Would It Terribly Unbalance The Game If...

[Scorponok]

For melee characters like Fighter, Barbarian, Monk, and Rogue, I let players choose a feat every two levels instead of every 3?

I ask due to the power creep of casters after level 6-8. Is an extra feat a good, starting way to give the melee more power, or is making melee more powerful at low levels a bad idea?

[Just to Browse]

It's not a bad plan. It also doesn't fix the problem, especially around levels 8-10. Also ranged mundane characters need help too.

[~Corvus~]

Drolyt would argue that Vow of Poverty (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?140428-Vow-of-Poverty-Fix) or even a more fluid Vow of Poverty (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?335794-Vow-of-Poverty-Remix) is just fine for mundane non-caster. But it depends in the power level of your party and relative helpfulness of the casters you have. Is the Cleric using Divine MetaMagic to Persist his buffs and party-buffs? Is the Wizard Permanently Enlarging the BSFs, and planning on using PAO vs. them to make them Firbolgs permanently? In short, are the casters making sure the Mundanes succeed, too, at being heroic? And are you, sir DM, giving the Mundanes some of the necessary items all adventurers need (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items)?

[gr8artist]

Giving the mundane (not melee, but all non-magical) classes an extra feat at every other level will not break your game in the least, unless you run with a particularly low-op group like I do.

[Melzentir]

In my opinion, the only necessary balance is the one between other players. The DM gets to decide what to throw at the party. With that said, I think most casters are powerful enough to merit it.

[Scorponok]

I've heard other players say Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords gives good fixes for melee characters too, but at starting level, they are too overpowered compared to the casters.

[Hanuman]

No.

I would also give them a free bloodline and then give them 1 bonus skilltrick every 2 levels on the condition that the extra feats, bloodline and skilltricks are to be used to improve their versatility, utility and generally round out the character in a way that doesn't directly stack with their main combat functionality, but you'll make exceptions for contextual "rule of cool".

Pathfinder already gives a feat every 2 levels by default.

It's not that tier 3 and 4's can't be amazing, it's that to be amazing they have to do just one thing and often no more effective at that one thing than other classes who do everything no matter how you build them, what I'm suggesting is more a quality-of-life improvement.

If you want to balance players more fluidly, use Hero Points:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/hero-points

Initiator classes from book of 9 swords fixes melee if your melee characters actually want options during combat and good action economy, alternatively this is a fairly good fix to melee classes in general (sorry for broken tables) http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?192596-The-Warrior-s-Way-Rebalancing-Blade-and-Bow

[nonsi]

How would you handle multiclassin? (Fighter X/Wizard Y)

[Scorponok]

How would you handle multiclassin? (Fighter X/Wizard Y)

Hmm, yeah, interesting question. If some PCs get a feat at every 2 levels, and some at every 3, that's something I hadn't considered. I guess the PC would just end up getting a feat for the class they leveled up in. Level-4 Rogue would have 2 feats and switching to a wizard they wouldn't get another feat until they levelled up Wiz to 3.

[Hanuman]

I'd say multiclassing stops your progression of bonuses and you don't lose XP on multiclassing.