Favorite little used feat?

[IIzak]

What is your favorite feat that isn't that well known, or that you don't see a lot? Mine would probably be Nymph's kiss: Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 44 By maintaining an intimate relationship with a good-aligned fey (such as a nymph or dryad), you gain some of the characteristics of fey.
Benefit
Fey creatures regard you as though you were fey. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on all Charisma-related checks, and a +1 bonus on all saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities. Starting with the level when you take this feat, you gain 1 extra skill point per level.

This is especially great if you take it at level one and convince your dm to let you multiply it by 4 like the rest of your skill points that you get at lvl 1. Also, boosts CHA, so its a free +2 to umd and the social skills, which is just fantastic for the types of characters that I play. Plus I kinda like the flavor of this, with the whole maintain a relationship thing. just a fun feat all around. So what's yours?

[Segev]

Mother Cyst. Benefit: access to 10 spells (1 at each spell level, 2 at level 2) for the Sor/Wiz and Cleric lists that have some tremendously evil applications.

[DeltaEmil]

What is your favorite feat that isn't that well known, or that you don't see a lot? Mine would probably be Nymph's kiss: Book of Exalted Deeds, p. 44 By maintaining an intimate relationship with a good-aligned fey (such as a nymph or dryad), you gain some of the characteristics of fey.
Benefit
Fey creatures regard you as though you were fey. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on all Charisma-related checks, and a +1 bonus on all saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities. Starting with the level when you take this feat, you gain 1 extra skill point per level.

This is especially great if you take it at level one and convince your dm to let you multiply it by 4 like the rest of your skill points that you get at lvl 1. Also, boosts CHA, so its a free +2 to umd and the social skills, which is just fantastic for the types of characters that I play. Plus I kinda like the flavor of this, with the whole maintain a relationship thing. just a fun feat all around. So what's yours?Nymph's Kiss is a very well-known feat talked about quite regularly, and the only reason it might not be taken in a build is because it's an exalted feat (forcing your character to be super-totally-extremely-extra-goodly-good that is way beyond a paladin's extremely-extra-goodly-good), or you need a specific feat chain to reach a specific prestige class in the shortest time possible.

[ryu]

The things I've done with invisible illusions to mess with true seeing opponents were kinda glorious. I love me some invisible spell shenanigans.

[IIzak]

Nymph's Kiss is a very well-known feat talked about quite regularly, and the only reason it might not be taken in a build is because it's an exalted feat (forcing your character to be super-totally-extremely-extra-goodly-good that is way beyond a paladin's extremely-extra-goodly-good), or you need a specific feat chain to reach a specific prestige class in the shortest time possible.

I've seen it a lot now that I know what to look for, but until I took it, I'd never seen nor heard of it. So personally in my experience, it wasn't used all that much and was pretty rare. I also have the awesome benefit of having a DM that waived the "SUPER AMAZING GOOD PERSON, MUST ALWAYS BE DOING GOOD EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY" requirement of the feat, just because it fit the flavor of the campaign and the character I was making

[nedz]

I've seen entire parties with Nymph's Kiss.

The OP's question is ambiguous and contradictory:

If it's a feat which your character doesn't use very much then it was probably not worthwhile for you to have taken it.
If it's a feat which is rarely used by anyone, then it is probably only of use to an obscure build.
If the feat is almost never used by anyone, then it's probably not very useful.

Basically Little used and Favourite are contradictory.

[Red Fel]

Basically Little used and Favourite are contradictory.

Not particularly. "Favorite" doesn't mean "oh emm gee so good," such that people would use it often. Favorite means you like it; not that it's necessarily any good. Maybe it just adds a bit of utility, or some fun flavor, or a neat little mechanic.

For example, I happen to be a fan of the Spelltouched feat Live My Nightmare (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/spelltouchedFeats.htm#liveMyNightmare). Let's be clear - this is not a good feat. You know it, I know it. Mechanically, it stinks on ice. Somebody uses a divination spell or effect against you, they make not one but two saves (DC 14 + Cha, so it's not tough to beat), and if they make either save, the feat poofs. Big whoop-de-doo.

I like it for three reasons. First, it makes you aware of whenever divinations are used against you. That's not the most offensively powerful or optimized ability, but it's nifty. Two, everyone fails their saves sometimes. It happens. And three, the fluff. I like the fluff of having a swirling world of nightmares so deeply ingrained into your soul that anyone who looks inside of you may die of sheer terror.

Also, reserve feats. I don't see them used in many builds here. And again, for good reason - a capable spellcaster is able to make do with the spells he has, and saves his feats for various metamagics and similar. Reserve feats are primarily blasting-based, which is sub-par, and difficult to augment the way you can augment regular spells. So I get why they're disfavored.

But they're fun. You basically get this great at-will ability as long as you're holding onto a spell. If you're not in an extended dungeon crawl, there's a distinct possibility that you're not burning off every spell; and do you really need that high-level spell when a low-level reserve ability would suffice?

Again, not the most optimal; they don't have a place in many builds, and thus don't show up as often on these boards. But they're a favorite of mine.

[lonewulf]

Nymph's Kiss is mine as well. I try to work it into most of my builds though it only ends up making it onto my Skill Monkey/Diplomancer type builds. I love the flavor and the perks are quite nice.

Also: "A character who
willingly and willfully commits an evil act loses all benefits
from all his exalted feats. She regains these benefits if she
atones for her violations (see Sin and Atonement in Chapter 1)."

Doesn't say you have to be super-goodly-good at all times. Unless your DM is the type of **** that says "lying to the evil dragon in an effort to save yourself and your party is evil. lying is bad!" then you should be fine. If 'evil' is required for something then let another party member commit the act. Not everyone else has to be as good as you.

[Brookshw]

Personally I'm if the same mind set that live my nightmare is a fun little feat I enjoy. Danged nosey little buggers.

[Jeff the Green]

Most tainted feats. The feats themselves can be pretty good (make Knowledge checks untrained plus +2 Initiative, divine early entry) but you have to be in a campaign that uses taint, which aren't super common, and you have to get taint, which is rarely a good idea; it's like taking a flaw and still having to burn a feat slot.

[Spore]

Alertness (PF version) is a great bugger. It gives boni to the two most critical skills (our DM always tries to screw us over with bluffs, the party moreso). Scaling to +4 on 10 or more ranks is just the icing on the cake and combined with Skill Focus (Perception) (also scaling to +6 on 10 ranks) this gives a huge boon to the game's most prominent skill.

Skill Foci are overlooked, tossed aside "because you do not get something new to do" but if you catch that whispered lingo of betrayal at the king's court, if you see through the bluffs of an antagonist, your roleplaying options and your further advancement through the adventure changes ENTIRELY. You avoid traps (figuratively and literally) you avoid helping your arch foe and you can always have the knowing grin of someone who saw through a disguise.

[Vogonjeltz]

The things I've done with invisible illusions to mess with true seeing opponents were kinda glorious. I love me some invisible spell shenanigans.

With the exception of making shadow creatures invisible (which would be better on the summon monster line of spells), how would this work and why would it be useful?

[Angelalex242]

One of my Face to Face friends worships the feat 'Flick of the Wrist' on his rogues. I think he has a super twinked out version cause he uses it every single attack.

On Nymph's Kiss, I prefer to rename it Celestial Kiss because my Paladins tend to want Astral Devas for girlfriends more then they want Nymphs.

[Phelix-Mu]

Still looking for an opportunity to use Imbue Staff (an ACF from Dragon Mag), ideally with the later feat that allows one to add Wisdom to damage with the special staff (which I can't remember the name of). Don't see it talked about much, but seems like a fun familiar alternative, and I'd like to cram it into a Wisdom caster build of some sort.

[ryu]

With the exception of making shadow creatures invisible (which would be better on the summon monster line of spells), how would this work and why would it be useful?

Have you fully read invisible spell? It makes people with true seeing see the effects of the spell. This means it's suddenly easy to add an entirely new layer of defensive illusions that don't care about true seeing at all. And that's just the murder-hobo applications. Have you even considered the kind of nonsense that feat can be used for when designing traps?

[TheIronGolem]

Dueling Mastery (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/aldori-dueling-mastery)

From a pure optimization standpoint, the prerequisites are too onerous for it to be worthwhile, but its effects mesh perfectly with the concept of one of my favorite characters.

[Zombulian]

Dueling Mastery (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/aldori-dueling-mastery)

From a pure optimization standpoint, the prerequisites are too onerous for it to be worthwhile, but its effects mesh perfectly with the concept of one of my favorite characters.

Wow that feat is garbage. Why does the D20 system gotta hate on 1handed fighting so much?


For my actual favorite feats, I like most of the Spelltouched feats, like Conductivity. That feat is hilarious, but the issue is that the damage you do is directly proportional to the damage you take, not the damage you would've taken, so if you have energy resistance, well it looks like you're doing less damage.

I also like Spellfire Adept. In it's original form it was utter trash. You would have to ready an action to maybe absorb a spell just so you could make an attack roll that might miss and then still let your opponent make a Reflex save for half damage. Updated to 3.5 it's way better because of the changes made to Rod of Absorbtion that basically make you immune to targeted spells.

[No brains]

I like Weapon Supremacy. It has a hideous litany of prerequisites that keep it from being competitively useful, but it reeks )of flavor and power) to me. Taking 10 on an attack is just too badass. If you could somehow also get your threat range down there, you can insta-threaten once a turn.

The again, I know that even if someone were to slog to level 18 in fighter, they could probably hit on well below 10 with good op, but I like the idea of the feat more than its practicality.

[eggynack]

I don't know if it's my favorite, but right now I'm really liking words of creation for non-bards. I pretty much never see anyone talking about the option, even on VoP builds, even though it's basically free extend spell on a reasonable swath of spells, along with a nifty CL boosting upside on occasion. Granted, the prerequisites are tricky as hell, and it probably hangs out in VoP almost feat territory, and isn't likely something you'd take on its own for a non-bard, but it's better than it's given credit for.

[Sith_Happens]

Blessed of Tem-Et-Nu.

/thread

[Vizzerdrix]

I have a few.

Monsterous Companion: Lets a druid have a monster instead of an animal companion.

Mark of Xoriat: Get DR 5/a material your DM won't bother looking up or want to put in your parties hands. Obtainable with 2 flaws at level one and a big part of my favorite early BSF build.

Cerebrosis: Like Mother Cyst, accept you have to option to gain the feat with a ritual, some gold, and a skill check.

Any of the Aberrant feats (Dragonmarks included): These are a decent way to add a bit of versatility to a BSF type and some good flavor too. I've never regretted adding a few of these to a build.

[Azoth]

I like magical training personally. Gives mundane classes 3 cantrips per day and lets them craft alchemical items by RAW. I remember using it and a few other feats on an NPC expert to convince the party he was a wizard.

I am also a fan of most weapon style feats, but they don't see much use unless doing a low op game.

[VariSami]

Oh, so many. Good thing I mostly DM so I can fulfill these fantasies on NPCs, with whom many of them actually work decently.

Battle Jump. Because ambushing people by dropping on them is cool.

Constant Guardian and Dutiful Guardian and Shieldmate (particularly with tower shield). Because these exemplify the idea of being devoted to protecting others.

Spirit Sense. You can see the recently deceased and communicate with them. Oozes flavor.

Thunder Twin. The feat gives you a twin with which you share a mystical connection. May provide interesting background, interaction and storytelling.

Spellfire Wielder. Even with the 3.0 rules, it remains interesting.

Hidden Talent. Just because you have this little, nifty trick you can do.

Bind Vestige (and Improved Bind Vestige and Pacticed Binder). Likewise. This time, though, you meddle with powers likely well beyond your control.

[Gemini476]

Ring the Golden Bell is pretty neat. It's from Dragon Compendium, and lets you use your Unarmed Strike as a ranged attack 1+wis times per day. Range increment is 5'+5'/Wis.

It's not that amazing by itself, but it has a neat little clause.

This attack can deliver any effect your unarmed strike can normally deliver, such as a stunning attack due to the Stunning Fist feat.
So how do you feel about Improved Trip and Grab and whatnot? You can now trip a flying opponent while on the ground or grapple them with appropriately hookshot-like effects or, I dunno, stun them.

It's very niche and pretty MAD, but I like it because I'm a bit of a Johnny.

Another pretty cool feat: Harvester of Souls, from Elder Evils. It's a [Vile] feat with a prerequisite of BAB+11, but it makes it so that whenever you Coup de Grace a creature they can't be restored to life by anything short of a Miracle or Wish until you are also killed.
Oh, and you get some temporary HP from the act and such. Lots of it, actually.
I think it's pretty cool since it's pretty difficult in general to kill people without them being ressurectable.

[nedz]

OK, well I've never used this one — and probably never will.

Betrayal of the Spirit Linked
Requires you to have a Familiar and be able to cast Animate Dead
Basically you sacrifice your familiar and turn it into a skeleton or zombie giving you the appropriate DR 5/

[Threadnaught]

I am such a big fan of Versatile Spellcaster that I have it on the list of Feats I plan to get for all Tier 1 Characters I play that cast Spells. Even Wizard.

It's not that I like the idea of playing a Wizard as a short duration Sorcerer with every Spell, but if I'm ever surprised and absolutely have to cast Fireball in the next round, I know I'll usually have access to it regardless of what I actually prepared.


I need 8 hours rest to restore all Spell Slots and another hour to prepare Spells? Okay. Killer DM is someone from here who constantly throws mooks at the party every 59 minutes so Prepared Casters can't get their Spells just to challenge them? Not to worry, with Versatile Spellcaster I can trade out two of my lower level slots to cast the Spell I want.

Oops, are my Cleric, Druid and Wizard builds waking up in the morning without having to prepare Spells? Yes, but they're still better if they get the chance to prepare.

[weckar]

I'm a huge fan of heritage feats. In particular, I like Natural Heavyweight and Water Heritage, the second being high on my list of splash feats (no pun intended). I also like a lot of the passive Psionic Feats that allow for supermonks that aren't monks.

[Vogonjeltz]

Have you fully read invisible spell? It makes people with true seeing see the effects of the spell. This means it's suddenly easy to add an entirely new layer of defensive illusions that don't care about true seeing at all. And that's just the murder-hobo applications. Have you even considered the kind of nonsense that feat can be used for when designing traps?

This would be true if true seeing didn't also eliminate illusions.

[Gemini476]

I am such a big fan of Versatile Spellcaster that I have it on the list of Feats I plan to get for all Tier 1 Characters I play that cast Spells. Even Wizard.

It's not that I like the idea of playing a Wizard as a short duration Sorcerer with every Spell, but if I'm ever surprised and absolutely have to cast Fireball in the next round, I know I'll usually have access to it regardless of what I actually prepared.


I need 8 hours rest to restore all Spell Slots and another hour to prepare Spells? Okay. Killer DM is someone from here who constantly throws mooks at the party every 59 minutes so Prepared Casters can't get their Spells just to challenge them? Not to worry, with Versatile Spellcaster I can trade out two of my lower level slots to cast the Spell I want.

Oops, are my Cleric, Druid and Wizard builds waking up in the morning without having to prepare Spells? Yes, but they're still better if they get the chance to prepare.
Remember that as a Wizard you can prepare up to a quarter if your spells in fifteen minutes! Very few DMs have random encounters attack the party every 14 minutes, after all.

And if you have access to Pathfinder, there's a feat that cuts normal preparation down to fifteen minutes and partial preparation down too a single minute! That's pretty great.

I'm pretty sure there's some way to cut down the eight hours of rest as well, but can't remember anything of the top of my head. Not having to sleep doesn't help.

Oh, and I guess Reserve Feats are also even more useful in such a circumstance. That might be a thing.

[Vogonjeltz]

Remember that as a Wizard you can prepare up to a quarter if your spells in fifteen minutes! Very few DMs have random encounters attack the party every 14 minutes, after all.

And if you have access to Pathfinder, there's a feat that cuts normal preparation down to fifteen minutes and partial preparation down too a single minute! That's pretty great.

I'm pretty sure there's some way to cut down the eight hours of rest as well, but can't remember anything of the top of my head. Not having to sleep doesn't help.

Oh, and I guess Reserve Feats are also even more useful in such a circumstance. That might be a thing.

It's hard to know when to prepare said slot when surprised

[thethird]

Favorite feat?
Planar Touchstone: Catalogs of Enlightenment (Pride Domain)

Second favorite feat?
Mark of the Dauntless

Third favorite feat?
Mind mask

I've seen the first one mentioned, although not recommended explicitly, I've only seen the second one mentioned twice, and the third one is somehow always ignored (even if it is one of the first things, after darkstalker, I try to get on a sneaky character)

[Vogonjeltz]

Flipping through the PHB2, the Ki Blast (kamehameha?)

[ryu]

This would be true if true seeing didn't also eliminate illusions.

True seeing eliminates nothing. The only thing it can do is give you proof of their fake status by not showing up in your new scope of reality. This would render them ineffective against you personally. That doesn't mean a damn thing when they do show up in your new vision though.

[torrasque666]

I've seen entire parties with Nymph's Kiss.
Is it all the same nymph? Because that could get awkward...

But for me, when I built my first juggernaut, it was Jaws of Death. Granted, we were playing with a house rule that allowed shield bonuses to stack, so it was my only method of attack while I blocked everything that came near us due to taking up the whole corridor.

[Zombulian]

This would be true if true seeing didn't also eliminate illusions.

Regardless of whether or not Illusions work well with this, Invisible Obscuring Mist can really wreck the day of the random true/invis-seein mooks that your DM throws at the party because you spam Greater Invisibility too much. The best part is that your party never even sees the mist, so it doesn't mess with them.