Homebrew Feats [4e]

[Yakk]

Holy Weapon: Requires Holy symbol proficiency, Divine at-will weapon attack. You can use your Holy Symbol's enhancement bonuses and magical properties when making Divine weapon attacks and Basic Melee attacks.
Originally intended for Paladins, but why not let Clerics and Avengers in on the fun? I'm unsure if "Divine at-will weapon attack" restriction is justified.

Spinning Spear: Requires Wis 13, Dex 15. When wielding a Spear in both hands, you may treat it as if it was a Staff.
Actually the most ridiculously overpowered feat here...

Defender's Expertise: You gain a +1 feat bonus to attack rolls on targets you have Marked and on Opportunity Attacks. This bonus increases to +2 at level 11, and +3 at level 21. In addition, you may use your highest attribute when making basic melee attacks as opportunity actions, replacing Strength for both to-hit and damage purposes.
Unnerfed melee training for OAs, plus an accuracy rider.

Cunning Warlock: Each time you hit a target subject to your Warlock's Curse and do not deal Warlock's Curse damage dice to it, you gain an additional Warlock's Curse damage die the next time you use your Warlock's Curse damage dice before the end of the encounter.
Reworked. Now multi-cursing and multi-damaging gets a bit of support: by hitting multiple cursed targets, you gain dice to apply to the one you deal damage to.

Assassin's Shroud Expertise: Requires Assassin's Shroud power. You gain a +1 feat bonus to attack rolls against creatures under your Assassin's Shroud. This increases to +2 at level 11 and +3 at level 21. When making a weapon attack against a creature under your Assassin's Shroud, if you invoke your shrouds your [W] is increased to at least 1d6 if you invoke 1 shroud, 1d8 if you invoke 2, 1d10 if you invoke 3, and 1d12 if you invoke 4.
Note that it applies to both weapon and non-weapon attacks. The damage boost makes using non-fullblades slightly more viable.

Tempest Expertise: Requires Fighter, at-will power that requires the use of two weapons. If you have an off-hand weapon equipped, you gain a +1 feat bonus to all weapon attack rolls. This increases to +2 at level 11 and +3 at level 21. If you use a power that requires having weapons in both hands, you gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with off-hand weapons, increasing to +2 at level 11 and +3 at level 21.
Tempest fighter needs some love. It also boosts the Scout. The Ranger has to use an off-hand weapon to benefit from the above, as does the Barbarian. It isn't bad for a Rogue MC Fighter who uses short swords or daggers either.

Protective Spirit: Requires Shaman, Summon Spirit Companion power, totem proficiency, 15 Constitution. When you summon your spirit companion, you can also conjure spirit armor. Your spirit armor is heavy armor with a base AC of 6, a masterwork AC bonus equal to your totem's enhancement bonus, and an enchancement bonus equal to your totem's enhancement bonus, no speed penalty, and no armor check penalty. The spirit armor remains so long as your companion remains within 20 squares of you, and you can dismiss it as a free action. Use the better of your normal armor and your spirit armor to determine your AC. While you are wearing your spirit armor, the damage required to disrupt your spirit companion is increased by your constitution bonus plus your totem's enhancement bonus.
The goal here is to provide con-based shamans some defence. This matches chainmail, and for the cost of a feat you gain a tougher spirit companion and you yourself become tougher.

Swordmage Mental Shield: Requires Swordmage Warding class feature. You gain a feat bonus to your Will defence equal to your Swordmage Warding class feature. In addition, as an immediate interrupt you can dismiss your Warding for the remainder of the encounter, and cause an attack targeting Will, that Stuns, Dazes or Dominates or with Psychic or Illusion keywords, to miss. You regain your Warding at the end of your next rest.

Swordmage Physical Shield: Requires Swordmage Warding class feature. You gain a feat bonus to your Fortitude defence equal to your Swordmage Warding class feature. In addition, as an immediate interrupt you can dismiss your Warding for the remainder of the encounter, and cause an attack targeting Fortitude or AC to miss. You regain your Warding at the end of your next rest.

Swordmage Deflecting Shield: Requires Swordmage Warding class feature. You gain a feat bonus to your Reflex defence equal to your Swordmage Warding class feature. In addition, as an immediate interrupt you can dismiss your Warding for the remainder of the encounter, and cause an attack targeting Reflex or AC to miss. You regain your Warding at the end of your next rest.
Above 3 reworked. The original idea was to duplicate the Fighter shield feats with Warding, but Warding it a tad larger than Shield feats are. By making it a Feat bonus, it doesn't stack as well. Added in the "nullify one attack" at a cost that is ridiculously high for the extra fun factor.

Claws of the Beast Expertise: Requires Druid, Wild Shape power. When in Beast Form, you are considered to be equipped with either a +2 proficiency 1d12 high crit damage pick/axe, or two off-hand +3 proficiency 1d6 damage unarmed/light blade, chosen when you enter beast form. Your implement enhancement bonuses apply to these weapons. You may make Weapon attacks while in Beast Form even if they lack the Beast Form keyword with these weapons. While in Beast Form, you gain a +1 feat bonus to weapon, melee and close attack rolls, increasing to +2 at level 11 and +3 at level 21, and may substitute Dexterity or Constitution for Strength on basic melee attacks while in beast form.
This is intended for Druids who Hybrid or Multiclass, or other classes who Hybrid or Multiclass into Druid, or Druids who want a general OA.

[allonym]

You might be more likely to get feedback if you post this in the homebrew section.

[incandescent]

As a fan of ki foci, i like your holy weapon feat. And they never should have errata'd melee training. Most of my homebrew comes in the form of magic items and monsters to fight.

[Tegu8788]

Perhaps not. 4E tends to only live over in our corner. From a brief read through things look like they might be a bit overpowered at some points, but definitely useful.

[tcrudisi]

I understand putting the Fighter pre-req on Tempest Expertise, but it feels like it shortchanges the Barbarian just to keep the Ranger in line.

[DragonBaneDM]

Oh MAN. As a Swordmage player, I think that a +3 to a NAD from one feat that will STACK with other feats is kinda broken, right? They're already one of the best defended classes in the game!

[tcrudisi]

Oh MAN. As a Swordmage player, I think that a +3 to a NAD from one feat that will STACK with other feats is kinda broken, right? They're already one of the best defended classes in the game!

Not that broken, really. Fighters can already take a feat that does the same thing, except with their shield. So the difference is +2 vs +3, except fighters don't have to use it on reflex.

[allonym]

OK, from the top...
Holy Weapon: Good idea, though not sure limiting it to divine only attacks is particularly necessary... I mean, leaving aside the differences in implement enchants and superior implement types (neither of which are particularly good to holy symbols), it's basically Implement Proficiency: Ki Focuses for holy symbol classes.

Spinning Spear: What...why exactly? Does that mean you count the spear as being in the Staff group (meaning it gets bonuses from Staff Expertise etc)? Does it count a spear as a staff implement? I don't see this feat adding anything to the game, and I do see it being generally too weak, and in corner cases too strong (staffs have some lovely support).

Defender's Expertise: We already have far too many expertise tax rebate feats. The free, significantly limited melee training seems mainly to benefit Battleminds, though I suppose it saves Paladins an at-will choice and swordmages a feat, if they don't have any other use for MBAs (which is unlikely). The actual expertise benefit is awful. Situational feat bonuses to hit? The fighter is, come epic, at -3 to hit for the first round of combat. The paladin is mostly unaffected until they try to use an AoE, unless they're dazed, or don't want to use Divine Challenge but instead use one of their many abilities which apply Divine Sanction on hit - afterall, they're very minor-action intensive without needing to use divine challenge all the time. Battleminds rarely get much use out of their very limited mark anyway - they will get very little out of this (better hope that only the person you marked triggers Lightning Rush!). Swordmages get screwed entirely in Heroic and Paragon, as they will mostly be using Sword Burst, an AoE, and will only have 1 (or 2) targets marked in general. It does precisely nothing for knights, cavaliers and berserkers. The class most likely to get a benefit out of it are wardens, and they'll probably still take an expertise feat that applies to everything all the time.

Cunning Warlock: Warlocks aren't that bad, they just aren't very strikey. Their talents lie elsewhere. This feat doesn't fix that; it does make sorcerers feel extremely obselete. It could also have very unintended and potentially unbalanced consequences if this can trigger the various addons to warlock's curse out there.

Assassin's Shroud Expertise: Another situational bonus to hit, this time for assassins. Not that anyone should play an assassin anyway, but if they do, this feat will sometimes leave them at -1/-2/-3 to hit. Why would they take this over a real expertise feat? It also incentivises keeping shrouds up on everyone you want to attack at any point, meaning that if you want to use AoE attacks, you'll have to spread your shrouds out, reducing your spike damage potential. And if shrouds are so easy to apply that it never doesn't give the bonus, why not just make it always on rather than tie it to their awful striker feature? As for the second part...I thought all assassins used at least fullblades anyway?

Tempest Expertise: So for tempest fighters, 2blade rangers (since they should be MCing fighter anyway), whirling barbarians, etc., there is now an expertise feat which is also weapon focus, which stacks with weapon focus? Two weapon attackers - who are almost always multiattackers - already have too much static damage. This makes some of the most damaging classes in the game even more damaging. Don't.

Protective Spirit: This is kind of cool. Totems need more love afterall. Getting free magic armour is cool. The stats seem roughly equal to chainmail? If it counts as light armour (letting you add your dex/int mod) then it's ridiculously strong - worth MCing shaman to get your hands on. If it doesn't, it's a good idea, because it patches AC for non int/dex shamans, who have previously been screwed by having leather and no stat to AC. Assuming you clarify that the summoned armour doesn't allow Dex/Int to AC, I would totally take this feat on a shaman. Possibly consider bumping the AC up by a point to put it in line with Scale?

Swordmage Mental/Physical/Deflecting Shield: No offence, but these feats are at once very boring and very strong. Swordmages already have massively high defences available to them. These feats incentivise pumping these even higher. Imagine having all three of these, all three of the epic (defence) feats, and all three of the superior (defence) feats - your DM would have no fun, you'd be missed on anything except for a natural 20, and you'd be nine feats down. I don't see these feats adding anything to the game.

Claws of the Beast Expertise: So, this feat is there to allow beast form druids to make better use of powers from outside their class. It's a neat idea, though I don't think limiting it to paired shortswords or a Heavy War Pick minus the High Crit is particularly necessary. It also takes druids even further away from being controllers by incentivising striker powers. It's a nice idea, but one that would require very careful examination (the restriction on power use in beast form is there for a reason, afterall). It also isn't the fix that druids need - they need an AC stat for swarm druids and more control. Again, giving situational feat bonuses to hit is a terrible idea - less so here, but you end up making being in beast form mandatory all the time if you take this feat. Also, I am amused by the idea of a rogue or dual-wielder MCing druid to pick up sort-of ki focuses and improved expertise, doing their usual thing only being a bear all the time.

So, the expertises (apart from Claws...), the swordmage shielding feats, and spinning spear are just no. Cunning Warlock and Claws... need consideration - the latter is a good idea, which needs refinement, whereas the former is almost a no. Protective Spirit (with minor tweaking) and Holy weapon are very cool. Protective Spirit in particular is an elegant solution to the problem of AC for Bear and World Speaker shamans, though I feel it should be stronger than just picking up Chain Expertise - although doing so could make it vulnerable to poaching via MC and giving other classes too much AC.

[Kurald Galain]

Spinning Spear: considering staffs are one of the weakest weapons in the book, I don't see the point.

Defender's Expertise: need to clarify how this works with the fighter's shtick of marking everything they attack.

Cunning Warlock: way overpowered.

Assassin's Shroud Expertise: since assassins already tend to use two-handed swords, there's not much of a point here.

Tempest Expertise: not a big deal, but fighters don't need the boost.

Protective Spirit: getting twice your enhancement bonus to armor class is overpowered.

Claws of the Beast Expertise: nice idea but druids don't have any powers that let them use two weapons at the same time. There's probably some nasty combo for hybrids or multiclassers if you can use non-beast powers in beast form, too. Frankly I don't see the point here.