gestalt so I thought this would be a cool way of upping her power-level while not being outright insane.

She is a Tibbit Dragonfire Adept for the record.

Implications?

In 3.5, that's a solid way to boost power levels. For one thing, it allows a player lots of fun choices, which is generally a good thing. It also makes planning to get into a PrC less problematic.

If she doesn't want gestalt, I doubt she's gonna try to break the game with it.

Also, make easily hirable minions available. There are few problems that a willingness to sacrifice henchmen doesn't solve.