Wildcard Feats from Iron Heroes

[illyahr]

I recently read through a game system called Iron Heroes which is basically a very low magic d20 system. In it, one class had what was called "Wildcard feats" to be used by the Man-at-Arms class. These feats act like Fighter bonus feats in D&D but they can be swapped out every morning much like how a caster prepares spells. These feats can't be used as a prerequisite for anything except more Wildcard feats.

If you were to have a houserule that all the fighter's bonus feats were Wildcard, where would that put him in the JaronK Tier System? Would you be more willing to take more than a dip of Fighter if you could swap out your bonus feats?

[Amphetryon]

I recently read through a game system called Iron Heroes which is basically a very low magic d20 system. In it, one class had what was called "Wildcard feats" to be used by the Man-at-Arms class. These feats act like Fighter bonus feats in D&D but they can be swapped out every morning much like how a caster prepares spells. These feats can't be used as a prerequisite for anything except more Wildcard feats.

If you were to have a houserule that all the fighter's bonus feats were Wildcard, where would that put him in the JaronK Tier System? Would you be more willing to take more than a dip of Fighter if you could swap out your bonus feats?

Because the Wildcard feats could only be used to qualify for more Wildcard feats, much of their actual utility would be lost for most 3.5 players, as they'd be forced to stay within the Fighter class which is devoid of class features aside from feats. You'd have to make Wildcard feats worth more than the majority of feats printed in 3.5 - and many of the good feats are available without the need to climb feat chains or reach X level - in order for this to boost the Fighter above its present Tier in JaronK's system, IMO.

[illyahr]

Because the Wildcard feats could only be used to qualify for more Wildcard feats, much of their actual utility would be lost for most 3.5 players, as they'd be forced to stay within the Fighter class which is devoid of class features aside from feats. You'd have to make Wildcard feats worth more than the majority of feats printed in 3.5 - and many of the good feats are available without the need to climb feat chains or reach X level - in order for this to boost the Fighter above its present Tier in JaronK's system, IMO.

I mean you couldn't use a Wildcard feat to qualify for a prestige class or for the feats you get from leveling up (for reasons of losing prerequisites). Iron Heroes was extremely low magic and didn't have prestige classes that I know of so when they said Wildcard feats didn't count as prerequisites there wasn't much else to go on. A fighter could change his fighting style each day to better cope with the challenges he expected that day. This would, at minimum, be a serious boost to versatility.

What changes would you need for it to be useful?

Edit: edited for clarification. See below.

[Amphetryon]

I mean you couldn't use a Wildcard feat to qualify for a prestige class or for regular feats (for reasons of losing prerequisites). Iron Heroes was extremely low magic and didn't have prestige classes that I know of so when they said Wildcard feats didn't count as prerequisites there wasn't much else to go on. A fighter could change his fighting style each day to better cope with the challenges he expected that day. This would, at minimum, be a serious boost to versatility.

What changes would you need for it to be useful?

Right, so the only thing they could do differently every day is swap out their Wildcard feats for different Wildcard feats. They couldn't, for example, trade out Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip for Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot to deal with the flying enemies they knew they were facing on a given day. That reads as a very limited boost in versatility, unless you significantly improved the nature of Wildcard feats, above and beyond what regular feats provide.

[illyahr]

Right, so the only thing they could do differently every day is swap out their Wildcard feats for different Wildcard feats. They couldn't, for example, trade out Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip for Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot to deal with the flying enemies they knew they were facing on a given day. That reads as a very limited boost in versatility, unless you significantly improved the nature of Wildcard feats, above and beyond what regular feats provide.

Wait, what? :smallconfused:
Yes they could, provided they took Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip for their Wildcard feats. The next day they could swap those out for Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot. This is exactly what Wildcard feats are for. They are not a type of feat like Metamagic or Crafting, they are a type of Bonus Feat like Fighter Bonus Feats or Monk Bonus Feats.

[Amphetryon]

Wait, what? :smallconfused:
Yes they could, provided they took Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip for their Wildcard feats. The next day they could swap those out for Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot. This is exactly what Wildcard feats are for. They are not a type of feat like Metamagic or Crafting, they are a type of Bonus Feat like Fighter Bonus Feats or Monk Bonus Feats.

Wildcard feats are not regular feats, by your own verbiage:

I mean you couldn't use a Wildcard feat to qualify for a prestige class or for regular feats (for reasons of losing prerequisites)If they were regular feats, you wouldn't have included "for regular feats" in this sentence, unless you have some specific, non-standard definition of "regular" being used here.

[illyahr]

Wildcard feats are not regular feats, by your own verbiage:
If they were regular feats, you wouldn't have included "for regular feats" in this sentence, unless you have some specific, non-standard definition of "regular" being used here.

Ah, I see now. I will clarify what I meant. When I referred to "regular" feats, I meant the ones everybody gets every 3rd level. You can't use the fighter feats to qualify for those as those are permanent and Wildcard feats are not.