Help me choose a feat

[Valtu]

I'm currently playing a Binder for the 1st time, and having hit level 4, I get a bonus feat! However, I don't really know what I ought to pick. Here's what I've got so far:

-Ignore Special Requirements
-Expel Vestige
-Improved Binding

I don't have my character sheet on me at the moment but I believe these are my stats, if I remember correctly:
Str 16, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 14, CHA 14

(this is having already applied the ability increase gained at 4 HD, and we also got +1 to an ability score as a nifty quest reward recently).

Binders can choose any of the feats described in the pact magic chapter of Tome of Magic for their bonus feats, or any of the following:

-Armor Proficiency (medium)
-Armor Proficiency (heavy)
-Diligent, Investigator
-Martial Weapon Proficiency
-Negotiator
-Persuasive
-Shield Proficiency

Favored Vestige is a bit tempting, and I've been mostly binding Amon, so that would give me an extra d6 damage and 10ft of range for the breath attack, but then again I could also see the benefit of grabbing some medium armor (although I hate the idea of armor penalties).

Martial Weapon Proficiency, perhaps? My current weapon is a morningstar. I will eventually get proficiency with all martial weapons for free when I enter Knight of the Sacred Seal, though.

Urgh, decisions! Any suggestions?

[JeminiZero]

Your Dex is right now at a level where you gain no real benefit from Medium Armor anyway (Breastplate is +5 armor/max dex 3, while chain shirt is +4 armor/max dex 4).

Since you don't have power attack, Shield Proficiency is probably a better bet for increasing your AC (reduces str bonus to damage for your morningstar from +4 for two-handing, to +3 for one-handed, gain +2 AC bonus or more if you get the shield enchanted). However, you also get shield proficiency from KotSS.

Can you retrain the feat? If yes, then just take martial weapon or shield proficiency anyway, and retrain later on.

Who do you plan to make your Patron Vestige? And is Zceryll in play?

[Valtu]

Good point about the max Dex bonus, I've only played casters before now, so I forget that aspect :P

I haven't tried enough vestiges to have a favorite so far, but I do like the way Amon's breath ability scales so nicely. I just got Improved Binding at level 3 and I haven't even gotten to try most of the new ones I gained access to, (we've been leveling very quickly during the first round of our rotating DM setup).

Here's something I hadn't considered at all though: I could've been two-handing that morningstar this whole time!? Haha, wow I missed that. I wasn't sure if a weapon had to be a certain size to be wielded two-handed or not. Nice.

[Shining Wrath]

You'll want Expel Vestige sooner or later - it raises the flexibility of a Binder by quite a bit.

[weckar]

Except, he already has it.

Honestly, with an ability array like that (DAYUM) you have little to compensate for. So, look for feats that give additional abilities instead of improve the ones you have. Depending on your usual role, you might want to pick up a martial maneuver.

[JeminiZero]

I haven't tried enough vestiges to have a favorite so far, but I do like the way Amon's breath ability scales so nicely.
Zceryll (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070718) is generally considered to be one of the strongest Vestiges you can bind, and her abilities scale even to high levels. But you can only gain her at level 10 earliest (and become her KotSS at level 11).

[Valtu]

Except, he already has it.

Honestly, with an ability array like that (DAYUM) you have little to compensate for. So, look for feats that give additional abilities instead of improve the ones you have. Depending on your usual role, you might want to pick up a martial maneuver.

Hahaha, yeah when we got together to create our characters, we used some alternate rules. I had already been a huge fan of the matrix method, where you roll scores as normal, but in a 6x6 grid, then pick the best straight line you possibly can, but then another guy in our group decided we should also re-roll both 1's and 2's, indefinitely, so the lowest you can possibly score if the universe hates you is a 9.

Then. . . .on top of that, if you rolled a natural 18 with 3 of the 4 d6 on your first roll, you roll the 4th d6 a 2nd time and add that to the score. Didn't happen for me, but half of our party has scores over 20, and had them since 1st level. Pretty nuts, I know lol. I was not a huge fan of the idea, but everyone else wanted to. If I ever DM long-term that's definitely not happening hahaha. Way harder to balance things when some of your party will always hit everything at their CR or always make one kind of save as a guarantee from the very start.

[Valtu]

Zceryll (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070718) is generally considered to be one of the strongest Vestiges you can bind, and her abilities scale even to high levels. But you can only gain her at level 10 earliest (and become her KotSS at level 11).

Oh wow, yeah I'd seen Zceryll but hadn't actually looked up some of the specifics for the granted abilities. I'm guessing she's considered one of the best vestiges because of the pseudonatural template gained? That's what has really jumped out at me. Pretty sweet deal with both damage reduction and spell resistance. Plus a free True Strike once a day on top of that!

Thanks for pointing out how good that one is!

[Dread_Head]

Oh wow, yeah I'd seen Zceryll but hadn't actually looked up some of the specifics for the granted abilities. I'm guessing she's considered one of the best vestiges because of the pseudonatural template gained? That's what has really jumped out at me. Pretty sweet deal with both damage reduction and spell resistance. Plus a free True Strike once a day on top of that!

Thanks for pointing out how good that one is!

I believe it's actually the Summon Alien (Scaling Summon Monster at will (pretty much)) that is the best thing about Zceryll. Useful to access SLA's, as meatshields in battle, probably monsters on the list that can heal, to check for traps for you(walk into them), not much can't be solved by repeatedly summoning monsters.

The telepathy and Mindsight for pretty much auto detection on anything within 100ft is just the icing on the cake. The Pseudonatural template is alright and the other two abilities garbage but the Summoning and telepathy are amazingly useful.

[Valtu]

I believe it's actually the Summon Alien (Scaling Summon Monster at will (pretty much)) that is the best thing about Zceryll. Useful to access SLA's, as meatshields in battle, probably monsters on the list that can heal, to check for traps for you(walk into them), not much can't be solved by repeatedly summoning monsters.

The telepathy and Mindsight for pretty much auto detection on anything within 100ft is just the icing on the cake. The Pseudonatural template is alright and the other two abilities garbage but the Summoning and telepathy are amazingly useful.

Oh yeah, I also hadn't considered that it's at will summoning, not limited to times per day. Wow haha that is pretty crazy.

[Zweisteine]

Just don't forget to have your summons ready, with the template applied before you start.

If your DM allows retraining feats, go ahead and take favored vestige. Otherwise, you should probably save it for later.

Actually, if your DM allows retraining, take Favored Vestige now, retrain Expel Vestige next level, and retrain Favored Vestige to Expel Vestige the level after that. It'll give you a better, more open feat slot, and make sure the bonus feat isn't wasted.

And whenever you get another bonus feat (or rather, the level before), do the same with each other binder-specific feat (the ones you listed above).

[Valtu]

Unfortunately no retraining. We are rotating DMs (it's actually my turn to DM next week, so there's a lot of time for me to level, as my character won't be in the party during this time), but we've never historically done retraining and I don't think the group would want to. If we did do it, it'd have to be at the start of a whole new system and agreed upon from the start.

I do agree it may be early to take Favored Vestige. What about Empower Supernatural Ability? That one sounds helpful. I notice in the text it mentions that you cannot maximize an empowered supernatural ability, yet I don't even see a maximizing version of the feat anyway:smalltongue: