Need some homebrew advice for player extras

[LordUmbriel]

My players have some great story-driven characters in our new campaign. All of them are dual-classing. They are looking into feats that are appropriate to their stories, but unless they multi-class fighter levels (which wouldn't be true to their characters) it's going to be a very long haul to get them by the time they have worked through any kind of feat progressions (ie: Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack).

So I'm considering an XP "point-buy" system. Something along the lines of 1,000 Xp times current level will buy you a feat (or other possibilities such as adopting a skill into/as a class skill, or adding a spell to a wizards known spells (not to be an option for sorcerer types, however.) And no more than one purchased ability per current level. The XP spent would not go towards reaching the next level.

This method seems better than going gestalt. Gestalt is just too over-powered in the game I want to run.
Has anyone crossed this bridge, and how did you do it?

[Red Fel]

Hasn't happened for me, but I've read some campaign logs where the DM simply gives the characters certain feats, templates, etc., for completing key objectives or for performing major acts or in light of particular devotion or study. For example, perform complex task for the Witch Doctor and he might give you the Dark template; do a particular job for a Demon and you might get an Abyssal Heritor feat; spent a great deal of time training and you could get Combat Reflexes simply to reflect the extra work.

The key thing is how you want it to be controlled. If it becomes a point-buy system, you can anticipate some players being willing to min-max it, to spend xp on feats rather than progression as needed, to cherry-pick things that may or may not make sense. If, however, it becomes a reward system - in your control as DM rather than in the players' - you can use it to motivate and to reward. You avoid creating an expectation of increased power, and instead the power-ups become a delightful and unexpected treat. You avoid the players slowing down their leveling by taking a bonus feat at every single level - which is what the system you describe might turn into - and instead turn it into something more like loot.

To implement it, I would suggest speaking with your players about where they anticipate their builds going; observing their in-character conduct to determine what boons would best suit how they play; and suggesting that they keep journals of their actions in between sessions to better inform you of their character growth. Any power-ups you provide will basically be natural progression, augmentation of their existing potential in the obvious direction of growth.

[Urpriest]

If the feats are really appropriate to their character concepts, their builds will grant them at the appropriate levels, either through bonus feats or by having enough feats to spend on them. Trust your players to know how to build their characters to represent what they want them to.